Exercise Diet for Diabetics

If left unchecked, diabetes is a disease that can quickly take over your entire life. Fortunately, however, controlling diabetes is possible through manipulating both diet and exercise. While living a healthy lifestyle cannot cure diabetes, it can certainly make obsessing over your condition a thing of the past. If you, or someone you know, has been wrestling with ways to curb the ravages of this disease, simply follow this diet and exercise plan to help alleviate the condition.

Diabetes Diet

• Although traditionally eschewed by medical practitioners, the effects of a low-carb diet in treating diabetes has become increasingly accepted. A low-carb diet can help with diabetes by maintaining stable blood sugar and insulin levels, which will result in weight loss and eliminate the need for constant and rigorous obsession over fluctuating blood sugar levels. Thus, you will regain control over your life and minimize the impact of your diabetes.

  To begin a low-carb plan to combat diabetes, Prevention.com recommends a daily carb intake of less than 125 grams per day. This is certainly more liberal than most low-carb diets, which often recommend intake as low as 20 to 30 grams a day. On this plan, the bulk of your diet should revolve around lean protein and healthy fats. Good examples of lean protein sources include meat, chicken, eggs, and fish. Healthy fats include a mix of animal fats, natural fats (like avocados), and oils (fish, flax, and olive). Remember that, although you are allowed 125 grams from carbs, the results of the diet will largely depend on the carb sources you use to reach that limit. Wherever possible, eat carbs from only fruits and vegetables, with limited whole grains and alternative natural carb sources like sweet potatoes.

Diabetes Exercise Program

• Strength training can also positively impact your diabetes, by helping to build insulin resistance through the reduction of fat and the development of lean body mass. To maximize the potential benefits, train using heavy, compound movements wherever possible--stick to moves like deadlifts, squats, bench presses, pull-ups, rows, and dips. Your program should consists of roughly 80 percent compound movements and 20 percent isolation movements like curls and tricep extensions.

  A good sample program to get you started in the gym involves at least three days a week of total body training.

  Perform the following routine on three non-consecutive days.

  On the first day, perform all exercises for three sets of five reps with a relatively heavy weight.

  On the second day, perform all exercises for three sets of eight reps with a moderate weight.

  And on the third day, perform all exercises for three sets of twelve reps with a lighter (but still challenging) weight.

  The exercises are: squats, pullups (or lat pulldowns), lunges, bench press, dips, and curls. To ensure steady progression, aim to increase the weight lifted from week to week.