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Excercise and diabetes problems

LocoRoco

Member
Messages
15
Location
Slovakia
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hello everyone ,

This is my first post on the forum . I tried to search for similiar topics but didnt find any solutions to my problems .

Ive had bad BGs last 2 years and was thinking of a way to fix this problem .

I started to work out with my own bodyweight back in december 2017 . After a month I started to hit the gym on regular basis - strength training . This was fixing the problem and I was feeling much better - more energy and positive thinking . Also my BGs were on spot 5-7 mmol after meal 4-6 mmol before meal . So I started to attend gym more frequently and noticed increase in muscle mass . Started a healthy diet - fish , chicken , vegetables and fruits .

Everything was ok until middle of march when my blood glucose just cant go under 10 . I usually eat 60g carbs main meal , after two hours I eat another 30g carbs - this worked until half of march . The carb ratios are set for my insulin which acts for 4-5 hours .

Am I having some weird version of Liver dump since I increased my protein intake (chicken and fish , once a day whey protein shake) ? Becaose Ive been reading about gluconeogenesis , is this my case ? Should I decrease the income of protein ?

E.g. my morning blood glucose is 7 mmol . I inject my usual ammount of insulin . I dont even have to eat anything and my BG is 10-14 after 2 hours . Can someone explain this how is this possible when there is insulin and no carbs ? (I try to avoid actually eating something in the morning becaose I am afraid of hyperglycemia)

So my final question is . Am I missing something in this equation ? Does more muscle mass mean more carb intake ? Or less carb intake ?

Thank you and have a nice evening
 
I'm thinking that your muscles may be using more glucose - so this will either come from your diet (and yes, protein/fat will convert to glucose if you have enough of it) or your liver via liver dump. (Hopefully someone will correct me if I'm wrong on this, as I'm not confident about it.)

The insulin and no carbs morning rise is probably a liver dump, aka dawn phenomena. (I'm much more confident on this.)

I'm also guessing that your increased muscle mass/fitness/exercise may have changed your insulin needs, so you possibly need to retest for basal and bolus rates. Do you have a correction rate so that you can inject extra bolus to bring your blood sugar down? Or are you on a pump so you don't have basal insulin?

Good luck.

ps usual disclaimer, you probably need to talk to your diabetes nurse before making any changes.
 
Hi, I totally agree with you. The sport of transmission makes a big difference

Eating chicken and fish in large quantities means more proteins

Do not forget that in the absence of carbohydrates fifty percent of the proteins are converted to glucose

As for you avoiding eating in the morning so as not to increase the level of sugar I disagree with you

Because insulin has a hard time dealing with liver discharge it is necessary to have some carbohydrates
 
I am not sure if it is necessary to have some carbs but agree that the seemingly random bg spikes come from liver dumps and/or glucagon releases where your liver is creating energy for your muscles (now bigger and more demanding as you have increased their mass by overloading them). You are then unable to correct it with your own insulin obviously and your cells are then 'starving' leading the liver to carry on producing energy until you get some insulin in.
Following advice on this forum I know adapt my insulin prior to weight training so that I anticipate the rise and shoot in some extra insulin (+25%). This is really counter-intuitive but does work although having taken a shot you do then need to go and do the work in the gym!
Exercise is a good thing in mitigating CV risks and making you more insulin sensitive but for type 1s I do think it adds another variable to deal with as you are finding.
Personally I am taking out the carbs except for leafy greens so that my body can get used to running off fat (my own and what I take in) . This is an ongoing experiment for me and I am finding that I have less blood sugar swings, good energy levels and able to lift weights and cycle/do HiiT stuff but do have to bolus a little for my protein (more so than when I was eating carbs) so have to be careful not to overdo that and to eat it with fat (avoid those protein bars/shakes).
If you're interested Keith Runyan (a type 1 MD) talk about this on You Tube and in his book.
 
Ive been wanting to do a low carb eating plan for a while but have been unsure how to get enough energy and how to avoid erratic blood sugars, do you mind me asking what sort of foods you have in your diet? I do a lot of HIIT and resistance training with cardio twice a week so I need enough energy to do this without ending up with really high or low BMs! I have a very small appetite though so I find it hard to figure out what will be useful, so seeing your reply made me curious as it seems to be working for you!!


What
 
Good evening,

Thanks for the info.

I might try to experiment with insulin dosage just a little but before discuss it with my doc of course.

I think it might be caused by the liver dumps..

I tried experiment on monsday and tuesday with my lunch.

Both lunches were same insulin dosage but different carbs. Also same with activity - I work at office with ocasional walk here and there. Surprisingly the lunch with more carbs (70g vs usual 50g) in it received better after BG (8,3 mmol vs 11,3 mmol)

I should also mention that I went to excercise sunday and monday evening. So both days were after workout.

Could it be that my body is somehow dumping glucose from liver troughout the whole day and stops when large amounts of carbs enter the body ?

This is really strange and I will keep experimenting a bit.

Also think that there might be XY other factors that influenced that BG.
 
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