Burning More Fat Than Glucose May Cause Diabetes : An After Dinner Walk Might Help You! [STUDY]

Traditionally it was believed that to improve endurance performance carbohydrate-loading (carbo-loading) was the right way, however recent findings speculate that it might lead to diabetes.

According to Baylor College of Medicine when the mouse is awake and active, it's body mechanism uses glucose (carbohydrate) as fuel but turns to fat (lipid) when they are asleep. Researchers believe disturbing this natural response system may lead to diabetes.

These findings may have an impact on choosing the right time to exercise for losing body fat apart from casting doubt over the use of HDAC3 (Histone Deacetylase 3) as endurance enhancing drugs.

How the glucose is used by the muscles depends on the internal circadian clock that anticipates its activity level day-night.

Dr. Zheng Sun, Assistant professor of medicine - diabetes, endocrinology, metabolism, Molecular and cellular biology at Baylor clarifies "The Circadian clock works by turning certain genes on and off as the 24-hour cycle progresses. HDAC3 is a key connection between the circadian clock and gene expression. Our previous work shows that HDAC3 helps the liver alternate between producing glucose and producing lipid. In this work, we studied how HDAC3 controls the use of different fuels in skeletal muscle."

The muscles - Skeletal and Voluntary are important in controlling the blood glucose in the body. Usually they consume most of the glucose but if they are unable to use it because of insulin, it may lead to diabetes.

Science Daily reports that researchers compared the genetically engineered laboratory mice with normal ones to study the role of HDAC3 and the results were unexpected.

The blood sugar of normal mouse increases after eating and the released insulin channelises the muscles to use the glucose as fuel. In contrast the muscles of knocked out mice refused to take in the released insulin.

There is possibility of better fat burning by exercising at night as muscles use more lipid at that time. A post dinner walk may be a good idea the study concludes.