Diabetes and Exercise - How Walking Can Save Your Life

As many diabetics know, diabetes is a condition that is largely influenced by body fat. Diabetics who have more body fat tend to suffer from more complications associated with the condition. Also, having more body fat (about 20 percent more than the recommended fat percentage for your age and height) can be a significant factor in the development of diabetes.

Having a high percentage of body fat (anything over 25 percent of total body composition) not only has been shown to lead to the development of diabetes, but it is also a significant factor in many other serious health conditions, including kidney failure, heart disease, and more. Therefore, by simply reducing body fat, diabetics can significantly reduce their chances of developing a serious life-long and potentially fatal condition, according to TypeFree.com.

While many people struggle to reduce their body fat percentages, it's important to keep in mind that reducing weight is simply a matter of mathematics, biology and chemistry. Here's how:

Mathematics - a calorie is a unit of energy. Each pound of fat contains 3,500 calories. By reducing 3,500 calories from your body through diet or exercise, you will lose one pound.

Biology - bodies that have more muscle burn more calories and, in turn, more fat. Therefore, by changing your body composition to include more muscle, you'll burn more fat - even while sitting still.

Chemistry - the body breaks foods down through a series of chemical reactions. Insulin is a hormone in the body that is predominantly responsible for metabolizing sugars from foods. Without insulin, sugars turn to fat or circulate through the blood stream and have a difficult time being metabolized. Diabetics either do not produce enough insulin to metabolize all of the sugars they consume, or their insulin is ineffective in breaking down the food they consume.

Walking is an easy way to get started

Many diabetics could stave off the development of serious health complications if they were to lose 20, 15, or 20 pounds. However, for many of these diabetics, getting started with a fitness routine is difficult; they do not have the cardiovascular health to run a mile or the muscle strength to lift too many weights. So where's a good place to begin? Walking.

Walking is a great way to jump-start a fitness routine because it will get your body moving. As you move, your body will require more calories as energy to continue moving. As the body uses these calories, it's using energy. That used energy cannot be stored as fat. If the energy had already been stored as fat, the body will pull from it, reducing your overall body fat.

According to TypeFree, walking at a moderate pace of 3 MPG for just 10 minutes will burn 94 calories. (source: http://www.imtypefree.com/exercises-to-lose-body-fat.html)

So get started saving your life today by hitting the roads in your walking shoes! You'll be amazed at the impact that walking can have if you are able to be consistent with it for just a few months.

Sources:

http://www.imtypefree.com/exercises-to-lose-body-fat.html