Just One Bout of Exercise Helps Control Diabetes

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One out of every three Americans is obese. These individuals are at greater risk for additional diseases, since obesity leads to other health problems, such as diabetes.

Obesity-related complications are associated with an abnormal fat metabolism in the muscle. As a result, accumulated fat by-products inside the muscle affect insulin resistance. To avoid the build up of fat by-products, fat must either be oxidized (burned, as in exercise) or stored (as benign fat) in muscle.

A team of researchers has examined the effect of exercise on fat accumulation in a new study involving five obese women. In one session the women overate and did not exercise; in a follow-on session they overate and did exercise. The researchers found that:

the body’s fat-burning oxidation rate was reduced after one day of overeating;

conversely, just one session of exercise increased the rate of fat-burning oxidation; and

exercise increased the amount of fat that would eventually be stored in the muscle.

The findings indicate that even one bout of exercise helps to reduce the fat by-products inside the muscle, which affects the insulin sensitivity. The findings also suggest that a single session of exercise “steers” muscle fat towards oxidation, thereby avoiding the accumulation of fat by-products.

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