Does the Presence of Type 2 Diabetes or Metabolic Syndrome Impact Reduction in Waist Circumference During Weight Loss?

Objectives: Our aim in this study was to compare the change in waist circumference given the same degree of weight loss in patients who meet the criteria for metabolic syndrome or type 2 diabetes and those who do not meet these criteria. Because visceral adiposity is a key feature of both conditions and intra-abdominal adipocytes show higher lipolytic activity, we sought to determine whether changes in waist circumference differed in individuals with and without these conditions. Methods: The Ottawa Hospital Weight Management Clinic offers a course in lifestyle modification and uses 12 weeks of total meal replacement. We compared the decrease in waist circumference between patients with metabolic syndrome or diabetes and those without these conditions who had lost a similar amount of weight using measurements from the first 6 weeks of meal replacement. Results: We evaluated 3,559 patients who attended the program between September 1992 and April 2015. The patient population was largely Caucasian and of European descent and all meetings were face to face. The mean weight loss for men was 15.1 +/- 20.2 kg, and the mean weight loss for women was 9.7 +/- 2.4 kg. There were no significant differences in decrease in waist circumference between those with and without metabolic syndrome in both men (11.7 +/- 3.9 cm vs 11.4 +/- 3.8 cm, p=0.48) and women (9.0 +/- 3.6 cm vs 9.1 +/- 3.7 cm, p=0.26). Conclusions: Our results show that, given the same degree of weight loss, patients with and without diabetes or metabolic syndrome experience a similar change in waist circumference. Crown Copyright (C) 2021. Published on behalf of the Canadian Diabetes Association.