Minimal effect of walking before dinner on glycemic responses in type 2 diabetes: outcomes from the multi-site E-PAraDiGM study

The Effect of Timing of Exercise and Eating on Postprandial Response in Adults: A Systematic Review

“…Fewer studies examined the association between pre-meal exercise performed in the morning [25] and the evening [29] and metabolic response in participants with T2D. One study was conducted in the morning and revealed a decrease in mean 24 h glucose concentration in exercise conditions compared to control, although, the improvement from exercise was observed in the second meal (~4.5 h post-exercise) but not in the first meal (~30 min post-exercise) [25].…”

“…Seventeen studies met the inclusion criteria for this systematic review (Table 1). These studies included adults with T2D [17,18,20,21,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29], as well as healthy [30][31][32][33] individuals and those with overweight/obesity and no reported comorbidities [19,34]. In terms of the interventions, included studies examined the effect of exercise performed relative to a meal on PP metabolic response.…”

“…Fifteen studies included moderate-intensity aerobic exercise, three examined high-intensity training [17,18,21], and only one consisted of resistance exercise [26]. Furthermore, ten studies investigated exercise relative to breakfast/morning meal [17,[19][20][21]25,28,[31][32][33][34], four included dinner/evening meal [23,26,27,29], and three examined exercise performed at several time points throughout the day [18,24,30]. In this review, the results were organized by time of day of performing exercise relative to meal consumption to maintain a focus on the timing and order of these activities.…”

“…Evidence regarding the effect of exercise performed relative to a dinner/evening meal on glycemic response has resulted from randomized crossover trials in participants with T2D [23,26,27,29]. Li et al evaluated the effect of post-dinner exercise on glycemic response using continuous glucose monitors [23].…”

“…Researchers reported similar findings of improved markers of cardiometabolic control (significant lower triglyceride and improved insulin clearance) [26] and lower blood glucose values [27] with both exercise types performed post-dinner. Interestingly, a study by Rees et al investigating the effect of walking pre-dinner on 24 h glycemic outcomes revealed no difference in most of the examined glycemic variables including 24 h glucose, fasting glucose, PP glucose, and glucose variability in an exercise condition compared to the control condition [29]. In summary, evidence regarding the effect of exercise relative to consumption of a dinner/evening meal on glycemic response was drawn from studies conducted in participants with T2D.…”