I have gone back and forth several times now from exercising a lot to very little. In the big picture I really haven’t seen better bg control during periods of routine exercising. What do the rest of you think?
I find when it comes to exercise I have to do it daily or not at all if I don't want to be all over the place with my sugars. In terms of real numbers, I've found my total daily dose when I exercise is 20-30 units of humalog and when I don't is 35-50 - so if insulin sensitivity alone is a predictor of "success" then exercise definitely helps.
In any case, I figure it's better to exercise regularly than to not exercise at all, so even if insulin sensitivity isn't REALLY a predictor of winning at diabetes it can't hurt to feel like I have a little victory :P
I think it's important...we can go through out lives thinking all is good I'm winning the fight and then we get 50 something and the wheels start falling off. Exercising is a significant factor in overall good health and diabetes can deter us from exercise. Over the years it has been easy for me to just say it will mess up my BG, I think I will skip that activity today...;-)
When I was on shots, exercise was very important to bloodsugar control. Since pumping it is a major chore, but I do notice better blood flow in my legs and feet when I exercise. For turning 50 everything goes downhill, but I think that is because I exercise less.
Insulin pumping throws in the fears of lows upon movement, not easy, for sure.
I'd say exercise is important for people and, since people with diabetes are people too, we should exercise.
Re "improving BG control" I am not sure exercise does this directly if you are "there" (the 4.9 A1C S has listed or, for that matter, my own...) because there's not a lot to "improve" as much as "maintain". If, on the other hand, you are in the 6-7 A1C cohort, which appears to be about "average" on the TuAnalyze map and is rx'ed by various medical organizations, there's enough "cushion" to see BG shift lower. This is challenging, as, depending on how low you go, it may not be comfortable or feel healthy, the same way rocketing down the trail in your day-glo running clothes feels, but the health and psychological benefits should be accessable.
I've gone from non-exercising (c.2004) to exercising and exercising feels better. I've encountered lots of people, through the Tae Kwon Do school and running with groups and everyone pretty much maintains they feel better through exercising. One of my friends does research in this area and has shown through several studies that exposure to greenspace, even narrow, urban greenspace, can have health benefits, both physical and mental. These things are out there. It may not be free (I am a huge running shoe whore and will spend 45 minutes trying shoes on to get the "best" ones...) but it's part of what we can do to help ourselves. I agree with Amy that getting into a daily routine is more useful for PWD as I suspect that irregular exercise would lead to more ups and downs.
For me, exercise is a big deal for my BG control. I went through a five year period when I didn’t exercise regularly. During that time I became insulin resistant. I’m a T1 and at the time was unaware of that possibility. My current exercise routine is not very intense, but effective just the same. I walk 40-60 minutes almost every day. Walking, as an exercise, is under-rated. It can bring down elevated BGs.
Increasing your insulin sensitivity can make a huge difference in your BG control. When I was insulin resistant and took a high BG correction, I took more insulin and it was less effective. My insulin sensitivity factor was about 1:25; it’s now 1:50. Not only do I take half as much insulin to correct, my corrections almost always work as expected. When I was insulin resistant, sometimes I took a large correction dose and my BG would hardly budge. After waiting a few hours, I would correct again and then worry about the effects of stacking insulin.
Regular exercise promotes insulin sensitivity. It’s a good and no small thing. Sam, if your A1c is 4.9% then your experience is in a whole different league than mine. Your insulin sensitivity must be excellent whether you exercise or not. Most of us, however, do not share that enviable situation!
Exercise makes a HUGE difference for me, once I adjust to the inevitable lows that come at the beginning of exercising daily ... I notice a big difference in my insulin doses and in the stability of my BG when I exercise daily.
Ideally I would exercise for at least 30 minutes every day, but the past month or two I have been "too busy" to do so. Trying to get back into it, as I've gained weight (also been eating like crap) and I'm pretty sure the A1c I get done this coming week is going to be higher than my last one.
Exercise is so important to me for so many reasons....and I do see better BGs when I am on my usual routine. I love to travel and hike and do adventures, and especially since I am not a young thing anymore, I need to keep up the fitness level to do the things I love. It also helps my mental state. The one thing I will say, is that my most severe lows have been while exercising. So it is a balancing act.
I am generally scared of exercise, since I don't wear a CGM and I'm afraid I might get too low and not feel it. I also kinda hate the whole process of going to the gym, and the part where you actually have to work out.
Other than that, I find that even irregular exercise does wonders on insulin sensitivity. Only by walking I've prevented spikes in the past and on the rare occasions when I played basketball, for example, the insulin sensitivity was reduced for about two days, meaning less basal insulin and smaller boluses. My blood sugars for those days were also better, with a decreased standard deviation. Actually, writing about the positive effects that working out has makes me wonder why don't I do this more often :)
Anyway, the big picture might not be available to us now, we will only have access to the big picture at the end of our life and it might be worth it to try to win these small battles. It's like when you correct and your blood sugar doesn't come down, it makes you wonder how much worse it would've gotten if you didn't correct.
Started exercising this fall, because I was recovering from cardiac surgery. I also became insulin dependent at around the same time. I have never, therefore, used insulin without exercising. I notice when I go several days without exercising, my blood sugars become harder to control. Not higher necessarily, just more erratic.
I generally work out about every other day for an hour, mostly cardio. I am LADA.
Kinda hard to get a sense of things from your post without a point of reference for exercising a lot or a little, going back and forth several times, and BG control.
For me, consistent exercise, 30 minutes of cardio and 30 minutes of weights, 3 times a week for 4 weeks will result in significant increases in insulin sensitivity. I'll use about 20% less basal and bolus for the same BG control. Notice that I said for the same BG control. Whether or not I get better BG control depends on how I handle all the additional variables and conditions that consistent exercise places on my control.
Starting from scratch, zero hours and zero days of exercise with typical amounts of insulin used, takes me a month just to get all those additional variables worked out. I may go low during cardio, and then high after weights, or, I may not. Whether or not I have IOB on board will affect my BG control before and after exercise, etc.
The bottom line is, with consistent workouts, minimum 3 times a week, minimum 30 minutes cardio and 30 minutes weights, I'll end up having better BG control using less insulin. It just takes an extended period of consistency to get to that point. Once I get my baseline amount of exercise a week at a baseline intensity, I can ramp up the intensity, number of days, or time per workout, or taper down for a bit, and I can still maintain the same control with varying amounts of insulin required.
OTOH, I can't imagine how difficult it would be to balance exercise, diet, and insulin if I were not consistent with any one of those. Changing any one will change everything.