Losing Weight - Tips for Diabetics

If you're like many people, you'd like to lose a few pounds. However, if you have diabetes, it's not only essential that you eliminate as much body fat as possible, but it may also save your life. A commonality amongst many diabetics is that they are overweight or obese, meaning that they have at least 25 percent body fat or more. This high level of body fat contributes to a wide variety of negative health conditions that can cripple a diabetic or lead to the development of more serious and chronic conditions.

By losing weight, diabetics can not only enjoy a more active and healthy lifestyle, but they will also be able to help prevent the development of serious health conditions, which will ensure that they are able to lead happier and healthier lives.

Here are a few tips for diabetics that will help them to lose weight if they are practiced:

Limit carbohydrate consumption.

Diabetics are up against a serious challenge that is made worse by the consumption of carbohydrates. While diabetics should consume at least six servings of carbohydrates a day (source: http://www.imtypefree.com/diabetes-diet-guidelines-and-the-Diabetes-food-pyramid.html), the more carbohydrates a diabetic consumes, the harder it is for their bodies to process the sugars. Here's why: insulin is a hormone that is naturally produced by the pancreas to break down carbohydrates. In a non-diabetic, the body produces just enough insulin to properly break down the carbohydrates that a non-diabetic has consumed.

However, in a diabetic, the insulin is either not sensitive enough to break down the foods properly, or the body does not produce enough (or any) insulin. In such a situation, carbohydrates continue to circulate though the blood stream and are then stored as fat; they are not properly broken down to be used as energy sources.

By limiting the consumption of carbohydrates, diabetics can more easily metabolize foods. Those foods without carbohydrates will not necessarily be stored as fat or cause toxicity in the blood stream in the same way that high-carbohydrate foods would.

30 minutes a day

Chances are good that you've already heard that just 30 minutes of exercise a day is enough to help you lose weight. But how can 30 minutes really make a difference? Take a look at the math: one pound of fat is 3,500 calories. Depending on the exercise you do, you could burn between 200 and 500 calories easily in 30 minutes. This means that it would take just 7 days to lose a pound if you exercised at a high level of intensity and consumed the same amount of calories through food. In one month, you would lose four pounds. In one year, you would lose nearly 50 pounds!

It's important that no matter what you do to lose weight, you make the first step to do so today. Whether you prefer to modify your diet or your exercise routine - or both - losing weight will go a long way in ensuring that you stay healthy and prevent the onset of serious medical complications for years to come.

Sources:

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