My name is Maureen and I've had Type I diabetes for 12 years now. I'm a registered dietitian hoping to apply to the certified diabetes eduator program in a few months.
I'm working out regularly and eating healthy-using an online food journal to track my carbs, etc.
How do all you Type I's approach exercise? I'm having a hard time avoiding low blood sugars after I work out. I've tried different things-suspending my pump during exercise but taking insulin with breakfast...not taking insulin with breakfast and using a lower temp basal on my pump while I exercise...? If I don't take insulin with breakfast and then turn my pump off when i work out, my sugar goes through the roof. There must be a happy medium in there somewhere.
At any rate-glad I found this website. None of my friends or family have Type I so nobody really understands what I go through on a day to day basis. The blood sugar swings are driving me insane...I want to get back on the right track.
Like everything else, it's a trial and error process but to eat before AM workouts (not my favorite time, but I did it every Saturday last summer...), I either get up really early and eat a couple of hours beforehand or cut the bolus, depending on how far I'm going to run or cycle or whatever. I don't usually eat more than 15-20G of carb for breakfast. If the bolus hits oddly, I'll treat with faster carbs before the workout, to sort of "nudge" it into place? Nice to meet you!
I try to reduce my Bolus by like 30% if I know that I'm going to do some kind of exercise after a meal. The other thing you could try is working out before breakfast (not sure if you are doing that already). It could also be what you are eating, slower acting carbs will make your BG drop after a workourt I also think that it's trial and error to figure out how you respond to working out. Good Luck!
Been trying to figure that out myself. I can eat and then turn my pump off and I still go low. I think I have to turn it off about a half hour before working out and eat something.
This is actually the one part of haveing type 1 that goes smoothly for me . Here are some solutions 1) take as little insulin as possible before exercise because as you are exercising if you feel high you can keep taking 0.2 until you feel that high sugar feeling leave . For example this is what I did yesterday I ate about 50 carb before breakfast now I usually require about 1 unit for every 10 carb so instead of takeing my full dose I took a little less than 1/2 of what I normally would take . I was able to go on the elliptical trainer for 60 minutes and I’m usually about 90 when I get off so if I feel like continuing my workout ( like doing the circuit machines ) I will just drink a Capri sun or box apple juice and I just sip it as I work out cause sometimes I will drop from that 90 or I won’t but most of the time I do drop
I do not use a pump (yet), but what works for me when exercising is to keep insulin dosage as usual untill the time of exercise. However, I do eat an extra sandwich before the excersise. I have noted that exercises have an effect on my bloodsugars for the following two days, which I try to manage by lowering my Lantus by 1 unit, and still keep eating extra's.
As acidrock23 says, its trail and error. What really helped me was exersising regularly, same day every week. This helped me finding the right solution.
