Muscle Stabilizes Blood Sugar

While muscle is important for strength, it’s actually involved in a lot more than that in the body. Few people realize that muscle also helps maintain normal blood sugar levels.

In fact, some experts believe the downward spiral to diabetes begins when insulin is no longer effective at helping muscle clear glucose from the blood.

It stands to reason then, that as muscle mass diminishes, it impairs the ability to keep blood sugar stable. That increases the likelihood of developing insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.

The opposite is also true. As you build muscle, improvements in insulin resistance follow. Researchers at the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University studied 62 middle-aged and older adults with type 2 diabetes during 16 weeks of strength training and found that when muscle increased, insulin resistance improved significantly.

When a muscle is damaged, an enzyme called creatine phosphokinase (CPK) pours into the bloodstream. The greater the damage, the more CPK ends up in the blood. Marathoners have been shown to have very high levels of CPK the week after the race – higher than what would show up in the blood after a gunshot wound or stabbing. YIKES!

This was from an old article by Julie Deardorff.

This will be a BRUTAL week for many people as I know many of our clients are taking the whole week off and are on holiday or at their summer homes.

That is generally a disaster for some, as they decide that they aren’t going to strength train on their own and have food around every day. It’s basically like 7 Sundays in a row.

Don’t let that happen. Do your strength training even if it’s on your own. The Gravity Straps that go with “The Petite Advantage Diet” are perfect for travel. Make smart food choices. Have baby carrots and but up peppers all over the house. Make some home made salsa and grill up a ton of chicken. That’s what I did yesterday as I know this week will include me being out almost every night, so I have to make any eating within my control perfect.

Good luck and PLAN! Please.

Jim