Excercise and glucose levels

0110

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Morning guys, fast reading at 8am was 5.8. Flat white followed with semi skimmed milk. Vigorous gym session for an hour and now at 11am 7.4.

Is this normal?
 

Overwhelmed

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Morning guys, fast reading at 8am was 5.8. Flat white followed with semi skimmed milk. Vigorous gym session for an hour and now at 11am 7.4.

Is this normal?
Morning @0110 , firstly nice fbg number I wish mine were the same . I find and this is just my own experience from testing post exercise . If I go for a 5/6 km walk my numbers will fall slightly even if its a vigorous walk but say if I do a weights session I will have higher number post session (i think its something it do with glucose dump from the body for energy) but then they will fall to lower numbers to pre session . That's just me but others on here may have had a different experience with the same situation. Hope that helps
 

0110

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30 minutes heavy weights today and 30 minutes cardio HIT. Now sitting on 6.0 at 12pm. Time for first meal.
 

Lainie71

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The term "big boned" lol repeatedly told this growing up!
30 minutes heavy weights today and 30 minutes cardio HIT. Now sitting on 6.0 at 12pm. Time for first meal.
You know there is a thread on here re exercise, fasting bg, food etc its really good worth a look. Gives me tones of motivation when I am procrastinating regarding my exercise!
 

0110

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You know there is a thread on here re exercise, fasting bg, food etc its really good worth a look. Gives me tones of motivation when I am procrastinating regarding my exercise!
Can you send the link?
 

Sax

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I did some testing last month, high carb meal with no movement after, high carb meal with walk, high carb meal with run, to see if I should change some of my lifestyle routines.

Doing anything after high carbs helps a lot in dropping the peak fast. But there was a return spike of a smaller scale, like an earthquake aftershock, on the run, Going for a 30 minute walk flattened it with no such variation.
 

ajbod

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I suspect the after shock was due to liver dump, compensating for the more physical activity.
 

In Response

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The rise may have nothing to do with the exercise. It could be Foot on The Floor - a rise due to a Liver dump to give you the energy to start the day.
Or it could be the stress of a vigorous gym session. You do not explanation what this was. For some, it is an hour on the rower going full pelt. For others, it is a hour lifting the heaviest weights possible. Typically, longer cardio will cause levels to drop (unless you are not used to it, in which case it will stress your body and cause a rise) and short stop start activities such as weights or HIIT will cause your levels to rise.
 

0110

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Morning, so gym stuff I have been doing for years, not just since T2 DX 3 months ago.. So question for you guys, Liver Dumps seem to the very logical explanation of morning BSL's. example 5.1 last night, 5.9 on fast this morning @6:30am. Then I have just come back from the gym, weights and HIT and levels are 6.8. No food so clearly Liver dumps. Now do these liver dumps affect HBACi1's? Do they cause Hyperglcemia or is it my previous diet of carbs\chocs\ice cream\crisps doing the damage for me to come T2.

Sorry if I haven't worded this correctly, basically I can do nothing about my liver although the DAWN numbers have gone from 7 or 9s to 5s and 6s. Are they likely to contaminate my cells or are these natural Glucose dumps harmless?
 

KennyA

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Morning, so gym stuff I have been doing for years, not just since T2 DX 3 months ago.. So question for you guys, Liver Dumps seem to the very logical explanation of morning BSL's. example 5.1 last night, 5.9 on fast this morning @6:30am. Then I have just come back from the gym, weights and HIT and levels are 6.8. No food so clearly Liver dumps. Now do these liver dumps affect HBACi1's? Do they cause Hyperglcemia or is it my previous diet of carbs\chocs\ice cream\crisps doing the damage for me to come T2.

Sorry if I haven't worded this correctly, basically I can do nothing about my liver although the DAWN numbers have gone from 7 or 9s to 5s and 6s. Are they likely to contaminate my cells or are these natural Glucose dumps harmless?
Dawn phenom seems to be an entirely natural thing. The liver makes up some glucose and dumps it in the bloodstream. It will also do this (for me anyway) in response to strenuous exercise, adrenaline, etc. I still get a morning liver dump (although it comes and goes) but it's usually a rise to the low 5s these days rather than the low to mid 6s that I had in 2021.

I'm not sure I'd use the phrase "contaminate my cells" about a process - getting glucose into your muscle cells via the bloodstream - that is keeping you alive. Having high glucose levels in the bloodstream does damage and is not a desirable thing. What's wanted is a normal level that allows us to function properly, and if our body can't any longer do it via its normal glucose/insulin regulatory system we have to do it via diet or medication.

One of the problems is that the liver seems to be a slow learner: if we've been previously running with higher BGs, it keeps trying to nudge us back up to that level. Those of us using ketones for fuel (from stored bodyfat) still need around 130g/day glucose from somewhere, and if you're only taking in 20g/day carb, that means the liver has to produce it via gluconeogenesis. That will all show up on an A1c test, but so what?

HbA1c results count the number of red blood cells that have been glycated - they've had a glucose molecule attached to them at some point. I don't think the test can differentiate glucose synthesized by the liver from glucose produced via digestion - so yes,
 

0110

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Dawn phenom seems to be an entirely natural thing. The liver makes up some glucose and dumps it in the bloodstream. It will also do this (for me anyway) in response to strenuous exercise, adrenaline, etc. I still get a morning liver dump (although it comes and goes) but it's usually a rise to the low 5s these days rather than the low to mid 6s that I had in 2021.

I'm not sure I'd use the phrase "contaminate my cells" about a process - getting glucose into your muscle cells via the bloodstream - that is keeping you alive. Having high glucose levels in the bloodstream does damage and is not a desirable thing. What's wanted is a normal level that allows us to function properly, and if our body can't any longer do it via its normal glucose/insulin regulatory system we have to do it via diet or medication.

One of the problems is that the liver seems to be a slow learner: if we've been previously running with higher BGs, it keeps trying to nudge us back up to that level. Those of us using ketones for fuel (from stored bodyfat) still need around 130g/day glucose from somewhere, and if you're only taking in 20g/day carb, that means the liver has to produce it via gluconeogenesis. That will all show up on an A1c test, but so what?

HbA1c results count the number of red blood cells that have been glycated - they've had a glucose molecule attached to them at some point. I don't think the test can differentiate glucose synthesized by the liver from glucose produced via digestion - so yes,
If I take Metformin it will help reduce these liver dumps I take it? Which means my my fast was 5.9, I did some exercising and it should have reduced instead of going up? For a normal person without T2, if they wake on a 5.5 and did a strenuous work out, is there liver likely to add Glucose or reduce? After the work out will this normal person be below 5.5 or like me raised to the 6s?
 

KennyA

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If I take Metformin it will help reduce these liver dumps I take it? Which means my my fast was 5.9, I did some exercising and it should have reduced instead of going up? For a normal person without T2, if they wake on a 5.5 and did a strenuous work out, is there liver likely to add Glucose or reduce? After the work out will this normal person be below 5.5 or like me raised to the 6s?
One of the things that metformin does do is reduce the ability of your liver to add glucose to your blood. It has a number of side effects that many people find unacceptable - I have zero personal metformin experience and wnat to keep it that way.

I like to think I'm reasonably normal, despite having T2 diabetes. We all react to stimuli in slightly different ways. But if the liver's ability to add glucose to the blood stream did not exist, the only way to add glucose as fuel would be to eat sugar and carbohydrate - and then wait a bit, and then try the strenuous task with a full stomach, hoping you'd added enough fuel and not too much. In other words I am entirely unconvinced that stopping your liver doing something normal and beneficial, that affects glucose levels at the margins, is a good thing.

The issue for me is not what my liver does but the BG level my liver thinks of as where I should be. That changes, but slowly. Took about a year or so for me, and my liver now accepts I should be somewhere between 4.7 and 5.7.

I'm not too bothered about comparing what happens to me with what happens with other people. If they're T2s, we are often very different in how we respond - to the extent that many people think that T2 is a number of conditions, rather than one. If they're not diabetic, they have functioning insulin response systems plus livers that adjust levels as required, and don't assume a high BG is where you should be. In addition they have systems that haven't been conditioned to running on high glucose levels.

I'm not going to attempt an answer to the hypothetical "what would happen" questions.
 

In Response

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For a normal person without T2, if they wake on a 5.5 and did a strenuous work out, is their liver likely to add Glucose or reduce?
There seems to be an assumption that all exercise is equal.

- If someone without diabetes* does strenuous cardio exercise and does not fuel themselves appropriately, their blood sugars will drop. This is called "bonking" and happened to my partner recently when he did a tough 4 hour cycle ride. His blood sugars dropped to 2.7. But this is unusual.
- My understanding is if someone without diabetes did a heavy weights workout, their liver would add glucose and then their pancreas would release insulin as a slight blood sugar rise was detected. As a result, they may see a small blood sugar spike.
- If an active person walks to the shops along a flat path with no heavy bags on a warm (but not hot) still day, their blood sugars would probably not be affected.

*I do not think about "normal" people and people with diabetes. I am just as normal as anyone else whether they have diabetes, asthma, acne, psoriasis or no known medical conditions.
 
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0110

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One of the things that metformin does do is reduce the ability of your liver to add glucose to your blood. It has a number of side effects that many people find unacceptable - I have zero personal metformin experience and wnat to keep it that way.

I like to think I'm reasonably normal, despite having T2 diabetes. We all react to stimuli in slightly different ways. But if the liver's ability to add glucose to the blood stream did not exist, the only way to add glucose as fuel would be to eat sugar and carbohydrate - and then wait a bit, and then try the strenuous task with a full stomach, hoping you'd added enough fuel and not too much. In other words I am entirely unconvinced that stopping your liver doing something normal and beneficial, that affects glucose levels at the margins, is a good thing.

The issue for me is not what my liver does but the BG level my liver thinks of as where I should be. That changes, but slowly. Took about a year or so for me, and my liver now accepts I should be somewhere between 4.7 and 5.7.

I'm not too bothered about comparing what happens to me with what happens with other people. If they're T2s, we are often very different in how we respond - to the extent that many people think that T2 is a number of conditions, rather than one. If they're not diabetic, they have functioning insulin response systems plus livers that adjust levels as required, and don't assume a high BG is where you should be. In addition they have systems that haven't been conditioned to running on high glucose levels.

I'm not going to attempt an answer to the hypothetical "what would happen" questions.
Brilliant post Kenny - v informative