All those miles might not help lower blood sugar levels.
Have high blood sugar? Some people can sweat their way to lower levels—but others can’t, even if they lose weight, says new research published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
In the study, people with either type-2 diabetes or prediabetes walked or cycled at a moderate intensity four to five times a week for 12 weeks. By the end, they had shed an average of 10 pounds, and many had reduced blood glucose levels.
But the regimen didn’t work for everyone. People with higher blood glucose levels to begin with had a harder time controlling them with exercise, even if they lost weight. They also didn’t gain as much fitness as measured on a treadmill test.
Many factors—including some encoded in your genes—could explain why exercise works for some people and not others, says Lauren Sparks, Ph.D., a researcher at the Translational Research Institute for Metabolism and Diabetes who wasn’t involved with this study. Certain genes in your muscle cells may act as roadblocks, preventing your metabolism from changing in response to physical activity.
Still, don’t take these results for a get-out-of-the-gym-free card. Even though some people didn’t see improvements in the study, “we don’t know whether their blood sugar and fitness would worsen if they hadn’t started the exercise program,” Sparks says.
If your blood sugar level is resistant to exercise alone, you may need more than one tactic to bring readings down. One move: Load up on legumes, recommends Daniel Nadeau, M.D., medical director of the diabetes program at York Hospital in Maine. People with diabetes who ate a cup of beans, chickpeas, and lentils each day improved their blood glucose control after 3 months, according to a study published last year in Archives of Internal Medicine.
And add strength training to your sweat sessions: Harvard researchers found that 2.5 hours a week of weight lifting reduced type-2 diabetes risk by about 34 percent in men, while combining it with cardio slashed the risk by 59 percent. Lifting may both increase the number of muscle fibers you have and also helps your muscle cells use glucose for energy more efficiently, the researchers say.
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