Bueno, Gretchen! Nearly 40 years ago, when I started having
diabetic symptoms, I weighed 150 lbs. (6'1"") and played near
pro-level competitive Tennis year-round.
Of course I had no idea what was going on - I'm an engineer,
not a doctor - But the white-coat crew managed not to notice
either, until at age 44 a diabetic friend talked me into testing
my blood sugar (I'd been whining about how lousy I felt).
Meters in those days did'nt read past 400 mg/dL - We went to
ER.
These days I take Insulin, am overweight, and feel one hell of a
lot better. Last A1C 5.2 - Next one won't be that good - I need
to get back on the low-carb wagon :)
Jack
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nevertheless, exercise can be considered a metabolic virtue- there is consensus that insulin resistance is essential to the metabolic syndrome, and exercise does reduce insulin resistance for any BMI- my own theory on exercise is inertia- bodies at rest tend to stay at rest and bodies in motion tend to stay in motion- i have always been skeptical of people that "like" or "don't like" to exercise (although exercise does release endorphins, but then again so does chocolate)- i think that acitivity level is rather a habit, and breaking habits is hard- the hardest part about exercise is starting the habit, and it is equally hard for regular exercisers to skip days, as they feel guilty or bad by breaking their own habit- of course, anyone who feels pain during exercise should stop and get counsel as to what is proper- in the end, i don't buy the excuse that some people don't like to exercise while others do- i have often used that excuse to explain why my place is a mess- i "don't like" to clean and have often viewed the cleanliness virtue with scorn as mentioned in the post- but i realize it's likely the case that i don't have the habit of cleaning up whereas others do
Frank, I agree that exercise is good, for cardiovascular health as well as insulin resistance.
What I was writing about was weight loss.