How Diabetes Affects Muscle Building
Diabetes is a condition caused by the body’s lack of insulin, or the resistance for insulin to convert sugar into energy for use within the body. As a result, those suffering from diabetes often feel tired, exhausted and building muscle through exercise is difficult. There is a constant balancing act in the blood and the blood sugar level can easily become too high (hyperglycemia) or too low (hypoglycemia) without insulin to regulate it.
There are two very important nutrients in the diabetic diet, and these are protein and complex carbohydrates. Protein serves to help muscles to grow, and complex carbohydrates are essentially energy that releases slowly (and therefore do not cause a spike in blood sugar, leading to hyperglycemia). When the minimal levels of insulin present in the diabetic body cannot find enough protein or complex carbs then the muscles quite simply go without and cannot build.
As you may have guessed already, there needs to be a good store of protein and complex carbohydrates within the body before exercise, so that there is energy to be used. Once this is done and the muscles have been built, the energy levels need to be restored again (to avoid exhaustion) and another meal of protein and complex carbohydrates should be eaten. General advice is that a small high protein, high complex carb meal should be eaten 30 to 60 minutes before exercise, and immediately after exercise for optimal results. It’s also important to check your blood sugar if you are planning to do a heavy workout, so that if your levels are very low then you know to inject insulin and regulate your blood sugar levels properly first.
There are some great foods such as sunflower seeds, oats and wholemeal pasta which release energy slowly but at just the levels that your body needs to convert into muscle mass. It is certainly possible to build muscle when you are diabetic, but it is a very good idea to consult your doctor or ideally a professional nutritionist to devise some exercise meal plans.
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