Exercise Advice

[Nazmusa_]

I am type 2 and after I excercise I find that my blood sugar increases for a period to quite high levels and then drops in a couple of hours. Is this normal and how do others manage this?

Thanks and apologies if this is a stupid question.

 

[urbanracer]

I am type 2 and after I excercise I find that my blood sugar increases for a period to quite high levels and then drops in a couple of hours. Is this normal and how do others manage this?

Thanks and apologies if this is a stupid question.

The results of exercise can vary greatly. Your liver may dump some glucose in response to strenuous exercise - this is a stress response and is quite normal.

Have a look at this information page.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-sport-and-blood-sugar.html

 

[Tabbyjoolz]

It's still early days for me as I've only been monitoring BS for a week, but sometimes it rises slightly after exercise, more often it falls. I walk a lot - if it's only a couple of miles, it does rise a little (say from 6.1 to 6.8), but three miles plus the figure after the decimal point falls a little. Like the link says, shorter bursts of exercise can raise it, longer bursts lower it.

 

[4ratbags]

Sometimes it helps to have a small snack with you such as cheese or some nuts to eat mid way through and it can usually help by avoiding a liver dump.

 

[DeejayR]

Thanks and apologies if this is a stupid question.

I dare say there are a few dumb questions on the forum but your isn't one. In fact there's a great deal I don't understand about blood sugar levels but by taking advice from others here I'm not only still alive but flourishing. So the whys and wherefores don't seem so important any more. I'm sure you'll find the same.

 

[Bebo321]

I am type 2 and after I excercise I find that my blood sugar increases for a period to quite high levels and then drops in a couple of hours. Is this normal and how do others manage this?

Thanks and apologies if this is a stupid question.

Perfectly sensible question to ask.
@urbanracer is correct in saying that it is a stress response caused by your elevated heart rate.
Unfortunately, once a stress response has been triggered, the liver takes a little while to get the message that it's extra glucose isn't required. Stop your activity suddenly, and you will see your blood glucose levels rise.

Ways to manage could be:

Invest in a heart rate monitor, and over time you should be able to judge at what point you induce the liver to release glucose. If you know that this happens above 150bpm for example you could maintain a heart rate below this, and avoid a sugar spike.

Another way would be to follow a period of intensive exercise with 20mins or so of more moderate exercise. This would allow your heart rate to slow back down but still be activating your muscles to mop up the excess glucose in your blood.

I don't think there is any empirical proof that says that eating before or after exercise helps to manage the spike, but from experience it seems that for some individuals it can help. I guess it's a case to testing what works for you.

Here's a movie that (in the second half) explains exactly what happens in your body when you exercise, and why it is so beneficial for blood glucose management.

 

[Kingofnowhere]

Hi

I swim , and my BS always goes up after a swim. I swim in the morning, so tried not having breakfast and it rises, I have had breakfast before and it rises. Nothing I can do, it rises.

However, I have noticed

1) The fitter I have become, the less it rises.

2) It does rises more on Mondays and the rise becomes less as the week progresses. I put this down to a)normally I have a day off on Sunday B) also the weekend it less strict on diet. I have a few beers, and eat out. Therefore I think my body is a bit more stress, and has more glucose to pump out on Monday!

Cheers

Mark

 

[walnut_face]

No such thing as a stupid question - but there are stupid answers
You will find that aerobic exercise will not put you BS up (by much) and indeed at the end of an hours walk you should find it has fallen. Aerobic exercise is defined as exercise that gives you a warm glow and brings your heart rate to between 70 and 80% of maximum. If you get into exercise where your heart rate is between 80-90% (Anaerobic) you will find that your BS raises quite a bit in the short term, and will still be higher at the end of the exercise (hence warm down)
Max heart rate is calculated as 220 minus your age
have a read http://www.runningforfitness.org/calc/heart-rate-calculators/hrzone
In the longer term Anaerobic exercise will lift your VO2 max, the ability of your heart and lungs to transport oxygen round the bloodstream, which is what @Kingofnowhere is experiencing, exercise has become easier, so heart rate does not raise as high for a given exercise.

Hope thats not too stupid an answer

 

[psignathus]

You do not give what your numbers are or what type of exercise so I will give you what happens to me. I wake up with a fasting level of around 6.2 which is possibly a dawn phenomena my Hba1c is always around 5.3%. Anyways when I resistance train in the morning in a fasted state my BS will rise to around 7 however if I eat 8 almonds before going to the gym there is hardly any rise. I am LCHF so rarely does my BS go over 7 even after food. Try a handful of nuts then get to the gym. Regardless of the outcome the long term benefits of exercise include a reduction in insulin resistance so stay at it.

 

[Bebo321]

Just a thought @Nazmusa_
Another way to possibly tackle post intensive exercise BG spikes, is by popping a bit of apple cider vinegar in your drinking water during/after exercise (if you can bear it!). There has been a fair amount of research around the benefits of apple cider vinegar and its ability to reduce post-prandial blood glucose levels (so potential blood glucose spikes after eating), but it appears that it is also a stimulant for muscle glucose uptake.
After exercise your muscles will be primed to gobble up glucose - anything you can do to enhance this ability should reduce the potential BG rise.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4438142/
'In our study vinegar ingestion enhanced glucose disposal, suggesting an improvement in insulin action in skeletal muscle. It is well known that insulin affects vascular endothelium and increases muscle and adipose tissue blood flow by increasing vasodilation and capillary recruitment [35–37]. This effect is considered as an important component of insulin's stimulation of glucose uptake; impairment of this mechanism in insulin-sensitive tissues may partly account for insulin resistance in obesity and type 2 diabetes'

Eating something can potentially work too (just as @psignathus has found).
Gluconeogenesis (literally meaning the creation of new glucose) within the liver is the main cause of elevated blood glucose levels post exercise. Glucagon released by the alpha cells in the pancreas is the hormone responsible for triggering this process. It's useful to know that glucagon and insulin play as a 'tag team' within the pancreas - when insulin is released by the beta cells, glucagon secretion is reduced, and when there is a call for glucose and glucagon is released, insulin production switches off. By eating something before, during or after your exercise, you are trying to trigger enough of a surge of insulin to knock back the production of glucagon. This needn't necessarily be carb based, as insulin is secreted automatically for any food ingestion (it's even secreted at the mere sniff of food!!)
Anyway, hopefully it helps to understand some of the mechanics of what is going on within your body. More knowledge = Better control.

 

[ashmili]

Hi! Friends. I'm new to this forum. Have been reading and getting a lot of information from this forum. Thank you all. I'm T2 since 2010. I'm on basal/bolus and oral met formin 1000mg/glim 2mg one each at night. I take lantus 15 at night. My bolus 3 times is at present 18/8/8. Even I used to get spikes post brisk walking for 40 minutes. Then I tried as walnut_face has explained. Kept my pulse around 110 with moderate speed, it worked. Sugars started coming down! Thank you once again!

 

[ashmili]

Hi! Friends what I've mentioned above is evening walks after I test for my PPBS for lunch. I've only started doing this since one week and got the results with your help. Since yesterday I started walking post breakfast for 45 minutes moderately. The results(PPBS for breakfast) are same as without walking. Should I keep trying for at least a week?