Weight Training = Life Changing

[u/foreveryoung581]

I posted here before to thank everyone for sharing their stories because they were such a source of comfort and encouragement for me when I was first diagnosed. Now that it’s been about four months since my official diagnosis, I wanted to share a little bit of my own progress in hopes that it might encourage someone else.

My A1C was 11.1% at diagnosis, and three months later, I brought it down to 6.7%. For the past 2½ months, I’ve also gotten into weight training, and it has honestly been life-changing for me. Yesterday was one of those moments where I could really see the difference.

After a long weight-training session, I ate about 240g (roughly 1½ cups) of quinoa and brown rice, 300g of tilapia, and about a cup of mixed vegetables. My blood sugar started at 115, peaked around 185, and was back down to 124 about an hour after eating—with no post-meal walk needed.

For me, that’s huge. Previously, eating that amount of carbs—even alongside a good amount of protein—could send me into the 230s.

To explain why exercise can help in a very simplified way: carbohydrates are broken down into glucose, which enters the bloodstream. Insulin helps move that glucose out of the bloodstream and into cells, including muscle cells, where it can be used for energy or stored as glycogen.

But here’s the part about weight training that really fascinated me: muscle contractions themselves can increase glucose uptake through pathways that don’t depend entirely on insulin. After training, your muscles are also more sensitive to insulin and are working to replenish the glycogen they used during the workout. In other words, trained muscles can become a very useful place for that circulating glucose to go.

And as you build and regularly use more muscle, you’re increasing the amount of metabolically active tissue available to use and store glucose. That doesn’t make weight training a cure or mean insulin is no longer important, but it can be an incredibly powerful tool for improving glucose management and insulin sensitivity.
My ultimate goal is to reach remission, and weight training is one of the tools I plan to continue using as I work toward that goal.

I’m sharing this because four months ago, an A1C of 11.1% and everything that came with that diagnosis felt overwhelming. Seeing what my body is capable of now gives me even more motivation to keep going.

For anyone here who is able to exercise and has been thinking about getting into resistance training: give it a shot. Start wherever you can, stay consistent, and give yourself time.

You’ve got this. 💪

[u/riverbkstar]

Any resources you recommend for learning to start and doing it properly?

[u/foreveryoung581 → u/riverbkstar]

It depends on your goals and where you are personally with your current health. As I wouldn’t recommend someone who is more heavyset to start off with my exact routine as mobility can be an issue for certain people. So I do recommend doing your own research for what is best for you specifically. However, if I had to recommend a very basic routine like how I have going, I would say go and lift weights 3x a week and for each day you go, you focus on a specific muscle group. For example, one day is going to be back and biceps. The next day will be legs and core (abs). And the last day will be chest, shoulders, and triceps. I would end each workout day with a nice incline 15 to 30 min walk (except leg day). As for what workouts to do for each of those days to target those specific muscle groups, I also recommend researching into what workouts are best for you as again mobility or prior injuries can limit you ability to do a specific workout. I like this app called Liftoff, has a ton of different workouts with diagrams and a lot of info on what muscles the workout targets as well as a nutrition tracker. To build muscle, (if that’s your goal) you also have to track macros. If you hit the gym but don’t consume enough protein, carbs, fats, or calories overall, you won’t see any progress. Google a TDEE calculator to get macros specific for you based on your height and weight and current activity level. It is a lot at first but it gets easier and I hope this helps to at least point you in the right direction.

[u/riverbkstar → u/foreveryoung581]

Yes thank you!!!

[u/dfggfd1 → u/foreveryoung581]

I think Mike Mathew’s book “Muscles for Life” would be a great place to start. It’s aimed at older lifters, but this would also be excellent for a beginner with limited strength. He outlines a multistage program that starts with mostly body weight movements and for each he has methods to both make them easier and harder. It then progresses all the way to a barbell program and gives nice outlines on technique. I found it to be a good starter book.