Normal Blood Sugar Levels and Diabetes

Diet, Exercise, and Weight Loss

The three main strategies to achieve normal blood sugar levels – the aim of every diabetic — are Diet, Exercise, and Weight Loss. The dietary approaches through meal planning and an understanding and explanation of the choice of food items, calories, nutritional categories, Glycemic Index, and such, are covered on my websites Diabetic Menu Guide and Diabetic Food List + Plus.

Exercise and weight loss are naturally linked because exercise requires energy that can be measured in calories and body weight loss, usually measured in pounds, can also be equated to calories. Since most diabetics are overweight, national diabetes associations recommend an increase in exercise activities to achieve a healthy bodyweight.

Food calories and body weight
The generally accepted equivalent number of calories to one pound of body weight is 3500. Meaning in simplistic terms, that in order to lose one pound of body weight requires a calorie deficit of 3500 calories, either through consuming fewer calories or increasing physical activities or a combination of both.

Caution
Consult your doctor when starting a program to substantially increase activity levels or decrease dietary intake of calories. You may be advised to monitor blood sugar levels more carefully before and after exercise to see what effects are caused, if any, by the exercise. All diabetics must be under the continuing care of a physician.

Exercise can range from outdoor activities such as the most basic forms of walking, jogging, bicycle riding, or for some who are younger and more agile there are the competitive sporting activities, tennis, basketball, or golf for example.

Indoor activities may require membership to a health club or a gym where there is specialized exercise equipment available. This can be beneficial especially where a personalized exercise and weight loss program is designed for each individual.

Some equipment can be acquired for use in the home, the simple items such as weights, skipping ropes, exercise balls or the more complex items such as stationary bicycles and treadmills. These can be very good in regions where weather makes it less comfortable to exercise outdoors. Whatever contributes to your main objective of losing excess weight and managing your blood sugar levels in order to reduce the risk of suffering the complications that are faced by all persons who have diabetes.

Don’t rush, avoid possible injury or lowering blood sugar levels too much

The main thing is to get moving and shed excess pounds but in a sensible and gradual way, not by fast and crash diets. For walkers maybe a pedometer would be of use as a  guide to how many paces have been covered. For more strenuous exercises such as jogging, perhaps even a simple portable blood pressure measuring device would be worthwhile. Certainly avoid the risk of doing too much too soon. When a comfortable level has been reached the pace an be increased and also the number of times to work out each week.

Keep an emergency pack of supplies in your bag with an energy snack and some suitable drink such as apple juice in case you experience those feelings that tell you your blood sugars are becoming too low. Know your limitations.

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Battling the Blood Sugar Levels

As diabetics, we all know that we should follow an appropriate diet that follows a sensible diabetic meal plan. One that focuses on our diabetic condition, providing nutritious meals with the right ratios of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates while at the same time meeting our personal preferences and tastes in the foods we like and are accustomed to. And not to forget that the portion sizes of the food items in our meals should not provide more calories each day than are needed to meet the calories burned in all the day’s activities.

Being Active
But in addition to following the right dietary routine if we are overweight and experiencing higher than normal blood sugar levels it is very important to get down to a healthy weight.

To do so requires adding some form of activity and physical exertion, to get moving, to make the muscles work, they will then burn calories and take up some of that excess blood sugar and that should automatically bring the blood sugar levels closer to normal.

Sometimes it is tough mentally to start adding activities to life if you have become accustomed to a leisurely and sedentary life style, Our modern way of life in North America provides so many outlets to capture our attention and interests, to amuse us or to entertain us, but mostly without having to do much more than watch or sit at a desk. If your blood sugar levels are above normal you should make some changes.

Exercise does not demand a gym or expensive equipment and the need to join a health club, not that there is anything wrong with them if you can afford to do so. In fact some have excellent facilities with a wide range of specially designed exercise equipment and often with a professionally qualified trainer on staff, and sometimes an indoor swimming pool. Some of them even have childcare facilities. I believe costs run from about $30 to $50 monthly with an upfront enrolment fee but costs differ depending on the region. A gym can be an advantage in areas where winter whether is too severe to venture outside for very long.

But for someone with a limited budget there is the time honored basic walking, it works very well as long as it’s for about 30 or 40 minutes every day or every other day and is brisk but without being exhausting. It is sensible to start initially for a shorter time period and shorter walks and gradually build up to your target distance. Physical activity can lower your blood pressure and will raise your heartbeat rate, which is good if you are otherwise healthy but this is where it is time to issue a caution:

Consult your doctor first, before you engage in strenuous activities and exercise.
That is especially important if exercise has not been part of your routine for a long while. And some people may have other health conditions besides diabetes that must be considered. Unfortunately, not everyone can begin to include a lot of exercise into their daily activities. For some older diabetics, arthritic knees are a quite common ailment.

The objective is to lose weight and stay fit. Being overweight does place some limitations on what activities are suitable, but in addition to walking, if not already part of your life, there is bicycling and swimming.

Exercise equipment for the home
There is a lot more than can be said about exercise than I have mentioned here and I especially want to make reference to equipment that could be purchased to use in your own home, bypassing the need for a gym membership. This is especially beneficial if you live in area where winters are cold and you just have to stay indoors.

There is also the benefit of home equipment being right there whenever you want to exercise, any time that it is convenient. For instance, you can work out in the morning before dressing for the day, the shower is close by and then, with your wardrobe at hand you are ready to get dressed appropriately, all the while listening to your radio or music system. What could be better than that?

For example, to begin that healthier life, here’s a good place to check out Electric Treadmills.

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An Always Present Challenge

A challenge for many persons with type-2 diabetes is the constant battle with their higher than normal blood sugar levels. Even though aware of what should be done, it can be a daunting task on occasions and a review and a reminder might be in order to help renew enthusiasms to beat the blood sugars challenge that most of us diabetics face from time to time. The standard approach does work and is probably the easiest to follow. That means paying attention to the four pillars of blood sugar control:

1. Follow an appropriate diet.
2. Inclusion of physical activity in your life.
3. Weight control, know what constitutes a healthy weight for your body type and work to achieve that weight, or close to it, in whatever way suits you.
4. Medication if needed and prescribed by your doctor.

1. An appropriate dietary plan We have to eat to provide energy and stay alive, but let’s make our food intake as enjoyable and healthy and affordable as possible. For the diabetic that means a diabetic menu adjusted to personal tastes and preferences but taking into account the acceptable ratios of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats and no greater number of daily calories than are needed to meet the energies expended in the daily work and lifestyle activities.

Suggestions for diabetic menu planning and related topics can be found on my companion website here: Diabetic Menu Guide.

2. Physical activity is part of life anyway and varies with what activities that are normally part of getting through the day and doing what you do. If you are not overweight or underweight by any significant amount, then there is less need to add any additional special exercise routines, at least as far as losing weight is concerned although a pleasant walk or swim or bicycle ride might add enjoyment and provide a sense of well-being in spirit and mind. If you are overweight, then some form of regular physical activity that burns up excess calories will need to be added to your routine, daily or perhaps several times a week, and the particular type of activity will depend on personal preferences of course. Comments elsewhere on my website regarding exercise can be found here: The Diabetic Menu and Exercise.

I might add that if you are not overweight then you are in the minority, the average American, according to poll published earlier this year shows that more than 60 percent of adults in the United States are overweight or even obese.

3. Weight Control – what is a healthy weight? To find out how your weight compares to the weight that is considered healthy for a person of about the same height, probably the easiest way is to check with a chart called the Body Mass Index (BMI). The BMI is a chart that shows a range of height and weight ranges and a numerical ranking of a combination of those two factors. The ranking number is what you need to know and it is easy to find it on the chart. Everyone’s target is “25”. You can check yours on the chart, with its simple instructions by clicking: Body Mass Index.

4. Diabetes Medications: Above normal blood sugar levels can be lowered with the aid of medications of which there are several different categories, mainly to either promote more production of insulin by the body’s pancreas or to lower the resistance to insulin by the cell receptors that normally should allow entry of the blood sugars into the cells. But this aspect is primarily a medical matter that we don’t need to go into here.

Important: There is no cure for diabetes
Anyone with diabetes must be under the care of a doctor who will provide appropriate treatment and advice and monitor the progress of the disease as it continues over time.

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