Blood sugar 21.5 down to 10.4 EXERCISE TO LOWER BLOOD

A lot of people find that gentle exercise like walking can help in lowering blood sugar whereas more strenuous exercise raises it. Looks like you may be good for some n=1 experimentation although maybe stay off the beer and biscuits and avoid the elevated sugars n the first place?

Yes it's quite odd when you start to analyse exactly what you eat. I always thought I was a savoury guy until I stopped eating sweet stuff then realised I must have had a really sweet tooth. After 18 months of not having much I find regular milk tastes sweet to me and don't miss sweet stuff at all.

Aaaargh! Careful with the drink! You might have experienced a fast blood sugar lowering? Alcohol can cause morning highs and very fast bloodsugar drops halfway thru the next day.
Yes, walking, gentle jogs or a Hot shower works really well for me when I can't shift a high blood sugar.
Drink extra water.

I found a static cycle worked wonders for me. 30 minutes twice a day initially. If I were doing this again now I would halve the time. I would get a drop from 8 something to 4 something, I remember having a sensation like my mind was cleansing.

Now I recommend intensive weight training, I do get an initial rise, but the after burn lowers my readings to the mid 4's and seems to torch over eating.

Rockwannabe68 said:

Looking forward to adding more regular exercise into my day
Hot shower a good tip I'll try
Hopefully some coinsistancy will pay off

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to be honest I found diet so much more important than exercise.. keep the carbs very low and your blood sugars will come down.

Congrats on your discovery @Rockwannabe68. Delighted you're using a glucose meter...it truly is our friend!

I share your experience. Type 1's have insulin, type 2's have exercise to knock a high glucose level down. Twenty minutes of walking - (typically 1 1/2 hours after the meal) - works best for me. On the rare occasion when I eat a meal that is digesting slowly, causing a second glucose rise, I walk a second time an hour or so after the first walk. But most of the time, one brisk twenty minute walk is all that's needed.

I'm unable to drink beer because I have a gluten sensitivity, but I do tolerate a glass of dry red wine well.

During the warmer months, a low carb beverage that I enjoy is a 1/2 lime and a 1/2 lemon freshly juiced, divided between two pre-chilled glasses, a few leaves of fresh mint muddled in the bottom of each glass - (I use the end of a wooden spoon) - 4 ounces of sparkling water, and a few drops of Stevita, a pure liquid extract made from Stevia leaves. Stir, add ice, and enjoy.

I recently learned that stevia is also available in a pure powdered form so will try that this summer. When sweetening a beverage with Stevita, add no more than 2 drops at a time, stirring and tasting before adding more. A little stevia in goes a long, long way!

It doesn't matter whether you use liquid or powdered stevia, just find some that's pure with no additives. I use it because it's natural.

Or use the low carb sweetener of your choice.

You'll need to adjust the amounts of juice to sparkling water to your own tastes of course, but when drinking socially, it helps to have low carb beverages to drink too.

Congrats again!

bulkbiker said:

Yes it's quite odd when you start to analyse exactly what you eat. I always thought I was a savoury guy until I stopped eating sweet stuff then realised I must have had a really sweet tooth. After 18 months of not having much I find regular milk tastes sweet to me and don't miss sweet stuff at all.

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I was making mashed potato for the family the other night, and had a 1/4 teaspoon to taste if there was enough salt in it and I couldn't believe how sweet the spuds tasted. Yuck

Walking certainly helps a little. I even found to my wife's delight that a bit of housework is great exercise. I couldn't sustain that though! For me, it is all about low carbs; that is what will keep the levels down.

Whichever route anyone decides upon, I would counsel that they don't develop a high reliance on exercise to control their condition. For me, exercise is the fine tuning/icing on the cake element.

The reasons I have adopted that approach are twofold. Firstly, I believe you can't outrun a poor diet, and secondly, there are times when we can't exercise (as much, or at all); such as when under the weather (anything from a virus to something more meaningful), to circumstances like travelling, whether sitting in a car or on an aeroplane, or even straightforwardly, life getting in the way.

For me what I eat and drink is at the core of any management methodology, which allows me to enjoy the exercise I take, rather than be bound to having eaten a meal, I have to go walking.

Rockwannabe68 said:

I know these are high numbers still , but I was given a blood monitor from doctors
So I've been testing various foods and drinks
I lapsed last night a couple of beers and some busicults this morning my blood was high
I've read exercise can lower blood sugar so this morning I went for a 4 mile run
After half hour my blood was 10.4 still high but really positive step
Some more exercise and a strict watch of diet hopefully things will levels out
Does anyone else use exercise like this

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I agree with you on this, exercise was one of the keys to my reversal.
I also find it has an effect that lasts a day or two, effectively once you 'kick start'your metabolism, the effect on BG lasts a lot longer than the exercise.
Before I reversed it, one of my 'go to's' was running up and down the stairs, that soon brought BG down.

Although today, I went to the spa, had a very yummy bowl of pasta, and a pint, then perversely, went swimming for an hour, then hit the gym for another hour.
So I'll be good for a while.

AndBreathe said:

Whichever route anyone decides upon, I would counsel that they don't develop a high reliance on exercise to control their condition. For me, exercise is the fine tuning/icing on the cake element.

The reasons I have adopted that approach are twofold. Firstly, I believe you can't outrun a poor diet, and secondly, there are times when we can't exercise (as much, or at all); such as when under the weather (anything from a virus to something more meaningful), to circumstances like travelling, whether sitting in a car or on an aeroplane, or even straightforwardly, life getting in the way.

For me what I eat and drink is at the core of any management methodology, which allows me to enjoy the exercise I take, rather than be bound to having eaten a meal, I have to go walking.

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I agree. And I'm going to piggyback onto your post.

One of the challenges of the low carb lifestyle is learning how to prepare meals from scratch, also learning how to prepare and freeze food for the week ahead as needed - (hearty soups ladled into in wide mouth, glass peanut butter jars is great for this). Not easily done if you've always depended on someone other than yourself for most of what you eat.

That person was me two years ago.

It's been quite the learning curve, and I'm still very much learning. I don't know how I could have navigated what's healthy and what's not without this forum, Mark Hyman's books and Dana Carpender's cookbooks. They got me started. My husband, who is an excellent cook has learned right along side me, mostly about how to select meat and vegetables, also what oils and fats to use when cooking.

I'm embarrassed now by what I served our youngest son as he grew up. Now 29, like me, he doesn't know how to cook, so my husband and I are now righting this wrong by preparing and sharing a healthy meal with him at his home each week, and leaving the left overs. As we become better prepared and organized, we will involve him in the meal preparation too. Baby steps...

Interestingly, of my many diabetes friends, those who don't cook are the one's who struggle the most, and they find the most creative workarounds: eating out, eating mostly animal proteins and fats at home, intermittent fasting, exercising daily. It's challenging. While there's nothing wrong with any of those choices, none in my opinion adequately insure both a healthy and varied diet.

Trying to figure out now how to address this need through our diabetes group when I myself know enough to get by but not enough yet to teach. We also need a meeting facility that includes a kitchen. Thinking, thinking...

Another challenge is eating very low carb and thinking you need to eat that way for the rest of your life. Today I eat in the 40 to 60 carb range. At that level, I am able to eat a healthy, varied diet. It's important to think both short- and long-term.

While there will always be outliers, for many type 2's I believe the body, when provided the nutrients and fiber it needs along with physical activity, stress management, and quality sleep is capable of healing, but to do so requires knowledge and a lot of patience, something I'm short of.

When I started the low carb diet, I was determined to eat as varied a diet as possible, so I ate healthy animal proteins and fats with a lot of leafy greens or vegetables at every meal. And not surprisingly, I am so insulin resistant, even vegetables spiked my glucose levels, fruit was particularly problematic.

But I stuck with it, added a lot of thoughtfully chosen whole food nutritional supplements, and trusted that my body would slowly heal over time. It is, slowly, gradually.

My fasting glucose level was 125 mg/dl for a long time. Today it is 110 mg/dl and is still showing signs of slow, continued improvement. My diet today includes root vegetables - (some no more than a 1 to 2 tablespoons at a time, others like carrots, whole if raw). I also am now able to have an ounce of fruit following meals. An example would be half of a 1/2" wide slice of an organic orange, eaten with the peel - (this lessens the sweetness, also adds more flavor; admittedly, it is an acquired taste ).

All that said, I do not anticipate adding grains back into my diet. Frankly, as I've heard said here and elsewhere many times, while grains have interesting textures, they are very bland. (They still spike my glucose levels, and it's also increasingly difficult to find grains that are non-GMO and organic. I'm trying my best to keep pesticides, herbicides, and heavy metals out of my diet because my body is so damaged, as evidenced by having multiple chronic health conditions.)

I really like the n=1 approach. In my mind, if something doesn't work now, try it again later. If what you're doing is working, continue doing it. If it stops working, start again with a new strategy.

We're so fortunate to live in a time when almost everything is measurable. Glucose meters are our friends, and with the lab tests available today, we have so much more information than we've had previously. In the past, we were able to figure out what works, today we know why it works.

Rockwannabe68 said:

I know these are high numbers still , but I was given a blood monitor from doctors
So I've been testing various foods and drinks
I lapsed last night a couple of beers and some busicults this morning my blood was high
I've read exercise can lower blood sugar so this morning I went for a 4 mile run
After half hour my blood was 10.4 still high but really positive step
Some more exercise and a strict watch of diet hopefully things will levels out
Does anyone else use exercise like this

Click to expand...

There is so much to learn about the body's reactions to different foods. Human nutrition seems to be 40 years behind animal nutrition but of course it isn't possible to maintain a glass window into a human stomach for years and then slaughter them for measurements.
For me the breakthrough was abandoning raw muesli at breakfast and replacing with egg, bacon, mushrooms and tomato all fried in butter and then being sensible with carbs the rest of the day. Isn't cauliflower rice a useful discovery.

roydmoorian said:

There is so much to learn about the body's reactions to different foods. Human nutrition seems to be 40 years behind animal nutrition but of course it isn't possible to maintain a glass window into a human stomach for years and then slaughter them for measurements.
For me the breakthrough was abandoning raw muesli at breakfast and replacing with egg, bacon, mushrooms and tomato all fried in butter and then being sensible with carbs the rest of the day. Isn't cauliflower rice a useful discovery.

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I always find it benefitial to have something substantial first thing in the morning, as it curtails irrational hunger and needless craving for carbohydrate. If I scrimp on breakfast, it puts my schedule off for hours after.

No2D said:

When first starting out, I found, by trial & error & forums, diet (low carb) was critical and brisk, regular walking helped tremendously. At the time I weighted the importance of diet as 70%, exercise 20%, sleep and stress reduction 10%. ALL these work together to get BS down so none should be neglected.
Aerobic exercise (walking) allows the body to use oxygen to burn glucose 19X more efficiently than anaerobic (spints, HIIT, weight lifting) exercise. For me, walking does work wonders after a meal to burn glucose in muscles and make more room for the newly digested glucose in the blood stream. Walking only goes so far because the room to store glucose is limited in a T2D.
Recently my interest has turned to "How can I increase my insulin sensitivity"? To do this means increasing the glycogen storage capacity of my muscles to give BS someplace to go. If my muscles could store more then my BS wouldn't go so high. And I could clear the BS using less insulin too. Incredibly, anaerobic exercise (sarcoplasmic hypertrophy) causes muscle cells to create more glycogen core molecules, increases the cell size by increasing cytoplasm and increases the number and volume of other enzymes. This muscle adaptation effectively reduces insulin resistance and consequently reduces A1C. It also means I don't have to take 3X daily walks to burn off glucose.
Now, I'm inclined to believe the importance of diet is more like 40% and exercise 40%.

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Exercise enhances the benefits of diet. Make sure you remain hydrated during periods of exertion, as toxins can be released into the bloodstream during these periods, which can damage the kidneys. Maintain fluid intake to keep the kidneys flushed.

No2D said:

When first starting out, I found, by trial & error & forums, diet (low carb) was critical and brisk, regular walking helped tremendously. At the time I weighted the importance of diet as 70%, exercise 20%, sleep and stress reduction 10%. ALL these work together to get BS down so none should be neglected.
Aerobic exercise (walking) allows the body to use oxygen to burn glucose 19X more efficiently than anaerobic (spints, HIIT, weight lifting) exercise. For me, walking does work wonders after a meal to burn glucose in muscles and make more room for the newly digested glucose in the blood stream. Walking only goes so far because the room to store glucose is limited in a T2D.
Recently my interest has turned to "How can I increase my insulin sensitivity"? To do this means increasing the glycogen storage capacity of my muscles to give BS someplace to go. If my muscles could store more then my BS wouldn't go so high. And I could clear the BS using less insulin too. Incredibly, anaerobic exercise (sarcoplasmic hypertrophy) causes muscle cells to create more glycogen core molecules, increases the cell size by increasing cytoplasm and increases the number and volume of other enzymes. This muscle adaptation effectively reduces insulin resistance and consequently reduces A1C. It also means I don't have to take 3X daily walks to burn off glucose.
Now, I'm inclined to believe the importance of diet is more like 40% and exercise 40%.

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I obviously agree, particularly the increase in insulin sensitivity. I feel science backs this up, in so far as increased muscle burns more energy. I would say that HiiT is also aerobic, so for example I do dumbbell burpees with minimal rest - this challenges both systems. I now always enhance a large muscle group exercise. By enhance I mean, I always try to find a way to use a weight for example when walking 2 kg ankle weights, squats 18 kg dumbbell. For those who may go down this path I would advise to get body composition scale for reassurance, as mentally you could see that increases in body weight are at the expense of fat.