How Teens with Type 2 Can Shed the Pounds

Managing diabetes is challenging at any age, but it’s especially difficult for teens with type 2 diabetes, who have to gain muscle while they lose fat. Fortunately, the science of nutrient timing is beginning to give us some insight in just how this seemingly impossible feat is accomplished.

Most experts in sports nutrition, Dr. John Berardi, for instance, tell their elite athletes they should eat a complete meal, protein, carbs, and fat, about every three waking hours. The same principle applies to teens performing the elite feat of losing fat while gaining muscle.

There are very good reasons for recommending snacking and small meals to teens with type 2 diabetes.

Stop-and-go activities like a dash between classes require quick energy in the muscles. Endurance activities, that can be as simple as tapping your feet, require long-lasting energy in the bloodstream.

The body’s answer to both needs is glycogen. It stores glucose away in the muscles and liver in the form of glycogen so it doesn’t have to drain this vital sugar out of the bloodstream. Glycogen is right where the muscles need it when they have sudden heavy energy demands, and the liver can turn glycogen into a steady stream of glucose for longer activities.

Another of the very good reasons type 2 teens should eat balanced meals frequently is recovery. After any kind of exertion, and throughout the growth process, muscles need to replenish their glycogen energy supplies and to repair their proteins.

Their first priority seems to be the protein. Muscles take in glucose to make glycogen, but they can’t do this efficiently unless they’re taking in amino acids, too. Ergo, athletes drink their protein-fortified energy drinks during and after workouts to protect muscle. Teens with type 2 diabetes may not need the carbs of an energy drink, but they do need protein.

The principles are the same for diabetics doing either milder exercise or a heavy workout, except for the carbohydrate replenishment part. Diabetics don’t have to do “carb loading.” They’re pretty much already carb loaded.

And if teens with type 2 diabetes are going to eat extra carbs, right after the workout is a good time to eat them. Exercised muscles store 51 per cent more glucose as glycogen than muscles that haven’t been exercised. That’s a really big difference is how much exercise lowers blood sugars. To get this benefit, diabetic teens need protein, and they especially need it after exercise.