Exercise Blood Sugars and Insulin

Exercise and diabetes do not have a simple relationship.
In general, exercise make our bodies use insulin more efficiently.
However, if we are stressing our bodies, we need more insulin.
As a result, when I start a new exercise, my BG goes up but, once I become used to it, my BG goes down.
Always, my BG reduces a few hours later.

It is difficult to make recommendations for your exercise because it depends on your body, your diabetes and your fitness: heavy to one person is as light as a feather to the next, fast to one person is as slow as a snail to the next, a long exercise to one person is a quick sprint to the next.

As with all new things with diabetes, the trick is lots of testing. Test before you start, test half way through (or between your Circuit and Trike session), test when you finish, test an hour later ... and test if you feel "odd". Keep your hypo treatment with you during your exercise, just in case.

At first it may seem daunting but, as someone who exercises a lot, I find it is definitely worth it for both physical and mental value.

Janr20 said:

GP asked me if I know about impact of sugars when exercising. She said blood sugars don't drop straight away but should continue to drop. My biggest fear is a hypo. I want to increase my stamina and sort out some knee injuries before I head out on my holiday. Do I need to watch for dehydration as well at the same time?

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If you are concerned by hypos, I would definitely recommend taking it easy to start with and build up as you become fitter and more used to the exercise.

Hypos are not nice and many people are, understandably, scared of them. This is not a bad thing. However, often the fear is the fear of the unknown. One piece of advice I was given when I was first put on insulin was to have a controlled hypo with someone else nearby with hypo treatment so I know what to expect. I confess this was not advice from a healthcare professional but it certainly helped me.

As for watching out for dehydration, as far as I know, you are no more likely to become dehydrated because you have diabetes or because you are treating it with insulin. However, I guess, there is a risk the symptoms of dehydration may hide a hypo. So, drink plenty of fluids as you exercise.

If you find you are hypoing when exercising (or fear this may happen), you could add a couple of drops of squash to your water to maintain your BG. Previously, when I suggested this, someone said that was undoing the good of the exercise. I do not think it is - BG control is not the only reason for exercise and the amount of squash I am talking about it very small.