Hello Everyone!!
I am very frustrated!I really want to exercise and be fit but it feels impossible with diabetes!I know you are never supposed to let it hold you back but it is!!My blood glucose at 8am was 5.6(perfect!!)I set a tempoary basal rate of 20%(80% reduction) for 1 hour before my 40 minute brisk walk…so at 9am I checked my bloods and they hadn’t risen…they were 5.5!Maybe I am wrong but I don’t feel safe exercising with such normal levels…I hate hypos!!I would have expexted my levels to be at least 7 or 8!Is a temporary basal rate supposed to rise your blood sugar pre exercise??Just wondering what ye think!xx
Depending on what exercise I’ll be doing, I do what you did (turn down my basal by up to 90%), then I’ll have some fruit or juice right before I start exercising. It’s an inexact science, but I have developed strategies for different activities, and for the most part they work. I agree, hypos during exercise are horrible. Do you carry glucose tabs or gel on your walk? A SPIbelt is good for carrying little things.
It looks like your temp basal tactic worked beautifully. What you describe seems ideal to me. When I plan to exercise (I also like to walk.), I set a temp basal of -20% or -30% starting one hour before I exercise and I choose a temp basal duration for about the expected exercise duration.
In order to learn your body, it may help to write down all the particulars for three or four episodes and then decide what works for you.
Good luck. And don’t stop exercising!
What I have found that works for me is I bolus half the carbs I eat for breakfast. It takes me 30 min to get the gym, so before I leave I do a temporary basal of 50% normally, depending on what I have decided I want to do for exercise. I also take the G2 gatorade which is the low sugar/carb one and sip on it while working out. I keep the temp basal for another 2 hours after I get done working out due to the post workout lows for me. If I remove my pump or bolus for all my carbs even with the temporary basal I will skyrocket. It took me quite a while of trial and error to figure it out, dealt with highs and lows before I finally got it.
Thank you for your comment…I am trying to avoid eating extra carbs as I need to lose weight.But I do realise it is like a science experiment…I must test record and adjust!
Thank you for your comment Terry!So you think my temp basal tactic worked well!?! Should my glucose level not rise pre exercise?I used to eat extra carbs without bolus when I was on injections and my levels would be 10 or 11 pre exercise and 5-8 post exercise!So thhis worked for me but I need to lose weight…for health rather than cosmetic reasons!
Thank you for your comment!I do carry lucozade with me when I exercise but I fear hypos and usually overtreat my hypos and end up off target post exercise!I would eat extra carbs but I have a lot of weight to lose so I have been advised against eating extra carbs!
I find that 60-70% setting, cut by 30% is enough? I think I used to get more “bang for my buck” out of exercising a couple of years ago but I’ve been at it for a while and if I cut it really low my BG goes up. If you are in the bang for the buck phase and it’s flat and you’re not comfortable, for 40 minutes, I’d suggest maybe 10-15G of carbs, something like a glass of milk or V8, not a huge amount, might get you up a bit more? Maybe even 4 oz.
The other thing I find is that in the AM, I get a lot more jacked up about exercising, maybe because I only run early when it’s a race or, recently, with the running club, which involves getting on the road by 6:00 AM on Saturday. I get there but get stressed out, maybe it contributes but I see some DP involved too. Lately things have been goofy. I think my old pump was overpumping right before it blew up and the new one I’ve had to turn up a bit but don’t quite have it sitting pretty yet. Usually I’m able to run it off stress/ dp but the last two weeks, maybe I also contributed to the mess by eating small servings of serving since I didn’t have time for eggs. Argh!! The CGM just keeps going up so I’ve bolused in the middle of 12 and 14 mile runs to keep it in line. The 12 mile run was a complete BG debacle, it was like day 5 of a reservoir so I figured it was not working and pulled it when I got home. It must have been working a little but not much. Today went better, I finished in the 80s and the running group has snacks that are good. If you can exercise flat, I’d just have a small serving of carbs to fuel the work out and keep burning it off?
Just going to watch the replies. This is something I need to master and part of the reason I’ve gained weight. It’s hard for me to figure out my pump adjustments to make exercise safe. 
The numbers seem fine to me I always find that a temp basal 1 hour before and 1 hour after the exercise works best for me. However it depends on the type and amount of exercise of course. Don’t ever let your diabetes make you feel like you can’t do something because it’s just not true. I’ve worked out for about 4-5 hrs a day for the past 4 years with my job and not once have I let diabetes get in the way of me doing anything!! Just keep trying new things with it because it will never be exactly the same everytime.
Jeff
Wow this is music to my ears!!Do you need extra carbs to fuel the exercise?I want to avoid this if possible!!How do people on low carb diets work out??
I think that you do need extra carbs but you may experiment and find that you only need a few, like 10ish, maybe less?
The last race I ran, I looked up the “ExCarbs” in “Pumping Insulin” before the race and they suggested something like 90G of carbs (or cutting 90G worth of insulin…) for a 2 hour run. I was like “that’s like a Big Mac and 1/2 order of fries” and had about 60G, which turned out to be a shade too much as I’d run up due to hitting Gatorade stations at 7 and 9 miles because the 7 mile GA hadn’t hit yet? This is like maybe 10-15G of GA from a fueling station but not a ton.
I find that fast acting carbs are more useful, stuff like milk, V8, jelly beans, etc. work the best as their impact on my BG seems easier to control. I’ve been running with a group and the people are always talking about Gu, Excel Gel (the official gel of the Chicago Marathon…), etc. and I don’t like those much at all as they have rice whey protein dumped into them that takes a while to get going. I totally agree that some carbs are useful but I’ve had a lot of my best results when I get my BG stable enough and remember to just have like 5-7 jelly beans every 3 miles or so and hydrate with water.