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Exercise and food

F

flakey rascal

Active Member
Messages
43
Location
Gloucester
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Being told i can no longer eat my favourite food
I try to go for at least a 5 mile walk once a week. I sometimes pass a pub . If i was to go into a pub and have some food, like pie and chips as i love a pie. Now if i still have a minimum 3 miles to walk, would i be able to have something on that line of food. Will i burn off the energy or am i resigned to salad?
 
Have you got a bg monitor yet? That's the best way of seeing for yourself what certain foods and exercise do to  your body. We are all different.

And going low carb isn't salads for ever more. In pubs I tend to go for steak or burger (with cheese and bacon) and swap chips for some salad or veg. Or fish and veg, or ploughman's and leave most of the bread. Or have 2 starters instead of a main. Or ham, egg and a very few chips

The key thing is once your used to it, you'll be surprised how filling and tasty low carb is. It's not deprivation, its finding a way of eating for life that suits your body and your life.

Are you following the several threads on here where people post their daily food? Loads of ideas to copy.

And it's up to you how strict you want to be, there's no rules, it's your body. Me, I'm retrying to keep my eyesight and having seen how a pie raises my bg, can quite happily say no, but I do succumb to the odd ice cream.

Yes, a walk after food will probably help. Only a meter will show how much or how little
 
I use exercise to help me manage my blood sugars @flakey rascal , but as @MrsA2 says everyone is different. Using a CGM device would help you to see what foods send your blood sugars up and what foods don’t. I consider myself lean and fit. I do around 70 miles a week of fast pace walking, but I am also very careful what I eat. I try and avoid heavy carb meals or sweet things, because despite the amount of exercise I do I want to avoid big fluctuations in blood sugars.
 
I just took delivery of a free 10 day supply of Dexcom. I will start using it tomorrow. The rugby is on, so i know i will fail badly. I will find out how it will be tomorrow.


I have no problem eating ice cream as i have worked for Wall's for 38 years. I am sick of the sight of it now
 
Wow, that is a lot of miles. Iwalk a lot up and down stairs to sort machinery out, so probably walk a fair few miles , but short bursts.
 
I find adjustments to diet and exercise the perfect combination for me. I know some people who are unable to exercise due to physical restrictions like injury or chronic pain may have to restrict their diet to a greater degree to control blood sugars, but adding exercise further reduces blood sugars. Plus exercise adds to / or at the very least helps to maintain muscle mass. Exercise also helps to reduce insulin resistance, the main driver for most people with 2DM. And of course, muscles are the biggest users of blood glucose.
 
Thing is, for people like me the issue is not the "energy" (ie calories) in food, it's the starches and sugars - the carbohydrates. I have no problem taking in lots of energy via fats and proteins. Low carb/keto isn't really concerned with how much energy/ how many calories are eaten.

You're unikely to use enough stored muscle glycogen during your walk to use up all the glucose from the pie and chips in replacing it. Rule of thumb is that walking one mile requires about 100 cal energy. So your five mile walk needs around 500 cal. Google suggests there are over 1000cals in a meal of pie and chips - but the exact amount will depend on things like portion size, etc. That leaves you with a lot unused. Given that pie and chips is particularly high in carbs, that would probably mean a lot of residual glucose in your blood, or being stored as fat, rather than going to replace muscle and liver stores.

I'm also very fond of pie and chips, but haven't had a pie in five years. I cannot cope with the pastry, and it sends my BG into orbit. Chips produce the same effect, but not quite to the same extent. I still avoid them. If I didn't, regardless of my exercise levels, I would be left with a large amount of circulating glucose, which is exactly what I don't want.

Exercise is a good thing in my book, but as they say it doesn't outrun a bad diet.
 
Or - another way of thinking about the same thing; if you are in solid ketosis; the extra energy you just waste (some ketones are simply like a relief valve, you literally breath out calories) is like going to the gym three times a day.
 
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