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Managing Diabetes: Simple Tips for an Active Lifestyle
Stuck in a sedentary slump? Here's how to squeeze 30 minutes of easy activity into your day.
Medically reviewed by Niya Jones, MD, MPH
Physical activity is important tomanaging diabetes well. When you’re active, you burn glucose (sugar), and burning the calories from sugar is crucial for managing your weight. The math is simple: Burn more calories than you consume and you’ll lose weight; stay active and the weight you lost won’t creep back on, explains Erica Christ, RD, a diabetes educator at Greenwich Hospital’s Weight Loss & Diabetes Center in Greenwich, Conn.
Another good reason for an active lifestyle? Diabetes can affect your blood vessels and increase your risk for heart disease. The U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity and Health notes that people who are sedentary are nearly twice as likely to develop heart disease as those who are active.
A third reason for leading an active lifestyle when you’re managing diabetes is that staying active can lower your dependence on insulin. You may be able to cut back on insulin injections or diabetes medications or both.
Most compelling of all, a new study shows that being sedentary — sitting too much — can actually shorten your life. Researchers at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana and at Harvard Medical School found that Americans could live two years longer if they sat for less than three hours a day, avoiding what’s referred to as “sitting disease.”
Getting Your Active Lifestyle Into Gear
The physical activity you do doesn’t necessarily have to be a formal routine every time. Physical activity is simply getting your body moving, whether that means taking the stairs, raking leaves, vacuuming, or folding laundry. Formal exercise, on the other hand, is an activity that’s planned, structured, and repetitive — like lifting weights, walking on a treadmill, jogging, or playing tennis.
If you’re managing diabetes, you need both physical activity and formal exercise in your life, says Jacqueline Shahar, MEd, RCEP, a diabetes educator and manager of exercise physiology at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, Mass.
The American Diabetes Association recommends that people get at least 30 minutes of moderate to intense exercise at least five days a week. If you don’t have a block of 30 minutes to devote to exercising, you can do 10 minutes here and there. People tend to get into an all-or-nothing mindset, Shahar says, adding that "even if you only do 20 minutes, it’s better than nothing.”
Also, don’t expect to go from zero to 30 minutes in the first week of exercising. Start slowly and build up and you’ll be more successful with your fitness plan.
Easy Activities for Moving More
If you can’t find time to devote to a regular exercise routine, you definitely want to step up your physical activity throughout the day to help manage your diabetes. A study from Oregon State University found that short bursts of physical activity throughout the day can be as beneficial as working out at the gym or even running before work. The researchers looked at more than 6,000 adults and found that almost half met the recommended 30 minutes of physical activity with short bouts of exercise. They found that only about 10 percent met the 30-minute recommendation with longer, structured exercise sessions.
So how do you lead an active lifestyle and increase the amount of glucose you burn throughout the day? Try these easy activities:
- Stand up and walk around while talking on the phone. You can use this trick at home and at work.
- Ditch the remote. Then, when you want to change the channel on the TV, you'll have to get up.
- Stretch out your chores. Make two trips to the laundry room, one with dark laundry in the basket and one with whites. Then, put away clean clothes in small batches to increase trips back and forth. Also, carry in groceries from the car one bag at a time.
- Don’t just let your dog out in the yard for exercise. Take him or her for a walk or a jog instead.
- When you’re grocery shopping, walk up and down every aisle. Pick up your pace in the aisles where you don’t need anything.
- Embrace housekeeping chores. You’ll burn a surprising number of calories by washing the car, mopping the floor, or sweeping leaves out of the garage.
- Choose a parking spot as far as possible from the door to your office building, your doctor’s office, or the mall. “When you walk, walk with purpose,” Shahar says.
- When possible, don’t send your co-workers e-mails. Get up and deliver the messages in person.
- Use the stairs instead of the elevators in buildings.
- Walk for at least part of your commute. “Get off the bus a stop or two earlier and walk to your destination,” Shahar suggests.
- Ride your bike to the store rather than drive a car. Walk your kids to the bus stop rather than drive them to it.
- Pick active family activities. Instead of sitting at the movies, go to a museum or a zoo and walk around the exhibits.
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