Importance of Exercise while on a GLP-1
Exercise is something that tends to be a confusing subject for many. It can be challenging to figure out how to start exercising, what type of exercise to engage in, or what kind of exercise is best for your personal needs. While exercise is beneficial for everyone, it can especially help you alongside your GLP-1 journey.
As we reviewed in some of our past blog posts, GLP-1’s were originally prescribed to individuals with type 2 diabetes to help reduce blood sugar levels and bring them back into the healthy range. If you are overweight, you are also at risk of having high blood sugar and developing insulin resistance. Exercise also has the ability to help improve blood glucose by improving insulin resistance; this is when the cells in your body (can be muscle cells, liver cells, or fat cells) don’t respond well to the effects of insulin which typically works to bring down blood glucose by moving glucose from the blood and into cells to be used for energy. Prolonged high blood glucose, otherwise known as hyperglycemia, can eventually lead to damage to certain areas of the body and be detrimental to your health. Exercise while on a GLP-1 can further improve glycemic control so you can continue seeing positive results.
Exercise while on a GLP-1 also will increase total energy expenditure, or the total amount of calories you burn in a day. Therefore, while you are consuming less calories due to decreased food consumption as a result of a decreased appetite, you are also burning more calories to help with weight loss! It also assists in burning fat and building lean body mass; lean body mass is essential for long term health and has a direct effect on your basal metabolic rate (BMR), or the amount of calories you burn at rest. Dr. D. James Pickle, PT, DPT, shares, “While GLP-1’s have been shown to assist people in losing approximately 15% of their weight, recent studies show the weight loss is not targeted to just fat. In fact, studies suggest up to 50% of the weight loss achieved by GLP-1 medications is lean muscle mass loss. The best way to prevent this loss is through strength training exercise. Body weight exercises like push-ups, squats, and barbell exercises like biceps curls and long arc quad movements against resistance is the optimal exercise to combat these losses”. Cardiovascular exercise only temporarily raises your metabolic rate. Even though cardiovascular exercise still assists in burning calories, try adding some strength training 2-3 times per week to get the maximal benefit from your exercise while taking GLP-1!
Lastly, exercise also helps release endorphins, which are “feel good” hormones. Increasing how often you exercise will trigger the release of these feel good hormones, thus helping improve mood and mental health. “This is when cardiovascular exercise really shines. Serotonin, dopamine, and other endorphins are released during cardiovascular exercise, which gives you that “runner’s high” or euphoric sensation. Endorphins begin to be released after just 10 minutes of brisk walking, cycling, jogging, or swimming, and maximize their release after about 30 minutes of continuous activity that requires you to breathe heavier or sweat. It may take time to build up to this level of exercise, so we recommend starting with what you can do. Be consistent and exercise 5-7 days a week, and try to increase your exercise duration every week until you reach this goal”, says Dr. D. James Pickle. This can be especially helpful while on a GLP-1 and experiencing side effects and overall life changes.
Increasing your exercise can be as simple as parking farther away from the entrance of the store, walking for 10 minutes after each meal, swimming, or any movement that you find joy in! It does not mean you have to buy a gym membership or do strenuous workouts that you don’t necessarily want to be doing. Dr. D. James Pickle adds, “Exercise is difficult to begin and be consistent with. It is very easy to think about your need to exercise all day, and completely talk yourself out of it because of negative thoughts about exercise that enter all of our minds. My advice to people is to just commit yourself to exercising 5-7 days a week. Don’t commit to any certain amount of exercise, or any particular workout. Just commit to exercise. Every day, get into your exercise attire, and begin walking. If you walk for 10 minutes, and still don’t feel like exercising further, no problem, you have EXERCISED! But chances are as the endorphins begin to rise, you will feel like you can go a little further, or you can do some strength training. The choice of what you do is entirely yours”. Try out different types of movement and see which type you enjoy best. The effects of exercise while on a GLP-1 will help you continue to see results throughout your journey. Our blog next week will be about the importance of protein consumption. Be sure to check back soon!