Exercise & Diabetes

[LoraG88]

Hey I've been diabetic for seventeen years and have recently decided I finally need to loose my baby weight (my little boy is nearly two! oops!)

I'm starting a kettle bell and crossfit class next week and am looking for advice on whats best to eat before exercise. I'm not dieting at the moment, I've just cut out the rubbish I eat and replaced it with fruit. And I've stopped eating between meals which was my main downfall before.

Just have no idea what to eat before classes.

Any help would be greaat! Thanx Guys x

 

[morethanmutts]

Hi LoraG88, i have a piece of wholemeal toast with jam or honey and allso drink lucasade throughout the session this is usually 1 hr 30 but everyone is differant so do a lot of tests allso be careful after because your levels might slill fall even the day after so you might have to adjust your insulin
good luck Peter

 

[AMBrennan]

lucasade

Not a fan. Firstly, Lucozade is inefficient - the carbs are mostly sugar, which means that you'll need twice as much (=twice the calories) compared to pure glucose from Glucotabs, white bread, etc.

[The following ignores larger packs, multi-buy offers and generic alternatives and is thus not entirely fair]
Secondly, it's a very expensive form of sugar - one 500ml bottle costs £1.50 but contains just 40g of sugar (equivalent to 5 Glucotabs). 5 Glucotabs cost £0.40 (if you buy packs of 10). If you're willing to mix your own, you can get a pound (454g) of Glucose C from Boots for £1.50.

 

[Cheryl]

Personally, I eat a banana & top up with lucozade if I think that I need more carb. I swim 2km/40 mins & need around 40 grammes of carb to deal with that. I am on a pump & also reduce my basal rates by 10% for 24 hours afterwards to prevent hypos while my liver replaces its glycogen stores. Talk to an HCP about possible insulin adjustment after exercise (probably necessary if you exercise less than every other day).

Also, if your class is within a couple of hours of a meal you may consider reducing your bolus dose for the meal, you'll run a little high, but should be starting exercise with a BG of 8-12 anyway.

Have a look at www.Runsweet.com & www.diabetesnet.com the former is dedicated to diabetes & sport (though I find tends to be aimed at people doing a lit of intense activity, there is some useful info there) the latter has a good section on exercise, calculating carbs needed for it & deciding on how to split insulin reduction & carb replacement.

The best advice is test before you start, every 30 mins during, straight afterwards & again an hour later. Then keep a close eye on yourself for 24 hours. After a while, if you keep & compare records, you'll work out what's best for you.

I'm definitely a fan of bananas for exercise though, good for warding off cramp & fairly high (23g/100 carb -flesh only, a 150g banana is only about 100g flesh, so only 23 grc) in good sugars to prevent sudden drops and/or spikes.

 

[TraceyJ]

Hi

All the above advice is good so I would second that, also the websites mentioned by Cheryl are good.

For intense exercise of about 1 hour duration reduce short acting insulin taken prior to exercise by 30 - 50%, depending on what your blood sugar level is beforehand. Extra carbohydrate may also be required. Remember to let people in the class know you are a diabetic and let them know what to do if anything does happen.

Also, if your blood sugar level is 13.0 + before exercise you shouldn't be exercising until your levels come below this and if you have ketones its a no-no.

Another thought to add to the mix - when you lose weight you are likely to need less insulin so watch for this as well.

Tracey

 

[Bucco]

Read the book "Diabetic Athlete's Handbook" by Sheri R. Colberg ISBN 13: 978 0 7360 7493 3

Will tell you all you need to know,

 

[ljwilson]

lucasade

Not a fan. Firstly, Lucozade is inefficient - the carbs are mostly sugar, which means that you'll need twice as much (=twice the calories) compared to pure glucose from Glucotabs, white bread, etc.

[The following ignores larger packs, multi-buy offers and generic alternatives and is thus not entirely fair]
Secondly, it's a very expensive form of sugar - one 500ml bottle costs £1.50 but contains just 40g of sugar (equivalent to 5 Glucotabs). 5 Glucotabs cost £0.40 (if you buy packs of 10). If you're willing to mix your own, you can get a pound (454g) of Glucose C from Boots for £1.50.

Lucozade has 17.2 grams of carbs per 100ml so a 500ml bottle has 86g of carbs

 

[AMBrennan]

Oops, sorry. Regardless, it's still very expensive sugar

 

[jopar]

All some good advise, but don't forget to keep testing, during and after exercise until the next day...

As different exercises can impact at a different time than you might expect... I know for me cycling wise, it's not so much when I'm cycling that I get problems or directly afterwards... It generally hits me 6-8 hours later.. Which is different to walking out with the dogs, a good hike will mean a TBR of around 20% on my pump, and for an hour or so afterwards then fine no problems afterwards..

Not an exercise as such, driving long distances I need to set a TBR for the duration I'm driving, then afterwards back to normal but I have to set a lower TBR overnight as find it starts impacting on my BG's again

 

[goslow12]

Oops, sorry. Regardless, it's still very expensive sugar

I agree. The lucozade marketing team have done a great job of selling this expensive liquid. Now they are trying to tell people that it hydrates better than water and is somehow beneficial to sports people over other liquids.

BS

 

[Cheryl]

I guess it depends which Lucozade you drink. Lucozade Sport has 32g carb per 500ml bottle (I just checked). I use it as it's easy to leave by the side of the pool. I could make my own sugar water, but that would taste worse than Lucozade.

 

[ljwilson]

I have started buying Sainsburys own make Energy drink 6 x 330ml for £1.49, same carbs as Lucozade but an awful lot cheaper

Lorna