Overweight men will be judged on their insulin resistance

The team has called on overweight men - aged 18 to 35 who do not have diabetes - to take part to judge their resistance to insulin.

About two million people in the UK are diabetic and eight out of 10 Type 2 diabetes sufferers are obese.

Dundee University's Dr Dan Cuthbertson said he aimed to study different stages of obesity and their diabetic risk.

The experts will conduct their investigation at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.

Type 2 diabetes develops when the body becomes resistant to the effects of insulin, and is most common in people over 40. However, not all overweight people develop the disease.

'Improve understanding'

Dr Cuthbertson said: "There has been much speculation about linking obesity to diabetes, but we want to uncover the evidence and find out if there are certain stages of obesity which predispose you to diabetes or whether there are different levels of risk in different people."

Ineffectiveness of insulin, or "insulin resistance" occurs before Type 2 diabetes appears and can be measured by looking at markers within the bloodstream and muscle and fat tissue.

Dr Calum Sutherland, senior Diabetes UK Research Fellow, said: "This project will improve the understanding of why being overweight can lead to Type 2 diabetes in some but not all individuals.

"We want to be able to predict which people, particularly those who are overweight, will develop diabetes in the future.

"Then they can be targeted for prevention, which is the most logical and effective way forward for combating the global epidemic of diabetes and its complications."