Advice on exercise and how to do it

Sweet_Sophie said:

My HbA1c varies from 38 to 41 lately when I lost my mojo after the summer. After a long bout of low ebb and putting back the weight (64kg) I up my exercise from aerobic class a week to the following for the last 4/5 weeks

Park run as a family (45/50 min) every single week can’t escape that one and so good to get the kids involved
Joined a kind of cross fit gym (all mad and young in there so out of my comfort zone but never been pushed like this in years) doing 2 classes a mix of circuits and weights amrap etc..
Swimming sometimes in the gap (I used to only do granny breaststroke and have taken some crawl lessons) going slow but working on my technique and breathing as I want it to be efficient
And still doing aerobic which now is more high impact as my fitness has improved

I’m back on doing low carb and intermittent fasting. My typical HF would be olive oil, avocados
2/3 exercise sessions would be morning so fasting

I would like advice on how to maximise this exercise for staying out of pre-diabetic range and to help me with weight loss?

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Hi Sophie and well done on getting back into it. I am a type 1 and a pt so I'll give you my take on this based on what's known about exercise. Its probably good news as you are already doing good stuff!
1) If you do too much long distance cardio it will likely make you hungrier and less active so can be a great stress buster and good for health but not necessarily helpful for losing fat. Your short burst high intensity circuits will help but remember that running up and down escalators/stairs/steep hill could be as beneficial and possibly more sustainable. I hope you continue to be motivated by the Cross Fit type gym. Please take care to keep and eye on technique though because an injury would be bad for your blood glucose levels.
Swim if yo enjoy it as it is the one place you can't take a phone. Consider yoga/pilates for the same reason plus it will help you lift weights better and with less risk of injury.
Family fun run sounds a great way to get the kids off their gadgets and I know they will warm you up properly.
2) Dropping carbs/IF is critical but make sure you are getting full up and don't feel deprived by pushing too hard. Be consistent before you up the intensity as with the Cross Fit.
3) Getting strong so that you've got plenty of insulin sensitive muscles will help keep your metabolism healthy. Again this can be done with body weight exercises at home. Here's a link
https://drchatterjee.com/5min-kitchen-workout/
4) Timing is key too. Exercising after a meal or a carby treat will dent the spike in your blood glucose and inhibit the storage of fat.
With fat loss it is all about signalling to your body that it can burn fat by eating less frequently and eating less carbs. Doing intense exercise which challenges your big muscles also gives the signal that fuel needs to be liberated.

So keep making one good exercise and food choice at a time so that this time you build good habits for life as it sounds as if you've jumped off the deep end a bit?!

I use exercise to control my blood glucose. I follow the guidelines given by Dr Wes Younberg in the US. This guy seems to have great success with reversing type 2 diabetes and his protocol is to do light to moderate exercise IMMEDIATELY after a meal. Apparently, even with bad insulin resistance (which is what type 2 diabetes mostly is) somehow the muscles can absorb sugar from the blood even if insulin response is not working well. I have used this for a while and get very good results. My understanding is exercise generally is very good but doing it straight after a meal is what prevents post prandial spikes. Hope that helps

@John93 I’d be very interested to see further evidence related to your claims about exercise.

In my own experience while it is part of the picture in relation to diabetes management, by far the biggest element for control is what I eat. I’ve been wearing a freestyle Libre full time for a few months now and having been put out of action by an Achilles problem meaning that my habitual exercise has been severely restricted, I can see that the impact on BG over a 6 week period has barely been impacted - my average levels are perhaps 0.2mmol higher than previously.

On the other hand, the minute I consume more carbs (and nothing I eat is inherently high carb) than my body can deal with, BG will rise a lot more quickly.

Hi Goonergal, I know that a few diabetes reversal programs use it as a strategy to minimise the BGL spikes after meals but its not the answer to fixing the problem. I agree diet has the most effect long term and I'm only keeping it under control with exercise as a short term management strategy while I try and find what diet works best for me. The programs that use the exercise strategy are Dr Fuhrman's and 2 other online programs called The CHIP program invented by Loma Linda University and Diabetes Undone. (all 3 are in the US) Dr Youngberg consults to both of those programs but not Dr Fuhrman. I notice you mention that when you eat carbs your glucose rises. This is something I've been raising on the forum - even though levels stay OK while on low carb/keto diets, the underlying insulin resistance is not being fixed on these diets and when carbs are eaten, levels rise quickly- to me this is saying the underlying problem still exists and the diets are just managing glucose levels in much same way as meds do. I'm really curious as to why the Glucose Tolerance Test is not being suggested and the A1c test seems to be the test to measure success. I think both are needed to give a truer picture. As I say, I'm new and exploring this site but this is something I am noticing - the use of A1c as a barometer of success, which can be quite misleading it seems to me.

Goonergal said:

@John93 I’d be very interested to see further evidence related to your claims about exercise.

In my own experience while it is part of the picture in relation to diabetes management, by far the biggest element for control is what I eat. I’ve been wearing a freestyle Libre full time for a few months now and having been put out of action by an Achilles problem meaning that my habitual exercise has been severely restricted, I can see that the impact on BG over a 6 week period has barely been impacted - my average levels are perhaps 0.2mmol higher than previously.

On the other hand, the minute I consume more carbs (and nothing I eat is inherently high carb) than my body can deal with, BG will rise a lot more quickly.

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I did mean to mention that glucose levels are only controlled after a meal, which is when they spike of course but averages would not be changed all that much if you are using CGM device. So again, its nothing more than a tool to prevent post prandial spikes but that in itself does allow more complex carbs to be eaten without causing big spikes and that can be helpful for those like me who like my carbs and cant tolerate the very low carb or keto diets. It's very easy to test anyway - just do light to moderate walking or exercise bike straight after a meal and see what happens to BGL's

John93 said:

the underlying insulin resistance is not being fixed

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Without wanting to derail this thread away from exercise, I beg to differ. BG tests, in my opinion, are not the best judge of insulin sensitivity. In my own case, via private testing my insulin sensitivity has demonstrably improved on a ketogenic diet: https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/insulin-sensitivity-improvement.167316/

The linked thread details. However, I do not claim reversal, nor do I seek a ‘holy grail’ of carb consumption.

There are many threads on reversal/remission which discuss in more detail.

@Sweet_Sophie apologies for the digression.

John93 said:

while on low carb/keto diets, the underlying insulin resistance is not being fixed on these diets and when carbs are eaten, levels rise quickly- to me this is saying the underlying problem still exists and the diets are just managing glucose levels in much same way as meds do

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Sorry you are wrong there.. I have "passed" an OGTT and have extremely low HbA1c levels. Last check I had "very mild" insulin resistance so am pretty sure I'm a lot nearer "reversal" than your ideas would suggest. All that from a keto then virtually full carnivore diet.

Goonergal said:

Without wanting to derail this thread away from exercise, I beg to differ. BG tests, in my opinion, are not the best judge of insulin sensitivity. In my own case, via private testing my insulin sensitivity has demonstrably improved on a ketogenic diet: https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/insulin-sensitivity-improvement.167316/

The linked thread details. However, I do not claim reversal, nor do I seek a ‘holy grail’ of carb consumption.

There are many threads on reversal/remission which discuss in more detail.

@Sweet_Sophie apologies for the digression.

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Just out of interest and yes, straying off topic a little - what test was done for the insulin resistance HOMA-IR or OGTT?

John93 said:

Just out of interest and yes, straying off topic a little - what test was done for the insulin resistance HOMA-IR or OGTT?

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Insulin resistance. The 2 tests measure entirely different things. We’ll have to end this discussion here to avoid derailing the thread.

Exercise can stimulate Glut4 which can improve insulin response.

bulkbiker said:

Sorry you are wrong there.. I have "passed" an OGTT and have extremely low HbA1c levels. Last check I had "very mild" insulin resistance so am pretty sure I'm a lot nearer "reversal" that your ideas would suggest. All that from a keto then virtually full carnivore diet.

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Thanks for passing on your personal experience Marc. Unfortunately, I'm the complete opposite of being a carnivore and that diet would nearly kill me as I just dont like meat and i'd be very concerned about other lifestyle diseases like various cancers seeing there is such a strong association between meat consumption and bowl cancer in particular (because of getting no fiber in the diet) . However, if it is working well for you, thats what matters. Appreciate your comments.

If anyone wishes to continue discussion of diet. Please start a new thread. This thread is about exercise.