How Short "Exercise Snacks" Could Give Your Health a Big Boost

Vitamin G, Glamour Magazine

by Lexi Petronis

Jorg Badura
Jorg Badura


You know how some experts suggest eating smaller meals throughout the day, instead of three big ones? New research is now suggesting that the same philosophy might be helpful for when you work out too.

According to a new study in the journal Diabetologia, breaking up exercise sessions into "snack"-size sessions--just for one minute at an intense enough level to push your heart to 90 percent of its maximum beating rate, about 30 minutes before eating a meal--might help keep blood sugars even and balanced.

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The study focused on participants who were in the beginning stages of showing signs of insulin resistance. Each volunteer exercises in different ways before eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Their blood sugar levels were measured on exercise days, and on post-exercise days. The researchers found that those people who "exercise snacked" before eating registered lower blood sugar levels--for a full 24 hours--than those who worked out for 30 minutes but had lower heart rates while doing so.


While there's certainly more research to be done, the study's authors suggest that these short (yet intense!) "exercise snacks" before meals might mean something in terms of helping give our bodies' fat- and sugar-burning mechanisms a mega-boost.

Interesting, no? What do you think?

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