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Glucose-Lowering Techniques for Metabolic Fitness HealthifyMe - Blog HealthifyMe - Blog - The definitive guide to weight loss, fitness and living a healthier life.

Leading a healthy and fulfilling life is on everyone’s wish list. Yet, your blood glucose levels may rise beyond their normal range due to an unhealthy lifestyle. It can be simple to lower and maintain your blood sugar levels once you regularly monitor them at various points throughout the day.  CGM is a technology that is getting increasingly popular. Traditional finger prick testing of blood glucose levels measures the level at a single point in time. On the other hand, CGM shows trends in blood glucose levels over time. It is wearable technology comprising a sensor placed under your skin to continuously monitor your blood glucose levels.  

The HealthifyPRO 2.0 CGM-based offering is an excellent way to regulate your blood glucose levels. It identifies the surge in glucose levels after consuming food and sends you instant notifications. Your lifestyle influences blood glucose levels and eating habits, affecting your metabolic health. So a correction is possible and continuous monitoring can help reverse conditions like obesity, prediabetes, diabetes, and other metabolic disorders.

Understanding Metabolic Health

A healthy metabolism guarantees that your body processes food without regulating insulin, inflammation, cholesterol, or sugar levels. It ensures that your body gets enough nutrients and energy from the consumed food to perform the processes required for optimal body functioning. 

Metabolic health is the absence of metabolic diseases. A properly functioning metabolic health prevents you from issues related to blood sugar, blood pressure, heart conditions, obesity, fatty liver, kidney issues, cholesterol, etc.

Several factors affect your metabolic health. Some of them are your genetics, age group, sex, food habits, physical activity, quality of sleep, daily habits like alcohol consumption or smoking, stress and mental health concerns. Since your metabolism is unique to you, there’s no one size fits all solution to metabolic fitness. 

Making consistent, informed judgments about their food and lifestyle choices can help to determine where people lie on the continuum of metabolic health.  

The Significance of Metabolic Health

Being metabolically fit is essential. It would mean that your body can produce energy effectively. Perfect metabolic health implies fulfilment. You get enough energy to keep up with your hectic schedules while being healthy and happy. If you put on weight, and that is stubborn fat, especially in the abdominal areas, you should not neglect it. It could be the onset of metabolic illnesses. 

Research shows that overall health was a substantial predominant variable in life satisfaction among males and females. However, it takes work and practice to improve metabolic fitness. Consistency is essential to any growth process. 

Metabolic regulation is a continuous, ongoing activity in the complex system of your human body. It prevents you from the risk of metabolic diseases and improves your quality of life. Conditions known as metabolic disorders affect how well the body can break down certain nutrients or enzymes. Metabolic disorders affect the function of the cell to complete necessary biochemical reactions. It involves the synthesis of proteins, carbohydrates and lipids.

Issues like fluctuating blood glucose levels, high blood pressure, high concentration of triglycerides in the blood, problems in the absorption of iron, etc., restrict the optimum functioning of your metabolism. Therefore, it might require you first to take control of these issues to become metabolically fit. 

Role of Insulin Resistance in Metabolic Processes

The condition in which the body uses insulin ineffectively is insulin resistance. This situation makes it more difficult for sugar to reach the areas of the body where it requires cellular energy production. If you have insulin resistance, your cells will not react to insulin as they should and instead fight its effects. A rise in blood glucose levels results from this. 

A variety of circumstances can impact your metabolic health. Still, one of your most effective tools is trying to keep your blood sugar levels constant. It entails maintaining average and fasting glucose levels within your ideal range. In addition, you would be required to manage post-meal glucose spikes and improve insulin sensitivity.  

Any extra energy is stored as triglycerides in fat cells or glycogen in your muscles and liver. You may eventually develop insulin resistance if the cells in your fat, liver and muscles don’t respond to insulin well. The pancreas produces more glucose due to insulin’s inability to absorb glucose from your blood readily. Impaired insulin sensitivity is essentially what insulin resistance is.

Glycemic variability caused by constant insulin resistance might also lead to fat gain. If your blood sugar level fluctuations are higher or lower than normal, it can hint toward diabetes-related morbidity. Conversely, you might have a higher risk of diabetes if your average glucose level remains on the higher side. 

Obesity, diabetes, depression, anxiety, heart disease, and chronic inflammation are just a few health issues resulting from having an unfit metabolism. However, the range of metabolic fitness is broad. It covers smoother skin, better sleep, improved lifespan, a strengthened immune system, a healthy weight, and improved physical endurance. 

The HealthifyMe Note

The evidence-based CGM device BIOS can help you improve your daily life. For example, you can use HealthifyPRO 2.0 to determine how your food choices affect your blood sugar levels. By letting you exercise at your capacity and adhere to a flexible diet per your needs, your coach helps you to enhance your metabolic health. Quality of life improves if you are physically fit, lowering your risk of developing metabolic disorders. The body’s capacity to process particular nutrients or enzymes is affected by metabolic diseases.

Glucose Lowering Strategies to Follow

Maintaining a healthy glucose balance is also essential for metabolic fitness. These tried-and-true techniques help with blood sugar control and general metabolic health. 

Practise Mindful Eating 

  • Try to limit your consumption of refined flour and refined sugar. Products like store-bought confectionaries, fruits preserved in sugar syrup, pickles, jams, pies, cookies, pies, and sweet buns all contain high amounts of refined sugar that serve as empty calories. 
  • You could switch the ingredients to healthier alternatives to satisfy your craving for certain foods. Home-cooked meals and home-prepared snacks are far more nutritious than store-bought. Read the labels of the foods when you buy them, and check for sugar, salt, and type of fat used. You could opt for foods labelled as ‘sugar-free’ or ‘low-glycemic.’
  • Consume reasonable quantities of whole foods. These could include whole grains, pulses, legumes, cereals, fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts. Opt for seasonal and local market whole foods. They taste better and are far more nutritive. 
  • Research suggests that dietary fibre may play a factor in liver function correction. It happens either by lowering blood glucose levels or through other methods by lowering total cholesterol levels in diabetic people. 
  • Always try to include whole fruits and vegetables in your diet. Rather than juicing your fruits and vegetables, consume them cut or whole for all their fibre. Add foods rich in good fats like oils, fish, dairy, and nuts in controlled quantities. Include lean cuts of meat, good quality fish, and local chicken eggs in your diet. 
  • Eat a combination of food groups in a meal. For example, having a lunch including rice, dal, potato curry, and buttermilk may not be a balanced meal. Instead, your lunch could look something like this: Palak brown rice, corn cucumber mint raita, a serving of egg or paneer, and a boiled chana salad. 
  • You could have three big meals and 2-3 small meals a day to ensure that you give your body enough time for digestion and nutrient absorption and not impoverish the required blood glucose production. 
  • According to research, even modest quantities of alcohol, like about two to four drinks a day, interfere with blood sugar regulation and should be avoided. However, some situations may not be avoidable. For example, suppose you consume alcohol at a social event and remember to eat something with your drink. An empty stomach causes your blood sugar to go down. Eating a salad before drinking begins while you circulate at a party and not sitting down will control your blood sugar levels. 

Consuming Cinnamon 

The most critical nutritional feature is that cinnamon has no sugar or fat. Experts proposed that taking 1-6 grams of ground cinnamon or 80 mg of cinnamon extract daily can have various health benefits. A concern is that doses more significant than this could be poisonous and dangerous.

According to research, cinnamon affects glucose, insulin, and lipid metabolism concerning metabolic syndrome. Cinnamon and its constituents can therapeutically improve nearly all metabolic syndrome markers. These markers include insulin sensitivity, glucose, lipids, antioxidants, inflammation, blood pressure, and body weight.

It does not mean you can have your cinnamon toast crunch cereal or cinnamon daily. Because these contain high amounts of sugar, that can lead to many health issues and affect your glucose levels. Instead, you could sprinkle cinnamon over your overnight oats and add it to cut fruits, herbal teas, smoothies, homemade granola and curries for a great depth of flavours. 

Alkaline Diet for Glucose Control 

After digestion, the body converts whatever you eat or drink into an acidic or alkaline residue. As a result, your body would obtain a more significant state of homeostasis. Homeostasis is a fancy way of saying it would be at a proper equilibrium or normalcy by focusing on a primarily alkaline diet. 

However, it is impossible to strike off acidic foods from your diet because the body does require some for nutritional needs. Your body would be more able to help you control your diabetes and prevent its beginning if you do so. Some natural alkaline foods include fats, nuts, seeds, and olive oil, meats like salmon and chicken, dark green leafy vegetables, fresh herbs, and soy-based products. 

Exercise Regularly 

It is difficult to overlook the benefits of exercise for people with diabetes or any other ailment. Exercise offers extra help for people with diabetes. It can reduce blood sugar levels and increase insulin sensitivity, preventing insulin resistance. So even if you do not have any health concerns, exercise is a must for your body.

All types of exercise—aerobic, resistance, or a combination of both (combined training) are equally effective in decreasing glycemic levels in people with diabetes. You can opt for mild exercises like walking, jogging, light skipping, or stretching. You can even engage in any sport of your choice. The more you enjoy the exercise time, the less it would feel like a task.

Generally, 1-3 hours post-eating is the optimal time to exercise because your blood sugar level is considerably higher. Your involvement in any physical activity benefits your physical and mental health. When you engage in mild exercise, your muscles utilise the glucose in your bloodstream, which helps insulin work better.

Simple Exercise Ideas

  • Something as simple as walking can become your key to fitness. The intensity of this exercise is accessible to the one who chooses to do it. It is something all age groups could include in their daily schedules. 
  • Riding a bicycle should be pretty fun. However, regularly taking your pet for a walk or playing catch is a time of unusual movement for you and your pet. 
  • You could join a swimming class. Special aquatic exercise classes exist for people looking for fun and slow-paced exercise sessions. You can also enjoy some aerobics or Zumba that are beneficial for your sugar levels.
  • Many household chores such as gardening, using a lawn mower, and emptying your car of groceries. But, surprisingly, kneading dough is also a great movement for your body, involving exercises like lifting and stretching. 
  • Discuss it with your fitness coach if you like gym workouts. You could discuss your fitness goals with your coach and decide on exercises fulfilling them. You could add variations as and when required. 

Get Enough Sleep 

Research shows that sleep deprivation significantly affects alertness, cognitive and motor functions, mood, and various metabolic, hormonal, and immunological variables. 

The endocrine system instructs your body to release various hormones at different times of the day. Insulin is one of those hormones. As a result, lack of sleep and rest can show up in your body in the form of an imbalance in sugar levels and poor functioning of your endocrine system. 

The endocrine system controls the release of hormones, including insulin. Therefore, sleep deprivation impacts glycemic management because the endocrine system closely relates to your sleep-wake cycle.

Insufficient sleep links to reduced glucose tolerance and decreased insulin sensitivity dysregulated your appetite-regulating hormones. Therefore, it could disturb your glucose levels and cause morning hunger or late-night cravings. 

Ways to Sleep Better 

  • Make sure to avoid using electronic devices 30 minutes before bedtime. It is also advisable to keep your gadget away from your bed. Research suggests that exposure to blue light from devices is linked to weight gain and can alter insulin sensitivity. 
  • Environmental cues trigger sleep. So, make sure your room is at a comfortable temperature. You could add some dim lights to your room to set the mood. 
  • Create a bedtime ritual for yourself to train your body to go asleep. It can include taking a warm bath, meditating, writing a journal, reading a book, or anything that relaxes you.
  • Around seven hours of sleep would be enough for you to function correctly during the day. Keeping that in mind, you could set the alarm seven hours before your wake-up time. Developing an early morning goal, like going for a walk at 6 am, could motivate you to get to bed in time to get enough rest for those six walks. 

Deal with Stress Effectively 

Prolonged stress can spike blood sugar levels, and your body would create more cortisol under continual, long-term stress. When your cortisol levels are on the hike, your body slows insulin release.

Insulin helps move sugar from the bloodstream to the cells used as energy sources. However, more sugar stays in the bloodstream if insulin isn’t appropriately released. As a result, it causes blood sugar levels to become unbalanced.

Stress can impact your health directly and indirectly, and stress is both dangerous for diabetics and a risk factor for diabetes in the general population. Below are many ways to help you cope with stress daily. 

Ways to Manage Stress

  • With time and experience, you would come to learn ways you can deal with minor life stressors. For example, taking a break from a stressful event by going for a quick stroll could help you pause and think more clearly. 
  • Trying to work things out is another helpful strategy for reducing stress. For example, sharing your concerns with a friend, family member, or mentor could help you feel better. In addition, support groups exist online and in the community to help you improve your stress management skills.
  • Many people engage in breathing exercises, music, yoga, sports, or other activities to relieve stress and improve their bodies’ glucose processing. According to a study, one way to decrease mental stress levels is to engage in aerobics.

The HealthifyMe Note

Over time, eating unprocessed, low-glycemic meals will probably result in fewer glucose spikes and better metabolic health. Diets high in fibre seem to help people with diabetes control their blood sugar levels. To have reasonable glucose control and metabolic fitness, people must get enough sleep, exercise regularly, and maintain a stress-free mindset. However, eating just carbs will probably cause your blood sugar to rise higher. Avoid consuming too much-saturated fat.

Conclusion

Users can enhance their metabolic health by making a few fundamental lifestyle changes. A person’s blood glucose levels may vary depending on various variables. Still, you may manage many metabolic dysfunctions by making a few easy lifestyle changes and consuming the proper diet. To effectively regulate your blood sugar levels, you must continuously monitor your glucose levels. Evidence-based techniques can change your everyday routine with a CGM device. Users also benefit from improved metabolic health thanks to the flexible eating programs and individualised exercise options.

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