I need help. I went to work out this AM, I reduced my basal & ate 15g of carb like I’m supposed to and I couldn’t even finish my workout with my trainer, I crashed to 56 and my CGMS didn’t even go off. So I treated with a Dex liquid glucose shot, which is 15g of carb and waited to drive home. Now my freaking sugar is shooting through the roof and it climbing up past 170. 15g of carb NEVER brings me up this much, WTF? Sometimes I crash, other times I go over 200 for no reason, there is no pattern. Even on days where I do the exact same workout at the same time of day eating the same foods for breakfast and preworkout, I get no consistency. My doc says I am doing all the right things but nothing is working. What else can I try to do?
I am getting tired of trying to do the right thing and work out. My motivation is waning! I appreciate your feedback on things I can try.
I buy small caramels and keep them in my purse. 5 pieces are 31 carbs. I usually just eat two and see if I feel better and keep eating another piece until I do. That way if 15g is too much, I cant eat less and still come back up from the low, but not skyrocket with a high
Sorry I dont have any useful suggestions. I’m in the same boat. was hoping my cgm would help me manage the exercise probs…but I still havnt summoned the motivation to start.
Welcome to the club. Happens to me a lot, too. One thing that works for me (but can be hard to do depending on your schedule) is to work out first thing in the morning before breakfast. Depending on what my BG is upon waking, I may have 1/2 a banana (no bolus), and that gets me through my workout. Bg sometimes rises to the 140’s depending on intensity, but with the correction bolus and breakfast bolus, it usually stays ok. My #'s, I’ve noticed, are pretty decent throughout the day if I’ve worked out in the morning (unless I’m hormonal, which is a whole other can of worms!) When I can’t get a morning workout in, I reduce my basal rate to about 60% an hour before exercising, depending on intensity of the workout.
I still struggle with the lows, though. I don’t know if there is one solution. You just have to keep playing with it until you find what works for you. Good luck. I know it’s frustrating!
I am in an exercise program with all cardio. I have to turn off my pump an hour before I exercise, and turn it back on once I get home and eat. It is usually off for about two hours. My blood sugar can drop a good 70 points. I test right before I begin exercising, and if not “high” enough, I have something with sugar in it. Seems to work. I have not had a crash the last three sessions.
So sorry to hear you’re having trouble. It’s just not fair when you’re trying to do the right thing and exercise.
Resistance training can temporarily increase blood glucose. I’m wondering if while the carbs are raising your lows somewhat, your muscles are releasing glucose, too? The blood glucose lowering after-affects of exercise should keep working on the blood sugars.
Did you test after the 170? If it comes down quickly to target, I wouldn’t get too worried. A reading of over 170 but under 200 for an hour or so is really not out of line.
Also, you may be getting old like me I need different correction ratios for different times of day. 1 glucose tab is plenty to treat a morning low. Or do you think it’s simply all that Diet Coke we drink? Or wait, have you been good and cut back?!!!
I did test after the 170. I went up to 198 and it didn’t come down. I had to correct. I do notice that at different times of the day a glucose tab will raise my BG differently too!
I did cut down on the diet coke I haven’t seen a big change in BGs
I am doing 50% right now so I am glad to hear I started the reduction properly dose and time wise. I am keeping a log with lots of notes so I can attempt to figure it all out. I promise not to give up, I will keep at this!
Morning exercise sends me soaring. My endo told me Type 1s frequently have this problem because of morning glucagon dumping.
Not what we’re supposed to do for cardio, but I’m now sticking to more moderate exercise, stretching, weights, anything but a real work-out. I couldn’t stand the highs & lows. I couldn’t find a pattern either. I don’t have a pump, so even more difficult during exercise.
When correcting lows, I trend carefully during exercise because of rebound highs.
I usually exercise in the morning, before breakfast, or at least 4 hours after the last bolus (either correction or meal bolus) to make sure that I don’t have insulin on board / active insulin.
For me, a workout without active insulin is the only way to stable blood sugars. Otherwise, I end up on the rollercoaster that you described.
I use the same method as your described with the temporary basals, but I don’t eat any carbs unless I am low. I start a temporary basal of 50% 1 hour before exercising and have it end about half way through my workout. When I get back, I bolus for breakfast and add any missed basal into my bolus (because I was experiencing highs post-workout). If I try to skip the breakfast and the bolus, I tend to go high.
If I wake up high (above 180) and need to correct, I usually skip the workout (I know it’s not the best decision) because I can’t correct without causing lows. If I am under 180 mg/dl, I will work out and only correct after the workout.
And after exercising today I also had to change infusion set…now number HI -er than I like …is it the 1 ) infusion set , scar tissue or is it the 2 ) exercise ( about 10 k walk finished before noon for my 1/2 marathon training . ) …who knows . I already have put my Sure-T set else where and given a needle correction …well folks : ready for my dry red wine .I am trying to stay cool . See my page of how things went this morning .Actually quite OK .
So would I not reduce the basal if I exercised within an hour of eating breakfast, just cut the bolus in half? I can envision the idea of working out an hour after breakfast working much better for me, I just need to know about the basal part.
I like to do a class called Body Combat which is a high intensity aerobic routine for 60 mins. I discovered to prevent bad lows to reduce my basal rate by 90% for an hour before the class starts and return to normal basal rate an hour after the class.
I need different correction ratios for different times of day. 1 glucose tab is plenty to treat a morning low. Or do you think it’s simply all that Diet Coke we drink? Or wait, have you been good and cut back?!!!