Your body’s ability to regulate blood sugar levels affects both your overall health and your bone health. Fortunately, studies have identified simple strategies that can improve glycemic control– your body’s management of blood sugar.
These actions were shown to improve post-meal blood sugar regulation, helping to prevent hyperglycemia and reduce risks linked to diabetes and bone loss.
We’ll review these studies and how improving post-meal blood sugar levels can protect your health and your bones.
Short Regular Activity Breaks Improve After-Meal Glucose Levels
A study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports found that overweight or obese young men who broke up prolonged sitting with a brief period of walking or squats every 45 minutes lowered their postprandial (after meal) glucose levels compared to when they sat uninterrupted.1
Activity breaks every 45 minutes produced greater improvements than taking a single 30-minute walk.
The study used a rigorous design– a randomized, four arm crossover trial in which each participant completed every intervention. The four arms of the trial were:
- sitting for 8.5 hours uninterruptedly
- sitting for 8.5 hours with 30 minutes of walking
- sitting for 8.5 hours with three minutes of walking every 45 minutes
- sitting for 8.5 hours with ten squats every 45 minutes
Researchers used electromyography to measure lower limb muscle activation and measured postprandial (after meal) glycemic responses throughout the intervention.
They found that the superior benefits of frequent walking or squatting breaks were associated with increased muscle activity intensity in the targeted muscle groups during frequent transitions from sitting to activity. Frequent muscle contractions boost glucose uptake independent of insulin.1
Synopsis
A Scandinavian study found that obese and overweight young men improved their glycemic control by breaking up eight hours of sitting with three-minute walks or 10 bodyweight squats every 45 minutes.
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Enhancing Glycemic Control Protects Your Insulin Response
These results offer an easy-to-apply strategy for improving your glycemic control. Good glycemic control helps prevent postprandial glucose spikes. These spikes can, over time, lead to insulin resistance.
Insulin is a hormone your body releases that allows your cells to absorb glucose. When glucose enters the bloodstream, the pancreas releases insulin so cells can absorb it, lowering blood glucose levels.
Insulin resistance occurs when cells stop responding to the normal amount of insulin required to trigger glucose absorption. The body then must ramp up insulin production to clear glucose from the blood. However, this overproduction can eventually wear out the pancreas’s ability to produce insulin and cause diabetes.
Elevated blood sugar level caused by insulin resistance causes prediabetic hyperglycemia, which can progress to diabetes. The frequent interruptions of prolonged sitting in the study increased glucose uptake and improved glycemic control, helping to prevent the development of insulin resistance.
Synopsis
Improvements to glycemic control prevent post-prandial glucose spikes, which can lead to insulin resistance. Insulin resistance leads to prediabetic hyperglycemia, which can turn into diabetes. The frequent activity breaks in the study improved glycemic control, which can prevent insulin resistance.
Hyperglycemia, Diabetes, And Bone Health
Prolonged increases in blood glucose levels can develop into type 2 diabetes, a condition which affects almost every bodily system, including the heart, eyes, kidneys, and nervous system.
Prediabetes and insulin resistance are associated with multiple health problems, including :
- Type 2 diabetes
- High blood pressure
- Metabolic syndrome
- Increased risk for cardiovascular disease and stroke
- Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
- Obesity
- Unhealthy levels of cholesterol
- Harm to blood vessels and nerves
- Bone damage
Chronic hyperglycemia also negatively impacts bone health, contributing to maladaptive skeletal loading and degraded bone architecture. These structural changes may not alter bone mineral density and do not appear on routine DXA scans; however, they weaken bone and increase fracture risk.2
A review published in the International Journal of Molecular Science concluded that a diabetic environment impairs biomechanical properties of bone by deteriorating its organic matrix and degrading material strength.3
Synopsis
Hyperglycemia leads to insulin resistance and prediabetes, which are linked to serious health problems, including type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and bone damage. Diabetes degrades bone architecture, increasing fracture risk without necessarily changing bone mineral density.
Breaking Up Prolonged Sitting Shown To Benefit Postmenopausal Women
The study above aligns with earlier findings in postmenopausal women. That study found that five minutes of light walking or standing every 30 minutes reduced post-meal glucose and insulin levels.4
This 2016 study included 22 overweight or obese postmenopausal women with impaired blood sugar regulation. Each participant underwent two of the interventions, which included:
- prolonged, unbroken sitting (7.5 hours)
- prolonged sitting broken up with standing for five minutes every 30 minutes
- prolonged sitting broken up with light-intensity walking for 5 min every 30 min
The researchers found that breaking up prolonged sitting with standing or walking reduced postprandial glucose, insulin, and non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) responses. They concluded that this simple action can improve the metabolic profile of postmenopausal, dysglycemic women.4
These results show the benefits of getting your body moving at regular intervals, especially when you would otherwise be sedentary. They also demonstrate that the harms of prolonged sitting are better countered by regular short interruptions than by a single longer interruption.
Next time you sit down, set a timer for 30 to 45 minutes, and when it goes off, get up and move for three to five minutes. When you sit back down, reset the timer. You can take a light-intensity walk or do bodyweight squats like the participants in these studies. For other movements and exercises to keep your activity breaks varied, check out SaveTrainer.
Synopsis
A study with postmenopausal dysglycemic women found that participants who broke up prolonged sitting with light walking every 30 minutes improved their postprandial glucose and insulin levels. When you’re sitting for an extended period, set an alarm to remind you to get up and move for a few minutes every 30 to 45 minutes.
What This Means To You
Keeping active throughout the day helps your body to absorb glucose, reducing post-meal hyperglycemia and the development of insulin resistance. That outcome protects your bones from the damage caused by hyperglycemia and diabetes.
Regular movement breaks during prolonged sitting are a proven strategy and an excellent supplement to your regular exercise routine. Check out SaveTrainer for help to create a bone-building workout routine that you will enjoy. SaveTrainer is the Save Institute’s online workout video platform, featuring trainer-led videos tailored to every ability level across a wide variety of exercise formats.
Your ability to move is one of the most powerful tools for maintaining independence and vitality throughout your life. Stay consistent with brief movement breaks and make SaveTrainer your go-to resource for bone-smart exercise, so you can stay active, healthy, and strong..
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Follow safe, guided workouts designed specifically for osteoporosis and osteopenia. Build strength, improve balance, and move with confidence using expert-led workout plans you can do from home.
References
2 https://academic.oup.com/jes/article/8/7/bvae112/7688851
While getting up every 45 minutes is a good idea, it is darn near impossible on some jobs. I’ve been a court reporter for 45 years and stuck in that chair in a courtroom for hours on end and can’t do a thing about it. Somehow at 71 I’m still healthy, but I’ve also been working out for 50 years. All I can do is run in place in the bathroom if and when I get a break. Everyone knows they should get up and move, but some jobs won’t let you take the time it would take to walk for 3 minutes every 45 minutes. It’s just not practical. Even at home it’s not always feasible.
That’s understandable, Susan. But here’s an easy alternative for you and for all Savers who need to stay seated for long periods of time. A study titled “A potent physiological method to magnify and sustain soleus oxidative metabolism improves glucose and lipid regulation” published in the journal Science back in 2022 has found that contracting the soleus (calf) muscles while sitting down greatly reduced post-meal blood glucose spikes.
This is how to do it:
Sit in a chair with your feet flat on the floor.
Keep your heels on the floor and your toes relaxed.
Press up on the balls of your feet, lifting your heels as high as possible.
Hold for a moment, then slowly lower your heels back down.
Repeat for a few minutes, and do it a few times a day.
I hope this helps!
I had read recently that we don’t need to do 10K steps? It was shortened quite a bit, under 5K steps was shown to be just as good. Did you read that or am I dreaming🙃thank you for all your info! 🤓
You’re very welcome, Carol. The latest information about daily steps for better health and reduced mortality was published in The Lancet in August 2025. Titled “Daily steps and health outcomes in adults: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis”, it concludes that instead of 10,000 steps “7000 steps per day is associated with clinically meaningful improvements in health outcomes and might be a more realistic and achievable target for some.”
Many other studies mention how 10,000 steps is an arbitrary number, and I wrote an article about this topic back in 2017. You can click the link below to read it:
https://saveourbones.com/10000-steps-a-day-sound-science-or-fad/
Stay healthy and active!