I walk a lot. Usually after meals; sometimes for sunlight & exercise, other times just because it’s a habit and I like doing it. Sometimes even twice a day (eg, after breakfast and lunch).
But seriously, it’s way healthier than I thought. This has been in-and-out of the news a few times over the years, but I was always like, “duh,” until I finally looked at the numbers. In some cases glucose & insulin excursions are down 20, 30, even 50%! (mostly depending on the distance covered, but also speed) (but mostly distance).
LOL there are like, a million studies titled “breaking up prolonged sitting improves everything” haha
And since the effects are acute, a lot of well-controlled RCTs — the flipside of that is you have to do it every day… my opinion is that total glycemic exposure over the course of your life is an important metric (more on the MOA below); and with the rise of continuous glucose monitoring systems, this will be proven true.
Exhibit A. The biggest intervention (VERY long walks, 5-6 hrs/d), but most profound results (Manohar et al., 2012)
Exhibit B. Prolonged sitting vs. a 30-minute walk vs. 1.5 minutes walking every 30 minutes throughout the day (Peddie et al., 2013). Both of these interventions are very doable, imo.
In this study, the total daily exposure was 49, 47, and 30 mM / 9 h. 90 seconds of walking every 30 minutes cut glucose by almost half. HALF. Insulin also dropped precipitously. If you work a sedentary job, MAKE TIME FOR THIS. EVERY DAY. GO NOW.
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