Why brisk walking beats almost everything else
If you do nothing else for your diabetes, walk briskly for 30 minutes a day.
Why walking
- It has the highest finishing rate of any activity advised for diabetes.
- 30 min/day of brisk walking is linked to roughly a 25% reduction in cardiovascular events in Type 2 diabetes.
- A 10-minute walk within 15 minutes of finishing a meal blunts the blood-sugar spike.
How brisk is brisk?
You should be able to talk in short sentences but not sing — about 4.5–6 km/h, or 100–120 steps a minute.
How to actually start
- Pick a time, not a goal. “Walk after dinner” beats “10,000 steps”.
- Two short walks beat one long walk.
- Pair it with a partner, podcast or audiobook.
- Plan for weather — have a treadmill or mall backup.
On insulin or sulfonylureas? Carry glucose tablets and have a small carb snack first. Start tomorrow.