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Exercise and BG results - very confusing

C

CLP

Active Member
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26
Help!

I know I've seen quite a few postings about exercise and its affects on BG. But I need some help understanding how the exercise is affecting me.

After 16 minutes brisk exercise on a stepper last night I tested myself and was 2.7 (this was about 9pm). So I had 4 fruit pastilles and a tracker bar (the tracker bar has about 7g of sugar in it). The thinking behind this was that even after exercise I tend to keep dropping so I wanted to make sure I didn't drop too low.
10.30 tested again and was 4.2.
Had supper of 1 piece of granary toast - roughly 15g Carb.
Before going to bed at 11 tested again and was only 4.9. Now being type 1 on a mixed insulin I don't like being quite this low before bed as I tend to find I drop about 2 points overnight. So had 1 sesame ryvita.

Happily went to sleep and woke up at 2am feeling a bit strange. Tested expecting to be low and was 12 (did wash my hands as well to double check)! GRRRRR :?

So I thought I would post a note on the forum about this.

Even more confusing was when I tested at 6.45 this morning I was 3.9!!

One good thing from this mornings reading was that being that low I was able to treat myself to a bacon buttie for breakfast. YUM (Have to find the bright side somewhere).

Any help getting my head around this greatfully received.

Claire
(Must go and do some work now) :!:
 
Hi Claire

A couple of points:

1. Why on earth are you on a mixed insulin. On diagnosis last November I was started on a good basal/bolus regime and it is great. Please please please talk to your health care team and get changed over. You will find yourself "eating to the insulin" as you have described - it should be the other way around!

2. You mentioned that your tracker bar had 7g SUGAR in it, but what was the total carb content? I'd be quite surprised if there was only 7g of carb in the whole bar. You know that all carbohydrate affects your BG levels, not just sugar, right?

3. It might be a good idea to have something in the way of a long-acting carb BEFORE you exercise, not just afterwards. This should mean that you don't have a significant dip. The trouble with going too low is that it is much harder to be exact with hypo treatment than not going low in the first place: it can sometimes result in dips up and down instead of staying steady...

4. Your 12-something reading may well have been because you DID dip quite low and then experienced a glucose dump into your system. When you go to low at night, your liver will release all its stored glucose into your system - as diabetics we can't regulate this with insulin. Once that happened, the exercise may have caused the levels to keep going down down down during the night.

All very confusing, I know! My top tip would be to get changed off the mixed insulin, though, honestly!
 
Thanks for the reply. When diagnosed I was put straight on to Novomix 30 - I had no say in the matter but you are correct that I do eat to the insulin. I'm not sure why they did that, maybe it depends on which consultant you have. However I suppose if they had asked me I wouldn't have had a clue what they were on about!!

I have managed to bring the amount of insulin down by eating less carbs so that in total I've only got 19 units insulin throughout the day (10 am and 9 pm). I've already got an appointment with my DN about moving on to basal bolus as mixed insulin is too restrictive, particularly where timing of meals is concerned.

In the meantime I'll try and eat extra carbs before exercise so that I don't drop too low and rebound.

Whilst I'm on when I do speak to my DN should I be asking to go onto a specific insulin? I've seen various posts and am not sure if there are some that are better than others? (In general obviously as everyone is different).

Claire
 
when I exercise late afternoon - and I do cardio and weights - I often drop Bgs then during the night go up quite a lot. I think I must get a glycogen release when glucose gets dumped by the liver! Its that good old liver again!!!

Another type 1 I know this happens to as well.

Paul
 
Hi Claire

Personally, I am on Novorapid (bolus/mealtime insulin) and Lantus (basal/longacting) and find they both work very well for me.

I think these days most people are on Novorapid for bolus.

Lantus works for me. It tends to last me the 24 hours, so I only have to have one injection. For some people, it doesn't last quite so long which means they end up splitting the dose (some in the morning, some in the evening) - it's quite individual.

The main other long-acting insulin is Levemir. Some people think this helps with weight loss (not sure if you have anything to lose). It is less likely to last for 24 hours and most people I know who take it split their dose.

I'd say go with what they put you on, find out if it's working for you after a month or so and if you are for any reason unhappy, try changing.
 
Its nice to know that I'm not the only one who this happens to I know that exercising is good for you but sometimes if your BG results go a bit haywire afterwards it makes you wonder what you should do.

Ladyj - it sounds like Lantus would be the way to go, I definately do not want to lose any weight. Since reducing the amount of carbs and insulin I take I've lost some weight but managed to stabilise at 10 1/2 stone (I'm just over 5 ft 8). If I lose much more around my stomach I'll have nothing to inject into! Thanks for the advice. My appointment with the DN is early October so I'm be doing some more investigating between now and then. By the way what form does the Novorapid and Lantus come in - I'm used to a pen.

Claire
 
they both come in pens using changeable cartridges. Unfortunately not the same tho as they are different makes!
 
Glad to hear its in pen form. Think it might be a bit scary using a syringe!!
 
My situation is a little wierd on this subject. I'm on NovoRapid and Lantus. What I find after exercising in the evening, a brisk walk, is that the bg goes down as it should, but by the bedtime reading it has gone back up again yet i've had nothing except maybe a glass of water. I asked my endo about this at last week's visit and he tells me that's just the way my system is. I haven't even tried to compensate for that. Carol
 
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