People carrying excess weight who aim to ward off diabetes should try to lose the pounds before they reach middle age, Australian researchers suggest.
A woman's body mass index (BMI) in her late 40s was the strongest predictor of her risk of developing diabetes over the next eight years, Dr Gita D. Mishra of the University of Queensland and her colleagues found.
On the other hand, there was no link between weight change in subsequent years and the likelihood of becoming diabetic. While excess weight is understood to boost the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, the effects of shorter-term weight gain or loss are not as clear, Mishra and her team note in the journal Diabetes Care.