Can exercise cause high blood sugar?

Well today I felt pretty good, so I mowed the lawn and than went for a long walk. Bg before all this exercise was good so went about my work while keeping hydrated with H2o. When all my work was done (6 hours later) I checked again so I could eat dinner and was shocked to see that it was high. I figured all the exercise would of brought it down or at least kept it down. What gives?

Strenuous exercise can send BG up, especially for T1s, often followed by lows later. Less strenuous exercise, not so much. It’s the result of adrenaline.

So true Gerri, when I walk for half an hour my blood sugar goes down, but when i run hard or doing my spin classes my BG goes way high. Hate that.

I hate it, also! Need the good heart pumping exercise, but hate seeing those numbers. Weird trade-off:(

I’ve heard that it can, though it almost ever does in my T1 daughter. What I’ve found raises her blood sugar after exercise outside are allergies. She will go very high very fast if she doesn’t have her allergy medication in her, and it doesn’t matter if she’s exercised just a little or for hours. Maybe you could try taking some Zyrtec next time you mow and see if you go high again.

I notice if I do something strenuous - not even really exercise - that I will have a higher number.

Today I was moving and repacking boxes - so not really exercise but still using my muscles and moving about more. I ate at 79 and than I tested late 2.5 hours later while I doing things and I was at 114. Which is higher than usual for me. If I sat around and played on my computer I would be like 90 or 95. I thought i would be lower because I was doing stuff.

Why do they say exercise if supposed to burn the sugars and make it go down? Mine almost always go up. I think it has to do when you use more muscles. If you just walk you aren’t uisng muscles as hard as you would if you were lifting weights or running. I guess I have sugary muscles. :slight_smile: (actually I have NO muscles but maybe they are all sugar - he he)

Well, a lot of the times… the highs associated with exercise are from dehydration, and stress. You may have gotten dehydrated while doing all that work, and stressed out cus it’s moving and packing stuff! Moving and packing always stresses me out, big time…

If one is relaxed, well hydrated, and not doing too much of a strenuous exercise, it should go down… Strenuous exercise a stressful activity for the body.

Hmm…

I’m always learning from this forum… I didn’t know that about type 1s and exercise. Its the opposite for me. If I walk for an hour (aprox 6k) I can eat more carbs because I will generally be 40-60 points lower than if I didn’t walk… So I usually save my higher carb meals for when I know if I’m walking.

Kimberly,

Did you go way down later? That’s sometimes happens to me.

Activity like housework sends me lower, but a real work out sends me high.

Definitely. For me, it all has to do with the time of day - I have a very strong dawn phenomenon and if I exercise before say 10 a.m. I will be soaring over 300. So, as the day moves toward evening, it completely reverses. If I exercise after 7 p.m., I have to be sure to have plenty of sugar with me., and can bring a high bg down 100 points with a 20 minute walk.

Liz,

I didn’t actually “move” today - I already did all that last week ( that day I hardly ate anything and my numbers were low and I think I was dehydrated)- but yeah, I hate it. I want to set fire to all my stuff. No matter how much stuff you think you DON’T have - you always have more than that. Good thing I am good organizer. But today I went through all my boxes to take out stuff I wanted to sell/get rid of (have too much kitchen stuff) so I was hauling boxes around, stressing over what to get rid of, etc. I didn’t feel dehydrated though. I was mostly stressed out when I saw stuff that my dumby ex was supposed to wash and didn’t and it got packed all dirty and when I found stuff missing. I was all grrrr, men. :slight_smile: So I thinking maybe the adrenline of getting things done and getting mad.:slight_smile:

Gerri,

Yes I did go down to 84 three hours later pre-din. I did have something different for lunch but the carbs were similar to what I ususally eat for lunch. I had a protein shake meal because I wanted to sip while I worked and that was 13 carbs and than I had some cheeze (no carbs). I am wondering if it was the shake. I’ll see again tomorrow.

I am wondering if adrenline causes us diabetics to have higher sugar - I am assuming that the same thing happens in non-diabetics - wondering how much their sugar might go up - or does it still stay in the normal ranges? Hmmm…

Yep, adrenaline causes liver glucagon dumping. Of course non-diabetics have insulin to keep it in check.

Could have been the protein shake. Seems that the protein in this form hits the bloodstream pretty fast.