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Cycling and diabetes Type 1

Theweavers

Member
Messages
7
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi, first post as a newly diagnosed diabetic. Been on insulin injections for 3 weeks now and starting to get to grips with the new regime. When I was first diagnosed my DSN told me to stop exercising until got to grips with controlling the BG levels. When i mentioned that I was a keen cyclist and regularly enter into sportive's of around 80 -100 miles.. He replied "well we will talk later about that!, cycling will play havoc with your BG levels?"

Is there anyone out there, who can give me hints tips as to how to control the BG levels whilst cycling?
 
Tend to agree with your DSN that it early days yet to be contemplating a 80-100 mile bike ride until your comfortable with adjusting your insulin doses and such, however if you want to look at other type 1's experiences when taking part in sports have a look at Runsweet:

http://www.runsweet.com/
 
Practice is really the answer. The guys at team bg can help a lot, but my experience of cycling with insulin is you just have to practice and get used to it.
 
Oh, I agree.. Taking this Summer off and relaxing. Keen to be able to get back into next year though. At the moment, he won't even let me go to the gym
 
Any exercise can affect blood glucose levels. You could find bg levels when you start to exercise go high and then low. Everybody is different so there is only one way to find out how it affects you. As an example me and Mrs Nuthead cycled ten miles around Grafam water the other weekend. My carb intake was 120g carbs for breakfast. Around 80g lunch. And approx 60g mid afternoon. Plus a few coffees. Five hours after, I had a hypo at bg of 2.4, No symptoms !. A mega roast soon after the hypo and bg tested every 30 minutes for three hours. My bg max reading was 6.2. I followed my normal insulin ratio throughout the day. The ride was a gentle pedal with frequent stops. Bg never went over 4.5 throughout the day. Apparently others have found exercise can mask hypo symptoms.
 
Wow, that's bizarre.. Didn't realise it would kick in after the event. Clearly I have a lot to learn before getting back on the saddle. Determined to do it though, as its the one thing I really miss.

Thanks for the heads up.
 
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