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I ate two slices of pizza. Friday night, pepperoni, the monitor already on my arm. I had a number in my head before I started, because everyone knows what pizza does. Forty minutes in, almost nothing. I sat there feeling smug about it. The rise turned up at ninety minutes. It was still up at two hours, and it took until nearly three before I was back where I started.
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The lie they sold you
Pizza hits you like bread
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What the numbers show
It arrives late and sits there
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+55
At ninety minutes, long after I stopped watching
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Two slices, nothing else |
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Same two slices, then a walk |
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| 0m |
30m |
60m |
90m |
120m |
150m |
180m |
One person's glucose monitor, the same two slices on two Fridays, over three hours
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This is one person's experiment, not medical advice. Everyone's body responds differently.
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Pizza, sat down
+55
Point rise
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-22%
Lower peak
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🏃
Pizza, then ten minutes
+43
Point rise
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Pizza carries a lot of fat, and fat slows the exit from your stomach. The dough is still dough, so the sugar in it still arrives. It just takes the long way round. In other words, the spike is not smaller. It is later. If you test yourself an hour after dinner and see a flat line, you have measured the wrong moment. The other thing worth knowing is that pizza is not one food. Published index values run from about 30 for a loaded thin crust to about 80 for a plain parmesan and tomato. The crust and what you pile on it move the number more than the word pizza does. My doctor told me to stop ordering it. Nobody told me to walk around the block afterwards.
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Your mission this week
Ten minutes, right after
Costs you one lap of the block
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Finish the meal, then stand up
The window that matters is the first ten minutes after you put the plate down, not an hour later when you remember.
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Walk, do not march
Ordinary walking pace. The pace is not the point, the timing is. Around the block, up and down the stairs, out to the bins and back.
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Sit down again afterwards
This is ten minutes, not a workout. The whole thing should be forgettable, because the forgettable ones are the ones you keep doing.
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Your first win
One pizza night this week with ten minutes on your feet straight after it.
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Where this comes from: A 2025 study in Scientific Reports had twelve healthy adults walk for ten minutes immediately after taking in glucose. Their peak came in at 164 against 182 for the same people sitting still, and the two hour exposure dropped as well. The index values for pizza, spanning roughly 30 to 80 depending on crust and toppings, come from published glycemic index tables. Two honest caveats: that walking study was twelve young healthy people rather than a large trial, and the late rise after a fatty meal is best documented in people who manage diabetes with insulin. It may support a steadier afternoon rather than promise one. And if you manage your blood sugar with medication, a meal that rises this late is one to talk through with your doctor rather than work out on your own. |
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The pizza was never the problem.
The chair afterwards was.
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Two slices and a short walk. I did not order less and I did not order different.
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Challenge accept
Ten minutes on your feet after your next pizza?
Tap one. Whoever says yes gets the follow up, and I want to hear what your evening did.
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