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Glucose tablets - time profile????

EllieM

EllieM

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Just been to my weekly torture session at the gym, and it got me thinking.

Even though I go about 4 hours after having my breakfast bolus, my blood sugar still tends to plummet down during heavy duty cardio, and I ended up taking 2 glucotabs to "keep me going".

So, my question is - what's the time profile when you eat glucose tablets -
10 minutes to first start raising your blood sugar?
But when can I say that it's all been digested, and it's done it's worst to my system....?
 
No idea to be honest, but I find that pure cardio drops me and then glucose tabs (or any other sweetie type things) take a long time to act, more like 30 mins - perhaps I am still dropping for a while as they work into the system?
 
Diakat said:
No idea to be honest, but I find that pure cardio drops me and then glucose tabs (or any other sweetie type things) take a long time to act, more like 30 mins - perhaps I am still dropping for a while as they work into the system?
Click to expand...

Yes, well I'm a little more pre-emptive than I used to be.
bg at 12.30 before cardio was 6.5 so I popped a glucotab
30 minutes later in between sets I tested and it had gone down to 5.5 so I popped another.
When I got home at 1.45 (15 minutes after end of session) it was 6.2

If I'd gone as low as 4 I probably would have been wiped out for 15 minutes at least.:)
 
I think it is hard to say because two conflicting things are happening: you are adding glucose to raise your BG and your exercise makes insulin more efficient which is dropping your BG.
My expectation is the GlucoTab profile would be different if you were slobbing on the couch to if you were working your butt off at the gym.

Rather than "carb loading" before exercise, one suggesting that was made to me was to constantly consume a low level of carbs during exercise by adding a small amount of fruit squash to my water. For this reason, my gym bag contains one of those Robinson's Squash'd things as well as a water bottle. One squirt in a half litre water bottle stopped me from hypoing and didn't taste too strong.
(You could drink pre-mixed drinks but you have no control over the strength and they are more expensive.)
 
helensaramay said:
Rather than "carb loading" before exercise, one suggesting that was made to me was to constantly consume a low level of carbs during exercise by adding a small amount of fruit squash to my water. For this reason, my gym bag contains one of those Robinson's Squash'd things as well as a water bottle. One squirt in a half litre water bottle stopped me from hypoing and didn't taste too strong.
Click to expand...

That's a really good idea, thanks.

But I've still got the time delay for the drink to act, and my blood sugar really plummets on cardio.
 
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