Content Map Terms

Information and Resources on Metabolic Conditions for Health Care Professionals

Canada has seen rising rates of obesity and diabetes:

  • Obesity (body mass index ≥30 kg/m2) affected 26.4% and overweight (body mass index 25-29.9 kg/m2) affected 34% of adults in 2016.
  • Diabetes and prediabetes affected 9.3% and 22.1% of adults respectively in 2015.

Obesity and diabetes increase the risk of developing a number of complications:

  • Obesity increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, among others.
  • Diabetes also increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke and is the leading cause of blindness, end stage renal disease and non-traumatic amputation.

Prediabetes refers to impaired fasting glucose, impaired glucose tolerance or a glycated hemoglobin of 6.0 to 6.4%, each of which increases the risk of developing diabetes and its complications.

Physical Activity and Metabolic Conditions

While regular physical activity may improve glucose control and facilitate weight loss, it causes a wide range of health benefits (i.e., improved cardiorespiratory fitness and quality of life) in adults even if glucose and body weight control do not change.

Canadian guidelines recommend that adults living with overweight, obesity, prediabetes and/or diabetes perform aerobic and resistance exercise and decrease sedentary behaviour (e.g., sitting or watching TV) for health benefits and/or body weight control.

Useful Resources

Physical Activity Counselling Toolkit (University of Alberta, Canada)
This Toolkit consists of handouts on physical activity for general health and various chronic conditions, including weight management and type 2 diabetes. The handouts are intended to be used by health care providers and/or qualified exercise professionals to support patients/clients to become more physically active.

Motivate2Move Guide (British Association of Sport & Exercise Medicine, United Kingdom)
Chapters 7 and 9 of this comprehensive guide for health practitioners on physical activity provide brief bites of key information on metabolic health and obesity, respectively.

Type 2 Diabetes (Moving Medicine, United Kingdom)
This website presents step-by-step guides to integrating physical activity conversations in routine clinical care.

Physical Activity in the Prevention and Treatment of Disease (Swedish National Institute of Public Health, Sweden)
This online textbook provides comprehensive evidence-based information about physical activity for type 1 diabetes (chapter 25), type 2 diabetes (chapter 26), metabolic syndrome (chapter 34), and obesity (chapter 36).

Click here for resources designed for clients.

Further Reading

Last updated: November 2021