exercise question

RussG

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Hi,

I've been upping my exercise regime (from 'not much' to 'some') to try to shift some of the weight I've put on since starting taking insulin. One of the things I've been doing is playing racquetball. I've played four times over the last few weeks. Once my BG plunged after exercise, once it skyrocketed and twice it's been up and down. According to what I read, this seems fairly normal for racquetball / squash, as it is high intensity and often leads to unpredictable hypo or hyper glycaemia.

My question is this: should I take a correction dose after exercise if my levels have gone up significantly? At what levels would people recommend triggering a correction dose? Any advice would be welcome.
 

ebony321

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Hi,

It's definately a tricky thing exercise! mild or extreme.

I use an insulin pump so i can prepare for exercise if i plan ahead by reducing my basal rate before hand.

But obviously this will be different if you are injecting background insulin.

On occasion when my BG is raised after exercise i watch it very closely, as exercise can affect your body long after you have stopped in many cases i personally find my BG returns to normal after an hour or two.

In the case if after an hour or two i don't see my BG dropping and returning to normal i will do a small correction to make sure it's coming down.

It's hard to judge what will work for you so you'll have to trial and error i think.

Always keep a close eye on your BG's when exercising and afterwards too and have hypo treatment with you at all times :)
 

RussG

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Hi Ebony321

Thanks - yes it was interesting to work out that I was exercising 'too hard' to reduce my BG :shock: although from experience I will be more insulin sensitive for a day or two after it.

In terms of what I did today, I was 5.0 at lunch. Had 57g carb pasta with half dose (3u) and was 7.6 before exercise. Dropped to 4.7 during game. Drank approx 250ml lucozade. Tested at 5.5 at end of game. Was then 8.7 after walking back to the office and considered whether or not to bolus. I considered your advice and then found that I had dropped to 4.8 an hour later. I was glad I hadn't bolused! I then tested at 4.2 45 mins after that so I took 10g of carb in the form of flapjack and another couple of mouthfuls of lucozade to avoid dropping any lower and I will test before I drive home. That felt reasonable to me, but I'm still very new to insulin.

My question is at what level say an hour after exercise would people consider bolusing to bring it down? I agree that I've got to experiment, but I suppose I'd like to establish a set of working rules to then vary from.

Also, should I drop my basal tonight slightly? I'm on levemir split doses. Any thoughts?
 

jameshallam

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I play squash regulary and found that my BG rises during the sport and then falls for about 5-8 hours afterwards.

Before playing I will only have some QA carbs if below 5.

Then (I normally play just before lunch), I will drop 2/3 units of insulin with my lunch depending on how easy/hard the game was.

today for example I was:

7 @ 11:45 before playing
45 mins of mid intensity squash
6.4 @ 13:00 after squash, before lunch
7.5 CPs lunch (would normally inject 7 units, but dropped 2 units due to the exercise)

Will test again when i get home...
 

noblehead

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rglennon said:
My question is at what level say an hour after exercise would people consider bolusing to bring it down? I agree that I've got to experiment, but I suppose I'd like to establish a set of working rules to then vary from.

Personally I wouldn't bolus one hour after as exercise tends to lower my bg many hours after, not sure if you have seen this site but Runsweet offers excellent advice to diabetics who play sport and use insulin:


http://www.runsweet.com/index.html

Nigel