By Everything Lifestyle Staff

Walk it Off

How Much Exercise Is Enough to Prevent Diabetes?

Oct 14, 2024 | 9:11 AM

It doesn’t take much physical activity to lower your risk of type 2 diabetes.

If you’re looking for a way to prevent diabetes, exercising may be one of your greatest defenses. Regular exercise, along with a healthy diet, can help keep blood sugar under control. This makes it less likely you’ll develop type 2 diabetes. But does that mean you have to go to the gym every day or engage in hours and hours of vigorous exercise?

You may be surprised that it doesn’t take much physical activity to lower your chances of developing diabetes. In fact, all it takes is a few short walks each week.

Getting at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week is ideal. Although that may sound like a lot when you lump it all together, it’s very doable when you break it into smaller chunks of time. Just 30 minutes of activity, done five days a week, gets you to the goal. You can also do 25 minutes of exercise six times a week if you prefer.

If you find you can’t carve out a half hour at a time to exercise, or you don’t feel physically capable of doing that much activity at once, you can also break up your activity into smaller chunks. Getting in 10-minute bouts of exercise a few times a day helps. So for example, you can go for a brisk 10-minute walk before work, at lunchtime and after dinner, and by the end of the day, you’ve done 30 minutes of moderate exercise.

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The type of exercise you do is less important than the fact that you move your body. As long as your activity increases your heart rate, it helps to improve your health in many ways. And one of those ways is that it may lower your risk for diabetes. Moderate physical activity includes things like taking a brisk walk, swimming, dancing or playing a game of pickleball. If you can talk while exercising but not sing, it indicates that you’re reaching a moderate level of intensity.

Not only does regular physical activity help reduce your risk of developing diabetes, but it’s also good for your heart and helps you manage your weight, which improves your health in many other ways. Additionally, exercising after eating a meal may help keep blood sugar levels steadier, so an after-dinner walk is a great option for those trying to lower their blood sugar.

The next time you need a bit of motivation to get off the couch and take a walk or engage in other types of physical activity, remind yourself that doing so will help lower your risk of developing type 2 diabetes in addition to the many other ways that exercise benefits your physical and mental health. It’s easier than you think to get it done!

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