Non-diabetic athletes take all kinds of nifty post exercise formulas, drinks and supplements to ‘help improve recovery - build muscle - blah, blah, blah’. Looking at the ingredients of this stuff, they are packed to the gills with sugars and carbs.
Today after a long run, i had a beer. God, it was SO good. But I digress.
Do you consider it necessary to eat or consume anything post exercise for ‘recovery’ purposes?
Do you consider it necessary to eat or consume anything post exercise to avoid a severe drop in blood sugar?
If you answer ‘yes’ to either -what do you consume and why?
As for me, I rarely consume anything special after exercise, but I’m thinking I ought to - just because many non-diabetic athletic types do.
Hi Terry,
I like to do long bike rides and I definitely find it’s necessary to load up on carbs during and afterward to keep my blood sugar up. That said, I prefer NOT to drop my basal rates when I’m exercising unless I’m on a super-long ride or having a really hard time keeping my BG level.
I read somewhere that to replenish glycogen stores after working out, an average person needs to consume about 1g carbohydrate per every pound of body weight - not sure how accurate that figure is, but I think it’s especially important for us diabetics to make sure we eat enough to prevent hypoglycemia later. I personally tend to go for a bunch of chocolate milk, followed by a whole lot of pizza. I know a lot of diabetics might cringe at that, but it really works well for me.
I definitely second you on the beer, though. Nothing like a cold one after a good workout. But I always need some good carbs and fat with it to prevent a crash!
I am also curios about recovery.
I usually take in enough carbs during my long rides (over 2.5 hours) that my blood sugar goes up after.
I am trying to limit my carbs towards the end of my rides.
I always take in 20 grams of whey protein after a ride no matter what. And carbs if I am on the low side.
I have read how important it is too eat after the ride for recovery but don’t we do that on the ride?
what do you do besides the beer!! yea a nice vanilla cream stout?
Hey Kent, do you get those post ride BG surges even if you don’t take carbs?
Non diabetics are taking in carbs during long runs or rides to preserve muscle glycogen stores. Depending upon how long and hard they train, they’ll probably burn through those carbs and dip into muscle glycogen stores anyway. Post exercise, they’ll consume carbs and protein to recover glycogen stores and repair muscles. As a sprinter, I could count on speed work outs tapping my glycogen stores and breaking down my muscles so I had to eat regularly before and after training to sustain my program.
As diabetics, we have to deal with those issues, plus an inability to regulate BG and glycogen levels without extraneous insulin, so we are taking in carbs during training just to maintain BG levels, and dealing with extraneous insulin post exercise to make sure we can rebuild lost glycogen stores. Either way, you have to eat post training because that’s when glycogen recovery occurs. I’ve heard different things about muscle recovery, but I’ve just gotten into the habit of taking insulin and having a full meal post training. I’ve never had too much of a problem with muscle injuries or muscle recovery that way.
Hi Kent I dont do the riding thing - but after my exercise, when your body relenshes glucose stores, so to other hormones kick in to cause your BGL to rise (Cortisol etc…)- its quite dangerous to correct these with insulin and if you do less then half of your normal correction amount will do the trick and test, test, test. I actually dont correct at all and within half hr - 40 min drop right back again. The casue in BGL is still due to an insulin response and lack of insulin on board. I have a number of DE friends now who actually have there snack before exercie and give half insulin required fro snack before exercise (Sounds scary) and the rest at completion to combat that rise. They reckon it is great but hey everyone is different and I am too scared to try. There is a great article on it - I am new to this website - is there any way I can scan and attach to some page - Its in an Australian diabetes clinical journal - otherwise you can send an email address to me privately and will scan and forward it to you.
