Worried about my Insulin on Board after eating a meal (small meal)
i know i can just set a temp basal, but what about the insulin i gave myself for lunch? is that still swimming around inside me?
When I exercise I usually reduce my meal bolus by 25-50% and then exercise 1-2 hours after eating. If I'm eating a low-carb meal (like less than 10g) then I just skip the bolus and exercise an hour later. It means I start out a bit high (like 8-9 range) but I usually end up with a perfect blood sugar at the end. If I start out too high (like 11+) I know I will not drop enough without a bolus, so I'll do a 1/2 correction and then exercise as usual and it usually works out. I'm not exercising really hard or for really long, though. Usually half an hour of an exercise bike or elliptical. When I do an hour of swimming it's much harder to figure out without ending up high (if I take my pump off entirely) or low. I haven't quite got the swimming worked out yet.
It depends what kind of exercise. I think that for aerobic exercising the most important part is to clear the insulin out of your system so I eat early and hang around until it's time to run most of the time. If my BG isn't high enough to support a workout (like 120. Although I try to avoid 120 most of the time...), I sort of look at how long I'm going to go. I have practiced quite a bit and find that a glass of skim milk will fuel about 3 miles of running and, if I'm running longer, or more than 5 miles, I'll usually bring Gatorade along in a belt bottle and have swigs as needed.
Jen is correct about turning basal insulin down too. There's a good chart in "Think Like a Pancreas" e.g. an hour of moderate exercising= turn your pump down to 66% of it's usual rate.
If you are doing anaerobic exercise (e.g. weightlifting, sprinting, chin ups, generally strength exercises...), it can make your BG go up so I leave my basal alone or even check 1/2 way (with the CGM...) and, if it's starting to go up, have some insulin to cover it. One of my friends does P90X very intensely, and has had great results. I believe he aims carbs afterwards to fuel muscle growth but I haven't quite pulled the trigger on that. He has a bunch of interesting food stuff on his website but I haven't quite drank that particular "kool-aid" yet, although I tried a free sample of the "Shakeology" stuff and it was good, but too pricey for me. I just eat lots of spinach and broccoli!
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Jen, how do you reduce your "meal bolus"?
i know how to do a regular temp bolus for excersize, but i've yet to learn how to do one for meals. i think that might help my DP.
I just multiply it by 0.75 (if I'm reducing it by 25%) or by 0.5 (if I'm reducing it by 50%) to get the amount I should bolus. So if I'm eating a 25g meal and would normally bolus 2.5 units but am planning on exercising in an hour and a half, I'll do 2.5 * 0.75 = 1.875, and I'll round that up and bolus 1.9 units instead of 2.5. (Math is my weakest subject, too, hope I didn't make any mistakes in this explanation!)
Dear Acidrock, thx for your responce about insulin/eating/ excercizing.
yesterday, my husband and i took a 2 hour walk over the Brooklyn Bridge, down into Chinatown, and around to the Manhattan Bridge and bk to BKLYN. it was wonderful. i lowered my basal rate to 60% and checked my BS every 20 minutes. at one point i had to stop and chew some G-tabs, but my sugars stayed at the high 70s which was ok, although a bit too low for me (i prefer a 100, just to be safe)
thx again, Daisy Mae
My coach advised me to eat not just before workout, but there must be a reasonable time between exercise and taking food. My sugar level .