Table 1.

A summary of published studies that have examined the effect of pre-meal vs. post-meal physical activity on postprandial glycemia and lipemia.

Study	Prospective or retrospective analysis?	Subjects	Activity	Did the study include a no-activity control group?	Was post-meal activity better than pre-meal activity?
					Glucose	Lipids
Poirier et al. (46)	Prospective	10 middle-aged men with type 2 diabetes	60 min moderate-intensity cycling	No	Yes Postprandial activity caused lower postprandial blood glucose response than preprandial activity	Not different Postprandial plasma FFA response was not different between pre- vs. post-prandial activity trials
Poirier et al. (51)	Retrospective	19 middle-aged, overweight men with type 2 diabetes	Three 60 min moderate-intensity cycling sessions per week for 12 weeks	No	Yes Postprandial activity caused lower postprandial blood glucose response than preprandial activity	Not measured
Colberg et al. (47)	Prospective	12 older-aged, obese, men and women with type 2 diabetes	20 min self-paced walk	Yes	Yes Postprandial activity caused lower postprandial blood glucose response than preprandial activity and no activity	Not measured
Borer et al. (48)	Prospective	9 overweight, middle to older aged women	Two 2-h low-intensity treadmill walks in a single day, 5-h apart	No	No Pre-meal activity caused lower daylong blood glucose levels than post-meal walking	Not different Postprandial plasma FFA response was not different between pre- vs. post-prandial activity trials
Terada et al. (52)	Retrospective	15 older aged, obese, men and women with type 2 diabetes	Five 30–60 min cycling or walking sessions per week for 12 weeks (continuous moderate intensity or intervals)	No	Pre- vs. post-meal responses were not compared Greater reduction in blood glucose levels after 12-weeks when meals ingested less than 2-h prior to exercise rather than more than 2-h	Not measured
Heden et al. (50)	Prospective	13 middle-aged, obese, men and women with type 2 diabetes	3-sets of 10 reps at 10RM of eight resistance/strength exercises	Yes	Not different Both pre- and post-meal activity reduced postprandial blood glucose responses	Yes Postprandial triglycerides were lower in the postprandial activity group, compared to pre-meal activity and no activity
Terada et al. (49)	Prospective	10 older aged, overweight/obese, men and women with type 2 diabetes	60 min moderate-intensity walk or interval walk	Yes	No Pre-meal activity caused lower postprandial blood glucose response than post-meal walking and no activity	Not measured