Irregular blood sugar is often overlooked as an underlying issue to many health conditions. However, it has slowly gained attention as it has a huge effect on overall health. If you have turned to fixing your irregular blood sugars, starting with what you eat, but haven’t noticed a big difference, it’s time to look deeper.
Blood sugar balance isn’t just about what you eat. In fact, some of the biggest blood sugar disruptors have nothing to do with what’s on your plate. In this post, we’re going to break down five often-overlooked factors that can make or break your blood sugar balance.
The 5 Main Factors Affecting Your Blood Sugar
Your blood sugar is influenced by far more than what you eat.
In fact, five key areas work together to keep your energy, mood, and hormones steady throughout the day.
When one of these is out of balance, you may notice more cravings, fatigue, irritability, or brain fog, even when you feel like you’re doing all of the right things with your diet.
Here are the main factors that shape your blood sugar balance:
- Food & Nutrition
What, when, and how you eat directly affects how your body manages glucose. Balanced meals with protein, fiber, and healthy fats help slow down sugar absorption and prevent sharp spikes or crashes. - Sleep Quality
When you don’t get enough deep, restorative sleep, your body becomes more insulin resistant the next day, meaning blood sugar stays higher for longer. Even one night of poor sleep can cause this! - Stress & Cortisol
Stress hormones, especially cortisol, tell your body to release stored glucose into your bloodstream, preparing you for “fight or flight.” If stress is constant, your blood sugar can stay elevated even with a balanced diet. - Movement & Activity
Even light movement helps your muscles use glucose for energy instead of letting it build up in the blood. Try a short walk after eating or light stretching throughout the day! It’s more about small consistent movements and less about a big workout! - Caffeine
Coffee before food increases cortisol and can raise blood sugar, especially if you’re sensitive to caffeine or already under stress.
How Nutrition Impacts Blood Sugar
While most think blood sugar balance is only about what you eat, when and how you eat can be equally important.
When you Eat
Your hunger hormones follow a daily circadian rhythm.
Ghrelin, the hunger hormone, rises at roughly the same times each day, while leptin, your fullness hormone, helps regulate appetite and metabolism. This is all in sync with your sleep-wake cycle.
When your eating schedule is consistent, your body becomes more efficient at managing glucose and cortisol.
To support your circadian rhythm, it is best to eat within 30 minutes to an hour after waking. This will support balanced cortisol levels and prevent a mid-morning crash or intense carb cravings.
Skipping breakfast, or waiting too long to eat, can often lead to low blood sugar, thus blood sugar instability.
Early signs of low blood sugar include: headaches, shakiness, irritability, energy crashes, anxiety, or feeling hangry.
How you Eat
The order in which you eat matters! Research has shown that eating fiber first, protein and fats second, and carbohydrates last can significantly reduce glucose spikes after a meal.
How this way of eating supports blood sugar:
- Fiber slows down digestion and creates a barrier that delays glucose absorption
- Protein and fat slows stomach emptying and keeps you feeling full and satiated after a meal
- Carbs eaten last enter the bloodstream more gradually, leading to a more stable blood sugar curve
Eating your meals in this order can help if you struggle with cravings, crash in the afternoon, or have PCOS and insulin resistance.
How Sleep Impacts Blood Sugar
Getting good quality sleep is so important for blood sugar balance!
Even one night of poor or shortened sleep can make your body more insulin resistant the next day!
When you don’t get enough deep, restorative sleep, your hunger hormones can also shift.
Ghrelin, your hunger hormone, increases, and leptin, your fullness hormone, decreases.
This is why you might wake up craving carbs, feel hungrier than usual, or struggle with energy crashes throughout the day.
When you get enough quality sleep, you’ll likely experience more stable blood sugar levels, more energy, and a better mood!
Similar to eating around the same time during the day, aiming for a consistent sleep schedule can support stable blood sugar levels.
To increase sleep duration and quality, try limiting screens before bed, creating a relaxing wind-down routine, and supporting your circadian rhythm!
How Stress Impacts Blood Sugar
Stress can often be overlooked when trying to keep blood sugar balanced. You can be eating balanced meals, getting movement in, and doing “all the right things”, but if stress is high, your blood sugar may still feel completely out of control. Trust us, we’ve been there!
How Stress Impacts Blood Sugar
When you experience physical, emotional, or environmental stress, your body releases cortisol, a hormone designed to help you survive.
Cortisol tells your liver to release stored glucose into your bloodstream, giving you quick energy for when you’re in “fight or flight” mode.
Throughout history, cortisol gave our ancestors an adrenaline boost when escaping a threat.
However, most of our stress today isn’t going to cause physical danger.
It’s caused by mental overload, deadlines, busy schedules, perfectionism, or even chronic under-eating. However, your body doesn’t know the difference between these daily stressors and running from a bear.
This release of cortisol can spike blood sugar, cause cravings, lead to energy dips, and disrupt hunger cues.
Since cortisol takes priority when you’re stressed, your body redirects energy away from digestion. That’s why many people experience bloating, constipation, gut sensitivity, or nausea during stressful situations.
Cortisol Has a Daily Rhythm
Before continuing, please note that not all cortisol is bad! It actually plays an important role in the body.
During the early hours of the day, cortisol is slowly rising to help us wake up naturally. After it peaks, it should gradually lower throughout the day so melatonin can begin rising to prepare us for bed.
However, this is likely not the case when the body is in a stressed or “fight or flight” state!
When you’re stressed and cortisol stays elevated, we can expect an imbalance in blood sugar.
If you experience the feeling of being “wired but tired”, exhausted in the afternoon, ravenously hungry, or unable to focus, check your stress!
How Movement Impacts Blood Sugar
Movement is one of the most powerful, and underrated, ways to support blood sugar. Staying active helps your muscles use glucose for energy instead of letting it build up in the bloodstream.
Why Movement Helps Blood Sugar
You can think of your muscles as glucose sponges.
When they’re active, they pull glucose out of the blood and use it as fuel.
This process happens almost immediately, which is why movement, such as going on a walk after a meal, can have a big impact on post-meal glucose levels.
Movement Doesn’t Have to Be Intense
One common misconception is that you have to do a full workout to help blood sugar.
Small, consistent movements throughout the day can be more effective than one long workout session!
Simple ways to add movement into your day:
- Take a short walk after meals
- Stretching
- Standing or using a walking pad at your desk
- Small movements such as squats, calf raises, or walking in place
- Taking the stairs or a short walk during breaks
Adding these small movements into your day will gently activate your muscles and help stabilize blood sugar without adding stress to the body.
Muscle Increases Insulin Sensitivity
Strength training, even light weights or bodyweight exercises, can have long-term benefits for glucose balance.
Increasing muscle mass provides the tools your body needs to store and use glucose more efficiently.
As muscle mass increases, insulin sensitivity improves, meaning your body can clear glucose out of the bloodstream more effectively and maintain more stable blood sugar overall.
How Caffeine Impacts Blood Sugar
Caffeine is something many rely on to get through the day. However, it can be a sneaky blood sugar disruptor, especially when it’s consumed on an empty stomach.
Coffee first thing in the morning may be a part of your morning routine, but for many, it leads to blood sugar crashes, jitters, or anxiety.
Why Caffeine Affects Blood Sugar
Caffeine naturally increases cortisol, which is already rising in the morning to help you wake up.
When you drink coffee before or without breakfast, cortisol can rise exponentially more.
Without food in the morning, your body is running on stress hormones instead of fuel.
Pairing coffee with breakfast helps slow down caffeine absorption and gives your body real energy to work with, rather than relying on cortisol.
Even if you don’t feel hungry in the morning, starting the day with a balance of protein, fiber, and healthy fats before your coffee can make a huge difference in how you feel the rest of the day.
If you want to learn more about creating a balanced plate, healthy eating, or looking for new recipes, check out our free Healthy Eating Guide here!
The Bottom Line
At the end of the day, blood sugar balance is about so much more than just food. Yes, what you eat matters but so do your habits, your stress, your sleep, and the way you move your body.
These five areas work together, and when even one of them is out of sync, you can feel it.
You don’t need a massive overhaul to start seeing changes.
Simple shifts such as eating earlier in the morning, taking a quick walk after meals, pairing your coffee with breakfast, or creating a calmer routine around stress can make a huge difference in how steady your energy and mood feel throughout the day.
Start with one habit that feels manageable, build from there, and be patient with yourself as your body finds its rhythm again!
If you loved these tips, you might also enjoy our other blog posts, or follow us on Instagram or TikTok for daily inspiration!
Stay nourished,
The Nourished Dietitians Team
