Exercise and sugar levels

Some people have revered type 2 via intense exercise, on the latest biggest loser there was a pre-diabetic and a diabetic who did just this. Intensive exercise will raise blood glucose, as your body demands the extra glucose which the liver then delivers. Over time the numbers will come down. When I was trying to work out why my HbA1c was higher than expected, this is definitely one of the factors. Athletes have seen this phenomenon also.

I would say the higher numbers are worth it for the benefits in other areas, such as improved VO2 max, strength, mental well being, muscle mass, improved burning of visceral fat. I have found over time the increase doesn't last as long. I think it is a "pathway" / "adaptation" thing. Obviously if you don't see improvement in the short term, you might want to adjust, maybe strength training to compliment walking.

Thinking out loud here as I do little exercise so this is not the voice of experience but that glucose is coming from somewhere. If it’s draining excess stores in the body/liver whilst making muscles more receptive and better able to mop it up longer term then maybe it’s a good thing. If there’s no long term gain then maybe not.

How long is it staying higher than you’d expect? Is there a corresponding lowering later or even the next day? How long has this been going on for? What other benefits are you getting from this form of exercise ?

I’m not fit enough to know how long it would take to adapt but if I wasn’t seeing some benefits (immediate or delayed) or a bgl neutral response after a month or so then I’d consider alternative exercise, depending on other benefits.

Losing weight and lower BG's is about 80% diet 20% exercise, but the exercise has loads of other benefits. When I do High Intensity stuff (not so much since lockdown ) My levels shoot up but drop down again after a couple of hours, usually to below where I started. Low intensity doesn't seem to effect them unless for long periods of time (city break last year with 20-30k steps a day saw my average level at 5 which for me is blooming fantastic, I think I need a career change to a Postie) but everyone's body reacts differently

When first diagnosed I saw quite clearly that riding my bike at my usual speed raised blood glucose and a more sedate pace did not - luckily I had a meter and strips available.

I think the type of exercise you do makes a real difference to how your body responds. Doing an intensive workout, which pushes your muscles will cause your body to respond and it will release stored glucose to ‘help’ the muscles cope with the extra stress they are under. This then increases your sugar levels (I find this when I do a weight training session). Walking doesn’t have the same effect, as the muscles are being pushed to the point of failure.
I can recommend a great book called Them Diabetic muscle and fitness guide’ this explains everything and covers it in an easy to understand way!

I am a strong advocate of using excersise as I think it and weight loss have had a huge impact on me. I don't see the rise as an issue at all.

When you excersise your body needs glucose so it gets it from your cells. This will then follow a typical use profile of the glucose by your body, so testing immediately after excersise is like testing shortly after a meal and wondering why you are higher then your base line glucose level.

In my experience the levels stay below 8 and drop fairly quickly. However as you get fitter and develop your muscles the spikes are lower and for shorter periods. The second benifit to the excersise is as mentioned above it helps clear your body of glucose so there is space for more.

Before I started loosing weight and excersise if I had low levels of of carbs it would spike my blood, now I can eat moderate amounts of carbs and keep levels normal, although Im still careful so not to overwork my system.

This isn’t evidence of anything but my limited experience. I have recently lost 60lb - mainly due to low carb diet but I’m sure my increased exercise levels have played a part. You can see the effect on my HbA1c below.

I did a fairly intensive 45 minute interval session on my exercise bike yesterday at about 4pm. I tested before hand (and after a light lunch) at 6.6 mmol/l. 30 minutes after exercise I was at 4.8.

As I say, only one measurement and not proof of anything but I’ll certainly repeat the testing process to see if there is a pattern.