I am type ???, but anyway I use insulin: Humalin-N for basal and Humalog for meals. I do have dawn phenomenon.
I am getting back into training for triathlon and am picking up the activity level. I am also losing weight quite rapidly at the moment (intentional) due to breastfeeding, exercise, and watching calorie intake.
Does anyone find that basal requirements change when you have a session in the evening?
For example: my usual nightime dose of Humalin is 8 units. This will give me a FBS in the low 80s. But if I have a session in the evening (45-1hr +) and still take the 8 units I will wake up low... in the 60s to low 70s. So I am now adjusting on the evenings I will work out and take 6 - 7 units, guessed requirements.
Daytime basal is not such a big deal as I eat and can test if I feel different.
If I do moderate or intense exercise in the evening, I do an eight hour -10% basal rate on my pump, and it seems to work pretty well. I find I don't need it if I'm only doing light exercise (but I also don't wake up with numbers as low as yours).
I hope you find a solution and share with me please! I am on the same insulin as you, the yo yoing is driving me nuts! I can do the same walk, same distance and each day my body will react differently. How the heck am I supposed to adjust for that??? Today, I walked to my friends place, it was super hot out, I took my time (45MINS) and popped 2 glucose tabs on my way out the door. By the time I reached my friends place I was on my way to a bad low, I caught it in time but it was close! I am on 12 units 2x a day of humilin N and a 1 unit to every 15 carb ratio. I need to get this figured out as I am gaining weight and that is not good!
I found NPH to be very difficult to work with however I didn't get an explanation until I was getting my pump "installed" and the doc/ sales nurse mentioned that N has only a 53% chance of "peaking" when it's supposed to, so the peak can come earlier or later. I agree w/ Jen that adjusting basal down can be reasonable but I don't exercise enough to "cover" the hours of -10-30% with a basal "cut" on the NPH so I'm not sure what I'd do? I usually turn my basal down on my pump at the start of a run, but go back to "normal" for the last couple of miles to mitigate the "bump" from hormones after my amazing finish?
