I have to up my exercise

For me, the important part about exercise is enjoying it. For some, this is a full circuits session at the gym or a game of football but others may prefer walking or gardening or dancing. Some people like housework. It's all exercise.
Don't be put off exercise. You just haven't found the one for you

Going low carb without exercise led to a fast drop in Blood glucose and weight. Exercise is good for other reasons, if you can do it but I can't - in spite of which going low carb was enough.

Josloan said:

Hiya everyone. I've never been a one for exercise. Diagnosed 7 days ago with type2. Don't mind walking but don't don't enough,

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Josloan said:

Structured exercise is so much of and effort.

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Does it need to be structured?

If walking is something you ‘don’t mind’ why not just slowly start building it into your day. That’s effectively what I did on diagnosis and now I’m obsessed with it! To give background, I don’t drive and live in London and had a commute, so a degree of walking was always part of my routine - I estimate that my baseline - just going to work and back - would have been about 5k steps a day. I was close to morbidly obese, so moving wasn’t that comfortable.

I started by just slightly increasing my pace on my standard routes. As that got easier, I slightly increased the length of the route from the station to the office, then added a short (5 mins) walk at lunchtime. From there I found I enjoyed it, and the walking was stress busting so I just kept building to the point where I actively looked for opportunities to walk places instead of taking transport. Then I started looking for ways to ‘join up’ green spaces or waterside routes to form more pleasant walks. My main hobby is now walking.

So as others have said, if you start with something you either enjoy or can imagine enjoying if you get better at it, you never know where it might lead.

And to be honest, what and when you eat will have a far bigger direct impact on your blood sugars, exercise just adds a little extra to that. For me it’s the other benefits of exercise that are the driver for me - and to be honest I’ve come to love walking so much I don’t view it as ‘exercise’ in that sense. It’s something I love doing and get irritated when things stop me doing as much of it as I’d like.

Good luck!

I am so with Goonergal on this one! Also more movement builds up muscle tissue which has a higher energy requirement and helps remove glucose from the bloodstream. I found having an electronic step counter to be a real incentive and an easy way to monitor progress. Walking is now also my hobby - so much to explore and see!

Josloan said:

AC1 was 86. So the exercise frame of mind has to change

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Though I agree that exercise is important and doing something you enjoy regularly, even if it's just walking, is beneficial for everyone.
The extra weight you have is due to your insulin resistance not lack of exercise. T2's usually produce lots of insulin, but that insulin doesn't work as well as it should. So your body has trouble processing the carbs in your diet. If it can't use the resulting glucose for energy it gets stored away as fat.
It's your diet that you need to concentrate on, high blood sugar and weight gain are just symptoms of inulin resistance and your inability to handle carbohydrates.

In my experience exercise can definitely come under the envelope of behaviour breeds behaviour, I find once you get over the initial difficulty of actually doing excessive , the more you do the more you want to do , as others have said it doesn’t mean you have to run a marathon ! Any excerise is better than none at all , like everything small steps at first , you’ve done the hardest part by realising you need to change , good luck with the change

My mum has a walking pad she uses infront of the TV. Could be an idea

Go on you tube, loads of stuff from beginners to advanced. I like my kettle bell, but I also like Lucy Wyndham Read, she does 7 minute slots, and you can build a playlist.

I find walking the dog far more enjoyable and a much longer walk than if I headed out to get exercise by walking on my own. No dog - a near neighbour who would like their dog walked?

Josloan said:

Not physically, although it does take a bit of effort. I just don't like it

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The UK might not be the most ideal place for cycling depending on where you live but that is why I took up bicycling.
Hate the gym with a passion! I was (am) to heavy for running but, if I take the car to work it takes me about 25 minutes to get there. If I go by bike it takes about 35 minutes. And in these times it saves a good couple of eur... pounds too.
I loose almost no time and at minimum I have an hour of exercise a (work)day.
In these times of the year, depending on weather, I can take a version of "the long way home" and do some extra if I feel the need. Or not.

Most of my exercise I enjoy because it includes a social element. I go for coffee with friends after one exercise class, I dance and enjoy doing so with others (dancing doesn't work for me on my own funnily enough), walking is mostly done with a friend and is really just a good gossip but had while moving...
None of it feels like exercise, I'm just socialising while moving. Find something you enjoy.

Hi, welcome

I have just started to do some extra exercise after a couple of years of not being able, I am finding the structure of a treadmill useful, I have it at work and do 30 minutes @ 3mph before work and an hour after work, mixing weights and walking, I really like the numbers to look at on the screen as a target, I don’t love exercising but I know it’s the best thing for me so trying to stay motivated.

Good luck with your goals

When I was younger and not diabetic, I did a fair bit of walking (mainly with my dogs), some cycling, and being fairly active at work, as well as the usual gardening and housework - and never lost any weight. Years later when I was first diagnosed with T2, I lost around 20 kilos (actually without being aware of it!) simply by cutting right down on carbs and doing nothing other than my normal household activities. Very recently now I'm old and decrepit, I've been more or less immobile, struggling up and down stairs several times a day is my limit, but when I recently weighed myself for my annual review I appear to have magically lost another 10 kilos or so - apparently by being slightly more vigilant with watching those carbs. So like @TriciaWs, diet has sufficed.

Josloan said:

Hiya everyone. I've never been a one for exercise. Diagnosed 7 days ago with type2. Don't mind walking but don't don't enough, same with swimming. Structured exercise is so much of and effort. Not physically, although it does take a bit of effort. I just don't like it.

I'm about 3 to 4st over weight and. AC1 was 86. So the exercise frame of mind has to change

Thank You

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Fixing diet has far greater effects so I'd concentrate on that first.

Weight loss should also follow changing what you eat.

Josloan said:

Hiya everyone. I've never been a one for exercise. Diagnosed 7 days ago with type2. Don't mind walking but don't don't enough, same with swimming. Structured exercise is so much of and effort. Not physically, although it does take a bit of effort. I just don't like it.

I'm about 3 to 4st over weight and. AC1 was 86. So the exercise frame of mind has to change

Thank You

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I changed what I ate completely, went ultra low carb, and do exactly the same amount of exercise (walking the dog) as I did before diagnosis.
In remission and much lighter for the past 7 years.

I stick my headphones on full pelt and hop on the spin bike. I alternate between recumbent bike, spin bike, treadmill, trampette and weights. I find I get a good cardio from the spin bike but don't tone up. The recumbent bike tones my legs and bum and treadmill tones it all, really like running and enjoy running cross country. Trampette is just fun - bouncing for 35 mins, let see how high I can go trying not to hit the roof of the garage

I could take @TriciaWs post almost word for word and claim it for my own!

Starting a low carb diet on diagnosis dropped both my glucose levels and my weight - without any other action on my part.

I used to be reasonably active - regular dog walking and gardening, occasional cycling, and plenty of housework kept me fit. But I'm unable to much of anything any more and I've still recently lost another 10 or so kilos eating my low carb/ketogenic type diet - and can keep glucose down to pre-diabetic levels.

I wouldn't normally do a big push for physical fitness, but as this is the fitness etc sub-forum I thought I might .

One way to look at the 'exercise' part of the 'diet and exercise' treatment method is one is attending to one's cardiovascular health, at the same time as lowering carbs and how much glucose you are taking in for one's poor diabetic body to deal with, or being able to get to remission etc.

Yeah - I agree that food is about body composition and blood glucose issues. Moving that darned bod is more about oxygenating your blood, trying to keep the ol arteries clear and the blood pumping, and the muscles strong (and taking in that extra blood glucose and using it for fuel, if you are like me and still have too much of it circulating...). That's how I see it anyhow.