What Exercise Does in LADA

Exercise is recommended in LADA, and the general advice is the same as in other types of diabetes: aim for about 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, spread across most days, with some strength work alongside.

What differs is what you should expect from it.

In Type 2 diabetes, exercise works largely by improving how well your body responds to insulin. Since poor response is the core problem there, activity addresses the cause, and the effect on blood sugar can be dramatic.

In LADA the core problem is that there is not enough insulin being made. Exercise cannot create insulin. It still helps your muscles take up glucose, and it still improves how well what insulin you have works — but it will not hold your blood sugar down as your production falls, and it is not an alternative to your treatment.

So the honest framing is that exercise in LADA is worth doing for a broader set of reasons than blood sugar alone:

• Heart and blood vessel health, which matters here as much as in Type 2 diabetes.
• Maintaining muscle, which matters more when unintended weight loss is a risk.
• Blood pressure, blood fats, sleep and mood.
• Making the insulin you do have — or later inject — work more efficiently.

One thing does change as LADA progresses. Once insulin or a sulfonylurea is part of your treatment, exercise can cause low blood sugar, and it needs planning around.