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Advice on exercise and food

dan12321

dan12321

Active Member
Messages
40
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
For the past couple of months ive been bike riding at the weekends in the morning, usually have my breakfast then its about a 40 mins drive to where i go, the problem is im not sure how much insulin to take, if i take the right amount it will cover it for the car journey but i will start to hypo pretty quick into the bike ride, if i take less insulin my blood sugars will spike on the journey there, but be ok when riding. Anyone else have irritating problems like this? Ive had this problem quite alot when exercising soon after eating, its like you have to start exercising straight away to stop the spike.
 
You just take additional carbs to prevent you going low when your on your bike ride.
 
I have this problem regularly. In the end I accepted the slightly higher blood sugars at the start of exercise cause I didn't like taking the extr carbs to prevent hyping during exercise. Would be interested to see what other people do.
 
I accept the higher BG for a short time prior to the ride. I would also reduce my mealtime bolus by two-thirds that close to a ride. If it's a long ride, I'd also reduce my basal that morning, again, by anything up to two thirds based on experimentation
 
All valid answers so far.

When I exercise (aerobically) in the morning I skip breakfast and maybe have a few carbs just before the start and some during if needed to prevent hypo. Then when I get back, have the delayed meal, but remember to reduce bolus to avoid post exercise hypo.
 
zicksi101 said:
All valid answers so far.

When I exercise (aerobically) in the morning I skip breakfast and maybe have a few carbs just before the start and some during if needed to prevent hypo. Then when I get back, have the delayed meal, but remember to reduce bolus to avoid post exercise hypo.
Click to expand...

That's another appaorach I've used, but haerder when on the pump than MDI.

Whe I was on MDI I'd run before my morning basal injection with either no carbs, or a small snack beforehand. On the pump it's not that easy as you ideally want to reduce the basal rate for a few hours before exercising. You could do that with an alternative basal profiel as well rather than a TBR, but then yuo need the discipline to actually get up and do it.
 
dan12321 said:
For the past couple of months ive been bike riding at the weekends in the morning, usually have my breakfast then its about a 40 mins drive to where i go, the problem is im not sure how much insulin to take, if i take the right amount it will cover it for the car journey but i will start to hypo pretty quick into the bike ride, if i take less insulin my blood sugars will spike on the journey there, but be ok when riding. Anyone else have irritating problems like this? Ive had this problem quite alot when exercising soon after eating, its like you have to start exercising straight away to stop the spike.
Click to expand...

Insulin and exercise are never happy bedfellows.:(
How about bacon and eggs for breakfast - no need to bolus then at least? :)Eating carb + bolus (even reduced) + exercise straight away is still likely to cause a nasty BG fall rather than the nice level profile you hope for.
 
If you look at my recent post on cycle sportive nutrition I talk all about fitting hypos, during, directly after and hours after exercise and how to fight them. Having been a pump user and an injection user I can safely say the theories are the same.

You can introduce some basal reduction schemes into the mix but increasing glucose intake instead will give you far better performance related results. You don't want to be starving your body of calories Unless you have a serious weight loss challenge in mind.

Hope this helps,

Henry

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/cycle-sportive-nutrition.72299/page-2#post-806778
 
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