Why You Should Take A Walk After Dinner

After eating a meal, your blood sugar levels will typically rise. This isn’t always a problem—some fluctuations in blood sugar are normal. However, when blood sugar levels rise too high, this can cause significant damage to your health. High blood sugar levels can cause serious health issues like heart disease and kidney disease, and have even been found to accelerate the aging process.

Finding ways to reduce the spike in blood sugar after a meal can help to reduce your risk of serious chronic diseases and may even increase your lifespan. Fortunately, there’s a simple technique that can make a big difference. Research has shown that taking a short walk after you eat can significantly reduce your blood sugar levels.

To understand why such a simple action is so powerful, it’s first important to explore why your blood sugar tends to rise after a meal.

What is blood sugar and why does it rise after you eat?

What we refer to as “blood sugar” is a specific type of sugar known as glucose, which is used for energy by all of the cells in your body.

When you eat, your body breaks down the carbohydrates (sugars and starches) in your food and converts them into glucose. This glucose is absorbed into your blood, so that it can be transported to cells to be used for energy or stored for later use. After eating a meal, a person’s blood sugar levels will typically rise.

The rise in blood sugar levels after a meal triggers the release of a hormone called insulin from the pancreas. Insulin triggers cells throughout the body to take up glucose from the bloodstream. Without the action of insulin, then glucose doesn’t enter into your cells, so it remains in the bloodstream instead, causing blood sugar levels to rise too high. In people with diabetes, either the body doesn’t produce enough insulin, or their cells don’t respond to insulin (which is known as insulin resistance).

Glucose provides cells throughout your body with energy, and it’s not a toxic substance in general. But when blood sugar levels are high, the excess sugar reacts with proteins found in your bloodstream and on the surfaces of your cells, which can cause serious health issues. Keeping your blood sugar under control is very important for protecting your long-term health and well-being.

How walking after eating helps lower blood sugar

To help keep blood sugar from rising too high, your cells need to take up glucose from the bloodstream. You can trigger your muscle cells to do this by taking a walk.

During a period of physical activity, your muscle cells have a high demand for energy, which causes them to take up a lot of glucose. When you take a walk after a meal, you trigger your muscles to absorb the sugar that’s entered your bloodstream.

In fact, while cells usually require insulin in order to take up glucose, muscle cells that are active can actually take up glucose without insulin. This allows them to quickly access large amounts of energy. Even if you’ve developed some insulin resistance, walking after a meal will still help to control your blood sugar, because your muscle cells will be able to absorb glucose from your blood without the need for insulin.

How to plan your post-meal walks for blood sugar control

The best time to take a walk is within 60 to 90 minutes after eating. This is the period when blood sugar levels normally peak. By walking during this window, you encourage your muscles to take up sugar from your blood, which helps to prevent your blood sugar from rising too high.

You don’t have to take a long walk to experience the benefits. Research has found that even a 2 to 5 minute walk after a meal significantly reduces the rise in blood sugar. A longer walk will offer more benefits to your health, so if you can manage to walk for 20 or 30 minutes (or even longer), then that would be a great choice. However, if you’re really pressed for time, even a very short walk will still have benefits.

Taking this one simple action can have significant benefits for your long-term health and well-being.