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Exercise and Hypos

deborabaratto

Well-Known Member
Messages
115
Location
Finland
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Dislikes
Hypos and hypers
Hey everyone!
I'm having some problems in adjusting my basal dose in the pump when I do any physical activity - I'm ending up always having hypoglycemias, not during the exercise (I usually put the TBD in 90 or 80%), but specially at night =(
Does anyone have any experience to share so I can try to get this right?
For example, I'm thinking about making a special basal dose planing for days in which I do and another one for the days I dont do any physical activity.

What do you think?

PS: I'm strict on low carb diet.
 
Could you not use a TBR during the night on the days when you exercise?

The book Pumping Insulin & Think Like a Pancreas both have good chapters on exercise and insulin adjustment on a pump.
 
noblehead said:
Could you not use a TBR during the night on the days when you exercise?

The book Pumping Insulin & Think Like a Pancreas both have good chapters on exercise and insulin adjustment on a pump.
Click to expand...

Hmm, I am using it, but somethimes I'm not sure how much low I have to put the TBD - I'm doing some tests this week to try to find that out.
Thats really good to know, thanks a lot =)
 
deborabaratto said:
Hmm, I am using it, but somethimes I'm not sure how much low I have to put the TBD - I'm doing some tests this week to try to find that out.
Thats really good to know, thanks a lot =)
Click to expand...

Trial & error, but I would test during the night if you do use a TBR until your confident that you've got it right, but don't forget you could also ask for some input from your pump team.

Edited to add, I'll tag a lady called @phoenix into your thread as she is a pump user and exercises a lot.
 
Thanks! =)
 
Hi @deborabaratto
welcome to the forum
I am tagging @ElyDave ,@Snapsy , @RuthW as they all contribute to the biggest exercise thread on the forum and all are pumping.
hopefully they will be along with some support !!
 
@deborabaratto it took me a while to get to grips. I'm on a pump and also lchf. It is trial and error. I find of a night I get my tea 'free' after a PT session. Then I do lower my basal rate. Sometimes -50% for 1 hour, sometimes drop it by 0.1 units per hour. It will also depend on what activity. I have a cgm which is a godsend (self funded) that I set alarms for 4.4. Before that, I set my clock alarm through the night when I did something new.
You are not lost you are a work in progress!
 

Hmmmm, interesting. This week I notice how sensitive I got to the exercises I've done (bike rides, running and intense exercises at the gym) - and two days without any intense exercise I still feel the late hypoglycemias. Just yesterday I did a test and at night changed my basal doses a lot - but still had nocturnal hypo.
Anyway, tomorrow morning I'm going for a runn and will try to put the TBD even lower, as you said, to see how it goes.
But do you usually stay how long after the PT with the lower TBD? I've tried for 8 hours after intese training but I think it was not enough.
 
Hi @deborabaratto !

I usually do a TBR of 50% for running - I do 5km plus 5 mins warm up and cool down, so about 43 mins on the treadmill - I've only just reached that level of exercise though and in fact next week I'm going to run with a temp basal of 40%, as the 50% was not enough of a reduction judging by yesterday's hypo!

Endurance exercise makes me go lower during, then higher afterwards. I often end up doing a 150% TBR for a couple of hours after exercising, as I go high. That's not the case with everyone, though - many continue to have falling sugars. Test, test, test!

I'd suggest experimenting with a bigger reduction, and see how you go. It's all a bit of a guessing game - I'm fairly new to this exercise lark so I'm only just working it out!

 
Hello again. For a PT session, I increase my basal 30 minutes before by +100%. And run it for 1 hour 30 minutes at that rate. I also At the start Of the session bolus 1.5 u. This means that I may start in the low 5s but if the wind is in the right direction and I'm wearing my lucky socks my sugars don't go above 8 for that session. Because he's a b@@ger and it's mainly HIIT at the start then super sets of weights.
I get big snatch back of sugar after that so by the time I've got home and showered my sugars start to drop. (It could also be the extra insulin but not sure). It means I very rarely bolus for that lchf tea I eat after. If I'm in the 4s before bed I'll do a -50% for 1 hour ish.

Endurance I tend to decrease by -50% for half hour before the start, contunue it half hour into the activity then back to normal. (45 minute spin class for example). If I feel I'm heading low, I eat a 4g glucotablet and decrease basal by -50% for half an hour. I'm better at predicting this as the PT does something different every week. If it's an evening class I'll probably bolus half the amount for my tea.
Face it - we are bleedin geniuses to deal with this. It's like one of those maths questions where you have to say how many people were left on the train at Manchester.
 
Yeah, I totally agree guys! haha
Thanks a lot everyone for showing me how you do it - I'm trying and trying and soon I'll figure it out too
 
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