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EXERCISE AND DIETING

B

Babaleka

Newbie
Messages
3
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Hi

I am a male type 2 and have been on a low calorie diet ( no more that 1000 calories a day) for seven weeks - following Prof Roy Taylor's Reverse Diabetes book. . When I started I was told not to do any exercise while on this diet because it would affect my blood sugar levels . Could someone please tell me what actually happens to blood sugar levels when you exercise while on a massively reduced calorie intake .

My weight has come down and my energy levels are better than they have been in many years - I want to go back to the gym .

Thanks.
 
Hi @Babaleka and welcome

What happens to your blood sugar levels when you exercise will depend very much on the type of exercise and also how you personally respond to it.

In my case - and I very often exercise in a fasted state - high intensity exercise or lifting weights will temporarily push my BG up before returning to normal and then running a bit lower. Some lower intensity - Pilates, for example, or moderate paced walking will drop it, as will swimming. As I am not taking any medication for diabetes, none of this is of any concern.

If you’re not taking any diabetes related medication I wouldn’t see any reason not to go to the gym, and if you are taking blood glucose reducing medication then going to the gym with your testing kit and taking things slowly should be possible.
 

As well as the points raised by @Goonergal , I think it depends exactly what you intend to do in the gym. At our local gym, I can regularly observe everything from folks sitting on a rowing machine or static bike, exercising their thumbs texting for protracted periods, to some seriously strenuous lifting, and all points in between.

What sort of "stuff" would your starting gym routine involve, and how much longer are you intending staying on the very low calorie diet?
 
I think with low calorie diets like that, the point of not exercising is because you don't have the needed food to fuel and recover as well as keep your system function in a healthy state.

This would quite possibly or probably cause some much unwanted muscle loss, which is not a good thing. Personally, I wouldn't be exercising on that diet. Muscle loss will occur if your system isn't fed enough to maintain good organ health and the demands of exercise. Part of the reason why you are feeling great is probably from the weightloss, but also because low calorie diets increase cortisol levels, which are trying to make up for the lack of food by breaking down muscle to convert into glucose. The body thinks it's in a famine state. The body reacts. If it can't get what it needs from food, it will use what it has access to. I think walking is ok, but strenuous exercise should be avoided imo. If you're determined to get back into exercise in a big way, perhaps try switching to a low carb diet.

Just my thoughts on it.
 
Calorie counting is to me illogical. Your body doesn't recognise calories as they are simply an artificial measure used by scientists to tell how long one food burns compared to another.
Your body will react differently with each food you take. Meat, especially fatty meat will be digested with little impact on insulin and its nutrients distributed quickly. Little will come out at the other end, and there will be plenty of food for your gut biom. Fruits and sugar will be processed by both your liver and gut. The fractose on them will go to your liver and simply turned to fat, because that's all the liver can do with it. The glucose in them will trigger insulin excretion and distributed through the body as energy with your blood. Excess glucose will be stored iinitially in your liver and if that gets full (it has a limited storage space) it will be stored as fat. All carbs are treated the same way. Green vegetables with lots of soluble and insoluble fibre and nutrients are better digested because the fibre slows the rate of absorption allowing the gut to squeeze out the nutrients and distribute them around the body without too much damaging insulin increase. Process carbs, that have little fibre and nutrients simply trigger insulin and have little benefit for your body.
If you calorie count without taking into account the type of food you eat and retain a moderate or high carb diet, your body will recognise that it is becoming nutrient deficient and will at some stage go into lockdown by reducing your metabolism. Which is why people feel lethargic and down when on a prolonged calorie controlled diet. Your body will need less food to function and you will find the whatever weight you lost will start to go up again. Because your body is working with less fuel, if you return to your old eating habits you will regain that weight and a lot more because of that downward shift in your metabolism.
Count calories if you must. The better option is to eat the right nutrient rich food e.g. less fructose and processed carbs.
 
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Thanks everyone for your responses.
Informative , make sense and easy to understand.
They are a great help to me
 
@Babaleka - what did you decide to do?

I found your situation and decision to make very interesting. I cannot help but think if you had been on the Very Low Calorie Diet/Newcastle Diet for seven weeks, and you are feelng like going to the gym - that is a sign that you are perfectly capable of working out. We aren't just 'listening' to our bodies - we are our bodies, really, and if that is what you feel like then I cannot help but think it isn't going to harm you. You would do - naturally? What you re capable of? Is my thinking.

You didn't say, but I am imagining you had plenty of energy stored in your body? That you could use, as it were, to keep you going in work outs. Which is probably about as basic as it can be.

This is another example, I think, of the wondrous aray of different metabolisms amongst us humans, those with diabetes included. I have done a couple of VLCDs, and I can no more imagine going to the gym and doing a work out during any stage of it, not even the first day, than I could fly to the moon. I can't even do much exercise when on a day to more of fasting, or even intermittent fasting (and I always have a bit of fat stored that I could work out off...but I would faint or something ridiculous...) - so there you are.
 
Babaleka said:
Thanks everyone for your responses.
Informative , make sense and easy to understand.
They are a great help to me
Click to expand...
Glad you have lost weight and that you've found more energy. This is a good sign that you are now more insulin sensitive having stripped some fat from around your internal organs. Improving muscles when you exercise will help you not to regain fat but more importantly still will be to eat more fat and protein and less carbs because otherwise your body will risk rebounding back to the start weight and more once you come off starvation rations.
Blood sugars would typically lower with low intensity steady exercise such as walking or cycling leisurely and temporarily increase when you do either intense cardio or lift weights.
Either way it is all to the good and now you've set yourself up to be a fat burner you won't need to eat snacks to keep going (a low calorie diet is also a low carb one which is why you've lost weight).
 
Hi, I did 30 mins medium walking and 10 mins fast on the treadmill today and felt great .
 
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