Diabetes and Exercise: How Much to Do

Maintaining regular weekly exercise and physical activity is a key part of living well with diabetes, along with a proper meal planning approach and taking your diabetes medications as prescribed.

Physical activity increases your body cells' sensitivity to insulin, making insulin work better for you in moving glucose from your bloodstream into the cells to be used as energy.

Your body cells can also remove glucose from your blood using a mechanism totally separate from insulin during exercise. 

Exercise has the potential to consistently lower your blood glucose levels and eventually lower HbA1c. This may result in you requiring fewer diabetes medications or less insulin.

If you have type 1 diabetes or type 2 diabetes and you are on insulin therapy, you are at risk of early (during exercise) and late-onset (hours after or overnight) hypoglycaemia (low blood glucose) after exercise.

How your blood glucose levels behave will also depend on several factors, including:

🏃 Type of exercise
⏱️ Duration
🔥 Intensity

Special note

Depending on these factors and your pre-exercise blood glucose levels, you may be required to take additional carbohydrates or reduce insulin, or do both.

If you have type 2 diabetes, at least 150 minutes of accumulated moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity per week, as well as resistance strength training, is recommended.

In addition, physical activity paired with a well thought-out meal planning approach and nutrition intervention for weight loss has been shown to help people achieve:

✅ Better weight control
✅ Improved blood glucose levels
✅ Improved blood pressure
✅ Improved cholesterol and lipid profile

Before embarking on an exercise regimen, it is essential that you receive prior education on exercise management strategies. 

If you want to be active, or you are experiencing hypoglycaemia with activity, you should seek advice from your diabetes care team. 

Ref: F26