There are at least 20 million people living with diabetes in America today, and the sad thing is that it is possible to prevent and treat prediabetes and type 2 diabetes naturally with a balanced diet and basic exercise.
According to a report published in the New England Journal of Medicine, people at risk for the disease will drop a staggering 60 percent if they manage to lose just 10 pounds by following a healthy diet and regular exercise, such as walking. (May 3, 2001).
Prediabetes
This term means that you are at risk of type 2 diabetes as well as heart disease.
The good news is that if you have prediabetes, you can reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes and even return to normal blood glucose levels by following the guidelines in this article.
Type 2 diabetes
Formerly called adult-onset diabetes, this is the most common form of diabetes. This form of diabetes usually begins with insulin resistance, a condition where the body cannot use insulin properly. This type of diabetes can develop in people at any age and is usually associated with today's modern lifestyle of fast food, stress and no exercise.
Being overweight and inactive dramatically increases the chances of developing type 2 diabetes. Traditional treatments include taking diabetes medication, daily aspirin, and controlling blood pressure and cholesterol with prescription drugs.
But with moderate weight loss and moderate daily physical activity, you can delay or even prevent type 2 diabetes and lead a normal life. Let's take a look at some steps that you can immediately use in your daily life that will make a big difference in your condition.
Strength training – Researchers saw a 23% increase in glucose uptake after four months of strength training. Since poor glucose metabolism is associated with adult-onset diabetes, improving glucose metabolism is an important benefit of regular strength training.
These days, you don't have to live in a gym to gain functional muscles. A short high intensity session done once a week is all that is needed to improve glucose metabolism and weight loss.
The strength training technique I use requires only twenty to thirty minutes per week. Gone are the days of a five-day-a-week program with 6 to 12 sets per body part that this method never worked for. One short intense strength training session per week will raise your metabolism more than you ever thought possible.
The two main components of this technique are exercise intensity and post-exercise recovery. Increasing functional lean muscle and improving glucose metabolism requires infrequent, short, high-intensity strength training followed by the required amount of time for recovery and strengthening.
Nutrition – The way to lose body fat and maintain muscle mass is to have a lifelong eating plan. Quality food and increased energy expenditure are the basics you need to go for. Bulk foods that fill you up and don't fill you up, low fat and low sugar foods that
not refined should be the ideal.
Small and frequent meals should be eaten throughout the day, each containing a little protein to maintain muscle and energy levels. Foods with vital vitamin and mineral supplements should also be taken daily. A high quality broad spectrum vitamin and mineral supplement should also be taken daily.
As before, get your calories from high-quality food, but if you can't, use a blender to make skim milk mixes with whatever ingredients you want to use if you're counting calories for your daily total.
Now use these mixes and solid food for daily feeding. Break it up into many small meals a day instead of the traditional three meals a day. A way to track weight loss is to buy a calorie counter and record your daily calorie intake for a week.
Exercise – Fat is burned from the body when cells oxidize and release energy in the form of exercise. When exercise is done slowly to moderately, then most of the energy is drawn from fat stores.
Long-term consistency, not intensity, is the key to effective aerobic training that burns maximum fat. It doesn't matter if you run a mile, jog a mile, or walk a mile, you'll burn exactly the same amount of calories.
By far the best exercise for fat loss is brisk walking either indoors on a treadmill or outdoors. Other aerobic activities are a treadmill, bike, mountain climber, or any other training equipment you can find inside or outside the gym.
You can do a lot to reduce your chances of diabetes. Regular exercise, limiting fat in your diet and losing weight can help reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
You must be logged in to post a comment.