The Benefits of Walking

I couldn’t agree with this article more. I started walking after dinner recently just because it was nice to get out and clear my head, and I was reminded how nicely it helped in managing glucose levels. https://diatribe.org/most-underrated-diabetes-exercise-strategy

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Quickest way to tamp down a post-prandial spike, especially if you have IOB. I tend to eat whatever carbs I’m going to have for the day at lunch time, and a brisk ten-minute walk in mid-afternoon is a great way to rein in the BG, which always seems to get out ahead of my insulin unless I’ve been able to pre-bolus well ahead of eating, like 45 min to an hour. Not always possible at work.

I also believe walking is underrated as a diabetes BG control tactic. I’ve used it as my main exercise activity for the last five years. It’s especially useful when I see a post meal CGM line trending higher than I’d like. I can simply take my dog out for a walk and chop off the impending CGM mountain-top.

I don’t speed walk, either. A three to four mile-per-hour rate works well for me. I live in an area with lots of gently sloping terrain and walking uphill adds to the BG-dropping benefit. Walking when my insulin is peaking really does amp up the BG decline.

Like Adam Brown says in the linked article, you may walk wherever you happen to be and it’s free. I’m hooked on walking for exercise and BG control. If I don’t walk for a few days, I see my BG performance erode. It’s a gentle reminder that I simply need to get out the door and enjoy a walk.

Yes, I agree with Terry, walking is so good for bg control. I too walk my dog, if I have to miss because it is raining hard or too hot I go and walk around the enclosed shopping centre.

Is it better to walk before two hours or after taking that post prandial reading?

Yes, I totally agree that walking after eating is very beneficial. I recall this as a regular spring/summer activity for my family in our neighborhood, so it’s good for anyone, diabetic or not.

I do have to be careful and account for this exercise when bolusing for a meal though. I have had several dinners at my friend’s house just under a half mile away, where I had to swag the dinner bolus and then ran low on the walk home.

Seems like if I do it too soon it will knock the BG down but it will bounce back and climb pretty high later on. Not necessarily a problem if I’m bike commuting because I need it to be high enough in the late afternoon that I won’t get home with my BG plummeting into the fifties with that light-bulb-in-the-eyes cone-vision thing. As happened today goddamnit.

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