My roomate who is also diabetic was telling me about an article that his mom was telling him about that said that exercising when you’re bg’s are over 250 does long-term damage to your body.
That sounded weird to me and I was wondering if anybody else had heard anything about that either.
yes I’ve read that before. exercising with sugars that high is a bad idea. exercise can increase blood sugars
googled and found this
http://www.livestrong.com/article/305506-how-to-exercise-when-blood-glucose-is-over-250/
It is possible. If you are over 250 mg/dl and have no insulin (or not enough) it is possible to cause harm and possibly DKA. “Think Like a Pancreas” and “The Johns Hopkins Guide to Diabetes” both reccomend remaining below either 250 or 275 (don’t have the books on me) for exercise. The flip side is that you want to run somewhat high especially when you’re doing aerobic activities (walking, running, etc) because your blood sugar will drop. When I do cardio/aerobics I start at about 180 which lets me workout for about 1 hour. To achieve this I eat the same breakfast plus a small drink of gatorade/dextrose but only take 1/3 of the usual bolus for it. I take my normal morning basal dose. For me doing this raises me to 170-190 within one hour. If I’m lifting weights (anaerobic) I do the same but take 1/2 the bolus which brings my sugars around 130. With the anaerobic spike up I get at the peak of my workout I hit about 160-180.
Yes. I had this very conversation with my Cert Diabetes Educator a few weeks ago. I am a runner currently training for a half marathon. When your BS is elevated above 250 without usable insulin in your system to convert the sugar to usable energy by your bodily functions, your BS actually gets higher from the stress of exercise. You’ll notice that when your BS is in the 100’s your performance is much better as well. During my training, for long runs I usually bolus 1/2 of what I normally would for a pre run meal and do not change my basal insulin. I normally like to start in the upper 100’s and always bring along a snack to keep my BS in a normal range. This too was a surprise for me, but makes sense once you understand the science and biochemistry of it all.
Hi, I am a athlete and I know that you should first have your BS in control and then think about fueling. for and during your work out, Example if I ride my bike 20 miles at 20mph I need to fuel every half hr to perform at my peak if there is wind I will need more fuel. You just have to figure out what works for your body, and how hard you push yourself. I race Nordic Skatsking in the winter there is so much to consider- temp, conditions, hills.and usually I do bonk once in a while, always carry extra fuel, ie gels-powerbars.hope that help you never give up. Bob
I can attest to having adverse side effects when exercising with high blood sugar, not sure about long-term. I had gone for a bike ride pre-diagnosis, granted my bs was probably 600+ then. Cramped up horribly and the next day it felt like I had shredded my vastus medialis, the big muscle on in the inner thigh just above the knee. I couldn’t even bend my knee without excruciating pain and took over a week to completely go away. So now I won’t start if I’m above 200, would rather eat something at the beginning and during to keep sugars stable then starting higher and having the exercise correct it back to normal levels.