As readers know I am a big fan of adding muscle mass as part of a combined approach to managing diabetes, especially for older diabetics like me (60 years old), as although I can't explain all the reasons I have an intuition that having more and fitter lean muscle is more important than we currently understand.
There are a few known reasons, such as the fact that intense muscle activity - what we might call resistance training - which leads to increased muscle mass which burns calories while we sleep and helps us lose internal fat if we control our calorie input, and aerobic effect from that activity helps to undo some of the damage to blood vessel linings done by high glucose levels.
(In fact I burn about 10% more calories per day than an equivalent person my age and size because of the extra muscle.)
If you are also interested in skeletal muscle development as part of your diabetes management program then you will find this blog post interesting as it explains the factors that you need to consider if you wish to add muscle:
- Eating - when and what to eat to support muscle growth
- Training - what type of training
- Sleeping - why it is important for muscle development.
While exercising muscles don't build, they do the opposite - they tear and need to repair. Its in the repairing that they can grow bigger if properly nourished.
What they need to eat is protein, combined with carbohydrates "so that your body has something to burn for fuel other then the protein in your muscles and the calories you consume". As far as timing goes it is recommended that you eat carbs with protein right after your exercise and first thing in the morning in order to prevent your body "eating" away at your muscles for energy.
If you always remember the key mantra "calories in, calories out" then you know that you have to consume enough to maintain your weight and energy levels but no more, and a little less if you are wanting to lose weight.
Training, is given only a little coverage in the post I referred to above, but the key thing to know here is that in order to build and to continue building skeletal muscle we need to keep covering all our muscle groups in our training routines. For exampel, build the weaker muscles by starting your routine with those muscles; don't overtrain because you'll end up decreasing your muscles (because they don't get a chance to regrow/repair); and, if doing weights take a days break in between.
Sleeping is important because "the majority of muscle growth will occur while you're sleeping".
Those that want explosive muscle growth will drink a glass of milk and a bowl of cottage cheese before they go to bed. Casein is found in both milk and ccottage cheese and is ideal for building muscle when you're sleeping.
As diabetics we need to measure the impact of that food mixture on our blood sugar but at first glance it should be fine - is that how you see it? It may be more of an advantage for us to drink soy milk and get the added benefits of soy for diabetics.
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