Type 1 Exercise & diabetes

[Lawrence Slomofsky]

Hi,

My name is Lawrence, I'm a type 1 diabetic and have been for the last nine years. I'm trying to lose weight and therefore I'm doing a lot of exercise.

Each day I'm walking approximately 6 miles some times more, I swim three times a week for an hour at a time and when I first started exercising I found I was having several hypos a day so I decided to incrementally reduce my Novo Rapid insulin (meal time), and I ended up having to stop the meal time insulin just staying on my background insulin, Humulin i, even this I've had to reduce to just 10 units in the morning and 10 at night.

My question is, with so little background going in and no meal time injections I'm still having hypos although not as many as when I was taking mealtime injections, I'm just not sure if I should be knocking the background insulin further down as my current doses seems low enough?

Thanks, Lawrence.

 

[catherinecherub]

Hi Lawrence and welcome to the forum.

I'll bump your post up for an answer from a Type1.

 

[mo1905]

Lawrence, you need to get the basal right, that's key. Concentrate on that first, then adjust bolus as required. Don't worry about how little insulin you need as long as BG levels remain on target. Different exercise will affect you differently so you need to test regulary. As a rule of thumb, steady lowish HR cardio drops BG levels, intense or competitive sports tend to raise levels.


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[Trevor 57]

Hi,

My name is Lawrence, I'm a type 1 diabetic and have been for the last nine years. I'm trying to lose weight and therefore I'm doing a lot of exercise.

Each day I'm walking approximately 6 miles some times more, I swim three times a week for an hour at a time and when I first started exercising I found I was having several hypos a day so I decided to incrementally reduce my Novo Rapid insulin (meal time), and I ended up having to stop the meal time insulin just staying on my background insulin, Humulin i, even this I've had to reduce to just 10 units in the morning and 10 at night.

My question is, with so little background going in and no meal time injections I'm still having hypos although not as many as when I was taking mealtime injections, I'm just not sure if I should be knocking the background insulin further down as my current doses seems low enough?

Thanks, Lawrence.

I have had diabetes for 44 years and have learnt by some trial and error to reduce my insulin intake down to as low as 0 units when having eaten, and taking part in more extreme types of exercise.
Normally I take in the region of 2 units and even then I may need to take additional carbohydrate on board.
It is as mentioned above a case of experimenting a little to see what works best for you, and even when you feel you have got it right you may well from time to time still have to adjust a little for no apparent reason.
The other factor to consider is that having exercised hard one evening this may well have an effect on your blood sugar levels the following day, as ones body continues to use up the reserve of energy stored again resulting in the need for more carbs
I hope this helps a little