When you exercise, your muscles make more of a protein called GLUT4 that helps pull sugar from your blood. This is the strongest known way to increase this protein, and it helps your body use sugar better and store more energy in your muscles, whether you're healthy or have a disease.

Your muscles need a special door (GLUT4) to let glucose in for energy. When you need energy right now, your body quickly moves these doors to the surface. But if you exercise regularly, your muscles build more of these doors as a long-term change.

Eating carbs while you walk helps your muscles learn to grab sugar from your blood without needing insulin, which over time makes your body better at handling blood sugar.

Doing regular cardio workouts like walking, running, or cycling helps your muscles use sugar better, which keeps your blood sugar in check and makes it less likely you'll get type 2 diabetes.

After losing weight, muscles get better at using sugar not because they make more GLUT4 proteins, but because the existing proteins move to the right place or work better.

MOTS-c made muscle cells produce more GLUT4 (a sugar transporter) and turned on AMPK (an energy sensor), two key players in how muscles use sugar.