Hi
The replies above give you masses of fantastic information, and they are clearly from people who know lots about the subject! I don't, but I thought you might like an opinion from a very un-sporty person too.
In the mornings, I find it very easy to forget to eat, and then get physically active (walking to work, going out on the weekend, housework, etc.). I don't feel hungry, and I often have a desire
not to eat. Since I have got myself a blood glucose monitor, I have discovered that this period of non-hungry activity coincides with something called the dawn phenomenon (google it for the technical description). This is when my body decides that it needs to generate energy to allow me to start my day, raids its reserves, and dumps glucose into the bloodstream. I feel great, alert, energetic, and
even less likely to eat! It is like having free energy.
Clearly, using this energy up in a useful way, makes sense, and I think it is the reason that many of us with impaired glucose control skip breakfast.
However (and this is based on a
lot of personal experience), there may be a problem when that 'free energy' runs out. Time after time I have gone from bright, lively and cheerful to white, shaky and irritable. It happens when my blood sugar suddenly drops, it is horrible, and is often called 'a hypo'.
(Hyperglycaemia is high blood glucose, hypoglycaemia is low blood glucose.)
Different people experience hypos differently, and I think that type 1 diabetics often experience differently from type 2s. My personal experience of hypos is that they range from minor feelings of weakness, to major bouts of rage, tearfulness, all-body aches, facial numbness, lost words, confusion and up to 3 days of flu-like aching.
Hardly the kind of thing you want to experience at the end of a fun bout of morning exercise.
I can avoid the whole horrible hypo experience by eating a protein and fat breakfast, no carbs,
before the hypo starts, because the energy from the food is available when the 'free energy' runs out.
So, moral of the story:
Until you are fit and used to morning exercise
- Start gently with your morning exercise routines
- Build up gradually
- Learn how your body starts the hypo
- Eat something slow release before the hypo starts
- Enjoy your exercise