While we all know that carrying around extra body fat doesn’t do our health any favors, researchers often question whether being overweight — in itself — is a risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic health problems.

You may have seen recent headlines stating that obesity does not guarantee a future of heart disease or diabetes. What is this based on? Unfortunately, the news really isn’t that great. A big study out of the Netherlands reported that simply being overweight doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll develop diabetes, especially if you don’t have any other risk factors, such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure. Results of this study were presented at the Endocrine Society’s 92nd Annual Meeting in San Diego last month.

Sounds good so far… but the analysis of over 8000 people (1300 of whom were obese) revealed that under 7% of obese people do not appear to be at significant risk for heart disease or diabetes. This finding is based on their metabolic profile, things like cholesterol and triglyceride levels, blood pressure, history of stroke markers for diabetes, need for certain medications, and others. Put another way, obesity grants us an over 93% chance of developing heart disease and/or diabetes. Far from clearing obesity as a danger to our health, this is a wakeup call to those of us who might be in denial that our extra pounds are putting our health at risk.

The authors point out that a metabolic evaluation (which you can request at your physician’s office) will give you a lot more specific and customized information regarding your actual risk for developing complications.

Even if you are not at high risk now, that can change depending on your lifestyle habits. It makes good sense to optimize your health today by attaining or maintaining a healthy weight, committing to regular physical activity, following a healthy diet, and practicing stress management.

Credits to:Nutrition Data: Diabetes

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