'Exercise Snacking' helps Control Sugar Levels in People with Insulin Resistance; Researchers Say

Short bursts of exercise before eating could help some people control their blood sugar levels, a new study says.

Short duration of exercises some 30 minutes before meals led to a 12 percent reduction in blood sugar levels, researchers at University of Otago, New Zealand, found.

Researchers call these short bursts of physical activity as "exercise snacking."

"We found exercise snacking to be a novel and effective approach to improve blood sugar control in individuals with insulin resistance. Brief, intense interval exercise bouts undertaken immediately before breakfast, lunch and dinner had a greater impact on post-meal and subsequent 24 h glucose concentrations than did a single bout of moderate, continuous exercise undertaken before an evening meal," said Monique Francois from the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.

The study included nine participants; nine men and two women. Blood tests showed the people had insulin resistance, a condition where the body doesn't use the hormone effectively. A high insulin resistance level is an indicator of diabetes. None of the participants were taking drugs for cardiovascular diseases or diabetes, Livescience reported.

Participants underwent three exercise regimens in a random order. The first type of exercise was traditional continuous exercise (CONT), in which participants had to do moderate-intensity exercise.

Exercise snacking involved six one-minute bursts of walking up an inclined treadmill 30 minutes before meals. Composite exercise snacking involved six one-minute periods of walking up a treadmill at near maximum heart rate and doing resistance exercise during walking intervals, Daily Rx reported.

The study shows that short periods of exercise is better than 30 minutes of moderate-intensity of physical activity. Exercise snaking before meals led to a 12 percent reduction in post-meal glucose levels.

"The notion of doing small amounts of interval exercise before meals is a unique and very important feature of this study," said Francois in a news release. "Sustained hyperglycaemia following meals is an important feature of insulin resistance. Reducing these post-meal spikes is important for reducing the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and its associated complications."

The study is published in the journal Diabetologia.