How to build muscle with Type 1 diabetes

To build muscle you need resistance exercise. Resistance exercise can be done using your own body weight, resistance bands or weights.

Training should increase muscle size or strength if enough nutrition is provided to fuel the exercise and allow for the development of new tissue (muscles).

It is important that you also have enough sleep after training sessions. Sleep allows your body to refuel and rebuild.

To meet the energy demands of training you need to carbohydrate and protein foods spread across the day as part of a healthy diet. Choose low fat, wholegrain carbohydrate foods where possible and low fat/lean protein sources.

• Eat enough food, including carbohydrates to get the energy (calories) to meet the demands of the training program. Eating enough carbohydrate to provide you with energy means protein can be used to build and repair muscle
• Eat the right amount of protein. A protein intake of 1.6 – 1.8 g/kg/day will be enough to increase muscle mass while growing. 2g/kg/day is the maximum amount recommended. More than this will not have any benefits.
• Spread your protein intake across the day, each meal should include some protein. Leucine (an amino acid) is a trigger for stimulating muscle growth. You can get this from milk, eggs, meat, poultry, fish, soya, and wheat.
• More than 30g protein in a meal may need some additional insulin to manage glucose levels. Look out for glucose rises 2-5hours after the meal.
• Milk can be used as recovery nutrition - it contains both carbohydrate and protein and will also help rehydration. The combination of carbohydrate and protein in milk helps muscle replace glycogen stores.
• Protein and carbohydrate before bed can help to reduce the risk of overnight hypoglycaemia.
• Try to avoid eating lots of high fat protein sources

You need roughly 0.4 -0.5g protein/kg/meal, if you weigh more than 80kg aim for 40g protein in each meal. There is no benefit to having more than 30-40g protein in a meal. meal. Work out how much protein to have with a meal below

Weight (kg)

3    meals a day (g/meal)    0
4    meals a day (g/meal)    0

If you use the Carbs & Cals book or app you can look up protein content of foods you eat

The list below shows you portion sizes of different foods that contain 10g protein.

These snack options all contain carbohydrate and protein. You will find recipe suggestions and information on protein on several websites. We recommend www.anitabean.uk for sports nutrition information and recipes.

• Chocolate milk shake
• Cereal with milk
• Greek yogurt with granola
• Wholemeal sandwiches
• Baked beans on toast
• Homemade cereal bars (made with nuts and seeds)
• Mixed dried fruit and nuts

These milk shake recipes contain both carbohydrate and protein:

Easy milk shake

• Whisk together
• 150ml skimmed milk 15g skimmed milk powder
• 15g milk shake powder

Each serving contains 15g carbohydrate and 10g protein

Raspberry Chocolate Smoothie

• Make this in a blender
• 180ml skimmed milk
• 1 tablespoon drinking chocolate
• 2 tablespoons frozen raspberries
• 2 tablespoons low fat vanilla yoghurt

A serving provides 30g carbohydrate and 10g protein

If you are eating well you should not need to take any supplements. to get enough protein to build muscle.

If you want help eating to increase your muscle mass, ask for an appointment in the Diabetes and Exercise clinic.

You can contact the Childrens Diabetes Dietitians on uclh.cddietitians@nhs.net

Expert advice and information about children and young people's type 1 diabetes can be found at: www.uclh.nhs.uk/t1