New diabetic fitness tips

[farheen123]

Hi all, hope everyone's doing well and kicking butt. I'm a fairly newly diagnosed diabetic and wanna start working out but I guess fear has been holding me back. Anybody wanna share suggestions regarding how you keep or keep backup supplies/prevent hypos/manage food and fitness?
Really appreciated!

 

[Marie 2]

Working out really is a huge guessing game for each of us. It just really varies person to person? Trial and error?
I have found what I am used to doing routinely is going to be the most predictable.

I get on my exercise bike daily for at least 10 miles. Since I am retired I have the versatility to decide when I do. I usually save it for after I've eaten a full meal. Sometimes I try to take a little less insulin and get on when my numbers first start to rise. This also helps prevent some of the higher rises for me when I have judged wrong on timing or doses. It kind of stops it in it's tracks.

But when snorkeling which is much more of a workout, I have to start out at a higher number and decrease my basal rate on my pump. Usually I eat something within an hour afterwards. It depends on how much work the snorkeling has taken to how much of a drop I will have and if or how much I have to eat, it is much more of a variable that I have to adjust for at the time.

 

[streem26]

I highly recommend to eat at almost the same time everyday. Have a controlled workout plan and lifestyle. It can be realy hard, but it educates your body to produce the insulin at the right amount of time, even if sometimes it may not be enough (it depends on what treatment you follow if you follow any).

 

[NicoleC1971]

You will need to do some experimentation and I like Adam Brown's analogy in Bright Spots and Landmines re exercise:
Where are you starting from? (current bg level)
Where do you want to end up (bg level) & what can you do to achieve this e.g. reduce my insulin or eat more. Obviously to take these options you need to know how much your bg drops when you take 1u of inuslin or how much it will rise when you take 10g of starchy food?
Note that I often train fasted so you don't have to eat or take insulin prior to a workout as doing that adds another couple of things to bring into the calculations.
What are the 'road conditions'? e.g. duration and type of exercise
When you are experimenting do keep some quick acting carb nearby as you are doubtless already doing and be aware that your bg can drop afterwards too.

I exercise for a living and find it helps me cope with my diabetes as it makes me feel normal and in control. That isn't to say it isn't another variable to contend with!