Not sure why these are relevant. I’ve experienced this for more that 8 years and the trigger point is always the same.
This is not enough data to draw any conclusions about anything.
I would definitely allow for a 50 to 100 point change in BGs from exercise. If you dont do well with a low then you might need to run around 200, just to be safe.
Heavy duty exercise will result in rapid oscillations between 400 and 40, for me. I need to watch it very closely.
Some things are very hard to figure out why? I can ride my exercise bike for a half hour (4-5 miles) and it doesn’t make a huge difference in my BG’s. I never do anything special to allow for it. But when I walked around the block, less than a mile, my blood sugar plummeted!
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It sounds like I experience the same thing that everyone who’s responded does, and here I thought I was special in some way. 
To summarize, here is what I think happens:
If I exercise strenuously, glucogon release is triggered which raises my blood sugar and it seems to be independent of the amount of insulin I have on board.
If I exercise lightly, glucogon is not released which can result in a drop in blood sugar, especially if I recently gave myself a bolus or have not reduced my basal rate.
This is a simplification I’m sure but seems to be a good explanation of what we experience. At a minimum this conversation has helped me understand at a high level why I experienced the rise in blood sugar when I expected a drop.
Wheelman
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I would think that would rise your blood sugar during and right after your ride and then blood sugar will come down slowly over the next several hours.
"when I walked around the block, less than a mile, my blood sugar plummeted. Makes perfect sense to me. Slow aerobic exercise will cause a continuing drop in blood sugar until that exercise is stopped.
I walk 2 to 3 miles a day, but not at the same time. I always make sure I am a little over a hundred or I will drop too low. Our neighborhood has a nice mixture of hills and flatland. If it is a planned walk, and after a meal, I will subtract .3 from my meal bolus. If I go right after a meal, I wait until the food kicks in and I am over 100. I eat 3 skittles or 3 fast acting carbs like jellybeans and then off I go. Biking is another story and will drop me fast. Suspension or more food. I always have a glucose and jellybeans in my pocket. This is a lesson I learned when caught without fast carbs and a fast drop. Not pretty. Swimming, I haven’t really figured out. Sometimes I go high, sometimes low. Sometimes it is just right. I do have a Dexcom and a pump and am so grateful for both. I have noticed a hot shower will bring my bg up 20 to 30 points but comes down within the hour, sometimes lower than the beginning. Its a tool I have used to help bring down a moderately high bg. The best tools are you guys and gals. I have learned so much from all of you. Thank you.
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When I go snorkeling I have to do a 60% temp basal reduction starting a half hour before I start to snorkel. But if I don’t give myself some insulin I will end up going high afterwards.
The walk threw me for a loop, because it was no harder or easier than my bike ride so why did it effect me? I do no resistance on my bike, I have a back issue, but like @CJ114 said my body must have thought it was different!!! I don’t do walks nowadays because of my back right now so it was different lol!
When you call someone a tool nowadays it is calling them a fool, cretin, someone characterized by low intelligence and/or self-esteem.
Just teasing you, of course; loved your post!!!
I do believe everything needs to be gauged based on what the body is used to doing. If exercise is different and done in lengthy slow motion with little but constant mild stress on the body, BG will drop until activity is stopped. If activity is different but somewhat intense, BG rises during exercise and then very gradually drops over the next several hours.
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I am sorry for any offense that I have caused. I have the fullest respect and appreciation for all those who share their knowledge with me. They are quite the opposite of fools, cretins, etc. Anyone who deals with this D and figures something out is a genius in my book. Thank you CJ114 for your post and understand you were teasing, but I sure didn’t want to offend anyone else who read my post.
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Oh goodness Yeagen, you weren’t offensive at all. 
I have been thinking of this topic and some others and wondering why my diabetes seems so much easier to deal with than it used to be.
I think that the fact that I now live my life around my diabetes, it has become much easier to predict. Since retirement and since our son is raised and happy, I don’t really have much on my plate any more.
At one time I would have felt like this would be a boring life, but now I just feel blessed.
I almost always eat the same breakfast and my lunch and dinner meals aren’t
much different from day to day. I don’t cheat on my chosen way to eat and I don’t snack unless low. I never miss meals and never eat until I am under 100. I would rather be 60 -90 before a meal.
I ride my 7-10 miles a day on my exercise bike and am always drenched when done. My blood sugar always drops a lot.
We are all different and the trick is finding what works for each of us. There is certainly no one size fits all with this disease.
I have been a type 1 for 60 yrs now and have never had this kind of energy and happiness living with this killer of an illness.
I want to live another 20 yrs and will do anything it takes to get there. Life is good and I try to appreciate every day.
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Dear Wheelman,
I’m really happy you posted this, and want to tell you what I have found. I too have the same reaction to coffee. This used to never occur, but now before or after drinking coffee, I bolus for the rise.
I run, or complete some type of aerobic workout most days of the week. I find that it raises my blood sugar. This could be due to the nature of the activity. The exceptions to this rule are walking, and using the elliptical machine which cause my blood sugar to decrease. I would compare the latter two activities to the light activity you mention.
I have concluded it’s because of how rapidly I am losing water, therefore I am becoming dehydrated. Some things I am doing to combat this is to increase my water intake throughout the day. I drink 16oz of water upon waking, and immediately after a workout.
We are always losing water, and some of us are more sensitive to it.
Finally, some of our bodies have a delayed reaction to insulin. I find this is sometimes the case with me. For example, if I workout, and then have a high blood sugar, and then bolus, and then eat, I do not bolus as much for the meal because my sugar may crash due to a delayed reaction. As my body gets rehydrated, my insulin becomes more efficient, and I try to account for that.
*A c-peptide and GAST test will let you know how much insulin you are still making as a Type 1 diabetic.
I hope my answer helped.
Martha
This sounds backwards to me, the more sensitive to insulin you are the more you benefit from a pump…in our brief experience of diabetes so far (2.5 months MDI, 3 weeks pump) with our 7yo, the pump gives vastly more flexibility with small doses (0.05 unit minimum bolus!) than MDI, and the ability to adjust basal insulin in near real time is a game changer compared to using long acting insulin. He is having fewer, shorter hypos induced by exercise (because he can preemptively suspend basal), fewer hypos from over-bolusing (because he doesn’t have to give one unit if he only needs 0.8) and is able to eat much more normally (rather than having to match food to the nearest 0.5 units, he can match insulin to his food). Fewer rebound highs from fast carbs to correct the lows (Jelly bean consumption has gone down 90%.). Tighter control is much more achievable, it’s now possible to give a correction when he’s at 10mmmol/L overnight, where before 0.5 units would have sent him into a low before morning (not to mention not having to poke him with a needle).
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Good points! Thank you for the insight. A pump may be in my future, but for now wearing a CGM is enough hardware. I’m lucky right now that I am a low carb eater because I have low thyroid/Hashimotos. I can get away with one Tresiba shot each morning. I rarely use my other pen to correct or to eat. I keep most meals at or under 15g of carbs which only spikes me to 150ish, which I feel is acceptable because it comes right back down. I’d rather correct with a few glucose tabs for workout included lows than think about a pump. I know things can change, so hearing everyone’s experience is a plus for when I may need to make new decisions.
@Dylan_Sutton
Your description of why you ended up getting a pump for your 7yo is very close to the primary reasons I ended up with a pump. I had a very hard time getting the correct dose sizes using MDI so my endo suggested a pump to allow more precise control. Before the pump I was using pens with a dose increment of 1 unit, I could’ve switched to regular syringes but even with them, getting the correct dose size would be difficult. With the pump I can control the dose size in .01 unit increments which made it possible to adjust things to work for me.
I’ve been using a pump of one sort or another for almost 7 years now and while there are things about them that are inconvenient I won’t switch back to MDI.
@Laurie_S,
You say you have a CGM, adding a pump from Medtronic would not add any extra hardware, the pump acts as the CGM receiver as well, of course you’d have to use their sensors but they’ve proven accurate for me. The one downside to the Medtronic pumps/CGM is they don’t yet interface to your smart phone, but I believe that functionality is scheduled for a future version, don’t quote me on that as I’m recalling it from my sketchy memory. 
Wheelman
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SDylan, I am so glad that your son is doing much better on a pump. I was diagnosed at 8 and I am sure I would have made the choice to use a pump if it had been available. I don’t choose to use one now.
I am into this for 60 yrs now and haven’t had an A1c higher than 5.6 in the past 20 yrs. I have never had a horrible low in 60 yrs. This morning an hr after breakfast my glucose level was down to 120. I had to eat some more fruit before going to the gym.
I am doing well, make none of my own insulin and have pens that will measure 1/2 units. I don’t take a lot of insulin. I also don’t use a CGM.
I don’t want people who don’t use the new technologies to think that they have to for good control. Finances are a problem for many people, and I don’t want them to be discouraged by thinking that they have to have the newest technology in order to be an excellently controlled diabetic.
I could afford the technology, but choose not to use it. Once the CGM’s are not causing folks problems, I might get one, but I really don’t see a need for one for myself at this time.
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The more active I am before noon, the more resistant to insulin I become and the higher my blood sugars rise. I used to walk about 1.5 miles to work every morning and I noticed on weekends, when I just got up, sat down and watched TV, my blood sugars were way better.
After noon, though, mild to moderate exercise will lower my BG.
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