5 Diet And Exercise Tips For Type 2 Diabetes
How to reverse Type 2 Diabetes naturally
On today’s episode of Live Lean TV, I’m sharing 5 diet and exercise tips for type 2 diabetes, that can potentially help you reverse type 2 diabetes, naturally.
And if you don’t have type 2 diabetes, these 5 tips will also help you improve your insulin resistance and lose weight faster.
Obesity rates continue to rise in every state in the US
According to data in 2017, only one state showed a decrease in obesity rates.
That state is Kansas.
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What’s even scarier is the majority of states now have an adult obesity rates between 25-35%, compared to just 15% back in 1980.
That’s over 1 in every 4 adults in the US is obese. And this stat doesn’t even include people who are overweight.
Today, 19 states have a rate of over 30% adult obesity!
The state with the lowest obesity rate is Colorado.
Obesity highly increases the risk of:
- type 2 diabetes
- cardiovascular disease
- cancer
- and so many other ailments
According to the CDC, more than 100 million Americans, that’s 33% of the population, have diabetes or prediabetes.
What is prediabetes?
Prediabetes is a condition, that if not treated, often leads to type 2 diabetes within 5 years.
In fact, 1 in 4 people with diabetes, don’t even know they have it yet.
Causes of Type 2 Diabetes
So what’s the main cause of this type 2 diabetes epidemic?
Well, there are a lot of factors causing type 2 diabetes, but the most important ones are:
- genetics
- lifestyle
Particularly poor lifestyle choices, with eating too much of the wrong foods and not moving your body enough, can cause insulin resistance.
What is insulin resistance?
Insulin resistance simply means your body doesn’t process insulin the way it should.
Even though your body produces insulin to move sugar to your cells, the cells are resistant to the insulin, so the sugar just builds up in the blood.
Insulin resistance often leads to type 2 diabetes.
If you currently have diabetes or prediabetes, it may seem like a huge uphill battle to fight.
However, just a 10% decrease in your weight can help reduce these health risks.
So lets talk about the causes of obesity first.
1. The large portion size of your meals & snacks
On average, people are eating 300 more calories per day and moving their body less.
A lot of this has to do with poor snacking habits and eating large portions of high calorie dense foods that are filled with blood sugar spiking refined sugar.
Calorie density simply means the amount of calories contained in a certain amount of food.
So high calorie dense foods, contain a lot of calories, for just a low volume of food.
Think cheap and highly processed junk food.
Unfortunately, these belly busting, high calorie dense foods, are very convenient and affordable, while the cost of low calorie dense fruits and vegetables, is increasing.
2. People are not moving as much and have become more sedentary
TV, video games, and the internet have all contributed to people moving their bodies less.
On top of this, the type of foods consumed, while laying on the couch, usually includes high sugar, high calorie junk foods, like chips and soda.
So it’s easy to understand this equation:
- Not moving your body (i.e. watching TV) +
- high calorie foods (i.e. chips and soda) =
- a higher risk for type 2 diabetes!
To help fight this epidemic, check out these 5 diet and exercise tips for type 2 diabetes.
5 Diet And Exercise Tips For Type 2 Diabetes:
1. Include more foods high in protein with every meal and snack
I say it over and over again.
High protein foods need to be the main building block of your meals & snacks.
The best high protein foods include:
- Grass fed beef: including steak, bison, pork, and lamb.
- Free range poultry: including chicken and turkey.
- Wild fish: including cold water fish like wild salmon, mackerel, and cod.
- Organic whole eggs: including the yolk.
- Protein powder: including whey isolate, beef, and egg protein powders.
All of these foods contain the best sources of protein, as they contain a complete amino acid profile, and will help with weight loss and muscle building.
Foods high in protein also help keep you satiated and feeling full longer.
Want proof?
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Take this protein test
Two 4 oz grass fed beef burger patties contain approximately 400 calories, which is the same as 3 Twinkies.
So even though they both contain the same calories, which meal do you think will fill you up?
I bet, even after eating 3 Twinkies, you’d still feel hungry, due to the over 50 grams of hunger spiking refined sugar.
Compare that to eating 2 x 4 oz grass fed beef burger patties, and I’d bet you’d feel full and satisfied, since it’s comprised mainly of protein, healthy fats, and no sugar.
Type 2 diabetes diet tip:Â consume more foods high in protein to balance your blood sugar and improve insulin resistance.
2. Drink more water
You probably already know this, but 16 oz of water contains 0 calories and 0 sugar vs. 16 oz of soda which contains, 200 calories and 51g of sugar.
Did you ever wonder why your body can go days without food, but it can’t survive without water?
Water is not only essential to keep you alive, it can also help keep you feeling full.
Next time you think you feel hungry, drink a big glass of water.
You’ll be surprised that a lot of times you’re just dehydrated, not actually hungry.
Type 2 diabetes diet tip: before you eat any meal, drink a big glass of water to help reduce your hunger and appetite.
3. Consume more essential fat
Here’s an area of your diet I bet most of you are lacking, even if you don’t have diabetes or prediabetes.
This includes me too.
I recently just had my blood test done, and it showed I could improve my omega 3 to omega 6 ratio.
Essential fats are called “essential” because they need to be consumed via your diet, since they cannot be produced by your body.
They’re also super important because they are involved in pretty much every process and cell in the human body.
But first, we need to distinguish between non-essential fats and essential fats.
Non-essential fats, including harmful trans fats, are typically unhealthy and readily accessible in cheap processed foods.
Essential fats, including monounsaturated fats, and healthy polyunsaturated fats containing omega 3s, are the best types of dietary fat to focus on.
Especially the omega 3 fatty acids.
Omega 3’s, with the highest quality EPA and DHA, are primarily found in wild fish like salmon, mackerel, sardines, and anchovies, as well as in a fish oil supplement.
Plant based omega 3’s are also high in chia seeds and flax seeds, but they do not contain as much of the healthy EPA and DHA that is contained in fish.
Type 2 diabetes diet tip: every time you eat at a nice restaurant, order salmon. Also, supplement with a fish oil supplement.
4. Exercise more with a focus on resistance training
Exercise is the main way to burn excess calories and grow more muscle tissue to help increase your metabolism.
More muscle can pull the carbohydrates out of your bloodstream to be burned as energy, rather than being stored as body fat.
Muscle also helps increase your resting metabolic rate (RMR).
This means people with more lean muscle tissue will actually burn more calories than obese people, even when the body is not moving.
Type 2 diabetes exercise tip:Â Follow a workout program that focuses the majority of your workouts on resistance training with weights. This not only helps burn a lot of calories to lose weight, it’ll also help build lean muscle tissue to help improve your metabolism, and improve your insulin sensitivity.
5. Control Your Insulin Hormone
Insulin is often referred to as the “fat storing hormone”.
However, insulin can also play a positive role in storing energy in the muscle and liver tissue in the form of glycogen.
Insulin also works as a vasodilator to allow more blood to flow to your muscles during your workout.
Although, for people looking to lose weight, it’s important to keep insulin production low.
However, people who are already lean, and not suffering from insulin resistance, can see a benefit in increasing their insulin production during their post-workout meal.
As mentioned, post workout is the time when your body is most receptive to insulin as it can help shuttle the sugar into your muscle and liver cells after a tough workout.
Carbohydrates after a workout can help facilitate muscle protein synthesis, which simply means repairing and growing muscle tissue after your workout.
However, if you’re already a diabetic or prediabetic, carbohydrates may not be as important after your workout.
The problem with insulin occurs when there is too much insulin present in the body at one time.
This happens when people have a diet high in sugar, which eventually causes insulin resistance, and potentially diabetes.
- High amounts of insulin = fat storage
- Low amount of insulin = fat burning
High glycemic foods comprised of refined sugar and flour are the main offenders in releasing large amounts of insulin.
The best way to control your insulin levels, are by focusing on eating foods high in protein like grass fed meat, wild fish, free range chicken, and organic whole eggs, as well as lots of non-starchy, green fibrous vegetables, and essential fats.
Type 2 diabetes diet and exercise tip: keep your insulin balanced by focusing on lifting weights in the gym and eating primarily paleo approved foods such as plants and animals. If you are already lean and not suffering from diabetes, you can increase your insulin levels post-workout to help build muscle.
Bottom line
Use these 5 diet and exercise tips for type 2 diabetes to help reverse type 2 diabetes naturally.
Remember, health is all about choices.
The power is in your hands.
If you’re looking for diabetic friendly recipes, our group coaching platform, Team Live Lean is for you.
We have over 200 cooking recipe videos, showing you how to make high protein foods, high in healthy fats, and low in carbohydrates, taste absolutely delicious.
You’ll also get a weekly meal plan and a brand new 4 week workout program every month.
We have people in our group who have type 2 diabetes and are loving the results.
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Brad Gouthro is the founder of Live Lean TV, a media company focused on helping men and women “Live Lean” 365 days a year. Brad’s programs and content have helped millions of people all over the world learn how to get in shape, and more importantly, sustain it for life.
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