Why does insulin decrease with exercise

While glucose is not a bad thing, too much glucose is not a good thing. Controlling blood glucose is associated with healthy outcomes. Including exercise in your daily routine will decrease blood glucose and support keeping glucose in a healthy target range. While you may feel overwhelmed and would rather find an excuse than a gym, no excuses.

Just move! Exercise increases insulin sensitivity not only during the actual physical activity but also in the time following that activity called exercise recovery.

Exercise recovery could be a few minutes or several hours in length. The effect of exercise on insulin sensitivity may vary from the following:. The big questions are: How much? How often? Anaerobic exercise - exercise that involves alternating between short bursts of vigorous activity and periods of rest. Examples include weightlifting, sprints, and interval training. Anaerobic exercise utilizes energy pathways that do not require oxygen e.

These pathways may become depleted quickly. If anaerobic activity is prolonged e. Mixed exercise - exercise that is a combination of aerobic and anaerobic exercise. Examples include team sports like basketball and soccer. These precise regulatory mechanisms can be studied by quantitative isotope dilution methods; measurements of plasma glucose concentrations do not necessarily reflect any changes in glucose fluxes.

Insulin is considered to be an important regulatory hormone during exercise. Its concentration decreases during exercise in part because of a decrease in insulin secretion by the pancreas and in part because the removal of insulin is increased. Customize and select the areas of interest and relevance to you. Then we'll tell you when there's something new.

Sign up for free. Already have a user? Then enter your email address and receive a login link to your email. Sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date with new articles on topics that interest you. It is free, and you can unsubscribe at any time. Follow us. Researchers surprised — exercise can reduce insulin sensitivity. Diet and lifestyle Danish research shows, very surprisingly, that exercise in some cases does not increase insulin sensitivity but reduces it.

This discovery may affect how people with diabetes should exercise. Interested in Diet and lifestyle? We can keep you updated for free.