Gaining muscle through regular exercise has numerous benefits for overall health, including the potential to lower blood sugar levels. When you engage in strength training or resistance exercises, your muscles require more glucose for energy. This increased demand for glucose prompts the body to absorb more from the bloodstream, thus lowering blood sugar levels.
Effects of Resistance Training on Blood Sugar
Clinical trials—and other types of clinical studies—are part of medical research and involve people like you. When you volunteer to take part in a clinical study, you help health care professionals and researchers learn more about disease and improve health care for people in the future. However, you should ask your health care professional whether it makes sense to monitor or limit your weight gain during pregnancy.
They can help you set weight goals, create a meal plan, and modify your exercise routine to set you up for success. Supplements may help with weight gain, especially if you lack the appetite to take in enough calories. Look for supplements designed to help build muscle mass, like casein or whey protein powder. Adding a protein or fat each time you eat a carb may help increase caloric consumption without causing your sugar levels to spike. You should also look out for any symptoms that might indicate you have high blood sugar, called hyperglycemia. Signs of hyperglycemia can include frequent urination, dry mouth, blurred vision and increased thirst.
Resistance training has been shown to have a significant impact on improving insulin sensitivity, which is crucial for regulating blood sugar levels. By increasing muscle mass, your body becomes more efficient at utilizing insulin to transport glucose into cells for energy production. This can help prevent spikes in blood sugar and reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
So when you cut down on visceral fat, you improve insulin resistance, which in turn leads to improved blood sugar, she explains. But if you have diabetes, experts recommend incorporating strength training into your exercise routine. Find out the benefits it delivers — along with some steps to take before you pick up weights.
Oxidative metabolism is the process by which oxygen is used to burn metabolites like blood glucose or fats, but it depends, in part, on the immediate energy needs of the muscle when it’s working. If you use a continuous glucose monitor to track your blood sugar, talk with your healthcare professional. You may be told to test your blood sugar with a finger stick before, during or after exercise. If you receive insulin through an automated insulin delivery system, talk with your healthcare professional about that. This is key if you usually don’t notice symptoms when your blood sugar is low — a condition called hypoglycemia unawareness. In fact, several studies suggest that having smaller, more frequent meals throughout the day could improve insulin sensitivity and lower blood sugar levels (62, 64).
The more changes you take to improve your overall health and habits, the greater you’ll reduce your risk of developing diabetes. For example, a study published earlier this year on strength training showed it reduced the likelihood of prediabetes progressing to type 2 diabetes. “Naturally, people will want to know how often to lift weights or how much muscle mass they need, but it’s not that simple,” Lee told Healthline. Exercise is beneficial for nearly everyone — but a recent study suggests that strength training is particularly helpful when it comes to managing and preventing type 2 diabetes. As you’re thinking about your workout time, keep personal preferences in mind, too — some of us are larks, and others thrive in the afternoon or evening.
Building Muscle and Metabolism
Hold a dumbbell in each hand and raise them until they are level with your ears. Do not exercise if you’ve needed help with recovering from serious low blood sugar in the past 24 hours. Before you start a new fitness program, talk with your healthcare professional. Ask if it’s OK to do the type of exercise you want to try, especially if you have type 1 diabetes. That said, if you already eat plenty of magnesium-rich foods and have adequate blood magnesium levels, you likely won’t benefit from taking magnesium supplements (50).
Building muscle not only helps with managing blood sugar levels but also plays a role in boosting metabolism. Muscle tissue burns more calories at rest compared to fat tissue, which can aid in weight management and reducing the risk of obesity-related complications, such as insulin resistance and high blood sugar. Incorporating strength training into your fitness routine can have long-term benefits for both your physical health and blood sugar control.
