WALK IT OFF HOW A STROLL CAN FLATTEN THAT GLUCOSE CURVE

THE more and the harder a muscle is told to contract, consciously or unconsciously, the more energy – in the form of glucose – it needs.

We can use this knowledge to flatten our glucose curves.

You might not erase an entire glucose spike through movement, but you can make a sizeable dent in it. By nipping out for a walk or pushing out a few squats or pressups just as the glucose from a meal is moving from your intestine into your bloodstream, you can increase the chance that the glucose goes to the muscle cells to be used as fuel.

This also means insulin levels stay low because inactive muscles require insulin to help store glucose as glycogen, whereas active muscles can soak up the glucose without the need for insulin.

And the more glucose the muscles are taking out of the blood, the smaller the glucose spike and the lower the requirement for insulin.

You need to fire up some muscles within 70 minutes of eating, to ensure they are contracting before your glucose spike reaches its peak.

Exercising after a meal seems the best option, but beforehand is also useful. In a study of obese people, a weightlifting workout timed to end 30 minutes before eating lowered glucose and insulin spikes by 18 per cent and 35 per cent, respectively, as opposed to 30 per cent and 48 per cent if the exercise was started 45 minutes after dinner.

Alternatively, a ten-minute walk will do the trick or let your food digest and hit the gym later.

Resistance exercise (weightlifting) has been shown to cut the glucose curve by up to 30 per cent and the size of further spikes over the following 24 hours by 35 per cent.

The best news? Your overall glucose levels will start decreasing as you put on muscle mass.