After having real high blood sugar, do you think it is healthy to exercise that day?

1

This is a question I have had recently. When I wake up with a really high blood sugar like 350+, I have a feeling that I shouldn’t exercise that day (when my BG is in a normal range again) because I feel like my muscles are breaking down from the high, and exercise might not benefit the muscles or could potentially harm them. I don’t know if this is true or not, but that is a thought I’ve had and I avoid exercise usually on days like that. Want to hear other people’s thoughts. What do you think?

2

I can’t think of any sort of pathophysiological reason why exercising when your blood sugar is normal status post high earlier in the day that the muscles would be any more susceptible to “damage”. Perhaps recovering from a high just makes you feel a bit weak?

3

Why wouldn’t you exercise when the blood sugar is high? Wouldn’t it be good to burn some of it off?

When my BG is high I go lift weights. It brings it down a bit.

(It also helps with my anxiety and anger over the high numbers.)

4

I’ve been told don’t exercise if your BG is over 240. But if it was high earlier and had sense come down I agree with JeffD that I would defiantly go exercise to feel better. But like you say after a large swing in BG all of your nerves feel “funny” and you might not feel up to it. But I would not let the prior high stop you if you felt like it and BG was back in range.

5

I usually exercise though highs and lows but I have been at it for a while? When my BG runs up, I try to drink a lot of water.

6

I’ve read that too but, at the same time, a WhiffBolus, like .3-.5U, 5g of carbs worth seems to hit really powerfully if I take it when I’m exercising. The only time I had a problem was in 20 mile run #1 when both of my infusion sets pulled out and I was insulinless for a while and it rose up to the low 200s and I had pretty bad cramps for like 8 miles or so. Other than that, it cleaned the BG mess up normally and, once I got my BG normalized it was ok. I usually have higher BG w/ anaerobic stuff like weightlifting/ pushups or running more quickly than I do with running/walking types of things. Even on non-exercising days, when my BG is drifting up after a large meal, I’ll go take he dog for a walk to make the insulin on board work faster.