The effects, though consistent, were small. But the researchers hadn’t expected substantial improvements, Little says, since the volunteers already controlled their blood sugar well. With the snacking, that control was slightly better. And almost everyone seemed to find the four minutes of daily exercise tolerable and even, for many, fun. This study looked only at short-term effects, though, and doesn’t show whether continued exercise snacking would have greater or more-lasting impacts on blood sugar. It also doesn’t tell us much about the ideal snack serving.
“We had to make somewhat arbitrary choices” about the length and number of snacks, Little says. “We don’t think there’s anything magical about precisely one minute of exercise,” or four minutes a day. Seventy seconds at a time might be better. Or five daily snacks. “Find what works for you,” Little says.
blood sugar, blood glucose, exercise snacking, short bouts of exercise, snacking routine, Little, study findings
So like… snacks and exercise now? Cool I guess.
Not gonna lie, I don’t get why it’s “snacking” instead of just eating normal. If they already had good blood sugar, then what are we even measuring here? Seems like a bunch of small numbers for something people could already do.
I thought the headline meant four minutes of exercise helps like right away for everyone, but then it’s only for people who controlled their blood sugar already. Also “we had to make arbitrary choices”?? That part sounds sketchy to me. Like what if it’s not even the snack part, it’s just moving around.
Four minutes a day sounds easy but I’m imagining the “exercise snacking” like literally standing up every time you get hungry. My uncle always says just don’t eat late and you’re fine, but this makes it sound like you can snack your way out of diabetes which feels backwards. They also said it’s short-term so yeah, I’ll wait til there’s more than a tiny improvement.