Why increased waist size is a risk for type 2 diabetes

When we put on additional weight, it is often around our waist.  While women tend to first add weight at the hips (pear shape), they also will put on belly fat.  Men, of course, tend to put on weight in the belly (apple shape).

Belly fat (technically called omental fat) is where excess calories go when they aren’t needed for immediate use or for storage.  This fat is like putting the calories in a warehouse for future use and you lose the keys to the warehouse.

Why belly fat is a risk
It contributes to type 2 diabetes by making it difficult to get glucose inside the cell.  The presence of omental fat in your belly reduces cells’ receptivity to insulin, and the insulin can’t deliver that glucose from your blood stream to your cells.

Simply being overweight, especially having a waist (the distance around at the belly button greater than 37 inches for women and 40 inches for men,) makes your body less sensitive to insulin.  The insulin receptors on the cells don’t allow insulin to transmit the message enabling glucose transport into the cells, leaving the glucose to float round in your blood.

That omental fat is also selfish.  It uses up the insulin so it can’t do its job.  In fact one study shows omental fat sucks up a quarter of the insulin that passes through the blood supply.

So your blood sugar level remains high because the sugar isn’t being admitted to your cells readily and thus isn’t broken down properly, meaning that sugar will hang out in your blood like a truant skipping school and causing mischief.

Why is too much sugar in your blood bad for you?
It’s like a river that overflows because of too much rain.  The flooding causes damage for everything in its way.  Too much sugar in the blood weakens cell connections, can lead to high blood pressure, weakens the immune system, etc.

The solution

The solution is to take the steps necessary to get rid of omental fat.  That means good nutrition and lots of exercise.  There is no easy way.  Long term bad habits got you to where you are and long term good habits are required to get back in shape once again.

You need to train yourself to be a good waist manager by following a plan that’s designed to help you become the CEO (chief executive officer) of your body.

Read our articles elsewhere on our web pages to learn how to get rid of omental fat.

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