pumps are great for this exact thing. when i exercise or even do strenuous work i do what’s called a temp basal rate. it cuts my low lying insulin in half and i have less of a problem of being low after exercise.
Ugh… I trained for a triathlon and now cycle instead of driving, and figuring out how to adjust insulin for distance training is flipping HARD. For a while, I just made sure my BS was above 250 before I exercised because I can drop literally 200 points. usually, i just detach my pump for the hour before and I come back and am fine. It messes me up for a little while, but I have to.
I would never send DN swimming or exercising if BS is 112 (she can drop 100 points an hour even if disconnected from her pump). We bring her up to 180 BEFORE swimming or biking; make sure there is no IOB; check in an hour and will have to give more carbs again if she plans to keep exercising. If there is Insulin on board (from eating within the past three hours), she checks in a half hour and we cover all or some of it then. We don’t want her to go too high so don’t cover all the carbs at one time. You will learn by experience how to cover each exercise. Gary Schiener has a book “Think Like a Pancreas” that has a useful Exercise Chart in the back of the book. It will analyze each exercise by mild, moderate or heavy activity, weight of person and recommended Extra Carbs by half hour and full hour for each exercise. I have found this chart spot on. John Walsh in “pumping Insulin” and “Using Insulin” also has such a chart, but he recommends way more carbs than we need. You will be surprised how many extra carbs are needed for most exercise. I was. And they both go into how exercise impacts blood sugars after exercise, later in the day and most importantly, how when you sleep that night, your liver will take glucose from your blood to replenish the stores used for the exercise. In other words, watch for lows overnight and adjust insulin/carbs so you don’t drop overnight on days you exercise heavily.
I’m with you on the diabetes hate! I’ve been stepping up my running (working up for a half marathon that’s in January) and lately my blood sugar is HIGHER when I finish then when i started. It’s so frustrating, because if I don’t carb up before I run, then I hit a still hit a low early in the run and I don’t make it past 2 miles before I crash and have to stop. But lately I’ve been ending my runs at 160-180 and it just keeps climbing for the next hour. Then to make it that much more fun, I’ve been crashing about 3-4 hours later without any intervention and then I have to snack, again. I feel like I"m wasting my workouts because I end up eating so much just to cover the issues with running. The first couple of times that my BS went up while I was running, I took a unit to correct, BIG mistake, because it dropped me like a rock down into the 40’s. Not entirely sure what I’m supposed to do about this, but I’m not willing to give up my workouts! I feel like that lets diabetes win. but wow, I really hate this stupid disease!!!
Gaaah! I feel your frustration. You did almost everything I would have done.
I wouldn’t have taken the insulin with the PB sandwich. I’d have waited an hour and checked first precisely becasue I’m so senstive to insulin after exercising.
This is one of those places where my CGM comes in handy to tell me if I’m trending up or down.
Even so, even when I think I’ve got it figured out, I still get freaky results sometimes.
Terry
I third the tabs.
Definitely frustrating Ryan.
For me, the most important thing is not to exercise within two hours of a bolus. I try to exercise first thing in the morning and if I need a correction bolus, then I only give 10-25% of the correction that I would usually need. I want very little bolus insulin on board when I start.
Since I use the pump, I also reduce the basal rate 1 hour before exercising (to 50%) for 1-2 hours.
Did anyone mention the book Diabetic Athletes Handbook by Sheri Colberg? It has great advice she is a Type I 40 years her PHD is in exercise physiology. It has helped me alot . I too hate this disease . Robin
yup, this has to be one of the MOST frusterating things about it all…yesterday I went to the gym, ate a bananna before hand w no insulin to make sure I was high (low 200’s) and then after 20 mins on the elliptical I’m 100…fine…5 mins later I"m 73. In an attempt to salvage what was left of my workout I slow down, eat a GU gel, and a few glucose tabs…8 mins after that I am climbing slowly (95) so I speed up a bit figuring I"m only going to continue to climb…finally finish my cardio, test and I’m back to 69…ugh…a luna bar and 20 mins later I am finally to 113…yet feel low AGAIN as I drive home 20 mins later. I am on a pump, and after messing w my basals w no luck I usually end up disconnecting or suspending it while exercising, and still go low during exercise. I know my heart and muscles benefit from the workout, but when I’m consuming 50% or more of the calories I’m burning, it’s tough to get motivated to workout. Ok, I’m done whining.
Pump sounds good but I can’t due the tube thing so I’m waiting for the new Solo tubeless pump hopefully later this year. It’s awful having to adjust for excercising and embarasing when I have to take candy into my aerobic classes!
The best things have been the specialty gels made for running. Can’t remember the name but it’s a slower release and will last through an hour run and keep things pretty level but expensive.
+1 both for the day of and the next day I cut back on my lantus (I take it at night) for days when I do more than usual because I can get really sensitive to insulin +24 hours.