Body weight, not insulin sensitivity or secretion, may predict spontaneous weight changes in nondiabetic and prediabetic subjects: the RISC study |
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Authors: | Rebelos Eleni Muscelli Elza Natali Andrea Balkau Beverley Mingrone Geltrude Piatti Piermarco Konrad Thomas Mari Andrea Ferrannini Ele;RISC Study Investigators |
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Institution: | Department of Internal Medicine, University of Pisa, Italy. |
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Abstract: | OBJECTIVEPrevious studies have found that high insulin sensitivity predicts weight gain; this association has not been confirmed. Our aim was to systematically analyze metabolic predictors of spontaneous weight changes.RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODSIn 561 women and 467 men from the Relationship Between Insulin Sensitivity and Cardiovascular Disease (RISC) cohort (mean age 44 years, BMI range 19–44 kg/m2, 9% impaired glucose tolerance) followed up for 3 years, we measured insulin sensitivity (by a euglycemic clamp) and β-cell function (by modeling of the C-peptide response to oral glucose and by acute insulin response to intravenous glucose).RESULTSInsulin sensitivity was similar in weight gainers (top 20% of the distribution of BMI changes), weight losers (bottom 20%), and weight stable subjects across quartiles of baseline BMI. By multiple logistic or linear regression analyses controlling for center, age, sex, and baseline BMI, neither insulin sensitivity nor any β-cell function parameter showed an independent association with weight gain; this was true in normal glucose tolerance, impaired glucose tolerance, and whether subjects progressed to dysglycemia or not. Baseline BMI was significantly higher in gainers (26.1 ± 4.1 kg/m2) and losers (26.6 ± 3.7 kg/m2) than in weight stable subjects (24.8 ± 3.8 kg/m2, P < 0.0001 for both gainers and losers). Baseline waist circumference (or equivalently, BMI or weight) was a positive, independent predictor of both weight gain and weight loss (odds ratio 1.48 95% CI 1.12–1.97]) in men and (1.67 1.28–2.12]) in women. In men only, better insulin sensitivity was an additional independent predictor of weight loss.CONCLUSIONSNeither insulin sensitivity nor insulin secretion predicts spontaneous weight gain. Individuals who have attained a higher weight are prone to either gaining or losing weight regardless of their glucose tolerance.The epidemic of obesity and the attendant increased risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease pose a demand for devising and implementing strategies to combat and/or prevent obesity. Although much work has addressed the metabolic consequences of weight gain, relatively few studies have focused on the metabolic predictors of weight change. Because insulin resistance is, like obesity, a major risk factor for the development of diabetes, it is of special interest to establish the relation of insulin resistance to body weight changes. Several reports have examined the relationship between insulin action and weight gain () found that insulin sensitivity, not insulin resistance, predicted spontaneous weight gain. Likewise, in a small clinical study in women (5), clamp-based insulin sensitivity predicted weight regain after initial weight loss. Other studies using a variety of surrogate indices of insulin sensitivity in larger groups of individuals, however, have yielded mixed results, with roughly half of them reporting an association between insulin sensitivity and weight gain and the other half a relation of insulin resistance to subsequent weight gain. With regard to insulin secretion, again, the findings from studies using a host of proxies for β-cell function have been inconclusive ( | Open in a separate windowMTT, meal tolerance test; FSIVGTT, frequently sampled IVGTT; QUICKI, quantitative insulin sensitivity check index.In the present work, we examined the longitudinal data of the Relationship Between Insulin Sensitivity and Cardiovascular Disease (RISC) study, in which a large cohort of nondiabetic subjects underwent a standardized euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp to measure insulin sensitivity and an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and an intravenous glucose tolerance test (IVGTT) to derive measures of β-cell function. Specifically, we asked the question whether weight changes at follow-up, in either direction, could be predicted by baseline insulin sensitivity and/or β-cell function. |