Effective exercise for diabetes
Type 2 diabetes is caused by malfunctioning leptin and insulin signaling and tolerance, both of which are directly linked to lack of exercise and a diet high in starchy carbohydrates or sugars. Unfortunately, once diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, many people believe that their fate is sealed and that there are only things they can do to “control” it. In this article you can get information about exercise for diabetes.
But that’s not the case. A low-carb, high-fat diet, as described in the book Burn Fat for Fuel, combined with exercise and daily activity, is the right prescription for reversing this common condition. Fasting is another proven treatment that works fast.
A study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise found that even a single bout of moderate-intensity exercise can improve how the body regulates glucose, reducing the spike in glucose levels after a meal.
But research suggests that high-intensity exercise and strength training are the most effective forms of exercise for controlling diabetes, although any type of physical activity can have some beneficial effects.
If you have type 2 diabetes, you need strength training
Several studies have demonstrated the benefits of strength training for diabetes, including a 2017 study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise that found that strength training can reduce women’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 30% and their risk of cardiovascular disease by 17%.
“These data support the inclusion of muscle-building exercise in fitness regimens to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, independent of aerobic exercise alone,” the study authors wrote.
Even so, adding aerobic exercise to women’s fitness regimens did reduce risk further. Participants who performed at least 120 minutes of aerobic exercise per week and some form of strength training had a 65 percent lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes than those who did neither—a finding that suggests all forms of exercise have some value.
Moderate-intensity muscle training may reduce diabetes risk
More recently, a study published this month (March 2019) in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings found a link between muscle strength and the incidence of type 2 diabetes. The study enrolled 4,681 participants between the ages of 20 and 100, all of whom did not have type 2 diabetes at the start of the study. The researchers then looked at the participants’ muscle strength using leg and bench press tests . During an average follow-up of 8.3 years, 4.9% of the participants developed diabetes. The study authors noted:
“After adjusting for potential confounders, we found that participants with moderate muscle strength had a 32% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared with those with relatively low muscle strength.
However, we did not observe a significant association between higher muscle strength and the incidence of type 2 diabetes …
Moderate muscle strength was associated with a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes independent of estimated CRF (cardiorespiratory fitness). More research is needed to investigate the dose-response relationship between muscle strength and type 2 diabetes.”
Muscle training improves glucose metabolism and insulin resistance
The third example of this type of research was published in BioMed Research International in 2013. This review investigated the mechanisms behind the reduced risk of diabetes caused by exercise.
One way that strength training improves glucose metabolism is by increasing the translocation of glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4) in skeletal muscle. GLUT4 translocation occurs as a consequence of muscle contraction and is essential for regulating muscle glucose uptake.
As mentioned above, strength training can also increase your insulin sensitivity because muscles are highly sensitive to insulin, which can help restore metabolic flexibility. By using insulin more efficiently, your body can ultimately use more glucose, so there’s less glucose circulating in your blood, which can help improve blood sugar control.
“Increased energy expenditure and excess post-exercise oxygen consumption of resistance training may have other beneficial effects,” the review paper states.
If you have diabetes, you need to exercise vigorously
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) has also been shown to be effective in reducing diabetes risk. In one such study, elderly overweight people with type 2 diabetes improved their blood sugar regulation with just six HIIT sessions over two weeks.
They also saw an improvement in mitochondrial function, meaning their bodies were more efficient at producing energy. Overall, their average blood glucose concentration over 24 hours dropped from 7.6 mmol/L (± 1.0) to 6.6 mmol/L (± 0.7) after the exercise.
The total time commitment is 60 minutes per week. The key to HIIT is intensity. In the study, participants performed 10 60-second cycling bouts at 90 percent of their maximum heart rate, with 60 seconds of rest in between. “Our findings suggest that low-dose HIIT can rapidly improve glycemic control and induce adaptations in skeletal muscle, which could help improve metabolic health in patients with type 2 diabetes,” the study authors said.
Another study implemented a similar HIIT program on sedentary but healthy middle-aged people. The only difference was that the subjects in this study exercised at 60% of their maximum heart rate instead of all-out efforts.
Despite the reduced intensity, the subjects also showed improvements in insulin sensitivity and blood sugar regulation after just two weeks of three-times-a-week exercise. “After training, glucose transporter content increased by approximately 260%, and insulin sensitivity improved by approximately 35% based on the homeostasis model assessment of insulin sensitivity index,” the authors noted.
In a follow-up study, people with advanced type 2 diabetes had improved blood sugar regulation over the next 24 hours after a single HIIT session at 90 percent of their maximum heart rate.
If the intensity is high enough, what is the minimum time investment to achieve results? Although it seems amazing, one study found that just three minutes of HIIT per week for four consecutive weeks can improve the subjects’ insulin sensitivity by an average of 24%!
Daily activity is important, even if you exercise regularly.
Strength training and HIIT can be effective in managing diabetes, but it is important to understand that these two methods alone are not enough. Daily non-exercise activities are equally important, or even more important. The reason for this is that sitting for a long time, the simple act of sitting, has the potential to shut down or block many insulin-mediated systems, including muscle and cellular systems that process blood sugar, triglycerides, and cholesterol.
Simply standing up and supporting your body weight on your legs is enough to activate all of these systems at a molecular level. In fact, studies have found that prolonged sitting is an independent risk factor for chronic disease and premature death, even if you exercise regularly and maintain a high level of fitness.
Many studies have highlighted this point and confirmed that prolonged sitting can be particularly harmful to people with diabetes. For example:
• A 2016 study by researchers in New Zealand found that walking for 10 minutes after each meal reduced post-meal blood sugar levels by 22% in people with diabetes, more effectively controlling blood sugar than exercising for 30 minutes a day. This confirms that increasing the frequency of activity is an important part of effectively controlling blood sugar levels.
• A 2016 review of 28 studies found an inverse correlation between exercise and overall diabetes risk. In other words, the more you exercise, the lower your risk of developing type 2 diabetes. They also concluded that one of the main mechanisms is that exercise allows your muscles to use sugar more efficiently. Essentially, this study showed that increasing exercise time from 150 to 300 minutes per week could reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes by 36%.
• A 2017 study by Australian researchers found that people with type 2 diabetes who sat all day (and only stood up to go to the bathroom) had significantly higher blood fats than those who got up and moved around for three minutes every 30 minutes. Lead author Dr. Carolyn Miller, a senior researcher at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, told Reuters :
“Our current research reiterates the message that avoiding prolonged sitting and finding ways to increase daily activity can have significant health benefits.
Our recommendations are consistent with the … American Diabetes Association position statement, which calls for a few minutes of light-intensity activity every 30 minutes, in addition to regular participation in a structured exercise program … sit less, stand more, and move more, especially after meals.”
Diet and exercise are essential to reversing diabetes
There is no doubt that exercise is essential if you have diabetes, but even though physical activity alone may improve your condition, I would not recommend using it as your sole treatment. You must also address the root of the problem, which is insulin and leptin resistance, both of which are caused not only by lack of exercise but also by poor diet.
One of the most effective ways to prevent and reverse insulin resistance (and thus type 2 diabetes) is through cyclical nutritional ketosis. It can also have a significant impact on your weight, ultimately helping you shed those extra pounds, as your body gradually starts burning fat as its primary source of energy.
In short, nutritional ketosis can put you on the path to better health by optimizing your metabolism and mitochondrial function. In fact, there’s growing evidence that a high-fat, low-carb, low-to-moderate-protein diet (in other words, one that keeps your body in cyclical nutritional ketosis) is ideal for most people.
Even endurance athletes are beginning to ditch traditional high-carb diets in favor of this diet because of its benefits for improving performance and endurance.
Remember that continuous nutritional ketosis can be counterproductive, so I recommend cycling in and out of nutritional ketosis once your body is able to efficiently burn fat for energy. You can do this by increasing your carbohydrate and protein intake a few times a week, preferably on the day you strength train or after a partial fast.
By periodically consuming higher amounts of carbohydrates, such as 100 or 150 grams of carbohydrates per day (compared to 20 to 50 grams previously), your ketone levels will increase significantly and your blood sugar will drop.
How diet affects diabetes risk
If you want to fully understand why diet is so important in preventing or reversing diabetes, you first have to understand some basic mechanisms of action of insulin and leptin resistance.
- Leptin
It is a protein hormone produced by fat cells. One of the main roles of leptin is to regulate your appetite and weight. It tells your brain when to eat, how much to eat, when to stop eating, and how to use available energy. Leptin largely affects the accuracy of insulin signals and determines whether you will eventually develop insulin resistance.
- insulin
Released as blood glucose levels rise. Sugar and grains have the most significant impact on blood sugar, while healthy fats have the least impact on glucose levels. When blood glucose rises, the body releases insulin to store the excess energy. A small amount of this is stored as amyloid called glycogen, but most of it is stored as your main backup energy source, your fat cells.
There is an important distinction here. The primary function of insulin is not to lower blood sugar levels, but to store excess energy for future use when needed. Its blood sugar-lowering effect is just a “side effect” of this energy storage process.
As you can see, insulin and leptin work together to create a cycle that can be either beneficial or detrimental to your health, depending on how you eat. If you eat a lot of sugar and grains, this can cause your blood sugar levels to spike, which can increase insulin, which ultimately leads to more stored fat. The extra fat, in turn, produces more leptin.
If your leptin levels remain high for a long time, it can cause health problems. At this point, you develop leptin resistance, which means your body can no longer “receive” the hormone’s signals to your brain that you’re full and should stop eating. As you store more fat, you gradually gain weight and eventually develop insulin resistance.
Now that your body is no longer “getting” the signals from these two hormones (leptin and insulin), a variety of diseases can ensue, one of which is diabetes. While exercise can help reduce the spike in blood sugar levels after meals and improve insulin sensitivity, a poor daily diet can have the opposite effect and undo all your efforts. You can’t make up for a lack of diet with exercise, which is why addressing your diet is a key component of diabetes management.
Are you ready to be diabetes-free?
Following these tips will help you achieve at least three goals, all of which are necessary for successful treatment of type 2 diabetes:
1) Restoration of insulin/leptin sensitivity;
2) Maintain a normal body weight;
3) Maintain normal blood pressure.
Severely limit (or eliminate) all forms of sugar and grains from your diet – make the necessary dietary changes, and also avoid consuming too much protein, because your body converts protein into sugar in the liver, which can disrupt your ability to manage insulin resistance. Too much protein can be more detrimental to your health than too many carbohydrates.
Make sure you choose the right types of fats— Omega-3 fats from marine sources are especially important for maintaining optimal health.
Try fasting – Fasting is another effective treatment for diabetes.
Keep exercising and stay active— Be sure to incorporate HIIT and strength training into your fitness routine, and try to stay as active as possible in your daily life.
Optimize your vitamin D levels— Research has demonstrated a clear link between vitamin D status and insulin resistance, suggesting that vitamin D is essential for insulin secretion and may also improve insulin resistance.
Optimize your gut microbes— Multiple studies have found that obese people have a different gut bacterial profile than lean people, and that certain microbes are more likely to contribute to obesity. Fortunately, optimizing your gut flora is relatively simple. You can reseed your gut with good bacteria by eating traditionally fermented foods and/or taking a high-quality probiotic supplement.
Address any underlying emotional issues and/or stress – a variety of non-invasive tools such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) can be helpful and effective.
Get eight hours of sleep a night— Studies show that lack of sleep can increase your risk of weight gain and diabetes. A 2015 study linked daytime sleepiness and napping (which can be a sign of sleep deprivation) to a 58 percent increased risk of type 2 diabetes, so sleep isn’t just a factor.
Monitor your fasting insulin levels – This is just as important as monitoring your fasting blood sugar levels. You want to maintain a fasting insulin level between 2 and 4. The higher your fasting insulin level, the less insulin sensitive you are.