If you’re living with type 2 diabetes, you need 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity every week just like any other adult. Not only is exercise crucial for overall good health, but it will also help you manage your condition.
“It doesn’t have to be high impact. You don’t have to be training for a marathon. Just simple body movement helps lower blood sugar,” says Cheryl Orlansky, a certified diabetes care and education specialist in Atlanta.
It’s Not as Hard as It Sounds
Exercising for 150 minutes during one workout is challenging. Good thing you’re supposed to spread that time out across the week! That’d be 21 minutes and 24 seconds a day, but you can break it down into even smaller amounts if needed.
It only takes about 10 minutes for exercise to start benefiting you.
“We call them exercise snacks,” Orlansky says. “Go for a little 10-minute walk, stand up and walk around your desk, go to the mailbox, take the stairs, use the restroom that’s furthest away from your desk or office. Just get little exercise snacks throughout the day.”
Of course, running and lifting weights are great, but you might not be able to start with those right off the bat. Snack on exercise about three times a day. Lengthen and intensify your time as you're able.
What’s Moderate Exercise?
You don’t need a personal trainer or a gym. Just make your heart beat faster and breathing a little harder. That’s what moderate intensity means.
Examples of moderate-intensity physical activities include:
- Walking a 15-minute mile
- Biking a 6-minute mile
- Swimming for 20 minutes
- Running at least a mile and a half in 15 minutes
- Water aerobics for 30 minutes
- Playing basketball for 20 minutes
- Jumping rope for 15 minutes
- Climbing stairs for 15 minutes
There are plenty of things you may do in a day – or could easily add to your routine – that may not seem like exercise but they are.
“Getting a trainer or going to exercise classes sometimes just isn’t doable,” Orlansky says. “But when you look at people around the world who walk to the grocery store, walk to school, play outside – they are overall healthier than people in the suburbs who get in their car for everything.”
You might not live in a place where you can walk to the supermarket, but here are other things you can do:
- Wash your car for 45 minutes.
- Work in the garden or rake leaves for 30 minutes.
- Dance for 30 minutes.
Exercise: Free Medicine for Diabetes
When you have diabetes, your body doesn’t process glucose (sugar in the bloodstream) as it should. In some people, the body becomes resistant to insulin. That’s the hormone released by the pancreas. Its job is to unlock the cells and let glucose in.
Think of it this way: Insulin is the key that unlocks the cells to let sugar in. When you’re insulin resistant, that key just doesn’t turn as smoothly as it used to.
In others, the pancreas simply doesn’t make enough insulin to meet the body’s needs.
Either way, exercise helps in a couple of ways. It can:
- Boost insulin sensitivity so that your cells make better use of it.
- Trigger your muscles to pull glucose out of the bloodstream directly and burn it for energy, with or without the help of insulin.
“After a meal or a snack, if you see that your blood sugar is a little higher – maybe it’s after dinner because that’s when you have a larger meal – the best activity would be walking to help lower your blood sugar,” Orlansky says.
Your body may continue to reap the blood-sugar-lowering benefits of exercise for up to 24 hours after a workout. If you exercise regularly, it can lower your A1c. That’s your average blood sugar level over a 3-month period.
These benefits apply to people with prediabetes, too, Orlansky says.
“Exercise is especially helpful when you have prediabetes because you’re already in insulin resistance in the very beginning of prediabetes, and body movement helps your body’s insulin work better.”
Sometimes, exercise along with a healthy diet can have such a positive impact on your blood sugar that it may lessen the need for diabetes medicines.
Exercise and Other Blood Sugar Triggers
Exercise and what you eat aren’t the only parts of your lifestyle that impact blood sugar. Poor sleep and stress affect it, too.
Not getting enough sleep can worsen insulin resistance. Preliminary research suggests that correcting sleep troubles may improve insulin sensitivity. Those who get 30 minutes of exercise a day may sleep better that same night. Those who exercise regularly may fall asleep faster, too.
Stress can interfere with blood sugar control, too. That’s because stress triggers the release of hormones called cortisol and adrenaline, which can keep insulin from doing its job. Exercise is a well known and widely accepted way to ease stress and soften its impact on your body.
A Word About Checking Your Blood Sugar
As you’ve read here, your cells need sugar for energy, and exercise burns it up. If you take insulin or follow a very low-carb diet to manage your diabetes, you’re at risk of hypoglycemia (very low blood sugar). Exercise can be dangerous when your blood sugar is too low.
Check your blood sugar before you work out and make sure it’s over 100.
For anyone else, Orlansky recommends exploring exercise’s effects on your own blood sugar at least once.
“When you wear a sensor, or if you check your blood sugar before a 30-minute walk and then again after, you will most likely see those sugars drop nicely.”
And seeing the benefits of exercise in real time can help boost your confidence and commitment to a healthier lifestyle.
Show Sources
Photo Credit: iStock/Getty Images
SOURCES:
Cheryl Orlansky, RDN, LD, CDCES, Atlanta, GA.
American Diabetes Association: “Weekly Exercise Targets,” “Understanding Blood Glucose and Exercise.”
Cleveland Clinic: “What Does ‘Moderate-Intensity Exercise’ Mean Anyway?”
National Institutes of Health: “The Impact of Poor Sleep on Type 2 Diabetes.”
Hopkins Medicine: “Exercising for Better Sleep.”
Mayo Clinic: “Exercise and Stress: Getting Moving to Manage Stress.”
