Why should diabetes matter to you? It affects nearly 10% of Americans — more than a quarter who don't even know they have the disease — and it's on the rise. Around 86 million Americans have prediabetes, which means their blood sugar isn't yet high enough for a diagnosis, but is heading in that direction — unless they do something about it. That's where exercise comes in.
Exercise is actually one relatively quick fix for your diabetes risk. "Exercise has a dual-action effect on diabetes," says David Marrero, PhD, president of health care and education for the American Dietetics Association and director of the Diabetes Translational Research Center at Indiana School of Medicine in Indianapolis. "On one hand it helps with weight control. But the second thing it does is to open up receptor sites that help get glucose [blood sugar] out of the bloodstream and into the cells where it can be broken down."
When it comes to weight control and diabetes, research shows you don't have to lose much to make a difference: According to diabetes prevention studies in the European Union, participants who lost 5% of their body weight over one year had a 65% lower chance of developing type 2 diabetes.
And it's not so hard to get blood sugar benefits when it comes to exercise, either. Here's what you can do:
Work out just once or twice a week. Research shows that a little bit of exercise counts. One study in the British Medical Journal found that less than an hour of walking once a week, or 20 minutes of vigorous exercise (like running) twice a week, cut the risk of death from any cause — including diabetes — by 15% and 23%, respectively. While there is plenty of evidence that 150 minutes of exercise a week is a great goal, there are also plenty of benefits to be realized with less time.
Choose something besides cardio. Building — and maintaining — muscle mass helps improve your blood sugar control, too. Muscle is the biggest part of your body that is able to respond and react to blood sugar, then break it down into usable energy. In fact, one study of more than 13,000 adults found that each 10% increase in muscle as a proportion of total body weight was associated with a 12% reduction in diabetes risk and an 11% decrease in insulin resistance (that's when the body has difficulty working with the insulin it produces).
Another study found that a combination of resistance training (like using weights or stretchy bands, taking yoga classes or doing muscle-building moves like squats and lunges) and aerobic activity could lead to greater blood sugar control than doing either type of exercise alone. "That's why I always recommend a mix of aerobic and resistance training," says Marrero.
Sneak in a few quick workouts throughout the day. In fact, "exercise snacks" during the day may actually be more effective than longer workouts, according to a 2014 study from researchers in New Zealand. Exercisers who did three 12-minute sessions a day controlled their blood sugar over 24 hours more effectively than those who did a single 30-minute daily workout.
"Exercise stimulates a type of glucose transporter that helps blood sugar get into muscle cells even for people with decreased insulin sensitivity, common in people with type 2 diabetes," says Stephanie Harris, PhD, RDN, LD, an assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University, who wasn't involved with the study. The timing may be important — the workouts were done half an hour before breakfast, lunch and dinner. The researchers found that the mode of exercise for shorter workouts isn't as important, so do something you love. Try a quick walk around the block, taking the stairs, or even jumping jacks for a similar effect.