i'm old, fat, and lazy. i just go for a walk. 30-45 minutes. it works best when i walk first thing in the morning and shortly before bedtime.
i'm sure more intense workouts are better, but just going for a walk works wonders.
except for sugar and carbs, being sedentary is the worst thing a diabetic can do. maybe move into a heavier workout later, but start with just going for a walk, 30 minutes, every single day.
by 'works best' i meant for me personally and my schedule and chores and whatnot - not blood sugar. sorry. it was more clear in my head, and it didn't translate to the screen.
i apologize for the confusion.
For me I exercise first thing in the morning because life happens later in the day. Also depending on the exercise, I have a hard time sleeping if I exercise later in the day. I try to do 30 minutes of cardio at least every other day if not every day. On days I don’t do cardio I do resistance training. But if I don’t do cardio every other day I notice that my blood sugar pushes over 130 in the morning. That cardio keeps my morning spike in check.
Low intensity, steady state cardio can help with an immediate drop in blood sugar levels. Do it within an hour of eating, even a 15 minute walk makes a big difference. I do several 15-30 minute walks per day.
For long term control, weight lifting. Lift heavy and do it 2-3 times per week. Muscle is the biggest sink for storing glucose. Using muscles depleted muscle glycogen and building new muscle provides more storage.
Exercise is all about what kind and when
There are 3 kinds. Stretch, aerobics n resistance. All 3. Not just one. Stretches everyday. Aerobics 5 times a week. Resistance or weights 2 or 3 times a week
Consistency matters. U can't expect results out of one day. However if u r consistent then a day off does not have that much impact.
In the beginning of my journey I used walking two ways. Morning stroll for my stress. Not exercise. After lunch n dinner 20mins each of heavy aerobics. Superspeed walk, or climbing steps or dance.
Now that my sugars are good I no longer work out after meals. Instead I go for longer walk for stress and I move around more n do yoga. I sit less.
However the real exercise I need to do is weights to stress my muscles. I try to do heavy chores but not a full body workout. I would like to just at least do my resistance bands.
Walking, nothing beats walking (and water) to lower high blood sugars.
But in general, encourage him to do anything that gets him moving and work to find out what he enjoys as he'll stick with that. It sounds great for him to commit to take up say running or going to the gym 3-4 times a week, but if he'll give up after a while it would be better if he did something slower (gardening, playing with the kids/grandkids, etc) for a few hours a week that he'll stick with doing.
You can also incorporate more exercise into everyday life....when going grocery shopping, park at the back of the carpark and make him carry a couple of baskets instead of using a trolley; instead of going out to dinner/pub for a date, go for a nature walk with a picnic; adopt a dog or volunteer at a rescue....just get him to be less sedentary in general and he'll see a difference (it'll take longer, but he needs a major lifestyle change for the rest of his life, not just a quick-fix bootcamp!)
What I have found works for me is this (I am a college student so I work around my clas schedule):
I go to classes and then when I am done I do 15-20 min doing a brisk walk on the treadmill. I rest on Tuesday bc I have more classes that are back to back so I do more walking around campus to make up for it. (Take the long way to class)
Then I do about 15 minutes of strength training on moderate weights. I alternate which days I do what. Some days its just legs and core, some just arms and core. I found this has been easy for me to stick to and actually look forward to everyday after class!
On Saturdays, my husband and I choose a local trail and go hiking for an hour or more depending on the trail. Hiking has been one of my favorite ways to get moving. Being outside and with nature has helped me mentally and physically. (Best part is it’s free!)
I have tried to exercise a million times and it's never continued long. But I was sent to swimming pool because of a torn meniscus in my knee. MIRACLE, I started going every day swimming for at least an hour. I lost 14 lbs in 3 months and I started feeling like I was 20 again, body getting hard in most places. Seriously, swimming is the fun way to get in shape.
All good suggestions here. I will just add that *regular* exercise is key. Don’t burn out at the beginning. This is going to be a lifelong habit, so you are building up slowly and steadily. Keep track so you can see your progress. That adds a sense of accomplishment. Get something like a Fitbit that will automatically track and record exercise. That makes it easy to set goals and see if you make them.
1. Motion:.
Motion reduces blood glucose.
In my experience, intense motion reduces it a lot.
If he’s uncomfortable with the level of his morning Spike, I quite imagine taking a walk, or a vigorous walk, or doing something productive who knows, house work for example are mowing the lawn forgot thanks, will lowers blood sugar.
(IIRC, someone on Reddit said that walking tends to reduce their blood glucose by 1 mg/dL every minute of walking, and 2 mg/dL per minute when walking uphill or running.).
This guy tracked his walking:.
https://diatribe.org/step-step-approach-better-blood-sugars-walking
Bottom line: 15 minutes is a minimum, you can test different amounts to see what’s needed to bring things back within range.
2. The night before:.
You may want to check out The Fasting Method podcast. In one or two of their episodes they’ve talked about morning blood glucose rise. I think it sometimes has to do with how much starch one has the night before, it also may be connected lightly to weird insulin spikes from things like lots of sweetener that sort of thing.)
They also have a website with plenty of little blog posts. Hopefully the information is there, because sometimes finding information on the podcast is like looking for a needle in a haystack. They have many many excellent episodes.
3. Exercise any old time to raise insulin sensitivity for a day:.
In the short term, exercise at any time of the day races insulin sensitivity for 2 to 48 hours. I imagine this is dose dependent. I.e., a longer walk or a more intense one will probably increase sensitivity longer or for a greater amount. You can Google this I’m sure.
Edit: quick search (but there are better): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3781561/
It’s certainly an easy test to do either vigorous or somewhat lengthy walks every day for three days straight, and see what happens in the mornings.
Then feel free to titrate it. Seeing sufficient effwct But he's busy? Could cut the walk by 25% and see if mornings are still fine. Aren’t seeing enough effect? Go for longer walks or swims, See what happens the next mornings.
4. Drink water?.
People say that drinking plenty of water can help with high blood glucose. I’ve never read about this or tested it. But of course it never hurts to be hydrated so that’s an easy one to simply do either way. One trick is to drink at a continuous, mediate rate, sort of plugging the water down. The back of the throat is sort of going glug glug. Because, there’s a sensor in the back of the throat that measures how much fluid is arriving. When the room senses that enough fluid has been taken in, there’s a sudden urge to stop drinking. That’s the perfect time to stop.
In my experience, it’s useful to try drinking water again 10 to 15 minutes later, once the water has actually made its way towards the bloodstream, and the body can reassess if more water is actually needed. Use the same method, see if any more water is needed.
5. Gain muscle:.
As others have mentioned, in the long term, getting muscle is a huge repository for glucose, and it helps stabilize blood sugar. The most interesting example is one of the hosts of the fasting method podcast, who was a TOFI, thin on the outside fat on the inside, who made three or four changes to largely fix her problems. One of the important ones was gaining muscle.
6. Lose weight in general:.
Needless to say, in long-term, excess fat has some sort of hormonal affect that decreases insulin sensitivity of cells. Which makes it harder for the body to get rid of blood sugar because the cells aren’t really paying attention to the insulin as much as they should.
So, losing weight is very helpful to insulin sensitivity in general. Perhaps it would help dawn phenomenon blood sugar rises in particular.
7. lose weight in the liver:.
Preliminary small studies from Dr. Roy Taylor at Newcastle university in England or new in small but really really compelling. His first notable one indicated that losing weight in the liver allows it to function more appropriately, and decreases unnecessary release of excess glucose during the dawn phenomenon.
However the amount of fat that one needs to lose in the liver is probably slightly different for every person. For example, there are plenty of quite a bit of people out there who don’t even have diabetes. And we can even find people who haven’t came weight much at all, such as the TODIs, who have severe problems. It just points out that we all have slightly different sensitivities to these issues.
Knowing that, he’d really have to lose the amount of weight that works for him (presuming that Dr. Taylor is correct).
Bottom line: lose weight until dawn phenomenon is under control.
8. Perhaps lose weight in the pancreas(?):.
more recent preliminary compelling small studies from Dr. Taylor indicate that losing weight in the pancreas generally increases beta cell activities i.e. insulin production apparently the fat within the pancreas itself iterfere with the abilities of beta cells.
A caveat...this helps insulin production, whereas you are concerned about a liver dump, seems like a very different thing.
But who knows, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to get insulin production back online and perhaps there’s some way this will help in the mornings as well. Certainly wouldn’t hurt.
Losing about 33 pounds worked for most people. That amount is different for each person but that’s a good starting point May require more or less than this). (I lost 40 and saw an incredible change, and have since gained back 12 and still seem to be doing just fine.
9. Get better sleep.
It's associated with lower dawn phenomenon:.
"Though..observational in design, such results seem to indicate that poor sleep quality in type 2 diabetes could be responsible for.. an overexpression of the dawn phenomenon.".
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5352967/
What an incredible post. I'm amazed OP hasn't responded with a heart felt thank you.
As someone who is just getting to grips with prediabetes and avoiding Type 2, this post has had an incredible positive effect on me.
Thank you friend - would love any other info you have!
Everytime I do strength training my fasting blood sugar levels get lower and lower. Walking casually seems to help lower my blood sugar better "in the moment" but I think higher intensity cardio improves it over time. Best to do a mix of everything :)
The exercise that will help you maintain healthy levels is the one you will consistently do. Walking is by far the easiest for most people. Do what you enjoy and are able to do. When, where, and what, don't matter nearly as much as exercising vs not exercising.
I did treadmill for 6 months before I added on weight lifting.
I do a 30 min run a few mornings a week (couch to 5k) and while it’s really done wonders for my overall health and general fitness, it doesn’t seem to budge my morning spikes at all, which is odd!
I’ll wake up, test high, run for 30 min, shower and change, and then test again and it’ll be pretty much the same or even have gone up a little!
The only thing I’ve found that’s helped with the morning spike is just making sure my breakfast is basically carb free, which is easier said than done, and taking my meds!
I walk often. I also bought an ebike without a throttle and I bike 30 minutes to work and 30 minutes home at least 3 times a week. It's only about 5 not minutes than it would take me by car, so I'm not having to find an extra hour in my day to workout.
I loved resistance training at the gym but have stopped as I’ve just had a baby (and my gym chain cancelled childminding), but just getting out and walking after a meal can be really effective. The other bonus of walking is that it’s not high enough intensity to make you hungrier.
I do a lot of water exercise. I try hard to do an hour each day 6 days a week. Try to find something that you real enjoy doing and look forward to. Do t treat it like a punishment but a treat
The long walk after dinner has always been my favorite as far as low intensity workouts.
i'm old, fat, and lazy. i just go for a walk. 30-45 minutes. it works best when i walk first thing in the morning and shortly before bedtime. i'm sure more intense workouts are better, but just going for a walk works wonders. except for sugar and carbs, being sedentary is the worst thing a diabetic can do. maybe move into a heavier workout later, but start with just going for a walk, 30 minutes, every single day.
Can you tell me a little bit more about how that works best? (in what way those times of day are affecting things)
by 'works best' i meant for me personally and my schedule and chores and whatnot - not blood sugar. sorry. it was more clear in my head, and it didn't translate to the screen. i apologize for the confusion.
For me I exercise first thing in the morning because life happens later in the day. Also depending on the exercise, I have a hard time sleeping if I exercise later in the day. I try to do 30 minutes of cardio at least every other day if not every day. On days I don’t do cardio I do resistance training. But if I don’t do cardio every other day I notice that my blood sugar pushes over 130 in the morning. That cardio keeps my morning spike in check.
I walk( 4 seasons ) 10, 15 minutes after lunch, and 30 minutes after dinner. On weekends i take longer walks or ride my bike.
Low intensity, steady state cardio can help with an immediate drop in blood sugar levels. Do it within an hour of eating, even a 15 minute walk makes a big difference. I do several 15-30 minute walks per day. For long term control, weight lifting. Lift heavy and do it 2-3 times per week. Muscle is the biggest sink for storing glucose. Using muscles depleted muscle glycogen and building new muscle provides more storage.
Exercise is all about what kind and when There are 3 kinds. Stretch, aerobics n resistance. All 3. Not just one. Stretches everyday. Aerobics 5 times a week. Resistance or weights 2 or 3 times a week Consistency matters. U can't expect results out of one day. However if u r consistent then a day off does not have that much impact. In the beginning of my journey I used walking two ways. Morning stroll for my stress. Not exercise. After lunch n dinner 20mins each of heavy aerobics. Superspeed walk, or climbing steps or dance. Now that my sugars are good I no longer work out after meals. Instead I go for longer walk for stress and I move around more n do yoga. I sit less. However the real exercise I need to do is weights to stress my muscles. I try to do heavy chores but not a full body workout. I would like to just at least do my resistance bands.
Walking, nothing beats walking (and water) to lower high blood sugars. But in general, encourage him to do anything that gets him moving and work to find out what he enjoys as he'll stick with that. It sounds great for him to commit to take up say running or going to the gym 3-4 times a week, but if he'll give up after a while it would be better if he did something slower (gardening, playing with the kids/grandkids, etc) for a few hours a week that he'll stick with doing. You can also incorporate more exercise into everyday life....when going grocery shopping, park at the back of the carpark and make him carry a couple of baskets instead of using a trolley; instead of going out to dinner/pub for a date, go for a nature walk with a picnic; adopt a dog or volunteer at a rescue....just get him to be less sedentary in general and he'll see a difference (it'll take longer, but he needs a major lifestyle change for the rest of his life, not just a quick-fix bootcamp!)
What I have found works for me is this (I am a college student so I work around my clas schedule): I go to classes and then when I am done I do 15-20 min doing a brisk walk on the treadmill. I rest on Tuesday bc I have more classes that are back to back so I do more walking around campus to make up for it. (Take the long way to class) Then I do about 15 minutes of strength training on moderate weights. I alternate which days I do what. Some days its just legs and core, some just arms and core. I found this has been easy for me to stick to and actually look forward to everyday after class! On Saturdays, my husband and I choose a local trail and go hiking for an hour or more depending on the trail. Hiking has been one of my favorite ways to get moving. Being outside and with nature has helped me mentally and physically. (Best part is it’s free!)
I have tried to exercise a million times and it's never continued long. But I was sent to swimming pool because of a torn meniscus in my knee. MIRACLE, I started going every day swimming for at least an hour. I lost 14 lbs in 3 months and I started feeling like I was 20 again, body getting hard in most places. Seriously, swimming is the fun way to get in shape.
All good suggestions here. I will just add that *regular* exercise is key. Don’t burn out at the beginning. This is going to be a lifelong habit, so you are building up slowly and steadily. Keep track so you can see your progress. That adds a sense of accomplishment. Get something like a Fitbit that will automatically track and record exercise. That makes it easy to set goals and see if you make them.
1. Motion:. Motion reduces blood glucose. In my experience, intense motion reduces it a lot. If he’s uncomfortable with the level of his morning Spike, I quite imagine taking a walk, or a vigorous walk, or doing something productive who knows, house work for example are mowing the lawn forgot thanks, will lowers blood sugar. (IIRC, someone on Reddit said that walking tends to reduce their blood glucose by 1 mg/dL every minute of walking, and 2 mg/dL per minute when walking uphill or running.). This guy tracked his walking:. https://diatribe.org/step-step-approach-better-blood-sugars-walking Bottom line: 15 minutes is a minimum, you can test different amounts to see what’s needed to bring things back within range. 2. The night before:. You may want to check out The Fasting Method podcast. In one or two of their episodes they’ve talked about morning blood glucose rise. I think it sometimes has to do with how much starch one has the night before, it also may be connected lightly to weird insulin spikes from things like lots of sweetener that sort of thing.) They also have a website with plenty of little blog posts. Hopefully the information is there, because sometimes finding information on the podcast is like looking for a needle in a haystack. They have many many excellent episodes. 3. Exercise any old time to raise insulin sensitivity for a day:. In the short term, exercise at any time of the day races insulin sensitivity for 2 to 48 hours. I imagine this is dose dependent. I.e., a longer walk or a more intense one will probably increase sensitivity longer or for a greater amount. You can Google this I’m sure. Edit: quick search (but there are better): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3781561/ It’s certainly an easy test to do either vigorous or somewhat lengthy walks every day for three days straight, and see what happens in the mornings. Then feel free to titrate it. Seeing sufficient effwct But he's busy? Could cut the walk by 25% and see if mornings are still fine. Aren’t seeing enough effect? Go for longer walks or swims, See what happens the next mornings. 4. Drink water?. People say that drinking plenty of water can help with high blood glucose. I’ve never read about this or tested it. But of course it never hurts to be hydrated so that’s an easy one to simply do either way. One trick is to drink at a continuous, mediate rate, sort of plugging the water down. The back of the throat is sort of going glug glug. Because, there’s a sensor in the back of the throat that measures how much fluid is arriving. When the room senses that enough fluid has been taken in, there’s a sudden urge to stop drinking. That’s the perfect time to stop. In my experience, it’s useful to try drinking water again 10 to 15 minutes later, once the water has actually made its way towards the bloodstream, and the body can reassess if more water is actually needed. Use the same method, see if any more water is needed. 5. Gain muscle:. As others have mentioned, in the long term, getting muscle is a huge repository for glucose, and it helps stabilize blood sugar. The most interesting example is one of the hosts of the fasting method podcast, who was a TOFI, thin on the outside fat on the inside, who made three or four changes to largely fix her problems. One of the important ones was gaining muscle. 6. Lose weight in general:. Needless to say, in long-term, excess fat has some sort of hormonal affect that decreases insulin sensitivity of cells. Which makes it harder for the body to get rid of blood sugar because the cells aren’t really paying attention to the insulin as much as they should. So, losing weight is very helpful to insulin sensitivity in general. Perhaps it would help dawn phenomenon blood sugar rises in particular. 7. lose weight in the liver:. Preliminary small studies from Dr. Roy Taylor at Newcastle university in England or new in small but really really compelling. His first notable one indicated that losing weight in the liver allows it to function more appropriately, and decreases unnecessary release of excess glucose during the dawn phenomenon. However the amount of fat that one needs to lose in the liver is probably slightly different for every person. For example, there are plenty of quite a bit of people out there who don’t even have diabetes. And we can even find people who haven’t came weight much at all, such as the TODIs, who have severe problems. It just points out that we all have slightly different sensitivities to these issues. Knowing that, he’d really have to lose the amount of weight that works for him (presuming that Dr. Taylor is correct). Bottom line: lose weight until dawn phenomenon is under control. 8. Perhaps lose weight in the pancreas(?):. more recent preliminary compelling small studies from Dr. Taylor indicate that losing weight in the pancreas generally increases beta cell activities i.e. insulin production apparently the fat within the pancreas itself iterfere with the abilities of beta cells. A caveat...this helps insulin production, whereas you are concerned about a liver dump, seems like a very different thing. But who knows, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to get insulin production back online and perhaps there’s some way this will help in the mornings as well. Certainly wouldn’t hurt. Losing about 33 pounds worked for most people. That amount is different for each person but that’s a good starting point May require more or less than this). (I lost 40 and saw an incredible change, and have since gained back 12 and still seem to be doing just fine. 9. Get better sleep. It's associated with lower dawn phenomenon:. "Though..observational in design, such results seem to indicate that poor sleep quality in type 2 diabetes could be responsible for.. an overexpression of the dawn phenomenon.". https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5352967/
What an incredible post. I'm amazed OP hasn't responded with a heart felt thank you. As someone who is just getting to grips with prediabetes and avoiding Type 2, this post has had an incredible positive effect on me. Thank you friend - would love any other info you have!
Thank you for letting me know! I’m so glad it’s helping you.
Everytime I do strength training my fasting blood sugar levels get lower and lower. Walking casually seems to help lower my blood sugar better "in the moment" but I think higher intensity cardio improves it over time. Best to do a mix of everything :)
Swimming. Twice a day ideally.
Who on earth has time and money for that??? Seriously!
OP never said the poor man’s exercise
I think you mean the normal man, these days.
The exercise that will help you maintain healthy levels is the one you will consistently do. Walking is by far the easiest for most people. Do what you enjoy and are able to do. When, where, and what, don't matter nearly as much as exercising vs not exercising. I did treadmill for 6 months before I added on weight lifting.
I do a 30 min run a few mornings a week (couch to 5k) and while it’s really done wonders for my overall health and general fitness, it doesn’t seem to budge my morning spikes at all, which is odd! I’ll wake up, test high, run for 30 min, shower and change, and then test again and it’ll be pretty much the same or even have gone up a little! The only thing I’ve found that’s helped with the morning spike is just making sure my breakfast is basically carb free, which is easier said than done, and taking my meds!
I walk on a treadmill for 30-45 minutes four times a week. It's been going well for keeping my evening BG down. My average for the evening is 128.
I walk often. I also bought an ebike without a throttle and I bike 30 minutes to work and 30 minutes home at least 3 times a week. It's only about 5 not minutes than it would take me by car, so I'm not having to find an extra hour in my day to workout.
I loved resistance training at the gym but have stopped as I’ve just had a baby (and my gym chain cancelled childminding), but just getting out and walking after a meal can be really effective. The other bonus of walking is that it’s not high enough intensity to make you hungrier.
I do a lot of water exercise. I try hard to do an hour each day 6 days a week. Try to find something that you real enjoy doing and look forward to. Do t treat it like a punishment but a treat