Abdominal Obesity, Muscle Composition, and Insulin Resistance in Premenopausal Women

Abstract

The independent relationships between visceral and abdominal sc adipose tissue (AT) depots, muscle composition, and insulin sensitivity were examined in 40 abdominally obese, premenopausal women. Measurements included glucose disposal by euglycemic clamp, muscle composition by computed tomography, abdominal and nonabdominal (e.g. leg) AT by magnetic resonance imaging and cardiovascular fitness. Glucose disposal rates were negatively related to visceral AT mass (r = -0.42, P < 0.01). These observations remained significant (P < 0.01) after control for nonabdominal and abdominal sc AT, muscle attenuation, and peak oxygen uptake. Total, abdominal, or leg sc AT or muscle attenuation was not significantly (P > 0.10) related to glucose disposal. Subdivision of abdominal sc AT into anterior and posterior depots did not alter the observed relationships. Further analysis matched two groups of women for abdominal sc AT but with low and high visceral AT. Women with high visceral AT had lower glucose disposal rates compared with those with low visceral AT (P < 0.05). A similar analysis performed on two groups of women matched for visceral AT but high and low abdominal sc AT revealed no statistically different values for insulin sensitivity (P > 0.10). In conclusion, visceral AT alone is a strong correlate of insulin resistance independent of nonabdominal, abdominal sc AT, muscle composition, and cardiovascular fitness. Subdivision of abdominal sc AT did not provide additional insight into the relationship between abdominal obesity and metabolic risk.

Dietary glycaemic index, glycaemic load and subsequent changes of weight and waist circumference in European men and women

“…Increase in waist circumference independent of weight change indicates an accumulation of visceral fat, which has been found to be strongly associated with insulin resistance, and thus the risk of type 2 diabetes and CVDs. 38 The reason that GI was associated with waist circumference change but not weight change may be due to the characteristic of visceral fat that it is more vulnerable to the influence of high insulin responses stimulated by high GI foods compared with subcutaneous fat. Therefore, visceral fat may be a marker of a disturbed metabolic state, and eventually cause insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome and CVDs.…”

Racial/ethnic differences in prehypertension in American adults: Population and relative attributable risks of abdominal obesity

“…[7][8][9] Abdominal obesity is also highly correlated with impairment of body homeostasis characterized by abnormalities such as hyperinsulinaemia, glucose intolerance and dyslipidaemias (hypertriglyceridaemia, high levels of low-density lipoprotein and low levels of high-density cholesterol). [10][11][12][13][14][15] Abdominal obesity, defined as waist circumference value of 102 cm or greater in men, and 88 cm or greater in women is associated with increased relative risk for obesity comorbidities for most adults. 1 Proposed originally by Lean et al 16 and Han et al, 17 these waist circumference cut points were proposed for health promotion to give optimal enrichment to individuals in need of weight management because of overweight/obesity or central obesity.…”

Preventing Long-Term Complications of Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, and Metabolic Syndrome

“…These together, drives the longer term complications associated with obesity and T2D [59,60]. The higher the percentage of visceral adipose tissue mass as a percentage of body weight, the greater the risk for insulin resistance, hyper-insulinemia, comorbidities, and complications [61,62].…”