What is everyone's exercise regimen like? did you see any exercise changes bring a big improvement in your bg numbers? dr. bernstein is not a big fan of 'cardio', but i find that late at night when my numbers are high (for me), 127, 119 etc (I control my D thru diet and exercise), 25 min on my exercise bike at a not too hard pace will bring my number down to 81- 91. it will start to climb up again, but in the morning it will be 98-100.
That's one reason I'm not particularly keen on Dr. Bernstein! I have run for a few years now and also enjoy cycling. I've trained for 3 marathons and run two (I sprained my knee last year, 17 miles into a 20 mile run, it just gave out and it was too close to the race to recover...:-( maybe Dr. Bernstein is on to something?) and 9 1/2s since I started doing that in 2010.
Before that, I'd done Tae Kwon Do for 5 years, sort of a midlife crisis. Tactically, cardio can bring my BG down although I can run 5K at a pace (< 8:00 sometimes...) which seems to "flip" the anaerobic switch for me and will cause a spike. Since the summer of 2013, I've also mixed in Beachbody workouts, T25 and P90X3 as they are concentrated and quick. The ones that involve more lifting will nudge my BG up and the cardio is generally down although some of the crazier maneuvers (e.g. 1 armed burpees...) also seem to involve some adrenaline. I think that having kept at it for a while, I don't crash out as much from working out. I have a pump and CGM and use them to keep an eye on things too. Use carbs to nudge my BG up and increasing basal rates or small, cut boluses to knock it down. The last "big" race I ran well, the Chicago marathon in 2012, my BG flew up, combo of overeating and/ or adrenaline before the big race so I pretty much had water only for nutrition for the first like 17 miles, which is less than I'd hoped to eat/ drink but my BG was up. Maybe FOB helped but I had a very nice race, ran the tempo I wanted to run (4:38...) and felt decent at the end. Trashed but decent and exhilarated!
Right now I'm not sure what I will do next year, my knee feels pretty good. I like the Tour de Cure too. Cycling has the advantage over running in that it's easier to lug along meters, snacks, etc.!
You might be interested in the analysis of last year's BigBlueTest. Just a modest amount of moderate exercise usually results in a big improvement.
treat that knee like gold my friend.
my bg drops with exercise, but it starts to go back up pretty fast too. of course exercise is beneficial, but why does my bg go back up so fast? it would be good to get data on that- like how long do you have to exercise to keep the bg from going up (in people controlling D only with diet and exercise). i will be doing my own loose experiments. i was wondering if people exercise multiple times a day.
I try to walk every day, averaging four miles per day. I can slack for one day, say only walk about one to two miles, and if I continue with another slack day, then my BGs range upward. I think exercise is the vital catalyst that makes good blood glucose control possible.
has tudiabetes ever surveyed members about their bg/A1c levels when they first suffered with diabetic complications? for example, what were postprandial bg/A1c levels when someone first had a cardiac event, uti's, yeast infections, gum disease, mild cognitive impairment, etc. also, it would be useful to know how long it took to reverse complications and the post prandiad/A1c levels needed to do so. can you conduct such a survey in an on-going way? ie have it as a permanent feature of the site so people can always contribute that important info as they become aware of it?
I don't think so. There was an interesting study a few years ago, called TuAnalyze that had something like a participatory project where you could log your A1Cs that was used for a study.
There's a thread with several links here: Link
That would certainly be an interesting project!thanks, AR.
I exercise a lot, and quite a variety. I am a Type 1 on insulin, so my situation is a bit different than yours (OPs). I love fairly extreme cardio, loved it way before my Type 1 diagnosis, but it definitely has been the biggest problem for me. My blood sugar plummets with exercise (I call myself a blood sugar burner), so I really have to do a lot of things to avoid exercise-induced hypos. Wearing an insulin pump helps. I agree, the best and fastest way to bring down a BG high is exercise!