Diet & Exercise for diabetes or pre diabetes

4 key considerations

Caveat: this is not an exhaustive list my any means but these are 4 of the most impact things you can do if you have type 2 diabetes or pre diabetes.

1. Exercise. Exercise is the most under rated tool for treating pre diabetes & diabetes.
   
   The impact of exercise on your ability to clear blood glucose is huge and it leaves you more insulin sensitive for DAYS after too.
   
   Any exercise is good. Something is always better than nothing but there are 2 distinct types of exercise that you will benefit from most..
   
   - Resistance training: This is the best way to effectively build muscle. Muscle is the biggest site of glucose disposal in the body - more muscle = more ability to safely store glucose & the more you use that muscle the more insulin sensitive it is.
   (geeky side note- when you exercise you stimulate glucose transporters to come to the surface of the cell to bring in glucose. This, in many ways mimics the role of insulin in glucose clearance)
   
   -HIIT training: HIIT training has been shown to be uniquely good at increasing insulin sensitivity. In fact, as little as 2x 10sec max out sprints has been shown to be effective and increasing insulin sensitivity
   
   (side note: I would not recommend trying this as you need a specific bike that allows you to very quickly get you up to maximal output - something like 30-45sec HARD with 1 min easy cycling between is very effective aim for 6-8 efforts)
   

2. Post prandial walking (or any movement)
   
   This is a fancy way of saying - move after you eat. Most of us tend to eat our largest meal in the evening and then sit around watching TV for the rest of the night - this makes blood glucose clearance harder. Even a small amount of movement after meals has a large impact on glucose clearance efficiency. A 10min walk really does count!
   

3. Meal timing:
   
   -Consistency.
   Your body gets used to WHEN you eat. Research on time restricted eating seems to indicate that the consistency in when you eat may be the primary mechanism driving the health improvements seen with intermittent fasting. On a practical level this simply means keeping to similar meal times throughout the day ad specifically when you start and stop eating over the day.
   
   -Size of meals over the day.
   The best approach would be a moderate breakfast, large lunch and smaller evening meal. There are 2 key reasons for this - 1) insulin sensitivity peaks at about 12 noon. 2) You want to eat your biggest meals when you are most active in order to clear glucose more effectively.
   

4. Fat loss if you are overweight.
   
   The primary cause of insulin resistance is fat accumulation. You do not need to cut out carbohydrates or do anything extreme and I would highly recommend you don’t. The aim should be sustainable fat loss which means doing it in a way that you don’t hate.
   
   On a high level this means creating a calorie deficit in a way that suits you and your lifestyle.
   
   If you need some help with this fill in the application here.
   
   I hope this is useful - please feel free to pass it on to anyone who is pre diabetic or diabetic.
   
   you can reach out to me via email with any questions esg@esgfitness.co.uk