Sprint Workouts Boost Fat Burning In Diabetics

After 7 weeks of sprint training, diabetics seemed to burn, or "oxidize," fat more readily, while accumulating less lactate in their muscle tissue, Dr. Alison R. Harmer of the University of Sydney in New South Wales and her colleagues found. The researchers also found no adverse effects of intense exercise in the study participants, some of whom had poor blood glucose control.

In people without diabetes, high-intensity training can help reduce breakdown of glycogen, a molecule used to store energy in the body, in future bouts of intense exercise. And while lactate accumulates in the muscles with strenuous exercise, leading to fatigue and pain, training can help reduce this accumulation.

Just one study has looked at muscle metabolism in people with type 1 diabetes, the researchers note in the November issue of Diabetes Care. This investigation found that these individuals had less ability to burn energy in their muscle tissue, more fluctuation in glucose metabolism, and greater blood acidity.

To see if their hypothesis that training may help restore normal muscle metabolism for people with type 1 diabetes, the researchers had eight patients with the condition and seven healthy individuals complete 7 weeks of sprint training. Study participants performed 4 to 10 "all out" sprints on an exercise bike three times a week.

Before and after the 7 weeks of training, each study participant cycled to exhaustion. After training, the researchers found, cycling to exhaustion led to less accumulation of lactate in the muscles and blood and slower breakdown of both glucose and glycogen than before training in the diabetic individuals.

"The oxidative adaptations to high-intensity exercise training may confer clinically important health benefits in young patients with diabetes; however, this remains to be established," Harmer and her team conclude.

Diabetes Care, November 2008.