Does Exercise Lower Blood Sugar Levels?
Health ConditionsDiabetes

How Exercise Affects Your Blood Sugar

How Exercise Affects Your Blood Sugar
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Updated on December 8, 2025
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While there’s no shortage of reasons why exercise is a core component of a healthy lifestyle, here’s one more to add to your list: Consistent movement can help you keep your blood sugar in check. Whether you have diabetes or prediabetes or you have normal blood sugar levels and are simply trying to keep them that way, experts say regular exercise is an essential piece of the puzzle.

Why Exercise (Usually) Lowers Blood Sugar

During exercise, your body draws sugar, or glucose, from your bloodstream into your muscles where it can be used as fuel. Since the glucose is no longer sitting in your bloodstream, your blood sugar levels start to drop. These effects are particularly pronounced after a meal, when your blood sugar levels are higher.

At the same time, exercise makes your muscles more sensitive to the blood sugar–regulating hormone insulin, so they need less of it to move glucose out of your bloodstream. This increased insulin sensitivity can last up to 48 hours after a workout.

“If you’re using a continuous glucose monitor, you can actually see your glucose levels improve while exercising and after you’re done,” says Janet O’Mahony, MD, an internal medicine physician with Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore.

Even short bouts of exercise, like a 10-minute walk after a meal, is enough to bring blood sugar levels down significantly.

 And the longer and harder you exercise, the more glucose your muscles take in as fuel. “You can burn up to 1 gram (g) of carbohydrates per kilogram (kg) of body weight per minute, so in an hour, you could burn 60 g of carbs from blood sugar,” says Michael Riddell, PhD, who studies the effects of exercise and stress on diabetes and metabolism at York University in Toronto.
However, very intense workouts like heavy weight lifting, sprinting, and competitive sports can actually lead to a blood sugar spike. These forms of exercise cause the body to produce stress hormones like adrenaline, which signal your liver to release glucose into your bloodstream.

 But this effect is temporary, with vigorous activity ultimately supporting blood sugar stability over the long term.

How Exercise Increases Long-Term Insulin Sensitivity

A single workout can lower your blood sugar for a few hours or a few days, but when you make exercise a habit, the positive effects really start to snowball. “Consistent exercise reduces insulin resistance, which is the primary factor in the development of type 2 diabetes,” says Joseph Barrera, MD, an endocrinologist with Providence Mission Hospital in Orange, California.

If you’re an otherwise healthy person, completing 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise each week can reduce your risk for type 2 diabetes by as much as 46 percent.

 And if you have prediabetes, you’re four times more likely to reverse the condition if you exercise for 150 minutes each week.

If you already have diabetes, exercise can make your condition easier to manage as well. People with type 2 diabetes who exercise can lower their A1C by around 0.67 percent, and people with type 1 diabetes who exercise can typically reduce their daily insulin dose by 6 to 18 percent.

Regular exercise makes you more sensitive to insulin, enabling your cells to use glucose for energy more effectively.

 “Your insulin needs drop, so you don’t need as much around meals, between meals, or overnight,” says Dr. Riddell. Exercise also reduces systemic inflammation, which in turn increases insulin sensitivity as well.

Your body composition also starts to change in ways that support healthy blood sugar. Even if you don’t lose weight, you’ll likely reduce your amount of visceral fat, the deep abdominal fat known for increasing inflammation and negatively impacting the body’s blood sugar-regulating abilities.

 At the same time, regular exercise often leads to increases in muscle mass, and bigger muscles take in more glucose, leaving less of it in your bloodstream to elevate your blood sugar.

Cardio vs. Strength Training

Aerobic workouts, strength training, and combinations of the two are all helpful for your blood sugar.

Aerobic workouts like brisk walking, bicycling, and swimming seem to bring blood sugar down during activity and for a short period of time afterward. Meanwhile, strength training leads to bigger muscle gains, which can promote more blood sugar stability throughout the day and over the long term, says Eric Hames, MD, a family medicine physician at Texas Health Family Care in Fort Worth.

You reap the benefits of both when you make cardio and strength training regular parts of your fitness routine.

 “If you have diabetes or prediabetes, muscle mass is one of the strongest determinants of how your body handles glucose,” says Dr. Barrera. “And cardiovascular training is essential for metabolic health and longevity, particularly at a level of intensity where you can speak in full sentences but would rather not.”

Low-Intensity Exercise

Speaking of intensity, you’re not just reaping blood sugar benefits when you’re breaking a sweat. Even short movement breaks can have a significant impact. Sedentary people can significantly reduce their blood sugar simply by taking 5-minute walking breaks every 30 minutes.

Lower intensity forms of movement like yoga, gardening, and even strolling through the farmers market are valuable, too.

 “When you’re sedentary, glucose builds up in the bloodstream and eventually turns to fat,” says Riddell. “Getting up and moving is really good for moderating and lowering blood sugar.”

With that said, these kinds of activities shouldn’t stand in for formal exercise. “I consider low-intensity training an important foundation that patients can build on,” says Barrera.

What Experts Recommend

Health authorities state that you can improve your blood sugar and your overall health by:

  • Completing 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise like brisk walking or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise like running or jogging each week
  • Strength training at least two days per week
Since the same activity can feel more or less difficult depending on a person’s fitness level, experts recommend using the “talk test” to measure the intensity of your workout. A person doing moderate-intensity aerobic activity can talk but not sing during the activity, whereas a person doing vigorous-intensity activity cannot say more than a few words without pausing for a breath.

If you have diabetes, it’s especially important to avoid going more than two consecutive days without exercise. Spreading your physical activity relatively evenly throughout the week provides more consistent blood sugar benefits, says Riddell.

Try to break up long sedentary stretches as well by getting up every 30 minutes. Just 3 minutes of light walking or simple body-weight resistance exercises like lunges and squats can make a difference.

Exercise, Insulin, and Hypoglycemia

Though lowering your blood sugar levels is usually considered a major benefit to exercise, for some people with diabetes it can occasionally represent a danger.

If you use insulin or insulin secretagogues like sulfonylureas, you need to be particularly mindful of blood sugar drops when you’re active. If your blood sugar drops too low during activity, you could experience hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). This risk increases when you exercise for a longer stretch or engage in a strenuous workout.

Check your blood sugar frequently, especially right before, during, and after exercising. “Using a continuous glucose monitor makes this [process] much easier for patients,” says Dr. Hames. If it’s low, stop exercising and have 15 to 20 g of carbohydrates, which can be found in four glucose tablets, 4 ounces of regular soda or juice, or 1 tablespoon of honey. Wait 15 minutes and check your blood sugar again. Repeat this process as needed until your levels reach at least 100 mg/dL (milligrams per deciliter) .

Also let your doctor know if you’re starting a new or more intense exercise routine, so you can determine together whether you need to make any adjustments to your medication regimen or dosage, says Barrera. People with diabetes who regularly engage in major athletic feats, such as marathon running, often require months or years of trial and error to determine their optimal blood sugar management strategy during exercise.

If you’re concerned about blood sugar increases as a result of intense exercise, know that even if you have diabetes or prediabetes, the benefits of these activities usually outweigh the risks of these brief spikes. But if you’d rather avoid an increase, certain strategies can help. Try practicing relaxation techniques before and during intense exercise, moving your workout to the afternoon (early-morning exercise often causes a more dramatic spike), asking your doctor about adjusting your diabetes medications, and avoiding eating too many carbohydrates before or during your workouts.

The Takeaway

  • Regular exercise can help manage blood sugar levels because the muscles draw glucose from the bloodstream for fuel and become more sensitive to insulin for up to 48 hours after a workout.
  • Consistent physical activity reduces insulin resistance, which can reduce the risk of developing diabetes or ease diabetes management for those who have already been diagnosed.
  • While aerobic exercise provides immediate blood sugar reduction and strength training offers long-term blood sugar stability by increasing muscle mass, all forms of movement, including short, low-intensity breaks in your day, are beneficial for glucose management.
  • Experts recommend a combination of 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity and two days of strength training per week, but individuals using insulin must frequently monitor their blood sugar before, during, and after exercise to avoid hypoglycemia.

Resources We Trust

EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
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Natalia Johnsen, MD, is a triple board-certified physician in internal medicine, lifestyle medicine, and obesity medicine, practicing as an internist and consultant at the Vancouver Clinic in Vancouver, Washington.

Dr. Johnsen began her medical career as an ob-gyn in Russia before relocating to the United States in 2000. She completed her internal medicine internship at the University of Nevada and her residency at a Stanford-affiliated program in Santa Clara, California.

Deeply interested in the impact of lifestyle on both physical and mental health, Johnsen transitioned her focus toward prevention-based care after witnessing how many chronic conditions could be avoided or improved through lifestyle interventions. She became board-certified in lifestyle medicine in 2021 and further expanded her expertise by earning board certification in obesity medicine in 2025.

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