High Blood Sugar Levels and Excess Body Fat

One of the best ways to lower those higher than normal blood sugar levels is to lose weight, or more specifically, lose body fat. That is easy to say but not easy to do, especially if the excess weight has been part of life for a long time.

If your blood sugar levels are higher than normal, you may already have diabetes or prediabetes and if so I assume you are under the care of a doctor, as every diabetic should be. That also means that you are aware of what needs to be done to get your blood sugar levels down to within a safer range.

Your doctor would have given advice on the need for lifestyle changes that include modification in foods that make up your daily diet, in other words, to follow a healthier diet. There is also the need to add regular exercise or greater physical activity, and to make a serious effort to lose weight.

Don’t rely only on drugs to control blood sugars
Perhaps your doctor has prescribed drugs to help control and manage your higher than normal blood sugars but it is a mistake to not attempt to incorporate the other factors of diet, exercise, and weight loss. Anyone who does not do so is contributing to their own decline in health, the drugs alone will not do it for ever.

Modify an unhealthy diet
The easiest modification that can be made is obviously to the diet. The need is to change from a poor diet to a healthy diet, from a diet of unhealthy foods too rich in fats and sugars to nutritious foods that provide the protein, carbohydrate, and fats in correct proportions to one another. And the amount of food consumed each day should be matched to the amount of energy expended. Energy is usually measured in calories, so the commonly used reference is that “Calories in should equal calories out.” Eat right and don’t eat too much is the rule.

By following a better diet in this way is not only healthier but it should also contribute to weight loss, one of the three main factors required to lower blood sugar levels.

Adding exercise leads to better health
Beginning to exercise after not having done so for a long time, or perhaps never having exercised, admittedly can be tough but one has to keep in mind what is at stake, diabetes at any stage interferes with the quality of life. But allowing it to develop to a more serious condition where complications can arise is something to be avoided and the need to exercise should then be viewed as a positive move for prevention..

It helps to define an exercise goal, and that’s best done in written form, when starting out. The most frequently suggested target is to do about 30 minutes of exercise each day but at least five days a week. And the most common form of exercise is walking. When the weather is fine and pleasant it becomes easier to do and the time of day to choose for the most comfort, from temperature or sunshine is an individual choice. But there are other forms of exercise that can be considered as well as walking.

Exercise can be categorized broadly as either aerobic or resistance, both are beneficial. Walking, biking, jogging, swimming are aerobic activities. Resistance exercise involves the use of your muscles such as in weight training, with the use of dumbbells or resistance bands to make muscles work against an opposing force,

From the results of a clinical study reported in 2007 involving 251 adults with type-2 diabetes of ages from 39 to 70 years, it was concluded that improved blood sugar control in type-2 diabetes was obtained with either aerobic or resistance training but the greatest improvements occurred when the two methods were combined in an exercise regimen.

When beginning an exercise program you should have your doctor’s approval, exercise affects your blood sugars so you may be instructed to monitor them before and after exercise for a few times until it can be established that nothing abnormal occurs. Consult your doctor when making any modifications to your lifestyle.

Start slowly and build
But start slowly whatever your condition and work up to more strenuous levels over time if you wish to. Don’t be like an acquaintance of mine who, having now taken up jogging, is already thinking of entering the marathon.

Conclusion
This is just meant to be a reminder by mentioning the basics. The focus is on efforts to achieve normal blood sugar levels or at least getting them closer to normal. It is important to do what helps to minimize your diabetes problems, prevent them from getting worse, becoming healthier and weighing less in the process. Diabetes is a disease in which much of its management is in the hands of the patient.

I am a long-time diabetic, diagnosed about 20 years ago. I choose to write mainly on diabetes subjects.

If you would like to learn more on diabetes visit my websites at Normal Blood Sugar Levels and the Diabetic Menu and Weight Loss. There is a link at the end of those articles that will take you to a List of Topics on the site that you may also wish to visit. Worth the effort, Check it out !