How Walking After Meals Can Improve Glucose Levels
Taking a brisk walk after a meal is a great habit to start in order to maintain healthy glucose levels. It can help prevent the glucose spikes that often follow a meal. This is particularly useful for people with diabetes, but can also be beneficial for people who are otherwise healthy.
Walking after meals evens out energy levels and mood by preventing a post-meal ‘crash’, or slump. It also promotes many of the other health benefits associated with regular exercise.
How Meals Affect Glucose Levels
After meals, blood glucose levels increase as food is broken down and absorbed through the gut. This increase in blood sugar results in a corresponding rise in insulin, the hormone that helps transport glucose to the muscles to be used (or stored) as an energy source.
When glucose levels go up and then come down quickly, people often experience an energy crash, or ‘slump’. Over the long term, these fluctuations in blood sugar levels can result in the body becoming less efficient at utilizing insulin, often called reduced insulin sensitivity or insulin resistance.
Eating a nutritious diet, low in sugar and processed carbohydrates can help to avoid large rises in glucose levels. Dietary changes can be combined with walking after a meal for even greater benefits.
Post meal glucose comparison between no activity and walking for 30 minutes
Walking After a Meal - A Simple, Yet Powerful Habit
When it comes to small habits that lead to big health improvements, walking after a meal is hard to beat.Studies show that exercise, such as walking, stimulates several processes within the body that lead to favorable changes in glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity.
Exercise dramatically boosts glucose uptake throughout the body by as much as 50 times when compared to rest.
Three main factors contribute to the positive changes in glucose levels from exercise:
Heart rate and breathing go up to increase the supply of blood to the muscles.
As the muscles are worked, they are able to take in and use up more glucose.
Physical activity increases the metabolism of glucose at the molecular level, by changing the behavior of several enzymes involved in this process.
By using up available glucose through exercise, the body does not have to release as much insulin to deal with sugar in the blood. This helps to improve insulin sensitivity, further enhancing the positive effect on glucose levels
Now, let's have a look at some of the science more specifically related to walking after meals.
The Science Behind Walking After Meals and Blood Sugar Levels
Interestingly, two large scale reviews have demonstrated that the level of exercise required to improve glucose levels does not have to be particularly high. It would seem that a brisk walk anywhere between 30 minutes up to even a few hours after a meal helps to tame the glucose spikes that follow eating.
In a recent study from 2021, researchers analyzed 51 studies on the effects of aerobic exercise on glucose and insulin levels after meals. All of the test subjects in these studies were considered ‘healthy’, in that they did not already have a diagnosed metabolic condition such as diabetes.
The review found that a single session of cardiovascular exercise (walking on a treadmill or stationary bike for 30 minutes) within 6 hours of a meal caused a substantial reduction in blood glucose levels, compared to not exercising at all after a meal.
These findings were consistent with an earlier study in 2016. This study was more focused on people with diabetes and reached similar conclusions.
The authors noted that light to moderate exercise after a meal (up to 60 minutes of exercise, 30 minutes after a meal) reliably decreased the glucose spike typically seen after meals. Important for people with diabetes, the authors noted that the risk of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) is low with this approach.
How To Adopt This Healthy Habit
Before getting into specific recommendations, it is important to note that the guidelines for exercising after a meal all specify low-moderate intensity exercise.
When it comes to habit change, evidence tells us that having a plan and strategy for implementing the desired change is just as important as understanding why the change is beneficial.
Seeing as we now know all the benefits walking after meals has on glucose levels, here are 5 tips to turn this into a regular habit:
Book it in. Decide when, where, and how long you will walk for after meals. You might start walking after breakfast as part of your morning commute, take a walk around the block after lunch at work, or an after dinner stroll with family following dinner.
Incorporate it into daily life. Lack of time is one of the most common reasons cited for lack of physical activity. Try combining a walk with something else you were planning to do in the day, such as catching up with a friend, spending time with family, or making a phone call. Walking meetings can be a great option for those who have most of their meals at work.
Consistency is key. Consistency is the most important factor in habit change. The hardest part of any habit is usually starting, followed closely by re-starting after missing a few days. Rather than getting too hung up on how long or fast you are walking for, focus first on building a daily habit of walking after one meal. Once this is in place, it will be much easier to build up from there.
Make it fun. Habits are more likely to stick if they are enjoyable. Where possible, try combining a walk after a meal with something fun. Some examples could be going to a park or somewhere you have been wanting to visit, listening to a podcast or audiobook while walking, or combining the walk with a social outing, like a meal out with friends.
Start small. If you aren’t physically capable of walking for 30 minutes straight yet, or just can’t seem to find the time, don’t stress. Even smaller amounts of exercise have been shown to reduce post-meal glucose spikes. Regularly breaking periods of physical inactivity with any movement, at any point throughout the day, has health benefits.
Want to know more? Here are answers to frequently asked questions about walking after meals to improve glucose levels
I already work out every day. Should I still walk after meals?
Even if you exercise daily, glucose and insulin will increase after each meal, so this habit still makes sense. You might choose to time workouts after a particular meal of the day, then fit in a short walk after the others.
I take medication for my diabetes. Won’t additional exercise cause my blood sugar levels to drop too low?
Make sure to discuss your plans with the healthcare professional managing your diabetes. Research indicates that low-moderate physical activity after meals poses minimal risk of hypoglycemia, but if you are concerned, you may wish to test blood sugar levels right after a walk the first few times. You can eliminate the need for this by using a Continuous Glucose Monitor.
I find walking painful. Can I do other exercises instead?
Absolutely! Anything that gets your breathing and heart rate up a little should work. Swimming, cycling, water aerobics, many gym machines, yoga, or pilates are just a few options. If you need some inspiration and guidance, check out these low-intensity exercises.