Overweight is one of the many causes. No it doesn't happen 100% of the time, but it happens often. There is a link between obesity and diabetes. Just because someone who is obese doesn't get T2 diabetes doesn't mean that overweight isn't a cause of diabetes.

Simply look at the statistics about our food pyramid. Once it was published, I believe somewhere back in the early 80s by a bunch of "non-medical people" and it emphasized carbs as the base of a good nutritional food program, overweight population and diabetic population spiked upward over the next 20 or 30 years to where we are today.

There is a theory though, that the insulin resistance which is in part why Type 2 diabetes occurs, starts long before the person becomes overweight in many cases so that in fact the obesity is a symptom of diabetes rather than the cause.

Yes there is certainly a correlation between overweight and diabetes, but just because someone is overweight and has diabetes doesn't mean that being overweight causes diabetes. They have the same root cause, an inability to easily metabolize diabetes, probably related to hormones.

I saw on another thread that you've had bariatric surgery and your diabetes is asymptomatic. A friend's husband is a leading diabetes researcher and he told me that the reason bariatric surgery works so well is that it suppresses a particular hormone (or perhaps removes a gland?) that can cause diabetes. Usually the diabetes retreats long before the patient reaches a normal weight, often in a matter of days or weeks. Of course his institute is trying to develop a drug that will suppress the hormone without having to perform such drastic surgery.

I've read that obesity is the consequences of the body protecting itself from high blood sugar. Makes sense really. The sugar gets shuttled to the cells in the form of fat. So it isn't really that obesity causes diabetes, it is that one becomes fat and diabetic in response to high blood sugar from... drum roll eating stuff that makes your blood sugar skyrocket like sweets and too many starchy carbs

There are type-2 diabetics who don't get fat and their form of diabetes is much worse. Makes sense. For whatever reason, their body isn't as good at turning the excess glucose into something less harmful (body fat).

So, being fat isn't how you got diabetes. Most likely they both came together. Getting diabetes (T2) is more a product of what you've been eating for the last few decades.

But not everyone who eats sweets and "too many" starchy carbs is going to get diabetes, either. If your body can effectively process huge amounts of carbs, you may not get fat, you may not get diabetes. I know many people who eat tons more sweets and starches than I can and not gain weight and not get diabetes (yet). It all depends on a fit between how many carbs you can tolerate and how many you eat.

I'm thin. Have been thin all my life other than one pregnancy. I was shocked when I found out I was prediabetic 7 years ago. Shocked I tell ya. I thought only fat people got type 2. I absolutely can not metabolize carbohydrates. I'd be fine physically on NO CARBS but unfortunately I can't do that so I try to keep them to a minimum. My weight is between115-120 and I'm 64 inches tall. I only weigh ten pounds more now at age 60 than I did when I graduated from High School. But there is diabetes on both sides of my family so there has to be a genetic component to it.

Lots of interesting points.

Thank you all.

Yes, I had bariatric surgery.

The diabetes was immediately controlled virtually the day after.

I haven't had to use any meds since November 2013. I am off BP meds as well.

What caused whom to whatever is an interesting conversation.

What is important is controlling it.

I am not cured. I am controlled thanks to whatever happens as a result of bariatric surgery.

Yes, it is drastic. However, I had great difficulty getting my weight down. I wanted to get back down to normal weights. The surgery was an added tool to help me get there.

I am 210 and still dropping right now. In another 3 to 4 months I expect to be under 200 probably around 185-195. I expect numbers to continue to improve. My exercise regimen is not a habit yet, but I am working on it.

I expect better blood pressure, lower resting pulse and continued health improvements. I am experiencing a lot of positive reinforcement from family and friends.

I am feeling good.

So, whatever causes T2 diabetes, be it predisposition or some other unknown factor, I have done something about it that will hopefully buy me more time on this planet Earth.

Happy Easter and Happy Passover.

This is a time for celebration for me.

The honeymoon phase of bariatric post op still is good for another year. Then I will hopefully have developed a totally new lifestyle where food is fuel. Where I eat to live rather than live to eat and so on and so forth.

Yes, many people who have had the surgery do NOT change their lifestyle and eventually of several years fall back into their old habits, restretch their new little stomach back up to full size, etc., etc.,

I am doing my best arming myself with many more tools to avoid this calamity in my future.

Ralph

Just saw a friend over Easter, year 4 for her after the surgery IIRC, and doing very well.

I hope that no one thinks I am saying that bariatric surgery is wrong - it is certainly a good solution for some (not everyone qualifies, for one thing). I'm glad it worked so well for you, dancinbr, both to assist you in taking off the weight and putting your blood sugar in normal ranges. I also know it's not a panacea, that it requires hard work and discipline to make it successful.

My real point is that I am not convinced that obesity causes diabetes. They are both symptoms of the same metabolic disorder.

From all the research I did on Baritric surgery and the correlation with Type 2 diabetes. As well as small obscure researches I read long ago.

There is a turning trend that obesity is not the cause of Type 2 diabetes.

Rather it is a symptom of the bodies inability to process carbs.

When someone who has baritric surgery does an immediate about face with BGs with out loosing the weight. This is signalling that the fat is not causing it.

In fact there was a small studying starting about 6-12 months ago I believe in NY. To take people who are Type 2 diabetics (obese or not didn't matter) and Give them Bartric surgery to test this theory.

When I did an about face with my diabetes within the 1st 2 weeks of Dr R Berstein's eating methods. To me that proves that Obesity was not the cause rather it was the symptom of the overall bodies inability to deal with a high carb diet.

And high carb diets don't mean you are eating junk. I loved fruit, starchy veggies, pasta, and breads.

And some people who are obese, aren't obese/overweight because of a whicked high carb diet. Some are obese because they are simply overeating.

Like my hubby, who is about 40 pounds overweight.

And now I am actually waking up to 88 FBG. Whoo Hooo!!!!

I think it has lowered to normal because I am becoming way more active in my everyday life.

Also when I do not chew gum(sugar free with sorbitol) my BGs are better.

I agree with the many points about obesity NOT necessarily being the cause. That down deep there is a metabolic disorder.

Some of us ( perhaps many of us ) cannot process carbs very well.

Our population moved toward a carb based pyramid for nutrition in the early 1980s. Since then everything has gotten a whole lot worse, obesity, T2 diabetes, BP, etc., etc.,

I love Dr. Bernstein's book. It gave me a way to control my T2. I have managed to keep my numbers in the 5s. If I stay low carbs, then I have good sugar numbers without much assistance from meds such as Metformin ER and/or Insulin.

If I have carbs, I had to use a lot of insulin (Novolog Flexpen).

So, yes I cannot process carbs too well as many other people find they cannot do so as well.

I am in a new phase of life now.

I am happier than I have been in a long time.

Best wishes,

Ralph

The medical community has known for awhile that diabetes is not caused by being overweight, inactive or eating too many sugars (or carbs). The cause for diabetes comes down to genetics. If you don't have the gene for diabetes, you will not get it no matter how fat, lazy or bad you eat.

Even if you do have the gene for diabetes, they can't tell you that you will definitely get diabetes one day.

What we do know is that before diabetes, you become insulin resistant and it is the insulin resistance that eventually leads to diabetes. Why do some people with the 'gene' become IR and some don't. I don't think they know that yet and it still doesn't come down to weight, diet or activity level.

2/3 of the women in my immediate family (aunts, cousins and mother) are all hypoglycemic and have been from their teens...which indicates they do have the gene. All of them are extremely heavy (pushing 300 or over), very inactive and guzzle sugar and carbs like nobody's business. They're all over 65 now and still have problems with hypoglycemia but only *one* ever developed diabetes and that was just in the last year.

I've been overweight most of my life but until my 40's was not as overweight as the rest of the family. I didn't exercise, but I did like to backpack on weekends in the Rockies and hiked nature trails. Even at 220 pounds I was in better physical condition than many 120 lb women. Again, in far better shape than my family members who liked to sit and watch tv for hours in the evening. Yes, I liked carbs, but I was never a sweet eater (still aren't). Interestingly, my weight gain was despite eating less than everyone I knew. WW accused me of being a closet eater because it "was not possible" to weigh 200 pounds with what I ate. Uh...yeah it was.

However, since age 15 I had struggled with constant swings in my BS from 100 (at its highest) down to the 70's. None of that range was a problem, but according to my nephrologist it was the constant swing that led to my IR which led to my diabetes.

Even now, with a year of normal BG's behind me and eating consistently low carb, I still have to watch the caffeine and other things that affect my BG or I'll have hypoglycemia. So my diabetes is controlled with diet, but I'm back to where I was in the beginning with the hypoglycemia unless I'm very careful. If I'm not, I'll just be headed back down the path of IR against and diabetes despite my low carb diet.

So much we're still learning about diabetes and, unfortunately, that community is very slow in accepting that what they used to know is wrong and then adapting to what is true. In the meantime, we all need to pay attention to our own bodies, figure out what works for us and ignore those who tell us we're wrong...despite the fact that what we do works.

It is a dangerous disease.

I am happy that many of us have been able to control it.

What really baffles me is so many people go about their daily routine with T2 diabetes and seem to not care at all.

They run high blood sugar counts and do little to correct them.

I have had this happen but I haven't really settled into any real pattern since siccing my diet on this blood sugar issue.

More anecdotal evidence. I have a friend who is 50 pounds overweight and eats crap. Her last fasting blood sugar was 86. I am not overweight one bit....in fact I'm fairly slim for my age. I eat a low carb diet. My last fasting blood glucose at the doctor was 94. And I had to work to get that 94. And she like I said eats crap.