I am overweight, will exercising help me lose weight?
Exercise alone, without concomitant dietary caloric restriction and behaviour modification, produces only modest weight loss. The most successful programs for long-term weight control in diabetes involve combinations of dietary modification, exercise, and behaviour change (Pan et al., 1997; Sigal et al., 2004)
However, even with modest weight loss there are significant benefits in regular exercise:
- Improved glycaemic control
- Reduced diabetic and cardiovascular complications
- Lower blood pressure
- Stronger bones
- Leaner, stronger muscles
Tips you may wish to share:
- All physical activity helps and can be beneficial.
- Start slowly with gentle activity, like walking, gradually working up to 30 minutes a day of moderate intensity exercise, five times a week.
Moderate-intensity activity raises the heart rate and increases rate of breathing. A useful test for moderate intensity exercise is if you can still talk but can’t sing the words to a song during exercise, indicating that you are slightly out of breath.