A comparison of acute glycaemic responses to accumulated or single bout walking exercise in apparently healthy, insufficiently active adults

© 2020 Sports Medicine Australia Objectives: To investigate the acute glyacaemic response to accumulated or single bout walking exercise in apparently healthy adults. Design: Three arm, randomised crossover control study. Methods: Ten adults (age: 50 ± 12.6 y; BMI 29.0 ± 5.4 kg m−2) completed three separate trials comprising three 10-min walking bouts after breakfast, lunch, and dinner (APPW), a single 30-min walking bout after dinner only (CPPW), or a no-exercise control (NOEX). Participants walked on a treadmill at a moderate intensity of 55%–70% heart rate reserve. Two-hour postprandial glucose response was assessed using a continuous glucose monitor. Results: There was a difference in the pattern of the glucose response between the trials during the two hours following dinner (p < 0.001). Postprandial dinner glucose concentrations were not different between APPW and CPPW but were up to 1.01 mmol L−1 lower than NOEX (partial eta2 = 0.21, p = 0.041). Conclusions: Ten minutes of moderate intensity walking completed 30 min after each meal lowers postprandial dinner glucose concentrations in comparison to no-exercise, and reduces glucose by a similar magnitude as a single 30-min bout after the evening meal. Short bouts of exercise after each meal may be recommended to minimise glucose elevations after dinner that might increase risk of cardiometabolic disease.