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Exercise and Pump

ewelina

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,354
Location
London
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
After three weeks of pumping, I decided its time to start exercising and getting toned for the summer (or more likely for the autumn!). I have never really mastered bolus/basal adjustments for exercise when I was on MDI but I hope, now on a pump, it will be much easier.
It would be great, if you could post in this thread, your exercise and adjustment you do to your basal and bolus. I know everyone if different, but it would be good starting point for me.
I found this article online, which gives you some good advice http://integrateddiabetes.com/Articles/hcare/exercise & pump therapy for ADA pump book.pdf

Im off to the gym in about 90 minutes. I reduced by basal by 50% from now and reduced my breakfast bolus by 50%. Im planning to do about 50 minutes cardio. Im not sure if that isn't too much of reduction but I want to be on a safe side. I will post my results later
 
That's the kind of reduction I do. In the early days I did a 70% reduction. I actually think 50% might not be enough if it's a new activity. I think you should still carry hypo blockers.

And yes, Scheiner is great. After reading a few of his articles I bought his book, plus Diabetic Athlete's Handbook and Pumping Insulin. Scheiner is the most "readable", but the other two have masses of information.
 
There is also the RunSweet website which is very good and managed by a diabetic consultant interested in sports and pumping.

I reduce by at least 50% and hour before. If I am walking the dogs I reduce by 80% half an hour to twenty minutes before. It's trial and error though depending on your body's reaction to the exercise. I had to take the pump off if I wanted to do interval training!
 
Update from my exercise session:

Once in the gym I realised I did 60% basal reduction, not 50%
I walked to the gym which is about 1 mile (20 minutes walk)
At the start of exercise levels 14.2. A bit high but I decided to carry on
After 20 minutes fell to 12.1
After further 20 minutes 9.2
At the end (about 55 minutes long exercise) levels 7.7

For the future I decided to try 50% reduction as 14.2 to begin with is a bit too high and maybe smaller bolus reduction for my breakfast. The amazing thing is that I didn't even open my lucozade drink! When I exercised on MDI I had to take about 60g of sugar with me. I love my pump!
 
The good thing is that it implies you are already quite fit if you don't need to make drastic reductions.

And yes, I love my pump for the same reason. It makes exercise so easy. I hate having to stop and stuff carbs down my neck every twenty minutes! However, having said that, several months regular exercise have lowers my TDD and increased my insulin sensitivity so much that now I often DO have to eat some half an hour in. But it's still much more manageable than MDI. I'm basically not a planner, so having to reduce my basal the night before is a non-starter. Having to reduce it an hour and half before is very feasible indeed.
 
I walk 4 miles every day so maybe that's a reason. Im really amazed I didn't have to have any sugar. It was ridiculous to exercise so hard and stuff my mouth with dextro tablets at the same time. I didn't really see the point..
I don't mind if I will have to have some small amount of sugar somewhere halfway. Even non diabetics do that.
Sorry I have one moe question. DO you reduce your basal after exercise too? I did it today (by 20%) but went up few hours later so cancelled it. I went to bbq party though and had lots of difficult to estimate carbs/protein so not sure what was the reason..
 
I don't reduce it after exercise. So far I stop the TBR as soon as I stop the exercise and I haven't had any evening or night time hypos. Maybe I'm not exercising hard enough yet
. In fact today I thought I was getting a rise after exercise so I thought I'd overdone cutting my basal, but it turned out to be an occlusion, so I'll keep on with my basal reduction.

So many factors :brainache
 
I haven't found a 100% definite routine that works for me yet but usually I have to turn my pump off for an hour before. I've found the more I keep up the exercise the less effect it has on my bloods. The problem with me though is I can't always plan in exercise with the kids I have to fit it in as and where I can, so can't always reduce it before so sometimes I end up having to disconnect just as I start and if bloods around 5-7ish need some fast acting carbs before I start otherwise I'm hypo 15 minutes in x
 
I turn my basal rate down 75% or 50% of my normal basal rate,depending on the amount of exercise and have these set up on my pump.
 
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