Many adults in Canada live with metabolic conditions:

• Obesity (body mass index ≥30 kg/m²) affected 26.4% or 8.3 million adults in 2016.
• Overweight (body mass index 25-29.9 kg/m²) affected 34% or 10.6 million adults in 2016.
• In 2015, 9.3% or 3.4 million adults were living with diabetes and 22.1% or 5.7 million adults were living with prediabetes.

Obesity and diabetes increase the risk of developing other health conditions:

• Obesity increases the risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes.
• Diabetes also increases the risk of heart disease and stroke as well as kidney failure, and leg and foot amputation.

Prediabetes refers to blood sugar levels that are higher than normal; nearly 50% of those with prediabetes will go on to develop type 2 diabetes.

Physical Activity and Metabolic Conditions

Regular physical activity causes a wide range of health benefits in adults even if body weight and blood sugar control do not change.

Canadian guidelines recommend that adults living with obesity, prediabetes, and/or diabetes do both aerobic and muscle strengthening exercise and decrease sedentary behaviour (e.g., sitting or watching TV) for health benefits and/or body weight control.

Useful Resources

Diabetes, Exercise & You (Vancouver Coastal Health, Canada)

This booklet presents the benefits of physical activity for persons with diabetes, the types of activity that have a positive impact on diabetes, and getting started and staying safe with physical activity.

Benefits of Physical Activity (Diabetes Canada, Canada)

The first of five brochures on physical activity and exercise by Diabetes Canada. This brochure presents the benefits of physical activity for persons with diabetes, tips to overcoming barriers to activity, and ways to increase physical activity.

Planning for Regular Physical Activity (Diabetes Canada, Canada)

The second of five brochures on physical activity and exercise by Diabetes Canada, which presents steps toward becoming physically active.

Introductory Resistance Program (Diabetes Canada, Canada)

The third of five brochures on physical activity and exercise by Diabetes Canada. This brochure presents muscle strengthening exercises done with one's own body weight or with a band and guidelines for doing and progressing strength training.

Maintaining Aerobic Exercise (Diabetes Canada, Canada)

The fourth of five brochures on physical activity and exercise by Diabetes Canada. This brochure describes ways to stick with physical activity and progressing aerobic physical activity.

Resistance Exercise (Diabetes Canada, Canada)

The fifth of five brochures on physical activity and exercise by Diabetes Canada. This brochure presents muscle strengthening exercises done with one's own body weight or with hand weights and guidelines for doing and progressing strength training.

Physical Activity Counselling Toolkit (University of Alberta, Canada)

This Toolkit consists of handouts on physical activity for type 2 diabetes (Topics H and I) and weight management (Topic J), which are intended to be used with a health care provider.

Being Active When You Have Prediabetes (Exercise is Medicine, USA)

This handout presents the benefits of physical activity for persons with prediabetes, the types of activity that have a positive impact on prediabetes, and getting started with physical activity.

Being Active When You Have Type 2 Diabetes (Exercise is Medicine, USA)

This handout presents the benefits of physical activity for persons with type 2 diabetes, the types of activity that have a positive impact on type 2 diabetes, and getting started and staying safe with physical activity.

Being Active for a Healthy Weight (Exercise is Medicine, USA)

This handout presents the benefits of physical activity for managing weight, the types of activity that have a positive impact on health, and getting started with physical activity.

Get and Stay Fit (American Diabetes Association, USA)

This website describes safety considerations for being physically active with diabetes and tips to overcoming barriers to and staying motivated for physical activity.

Last updated: October 2023