Obesity and diabetes.

Fat mass per se has little effect on the progression of obesity towards diabetes. Predominance of fat in the upper part of the body resulting in android obesity is at least the clinical reflection of factors which lead obesity to progress towards diabetes and atherosclerosis. Therefore this type of obesity may be termed diabetogenic and atherogenic obesity. Insulin and cortisol secretion in obesity are not correlated with body fat but with the predominance of fat in the upper part of the body. Diabetogenic obesity may evolve through 5 stages from initial obesity without diabetes to insulin-dependent diabetes in previously obese subjects. Aside from the characteristics of body fat distribution, the mechanisms which induce or interrupt this progression remain unknown.