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It is often mentioned how much must be done to burn the contents of a sweet dessert. For example, desserts offered by a well-known Quebec chain of restaurants can easily contain 500, 600, and even up to 800 calories!
Of course, as I often point out in my columns, having fun from time to time does not hurt in the context of an active lifestyle and a varied and balanced diet.
However, if as a third of the population, you are sedentary, then you become very vulnerable to all this added sugar, contained in a host of processed products on the market.
In addition, burning hundreds of calories through exercise can be a challenge. So, to spend a 600 calorie dessert, you will have to walk at a good pace for about two hours (and even more if you walk slowly)!
This is why we often hear that to control your weight and stay away from diabetes, you have to do it through diet and not exercise.
However, the exercise has great benefits on the management of sugar! Let's go see what science tells us.
Two energy reservoirs
First of all, it is important to explain that we have two body energy reservoirs: fat (adipose tissue) and sugar. The latter is stored as glycogen, mainly in the muscles and, in smaller amounts, in the liver.
As for energy reserves in body fat, they are plentiful and, even in people of normal weight, there are tens of thousands of calories available.
However, body fat does not provide the power to do a good intensity exercise (it would be like a big tank of gasoline truck that powers a tiny engine).
In contrast, energy from body sugar (glycogen) is less abundant (about 1600 calories in the muscles and 400 calories in the liver).
However, this reserve of glycogen is the one that allows for vigorous physical activity, but the duration will be limited (think of a small tank of gasoline that would fuel a car of formula 1).
That said, the body always burns fat and sugar simultaneously in varying proportions: the higher the intensity of the exercise, the more the gasoline mixture will be rich in glycogen.
This is the challenge of marathon runners: managing their glycogen stores, because when they become too low, they are no longer able to maintain the intensity of their effort … the famous wall (often observed at 35 km) is reached.
Sport is beneficial
So, if, like many sedentary Quebecers, a little belly is settling in, your doctor has told you that you are pre-diabetic and that you have a sweet tooth, your glycogen reservoir is already full and can not store an excess of food sugar.
Then, specialized cells of the pancreas (called beta cells) that secrete the insulin needed for glucose (simple sugar) to enter the muscle cells will have to work harder and secrete even more insulin.
You will therefore develop what is called in endocrinology a state of insulin resistance and become hyperinsulinemic (high levels of insulin in the blood).
If you remain sedentary, you run the risk that your beta cells will run out and no longer be able to secrete sufficient amounts of insulin and you will develop type 2 diabetes.
In addition, this excess food sugar that can not be stored as glycogen will be converted to fat by the liver and will accumulate in unwanted places like your muscles, your heart and your abdomen.
On the other hand, if you walk, jog, ride a stationary bike for a long time (30 or 45 minutes), your muscles will consume glycogen, which will create what we call in our jargon a food storage space.
The effects of this exercise are not trivial: even after a single session, the food sugar now has a place to be stored as muscle glycogen (and a little to the liver), which will give a break to your cells beta and will significantly reduce your risk of diabetes.
In conclusion, in a food environment where added sugar is omnipresent, two recommendations:
1. moderate your consumption of foods containing added sugar, as there are almost everywhere;
2. Integrate physical activity or exercise into your daily routine to manage your body glycogen stores. To benefit from this effect of exercise, losing weight is not even required! A benefit accessible to all!
* Jean-Pierre Després is a professor in the Department of Kinesiology of the Faculty of Medicine at Laval University. He is also Scientific Director of the Center for Research in Primary Health Care and Services at Laval University, CIUSSS-Capitale Nationale and Director of Science and Innovation at Alliance Santé Québec.
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