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Exercise and low carbs

Adam29

Adam29

Active Member
Messages
27
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi everyone,
I'm type 1 and have been for approx 20 years. My last HbA1c was 8.0 and am fed up with yoyo blood levels and sleepless nights. I mainly struggle before bed with hypos and find myself high in the morning. I've discovered LCHF via diet doctor and have been trying to reduce my carbs all week. I have found myself more stable thoughout the day which is great. The main issue I am having is with exercise. I go to the gym/swimming etc. roughly 3 times a week (newly joined). I have struggled with keeping my sugar levels up after exercise without eating a fair amount of carbs or drinking lucozade afterwards which seems pointless. Is there a balance or do I need to adjust my long acting dose? Thanks, Adam
 
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Adam, welcome to the forum. If you don't get an answer here, try the type 1 forum too.

I first learned about the LCHF diet from Dr. Richard Bernstein's book, Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution, M.D., 4th Edition. Almost all the LCHF diet books are geared toward type 2 diabetics like myself. He however has type 1 diabetes, so if you'd like one book on the topic, that would be my recommendation. It's a good reference on other topics too.

If you're in the UK, read more about it here... http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dr-Bernstei...=1434956250&sr=8-1&keywords=richard+bernstein

If you're in the US, go here... http://www.amazon.com/Dr-Bernsteins...pebp=1434956653113&perid=1NC4R1JTQW0BYVRJXMZ1

It's one of my favorite books (and I have a lot of books on diabetes related topics). :)
 
I was like that for years. The problem is learning to manage your regime while doing sport. I recommend Diabetic Athlete's Handbook by Sheri Colberg. It's not necessary to go LCHF once you get the relation between insulin and exercise sorted. My Hb was like yours because of the struggle with hypos. I ended up keeping it high as a survival strategy, but once I learned how sport and insulin interact (no doctor or DSN ever helped me with that), basically all my problems were solved. My Hb is now in the low 6s, and I'm not constantly struggling. One of the issues is that you are probably very insulin sensitive because of the sport, but doctors keep telling you to increase your insulin because of the Hb. But that doesn't get to the root of the problem. Since I started working it out with Colberg's book, as well as my Hb going down, my total daily dose of insulin has gone down from 40ish units to 24-26 units per day.

If you are in the UK, things are better these day, though. I believe the DAFNE course and other such courses can help you.
 
Thanks to both of you for your replies! I will do some research and look into getting some books - didn't even think to try that and they both have great reviews.
 
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