Diabetic Menu Guide

It certainly does, as one of the three fundamental tools to combat high blood glucose, together with diet and medication, it is extremely important.

An exercise program should be accompanied by a dietary approach that identifies the right foods to eat and the total daily calorie intake needed to reach and maintain a target weight. The double whammy makes the difference! Eat less and exercise more.

Your doctor’s approval should be obtained before commencing any exercise or weight loss routine.

At about six calories a minute, a brisk walk will burn about 180 calories in 30 minutes, so why not add another 10 minutes and use up 240 calories, do that every day and you would be off to a good start. If not every day then five times a week for sure will be great.

Proof of the benefits of modest exercise and proper diet:
A few years ago, a major clinical research study was conducted implementing an exercise and dietary program called The Diabetes Prevention Program, a well organized and controlled study that involved more than 3000 overweight participants who appeared to be heading towards becoming diabetic.

They followed a diet of reduced fat and fewer calories and with the target to lose 7 percent of their body weight, these people exercised for half an hour on each of five days of the week, certainly not a very demanding schedule, but the results were decisive, leading to the conclusion that the participants had significantly cut their risk of becoming fully diabetic, by 58 percent in the words of the study report, even more so than a parallel group who took a well known diabetic drug. An interesting summary of that study can be found at here at the National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse (NDIC) site.

Start off slowly if you have not exercised for a while
Diabetics who have not engaged in previous or recent exercise will face problems. Diabetes is usually first diagnosed in somewhat older people. For some who are reaching middle age and beyond, the possibility of exercising might be limited because of other ailments or physical conditions. An excessively overweight diabetic will almost certainly find it difficult to exercise, and their extra weight may be the cause or may have contributed to the development of diabetes in that individual.

There are some with heart problems, age-related physical conditions or joint pains. Osteo-arthritis can occur from wear and tear on the joints as one ages and can be a problem for older folk wanting to simply walk for exercise. Only when you have experienced this condition will you understand how painful it can sometimes be. Some suffer in silence, but there are sources that can be checked out for diabetic pain relief. Whatever helps get you back to exercising is worthwhile.

Having referred to the arthritic pain of osteoarthritis, I should also mention foot-pain, another common ailment, in fact there are several conditions that can impair movement and you may wish to explore explanations and suggestions on what mobility solutions are available.

But to repeat,  check with your doctor about starting any exercise routines

Exercising has an almost immediate affect, even after about 15 to 30 minutes, blood glucose levels begin to fall as muscles use the body’s glucose for energy, and more intensive activity for a longer time will have an accelerated effect, something which the diabetic should keep in mind because while we need to lower the glucose levels we definitely don’t want them to fall too low.

Exercise burns calories and leads to weight loss — as long as we don’t then follow up by overeating and gaining it all back. Besides improving the diabetic condition, weight loss is also good for the heart, it improves sleep and there is the satisfaction gained from completing an exercise routine.

For inspiration you might want to check out some stories about the Biggest Losers, I read them on this Get Fit site, the main thing is to get motivated and get into action, if they can do it so can we.

Exercise can take many forms, walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, whatever is easy and convenient, the main thing is to stick with it, exercise for at least about 30 minutes at a time on as many days as possible but target on 5 days a week anyway. It doesn’t have to be too strenuous but it does have to involve some exertion, a walk should be as brisk as possible but a casual stroll, even though it has some benefits, is not demanding enough, your 30 minutes of activity should make you breath a little harder and make you sweat a little, just don’t overdo it.

Here is a viewpoint on exercise you might like to check out from a fellow diabetic at Normal Blood Sugar Level.

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