Benefits of Walking after Dinner – Control Blood Sugar and Improve Digestion

Feeling too lazy and sluggish after a heavy dinner meal? You should consider taking a walk!

Walking is a great way to help you stay healthy round the clock. It is especially helpful in promoting digestion and prevents crashes in energy by controlling blood sugar levels.

Let’s take a look how evening walks can be helpful for digestion and controlling blood sugar:

Diabetes and Walking

Chronic high blood sugar can have negative impacts on your health. Over a long time, it can damage blood vessels, cause nerve problems, kidney and vision issues. High blood sugar can lead to insulin resistance, (important in regulating blood sugar levels) and reduce glucose tolerance, both of which are risk factors for Type 2 diabetes.

Walking can drastically reduce risks of high blood sugar, especially in the night. This is evident in a recent research, which showed that people diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes experienced reduced glycemic impact from evening meals, compared to patients who took a walk before a meal or did not walk at all.

Here are some exercise tips that can help you make the most of your walking routine to combat diabetes

There are two ways to approach walking for diabetes:

• Taking more steps throughout the day
• Create a walking program

Taking more steps throughout the day

Use the fitbase tracking app or a pedometer to track the number of steps you take each day. As you progress through the routine, add 2000 extra steps per day to the previous set of steps.

After a few weeks, try adding another 500 steps to your daily routine. Continue adding steps until you reach the walking goal you have set.

There are ways which you can adopt to reach the goal:

• Use stairs to get to your destination instead of a lift or elevator
• If you are on an unfrequented escalator, climb each step of the escalator
• Increase your walk time by parking your car at the end of the parking area
• Take short walks during work
• Stand and walk in the drawing room while you are on a TV break
• A simpler way, take a walk with your pet

Create a walking program

In this way, you can treat walking as an aerobic exercise for Type 2 diabetes, here’s how:

Buy good shoes

Firstly, it is important to buy shoes that will address the loss of sensation in extremities, which is caused by diabetes.

Criteria to buy good shoes
• Firm heel
• Solid arch support
• Thick flexible soles for cushioning and shock absorption

They should fit the shape of your feet and limit the movement of your joints. It is best to try on the shoes and see how they fit. You can also get in touch with a healthcare provider to check if you need specially designed shoes to suit your condition.

Warm up and cool down walking

This include’s a gentle 5-minute walking routine both before and after the regular walking program. Walk slowly for five minutes followed by light stretching at both warm-up and cool down.

Right Walking Movement

The heel of your foot should first come in contact with the ground with every step you take. Your walking posture should be in the following manner:

• Toes pointed forward
• Chin up
• Shoulders held straight back
• Swing arms

Build Endurance

Begin your walking program with a 15-minute routine including five minutes of warm-up, five minutes of routine walking and five minutes of cool-down.

With the passage of every week, keep adding three minutes to this walking program until it becomes a one-and-half-hour routine or more. A healthy weekly walking routine should include at least five days of walking.

Digestion and Walking

Walking can immensely improve digestion conditions and the discomfort that people experience due to them. As per a 2008 study, walking improved the rate at which food moved through the stomach.

In yet another research, it was found that walking after a meal will reduce gastric issues in long-time diabetic sufferers, where food takes longer to digest.

Conclusion
Time and again, research has proved that walking is an ideal activity for improving health and lifespan.

So health lovers, hope you had a wonderful dinner, now it’s time to get the digestion on track!

Eat Healthy, Stay Healthy!

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