Earlier this month, Diabetes Care published a prospective cohort study that suggests that women who have high levels of abdominal fat (or abdominal adiposity) during their first trimester are at a greater risk for developing diabetes later on in their pregnancy.
The study was limited to 485 women who were assessed for subcutaneous, visceral, and total adipose tissue depth with ultrasound between 11 and 14 weeks of gestation.
All of the subjects were between the ages of 18 and 42 years old, and the results accounted for confounding factors like; age, family history, ethnicity, BMI and more. Even with these factors addressed, researchers still found that women with higher levels of fat in their abdomens were likelier to develop diabetes between weeks twenty four to twenty eight of their pregnancy than their counterparts with less abdominal fat early on in pregnancy. To learn more about gestational diabetes, please see the video below: