Hello. I usually run before dinner or on the weekends after breakfast. I am in between jobs and have a feeling I may have to switch to a morning workout (something I’ve never done). Do any of you workout before eating in the morning? If I were to do this I would take my usual 15 g of course but is it OK to be working out on basically an empty stomach (with the exception of the honey that I eat to fuel my workout).
You may experience it dfferently, but exercise in the morning sends me way, way high.
If you have dawn phenomenon, working out before eating on an stomach may cause spikes from a combination of adrenaline & continued glucagon dumping from your liver.
I used to work out in the morning before going to work but I made it a point to eat the 15 g of carbs before working out. That seemed to make numbers a little better for me. I am a type 2 by the way
I used to work out in the morning and ate one slice of whole wheat bread at least 30 min before my work out. If I didn’t eat something, then my blood sugar would rise when I worked out. I work out after work now, b/c I am too lazy to get out of bed that early now.
Ive never tried doing exercises before breakfast…My routine is a 30-minute cardio exercise about 2 hours after breakfast. Then a 15-20 minutes walk at night. .
depends where my sugars are. below 100 I definitely eat something small. if it’s workout over an hour I eat as well.
I’m a type 1 on a pump too and I run in the mornings before breakfast. Running is pretty intense as far as exercise goes. I tried it at all different times of day and found that no matter when I run, sometimes my sugar goes up and sometimes my sugar goes down. For me, my BG was much more predictable if I run in the morning (almost always goes down), or at least 4 hours after any bolus. If I have any active insulin on board, my BG plummets, and when I run, I can’t feel my BG dropping. I found it too scary to get home from a run, feeling sweaty but great like I do after I run, testing my BG and seeing a “30”. When I exercise, I’m completely hypo-unaware. Also, I just found that my BG does better all day on days that I run. So, I get up, get dressed and clean up around the house for about 30-35 mins, check my sugar and most of the time I have to drink about 4oz. OJ to get it up to 180 (if I wake up low, I also eat a graham cracker). Then I go out for my 30 minute run. 9 times out of 10, when I get home and test, I’m at 100. I do have a dawn phenomenon. I have my basal settings set up to handle that. I do not take my pump off or set a temp basal when I run… The only hitch is when I wake up high, which happens on occassion. Then, I take about half of my correction bolus just before I run. If I don’t take that insulin, and I try to run with a high BG, my sugar will go up during my run. I found a good explanation of this here:
http://www.diabetesnet.com/diabetes_control_tips/excarbs.php
This routine has worked for me for about 2 years now…
exercise drops me… A LOT… i usually play basketball or run/lift for about 1.5 to 2 hours in the afternoon, before dinner. since i’ve been on break from college this week, i’ve experimented with going to the gym at different times. today before the gym (2hrs after breakfast) i was 180… decided i wouldn’t eat my typical snack before hand because i was so high. at 12:10 i came home and tested 60!!!
so answer to your question would i exercise before breakfast… NO WAY!!
haha hope this helps
Exercise in the morning as a type 1 can be problematic. Sheri Colberg (www.shericolberg.com) always has good advice for the diabetic athlete. It is generally best to undertake exercise with some dietary carbs, some insulin on board and your blood sugar rising. But as Beth notes, it can sometimes be a challenge to manage all the variables. Only through experiments on yourself will you find your true way. In either case, do not make the mistake of thinking that you are doing yourself a favor by trying to exercise in a fasted state in the morning. Particularly as a diabetic, depending on proper insulin levels and your liver dumps to fuel your run can be kinda sketchy. You are not going to burn any fat by forcing your liver to dump blood sugar. It is better to just eat some dietary carbs before your exercise, those carbs will fuel and won’t detract from any benefit from the exercise. If you have a good exercise session, your blood sugar will be more tightly controlled throughout the day and you will really burn fat during the day when you are walking around with your blood sugar at 90 mg/dl.
The only reason I am saying to exercise without food (except for sugar to cover my run) is because if I eat, bolus, and then try to run within the peak (2 hrs) I go low no matter what. Even if I cut back on my dose by like 50% I will still seem to go low at some point. It’s very annoying…but that’s why my exercise can never be within 2 hrs. of eating…and of course I wouldn’t have time to wait around to digest. I guess I will just have to try and see what happens with me…the answer to all things diabetes!!!
Lauren – that’s exactly what happens to me, too. That’s why running in the morning after drinking OJ works for me. My original post was rambling about details (sorry!), but I’m like you – I can’t run if there’s any part of a bolus left in me (unless I wake up with a high BG, then I halve the correction bolus and run before the peak). It took me a while to figure out all the little details that worked for my body. Other advantages to morning runs: (1) I can get my run in before work and before my boys wake up – minimizes the chances for my run time to be sabotaged, (2) it’s very peaceful at that time and (3) on the rare clear days in Cleveland I get to run under the stars! I definitely need to make sure my basal is still going and that I start out with my BG around 160 - 180. (I tried temp basals and suspending my pump, but that led to more weirdness). I hope you can figure out something that works for you. My latest challenge is trying to figure out how to run longer than 30-40 minutes, which is how long the sugar in your blood can keep you going. I’d love to train for a 10K…
I think its a great idea doing exercise in the morning it gives you a good kick for the rest of the day but I dont think its wise to do it on an empty stomach.I am gonna start tomorrow and gonna have breakfast as usual and then take a unit less of my insulin and see how that goes because I figured out that when I take the whole amount of insulin that I need for the carbs and just do normal house hold cleaning I would be hypo before lunch time but now I would take normal dose in the morning and then take a unit less for lunch as I was more active in that time these last two days and the readings shows that the lowest I got was a 4.9 so fingers crossed it helps with the morning bs.
Good Luck Lauren and hope it helps.