After a lot of work I finally seem to have all my levels right, I know my ratios and have got it under control ( mostly ) But I've started gym again and everything is thrown off.
Does anyone have any good tips of how to maintain control and go from zero activity to 4 1h gym sessions a week ?
Each session is 30 minutes cardio, 15 minutes weights and sauna - which seems to really drop my levels - wish i could just go work out really hard without worrying .
Thanks !
Any sudden change in your activity level is going to throw you for a loop. Aerobic exercise (cardio) usually drops your blood sugar and anaerobic (weights) raises it. And sauna can often drop you fast. Then for up to 48 hours after exercise you will be more insulin sensitive. But everyone is different.
So it is no surprise that things were thrown off. But there is no reason you cannot adjust to this new regime, you just need to be consistent. And only after your body becomes accustomed to the exercise will things truly stablize. Since you are on shots, you will likely find it hard to be really flexible. You will need to adjust your basal insulin levels, but you will have to play with that. And the best approach is probably to eat before exercise and just check after your cardio and see where your blood sugar is. If you look ok, then you can do your weights and probably be fine. I would skip the sauna. It may make you feel good, but the heat really increases your circulation and doing that after exercise can induce a hypo.
A good book on exercise is Sheri Colberg's Diabetic Athletes Handbook.
Brian has been super complete!
Just take it gradually and start to lower your basal. You can try to measure before, during and after exercise to understand how your body is reacting.
As always work on as few variables as you can, that way you can study what happens better.
At first exercise seems to be problematic as regards your control on D. But when you overcome those initial obstacles HUUUUUGE rewards are gonna be there for you!
Hi Guys
Thanks for the help. I have decreased my night insulin and day background by 20 % which seems right so far. I test half way through my exercise and just before sauna. Having not exercised for like a year now, I'm really enjoying it . Just trying to be patient and consistent. I will def take a look at that book. Thanks,
The thing that I think helps me the most is to clear out bolus insulin when I work out. Basal adjustment is useful but I usually try not to eat for at least two hours before I work out, so the bolus insulin will be cleared out. My favorite time is right when I get home from work. I test my BG and, depending on how accurate the CGM is, may test again to make sure. I have figured over a couple of years of testing that 8-12G of carbs will "cover" about a 3 mile run so, if I feel like I need a snack, I have glass of skim milk w/ no insulin and head out to run it off. It works pretty quickly, being liquid and concentrated lactose and is a good fit for me. Longer distances, I bring a "to go order" as I have a variety of small, concentrated carbs to bring along.
In your situation, you might be able to use the tendency of weights to raise BG to get some "home grown" BG from that and then run it off? I sort of liked running first and then weights when I did that (back in 2009...) but it might work.
I'd also add that I've read that hot showers, and maybe a sauna, can increase insulin absorption, sometimes fairly significantly. If you're already running lowish b/c of working out and hit the sauna, that effect might be knocking you down lower?
I just eat 20-30g carbs before I exercise and by the time i'm done exercising my sugars are normal.