• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

T2 Diet controlled: Do I need to eat before the gym?

Designerman 1

Designerman 1

Member
Messages
23
Location
St Annes-on-Sea
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
I'm now a regular gym goer, doing about an hours cardio most nights and burning around 7 - 800 calories in that hour before moving on to resistance/weights.

Do I need to eat to maintain blood Sugars as a Diet Controlled T2? I have been doing, but feel this might be negatively impacting my calorie burning/weight loss.
 
If you're not taking BG lowering meds/insulin then there is no need to eat extra prior to a workout. You may still see low BG levels but your body will automatically deal with this to prevent them going too low.
 
Well, I exercised on an empty stomach, and wow, that was hard!

It might have been the fact it was really hot yesterday compounding it as well, I'm on a day off today but will report back after Sundays session



Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
I'm a type 2 with a long history of hypoglycaemia before the diabetes kicked in. So I have a slightly different perspective.

Are you prone to hypos? If so, I would heartily recommend a small, healthy, slow release, snack before exercise (a handful of nuts, a 9bar, or similar). The reason I say slow release is so that you won't have sudden rises and falls in BG. You are probably much fitter than me, but if I do sudden exercise without a drip feed from food entering the bloodstream, I can drop very sharply - white, shaking, wobbly, and probably not safe enough to drive.

Judging by your calorie useage, it sounds like you exercise hard enough to liver dump, but for me, the risky bit would be between starting exercise and the liver dump kicking in. That is when I sink fast, limbs feel like lead, awful apathetic feeling...

Of course, if I am in ketosis (which isn't often enough!) the problem doesn't happen. :)
 
I exercised tonight after eating approx 200 calories, and it was just as difficult after fasting, I am thinking part fo the problem is the heat, it is so much harder to exercise intensively when too hot, I also noticed my heart rate seemed to elevate a lot easier tonight.
 
Designerman 1 said:
I exercised tonight after eating approx 200 calories, and it was just as difficult after fasting, I am thinking part fo the problem is the heat, it is so much harder to exercise intensively when too hot, I also noticed my heart rate seemed to elevate a lot easier tonight.
Click to expand...
Yes. Heat makes things worse.
 
Back
Top