How To Balance Your Blood Sugar With Surprising Hacks From Dr. Amy Shah (EXCLUSIVE)
Plus see how one woman lost 145 pounds by getting her glucose levels under control
When it comes to knowing how to balance blood sugar, we’ve seen some wacky online trends (chugging vinegar shots and wearing castor oil wraps, just to name a few). But some popular hacks actually work! Just ask triple–Ivy League–educated and double board–certified physician Amy Shah, MD, who shares her knowledge with millions of people on social media. She put some surprising tricks to the test. Here, she shares exclusively with Woman’s World the five research-proven habits she trusts to help women lower high blood sugar and lose weight.
Why everyone is trying to balance their blood sugar
There’s a reason why hacks promising to balance blood sugar spread like wildfire online. When we learn to control our blood glucose, we harness the power to boost metabolism, prevent or reverse diabetes and block weight gain. When blood sugar is high, the body must release more insulin, a hormone that stores excess blood sugar in body fat—mostly in the belly. But by controlling your levels, Dr. Shah says, “you’ll see a difference with your blood sugar and BMI.”
That was the case for Tamara Graham, who lost 145 pounds and reversed her type 2 diabetes. (See her story at the end.) But first, check out Dr. Shah’s advice for keeping your glucose levels in a healthy range. Tip: You can find out what normal blood sugar levels are for your age here.
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How to balance your blood sugar: Dr. Shah’s top 5 tips
You know the drill: Eat a balanced diet, make time for regular physical activity and ensure you’re getting enough sleep. While those healthy habits are all important, they’re not the only ways to bring your glucose levels down. Here, easy hacks that Dr. Shah says actually work.
Try 10 squats
Got 10 seconds? Doing 10 body-weight squats (just squat like you’re sitting in a chair, then stand up) for every hour of sitting is more effective at managing blood sugar in overweight adults than taking a 30-minute walk. “I do this all the time,” says Dr. Shah, author of I’m So Effing Hungry. “You can literally do it anywhere: at your desk, while brushing your teeth, while traveling.”
A 2024 study shows this trick lowers post-meal blood-sugar spikes by 22 percent. Scientists say flexing large muscles in the butt and thighs helps use up circulating blood sugar. (They call it “the squat effect.”) In contrast, when blood sugar gets too high and isn’t utilized, insulin helps store it as body fat, fueling weight gain in the belly.
Make ‘magic’ carbs
Freezing bread overnight before eating it or reaching for leftover rice and potatoes in the fridge can reduce the blood-sugar impact of the meal by 30 to 50 percent, says Dr. Shah. When a cooked carb is cooled, its starches transform into resistant starch, which “resists” being digested, meaning up to half of the food’s calories aren’t absorbed.
A Nature Metabolism study shows that people who regularly ate resistant starch lost 20 percent of their belly fat in eight weeks. Dr. Shah does this with sourdough, which is fermented to contain gut-friendly prebiotic fiber that makes us feel even fuller for longer and blunts blood-sugar spikes.
Forget fake fiber
Processed fiber supplements (like Metamucil) are often called “poor man’s Ozempic.” But Dr. Shah says that’s not the best way to go for lasting health and weight loss. Eating more whole-food fiber (a practice called “fibermaxxing”) is far superior at balancing your blood sugar in a healthy way. She explains that the reason fiber is a constant weight-loss winner in studies is because it’s housed inside fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds. So skip the supplements and go for the real stuff, which prevents blood-sugar spikes.
“Fiber is the mainstay of our gut bacteria. Without it, we cannot have good hormone health.” And insulin is a hormone. In fact, Dr. Shah’s fiber-forward 30-30-3 hack is one of her most viral nutrition tricks. Simply eat 30 grams of protein in your first meal, 30 grams of fiber (from whole foods) throughout your day and at least three servings of gut-healing probiotic-rich foods (like yogurt, kimchi, sauerkraut and sourdough) every day. “Fiber isn’t just something that’s good to have. It is crucial!” she notes.
Walk this way
“I love Japanese interval walking—it’s so easy,” says Dr. Shah. To try: Alternate walking at a normal pace for three minutes, then a fast pace (like hustling to cross a street) for three minutes, completing six sets in 30 minutes. “I find myself doing this all the time—my parents do it after meals.”
And it works: In one study published in Diabetes Care, type 2 diabetics who practiced interval walking lost 9.5 pounds and more than a pound of harmful belly fat in four months. And they lowered their blood sugar 250 percent more than regular walkers.
Wear a sleep mask
“Ambient light disturbs circadian rhythms and interferes with blood-sugar regulation,” reveals Dr. Shah, who slips on a sleep mask before bed, calling the simple move “a game changer to get a good night’s sleep.”
Northwestern University research shows a single night of exposure to light during sleep can impair glucose. But sleeping in the dark boosts blood-sugar management by 20 percent.
Blood-sugar success story: Tamara reversed her diabetes
When fast-food junkie Tamara Graham, 45, was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, she says, “I worried about the onslaught of issues—it was everything scaring me all at once.” She weighed 336 pounds, suffered diminished mobility and had out-of-control blood sugar.
She’d already tried keto, intermittent fasting and every gimmick on the market with no luck. Then she consulted a dietitian through WeightWatchers and learned to make small tweaks to her lifestyle. “It changed my relationship to food.”
She found that basmati rice was easier to digest than brown rice. “It wasn’t about restriction. I learned, if you’re going to eat bread, choose sourdough.” She reached for high-fiber fruits (like raspberries) to blunt blood-sugar spikes and started her day with protein.
Tamara also took a GLP-1 medication for her diabetes. But she says, “Relying solely on medication wasn’t enough.” She needed real-life strategies. And all those hacks paid off. She lost 28 pounds the first month (as much as two pounds some days!)
Tamara went from size 26 to 8!
In all, Tamara shed 145 pounds and is no longer diabetic. “It feels powerful to say I reversed something most people are told they’ll have for life. I decided this cycle stops with me.” Now she encourages others to start small. Her motto: “You’re ready, just press play!”
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