Lose the Weight, And Learn To Keep It Off With Our New Program for Healthy Weight Loss


	lbs.
	ft. in.
	lbs.

Lose Weight with the WebMD Weight Loss Clinic

Weight Loss Home | Diabetes | Waist Size Predicts Diabetes Risk

How a Good Diet Can Prevent and Treat Diabetes

Here's a guide to understanding how a good diet may help treat and prevent diabetes. If you're overweight or obese, you are not alone - you're among nearly 130 million other U.S. adults. Obesity is the second leading cause of preventable death and is closely linked to conditions such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, gout, asthma, and gum disease. WebMD has created a weight loss clinic to addresses this public health epidemic.

The WebMD Weight Loss Clinic starts with an in-depth assessment of your personal goals, your eating habits, and your food preferences. Then we create a balanced, easy-to-follow meal plan that includes the foods you love -- so you'll stick with it, and achieve your weight loss goals.

Waist Size Predicts Diabetes Risk

A man's waist size may say much more about his risk of developing type 2 diabetestype 2 diabetes than previously thought.

A 2005 study suggests that a man's waist size is a better indicator of type 2 diabetes risk than other currently used measures, such as waist-to-hip ratio and body mass indexbody mass index (BMI, a measure of weight in relation to height).

Doctors use these measures to estimate a patient's risk of developing type 2 diabetes and advise them how to lower their risk, such as by losing weight and changing their diet.

Current cutoffs say that men should have a waist size of less than 40 inches to help prevent diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

But researchers say the cutoff for a man's waist size may need to be lowered to 37 inches. At that waist size researchers accurately identified more than 80% of the type 2 diabetes cases that developed in a large group of men followed over 13 years.

Waistline Reveals Diabetes Risk

In the study, researchers compared the effectiveness of BMI, waist size, and waist-to-hip ratio in predicting the risk of type 2 diabetes in more than 27,000 men. Results appear in the March 2005 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition .

All of the men had their BMI, waist size, and waist-to-hip measurements taken when the study began and were then followed for 13 years.

Men who had a waist size of 40 inches or more had the highest risk of type 2 diabetes. These men were 12 times more likely to develop the disease than those with a waist size of 34 inches or less.

Visit the WebMD Weight Loss Clinic

Men with a BMI of 25 or more also were significantly more likely to develop type 2 diabetes.

Researchers say the results suggest that currently recommended cutoffs for estimating type 2 diabetes risk be lowered. Currently those cutoffs are 25 for BMI and 40 inches for a man's waist size.

But the study shows that lower cutoffs identified a significantly greater proportion of the type 2 diabetes cases.

Type 2 diabetes risk rose progressively as waist size climbed above 34 inches:

A waist size of 34 to 36 doubled diabetes risk.
A waist size of 36 to 38 inches nearly tripled the risk.
A waist size of 38 to 40 inches was associated with five times the risk.
A waist size of 40 to 62 inches was associated with 12 times the risk.

By Jennifer Warner
Reviewed By Kathleen Zelman, MPH, RD, July 25, 2007.
Medically updated July 25, 2007.

SOURCE: Wang, Y. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition , March 2005; vol 81: pp 555-563.

The Weight Loss Program Answer...

With so many weight loss programs on the market, the challenge is to find one that "fits" you. Unlike other weight loss programs, the WebMD Weight Loss Clinic plan provides you with a well-balanced, personalized meal plan that includes your favorite foods. Because you don't feel deprived, it's easier to stick to the weight loss plan. That's the secret to permanent weight loss!

Start Losing Weight Today