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Fighting Diabetes by bodybuilding

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I have been working out and doing weight training for the past 5 years now. As I have mentioned in the past about me getting diagnosed as diabetic, going through the tough time of high blood glucose level and how I got my HbA1C to a better level. I will be explaining diabetes bodybuilding methods including the supplements and other important steps / tips for fighting diabetes.

One of the method that I used to fight diabetes was bodybuilding or building muscle mass.

diabetes bodybuilding supplements

Along with other important factors like diabetic diet, proper monitoring of vitals, blood glucose level, proper sleep are to be followed along with working out / weight training for bodybuilding.

Why did I get into bodybuilding when I was diabetic?

Bodybuilding and Diabetes – If you are healthy enough to get into weight training, start working out under guidance of a trained instructor after consulting your doctor. Body building is one of the best method to fight diabetes naturally. If you have good muscle mass and less body fat, then you are getting better. Your muscles would help you in keeping your blood glucose level.

Suggested Reading – My Transformation – From 63kg to 72kg

Can bodybuilding fight diabetes?

Yes, it’s a proven fact. You can keep your blood glucose level under control by working out to build muscles. You should also be focusing on other important factors like low carb diet, proper sleep, regular monitoring of blood glucose levels, etc.

[kish-clicktotweet text=”Fighting Diabetes with bodybuilding and gaining muscle mass works well, I have done it, experience of a diabetic person shared”]

Can diabetic people have supplements which help bodybuilding?

Yes, after researching and trying out myself, I can suggest few good supplements that diabetic people can take safely. Keep monitoring your blood test reports and consult your doctor before you start anything. It is working well for me, so I am having it.

What are the diabetes bodybuilding supplements?

Bodybuilding nutritions for diabetes is different from normal nutritions. Basically being diabetic you should avoid having anything that would spike your blood glucose level.

bodybuilding nutrition for diabetes

Whey Protein

Check the label of the product to find the % of sugar and carbohydrates. Most of the Whey Proteins available would not have sugar or carbohydrates. Also check if 1 scoop has about 20-25 grams of protein.

whey protein diabetes bodybuilding

Creatine

Is a good supplement to bodybuilding. It improves strength and is a natural supplement. Other than these, I suggest, glutamine, beta-alanine

Steps to Start Off – Diabetic Person Weight Training

Diabetes Bodybuilding – If you are a person who already goes to gym and does some treadmill or do spend time for sports everyday, it would be easy. There is a big difference between sports, long runs, treadmill, etc and weight training. If you want to do bodybuilding then you have to go for  weight training, have good protein and low carb diabetic diet. Completely avoid sugar and go for something safe like natural sweaters Stevia.

Check out this video on diabetes bodybuilding

[bootube src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/diVAW6t9l7Y”]

Further Reading on diabetes bodybuilding

  1. Bamboo Rice – Good for Diabetic Patients
  2. Metformin and Bodybuilding – Lean Muscle
  3. Insulin Pumps use by kids increases
  4. List of fruits for diabetic people

Food to eat if you have diabetes – Fighting Diabetes Naturally

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Diabetes is a condition which can be taken care naturally. You need to understand the kind of Food to eat if you have diabetes. If you are having the right food in right quantity at the right time, you can help yourself to keep a good control over diabetes.

Being diabetic, it’s important to know what are the active ingredients of the food? You need to understand if the food you are eating has Carbohydrates, Sugar, protein, Vitamins, etc.

For simplicity, lets classify food into Proteins, Carbohydrates and Fat.

If you are diabetic, you have to go for low carb diet, high protein and high fat diet. Do not eat any sugar products.

List of Foods to avoid with diabetes

  1. Sugar and Sugar Products – No food that has direct sugar, like chocolates, candies, sweets should be taken. It’s not just for your diabetes, but it is bad for your health in all ways.
  2. High Carbohydrates – You should avoid high carb food like rice, wheat, processed food, Maida. Even if you have, it’s good if you can have in less quantity and not the processed one or polished ones. Any food make for rice, wheat, all purpose flour (refined flour / Maida)
  3. Alcohol – No forms of alcohol is good for a diabetic person. You should avoid as much as possible, once in a while is ok, if your diabetes is under control.
  4. Food with High Glycemic Index (GI Value) – Every food has a glycemic index which is a numeric value between 0-100. The lower the value, the better for a diabetic person.

It is important for you to understand how a particular food reacts when consumed by you. I suggest that when you try a new food, get your blood glucose level before having the food and after 2 hours of having the food. You get a better realistic idea of how that particular food is working for you.

Artificial sweeteners are of some rescue if you are diabetic of on a weight loss program, but to be using it for long term in higher quantity would not be recommended. I suggest natural sweeteners like Stevia if you need some sweetness for your coffee.

List of Food to eat if you have diabetes

  1. High Protein Diet – Eggs / Chicken – Having some eggs, Chicken breast will help you get good protein, fill your stomach and control on hunger. Would provide required nutrients for your day to day activities. If you are a person who works out or do weight training, then you should have good protein everyday.
  2. Low Glycemic Index Vegetables – Ladies Finger, Methi (Fenugreek) leaves, Capsicum, Green leaves, broccoli, Asparagus, etc
  3. Low Glycemic Index Fruits – Plums, avocado, Jackfruit – The Fruit List for Diabetics
  4. Butter / Home Made Ghee, Coconut oil, Grape Seed Oil
  5. Whey protein / Casein protein
  6. Dry fruits like almonds, Walnuts, etc
  7. Almond Milk, Soya Milk, Coconut milk
  8. Bamboo Rice – Good for Diabetic Patients

This list of Food to eat if you have diabetes is not limited to the one listed above. You will find many more natural food that would be good to have if you are diabetic.

Further Reading – Importance of Knowing GI Value of the food that you eat – Fighting Diabetes

Food to eat if you have diabetes - Egg , Broccoli,

Some food that will help you drop spiked Blood Sugar Level

  • Methi Seeds (Fenugreek Seeds)
  • Ladies Finger
  • Cinnamon Bark
  • Bitter Gaud
  • Curry leaves

Food that Prevents Diabetes

There are no food that prevents diabetes. Diabetes is a condition that could happen to any healthy or a disciplined lifestyle person.

Have as much as natural food, avoid processed food, chemicals, too much of unnecessary medications, etc

There are many known reasons that could cause diabetes

  1. Hereditary
  2. Too much of processed food
  3. Stress – Personal or professional
  4. Any reasons or health conditions that could damage pancreas which produces insulin when needed.
  5. No regular physical exercises

Besides having the right diet, there are some important things that you need to follow to keep your diabetes under control

Suggested Reading – Diagnosis – How I came to know that I am Diabetic ?

  1. Regular health check ups
  2. Regular exercise
  3. Proper Sleep
  4. Proper Stress Management

To be very clear there are no real cure for diabetes, but there are ways to keep your diabetes under control, there are no food to cure diabetes, but there is food to keep your blood glucose level near normal.

Suggested Readings on Controlling diabetes naturally

  1. Insulin Pumps use by kids increases
  2. Coconut Sugar — Sugar SubstituteSteviana – Stevia Leaves Sweetener

Importance of Knowing GI Value of the food that you eat – Fighting Diabetes

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Glycemic Index and Diabetes – Glycemic Index or GI value of a food is a number between 0-100.

[bootube src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/gu3QN16i5IY”]

The topic of this video is “Glycemic Index of the food you eat”.

Every food has a GI Value, which would be a number less or equal to hundred.

The bigger the number, the faster rise in blood glucose level.

So a diabetic person should be knowing about this so that he can decide what he or she should eat and how much can be taken without spiking the blood glucose level.

Foods with carbohydrates that break down quickly during digestion and release glucose rapidly into the bloodstream tend to have a high GI

55 or below is Low GI food which should be your choice if you are diabetic
Above 55 and less than 70 is moderate – But I suggest you should avoid this, but sometimes is fine or mix it with very low GI food and have it. The quantity should be less
And anything above 70 is high and you should not even think about these food.

Factors Effecting GI Value

Now we need to understand that there are many other factor which would effect the GI of a food
For example, GI more ripped mango would be higher than a less ripped mango
More cooking would also increase the GI of the food
You can even decrease the GI by adding more fibre and fat to your food during cooking.

Low GI fruits
Cherries, Plums, Dried Apricots, Apples, Strawberries

Glycemic Index And Diabetes
Glycemic Index And Diabetes

You can find food listed with the GI value online. Please go through it and check what you like to eat and plan your diet. You should always have a low carb diet with more protein and fat if you are diabetic.

So what should people with diabetes do?

Diet is a very important factor for keeping your blood glucose level under control.
So we need to know what we are eating and how does that influence our blood glucose level.

Now for sake of understanding diet
I eat a breakfast of 5 Wheat Roti, some spicy dal and potato curry and a cup of sugarless milk coffee.

I have not taken any sugar, wheat roti and dal and potato is good for health,
Than I did not add sugar to my Coffee, but if you check your glucose level after 2 hours, you will find that it’s high.

Reason – High Carbs, milk will increase your sugar level

What do I eat for my breakfast?
Early morning 20 gms of Whey Protien Shake
4 egg whites and one egg yolk
Little high protein cereal with almond milk
Some blue berry, almonds and a black coffee

This is a very nutrious low carb breakfast. I keep changing the combinations, but always make sure it is giving me a balance of my requirments.

I keep experimenting and optimizing my diet by checking my blood glucose after having food. Every diabetic person should know the relationship between Glycemic Index And Diabetes

Suggested Reading – Bamboo Rice – Good for Diabetic Patients

With experiment and experience you would be able to decide on what you should eat and what you should not.

Hope this video is helpful – Please share and like
If you have not subscribed to my channel please do so

Interesting Posts on Glycemic Index And Diabetes

  1. The Fruit List for Diabetics
  2. Processed Food should be avoided – Not good for health
  3. Low Glycemic Food
  4. Bamboo Rice – Good for Diabetic Patients

Diagnosis – How I came to know that I am Diabetic ?

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It was in the year 2002 when I not feeling well suffering from loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting etc. I had just joined my new job in the Maldives at AMDC as a a marketing executive. I initially felt that this could be because of the change in climate, location, job, etc.

See Also – Early Signs of Diabetes

I consulted our in-house specialist Dr Swaroop Reddy who was a Gastroentrologist. He asked me to do some investigations and finally I was diagnosed with Jaundice. Another shocking finding was that my blood glucose level was very high.

The doctor asked me if I was diabetic and I was shocked. After further investigations, it was found that my pancreas were not functional and this was due to some infection which was recent along with jaundice.

I had to travel back to India for expert management and treatment for jaundice and diabetes, my new friends, One was my lifetime and other could have been my lifetime too if I could not have got an help of a non-medical person (Teacher by Profession).

I was admitted in a hospital in Kayamkulam for treating high bilirubin levels. My bilirubin levels were going up day after day and doctors were felt to give me false hopes. After the tenth day a nurse attending to me, told that the situation is getting worse and suggested my father to take me to a place nearby where an old lady would give some herbal medicines. My father spoke about this to me and we decided to go for it. We were told to reach that house before the sunrise, empty stomach. I went there with my father and I was given a ball of bitter herbs (herbs ground and made into thick paste) with some sugar to mask the taste. No water was allowed and I was told to be there for 15 minutes. If I do not vomit, I can go home or I will be given that medicine again. Good luck that I did not vomit and I was told to discharge and go home.

It was a tough decision to take, my bilirubin level was about 18 (Normal is 0.9) and I decided to go home. Within few hours I was feeling better, no nausea and was feeling hungry). I was very curious to find out my bilirubin level and after 3 days, was shocked to find that it had fallen to 9 from 18. On the 17th day, my bilirubin level was 0.9 (Normal).

Coconut Sugar — Sugar Substitute

I came back to Maldives and when I met the gastroenterologist who treated me, he was shocked. He did all the tests on me and found that I was absolutely normal. He also took the contact details of that lady at Kayamkulam for his reference.

I was on insulin for about 2 years, then was put on some oral drugs.

This is my story of being diagnosed diabetic. I was just 32.

As on today after about 15 years, I am doing well, living a normal life. Check out more post on Fighting Diabetes if you are interested.

Check out this video on my current status

[bootube src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/D0FDjcVmryc”]

My Transformation – From 63kg to 72kg

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I had wrote a post on my condition on diabetes about 2 years back. I had put a lot of effort on transforming myself in terms of my physique, my laboratory reports, etc. Here I am focusing on tips to control diabetes naturally which I have tried and worked well for me.

If you check the pictures on the left and the pictures on the right, you will see the changes. More than physical changes, I am now have a good control of my diabetes.

[bootube src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/D0FDjcVmryc”]

Transformation – How did I do this?

I would give 100% of the credit to myself. I did what I decided and I could not only change my life, but also influence to change many of my co-workers and friends lives.

Workout for at least 1 hour a day and 4 days a week

I make sure that I do not miss my workout. There can be many excuses like you are very busy at work, you have to work late hours and then you are tired and so on. But let me tell you, you cannot continue your job if you are not having good health. If you fall sick and you are not able to work, you will not have that job.

Further Reading – What Are The Top 5 Supplements For Faster Muscle Gain?

Low Carb Diet

You need to do some research, but focus on low carb diet and food with low Glycemic Index. Some of the food that is common in my diet are , sprouted green gram, Eggs, Chicken breast, Broccoli, Virgin Coconut Oil, Home Made Ghee, Whey Protein,

No to – Direct Sugar and anything having more than 6% of Carbs

The Fruit List for Diabetics

High on Proteins

Egg white, Chicken breast, Grams, Whey Protein etc

Suggested Reading – Boiled Eggs for Breakfast

Eight hours of sleep – Important for all

Sleep is very important for good health, I sleep 6-8 hours a day. You need to understand why sleep is important. If you do not have proper sleep, you will have problems with brain, nervous system, cardiovascular system, metabolic function, immune system, insomnia, hypertension, obesity and more and more problems. We will not go into the details, just make sure that you sleep sufficiently to keep your body normal [Source].

Do what I enjoy – Keep yourself happy

Avoid Stress – Something similar to enjoying what your do. Do get stressed or try to avoid things that worries you. – Are you depressed? Causes of Depression

Researching with my test results– Keep a check on your laboratory results and tune your diet. Also if you find anything abnormal, you should immediately meet your doctor and do as advised.

Change Lifestyle to control diabetes

Everything what you see on your body is what you eat and how you take care of your health. It’s your own responsibility to take care of your health, so start it today and now.

Suggested Reading – What’s your choice?

Related Posts on controlling diabetes naturally

  1. Processed Food should be avoided – Not good for health
  2. Bamboo Rice – Good for Diabetic Patients

If you have any Tips to control diabetes naturally, please shout out and share

How I reduced my HbA1c level from 11.8 to 6.9

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I have been diabetic for the past 12 years now. Experienced and learned about diabetes over these period. 4 Months back when I tested my HbA1c level, it was 11.8, which was the highest ever during these 12 years. I was very upset, but decided to change. I would put the entire blame on me for not following a disciplined lifestyle and ignoring many important things that I had to be careful about.

Check out this video

Now lets come to the topic, for readers who do not know what HbA1c is, let me give some information on that. If I talk from a diabetic patient point of view, this is a test which cannot be manipulated by the patient and you get caught. I knew a person, who was about 60 years of age, diabetic, but very fond of eating sweets. He will always make sure that his Fasting Blood Sugar and Post Parental Blood Sugar is not worrying in the laboratory reports. The day before his tests are scheduled, he will be very strict on diet and even take some extra doses of medicines. But if we rely on HbA1c results, it would be very easy to understand how controlled is the diabetes.

By measuring glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), clinicians are able to get an overall picture of what our average blood sugar levels have been over a period of weeks/months.

For people with diabetes this is important as the higher the HbA1c, the greater the risk of developing diabetes-related complications.

HbA1c is also referred to as haemoglobin A1c

or

simply

A1c

. [More Information on HbA1c]

Changes that I made in my lifestyle / diet to bring down my HbA1c Level

  • First thing I did was about my diet. I stopped taking any food that has direct sugar added. We need to be very strong and decided that we will not take anything sweet not even sugar in tea or coffee.
  • Deciding my diet and time to take my food was something I did next. Taking medicines on time is also very important. Never think that skipping medicines today is fine, that would not be the end of the world, I used to do this. Reduce the quantity of food and increase the number of times we have food.
  • Next was to find out what are the food that I should eat and what are the food that I should not eat or eat less or more. There is something called Glycemic Index (GI) for any food. The GI of every food would go up or down depending upon how you cook or if you take the case of fruits, papaya if more ripen the GI will go high, so you need to have fruits which are not that ripe.

Glycemic index and glycemic load offer information about how foods affect blood sugar and insulin. The lower a food’s glycemic index or glycemic load, the less it affects blood sugar and insulin levels.

Check out this list

  • Other Important change that I did was exercise / yoga / walking. I made sure that I do some workout everyday, atleast go for a brisk walk if I am not able to do anything else. Now let me accept that I used skip exercise telling myself that I am busy, lots of work to do at office, etc, but for the last 5 months I am doing more work, and never missed my workout. It’s all about the dedication, discipline and understanding the importance of exercise for your health.
  • Stress was something really effecting my sugar level. I used to notice that even if I eat my regular diet and I am mentally disturbed, my sugar level used to shoot up. Its best to keep yourself relaxed, sleep atleast 8 hours a day to keep your sugar level in check.
  • Regular monitoring of your blood sugar using a Glucometer helped me to understand which food was good for me and decide what to do and what not to do.
  • I even followed some home remedies like bitter guard, ladies finger and some more which I would share on separate posts.

Overall I would like to say is not to worry about your current status of your glucose level. Better late than never, start from today. Have good diet, eat a lot of green vegetables, low carb food is very important. Don’t think that rice do not have direct sugar so you have eat a lot of rice, rice will shoot up your sugar level because it has lots of carbohydrates. Check out the list of food that has low glycemic index and plan your diet. You should also talk to a dietician and get a diet prescribed for you. Also make sure that you meet your doctor periodically and if you feel that your sugar level is not getting under control you should consult a specialist. It is best if you can maintain your HbA1c level around 6.5-7.0, but do not get worried, do the best what you can.
I will share some of the details of the diet that I follow in my future posts. Please share your experience so that it would be helpful for others.