Getting up and moving after you eat — even if it’s only for two minutes — can help control blood sugar levels, a study says. If you can’t do that, try standing. It helps, too.

Summary

  • A meta-analysis, published in February 2022, found that walking for 2-5 minutes after eating can help lower blood sugar levels.

  • This is because walking helps to clear glucose from the bloodstream.

  • Standing after a meal can also help, but not as much as walking.

  • The ideal time to go for a walk after eating is within 60-90 minutes.

Additional Details

The meta-analysis analyzed seven studies comparing the impact of sitting, standing and walking on the body’s insulin and blood sugar levels.

People in the studies were asked either to stand or walk for two to five minutes every 20 to 30 minutes over the course of a full day.

“Between the seven reviewed studies, the total activity time throughout the observation was roughly 28 minutes with the standing and light walking breaks lasting between 2 to 5 minutes,” Buffey said. Leisure activity death wellness STOCK

Standing was better than heading straight for the desk or the couch to sit when it came to blood sugar levels, but it didn’t help lower insulin in the bloodstream, the analysis found.

However, if people went for a short walk after eating, their blood sugar levels rose and fell more gradually, and their insulin levels were more stable than either standing or sitting, the study noted.

  • yenahmik@lemmy.worldEnglish
    40·
    1 year ago

    Walking is one of the best things you can do for your body. I never thought much of it until I got a dog and started taking him on walks a couple of times a day. I had no clue how much better regular walks would make me feel, despite being relatively healthy and active before.

    • Rilichu@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      1 year ago

      Especially if you’re getting up in years. Even just some light walking everyday helps significantly in preventing or minimizing osteoporosis and muscle atrophy. Plenty of mental benefits too as well.

      At a point, a sedentary lifestyle will rapidly catch up with you both mentally and physically. It also becomes a “use it or lose it” when it comes to bone and muscle health and significantly difficult if not practically impossible to reverse once it starts to fail.

    • Nioxic@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      I have a friend who started doing 30-60 minute walks daily. He was diagnosed with depression… he feels much better these days (over a year later)

      Now he can even bother to go to the gym etc