Exercise & insulin

[seahorse]

Hiya
I'm hoping for some advice. I've been t1 for 4 years, but because of other health problems & injury I haven't done any form of exercise since being diagnosed. Now my health is alot more stable & I have just started to play wheelchair basketball. I use a wheelchair because of spinal injure, but I haven't a clue if I should adjust my insulin on the days I'm going to play.
I use levermir in the morning, 38 units. Which is alot but I have to take prednisone daily. Then I use novo rapid 5 units for 1g carb.
Today was my first training session so I took my 38 units of levermir. Had 30g porridge with rice milk so took 12 units of novo rapid. My bm was 8.6 before exercise. After training it was 4.2. I had some lunch, sandwich
& 1 oat biscuit. Then took 12 units of insulin now my bm after 1 hour of eatting is 10.8. Bit higher than I would like but I reduced my lunch time insulin. I wasn't sure what effect exercise would have on my bms

 

[seahorse]

Sorry just realised after reading through my waffle that hadn't got around to asking my question. Should I reduce my levermir in the mornings I'm going to exercise. Or just have something like jelly babies with me if my Bms go low? Don't want to have a hypo on court. But want to loose some weight so was wondering if slightly less insulin in the morning would be the better option?

 

[l0vaduck]

Sorry just realised after reading through my waffle that hadn't got around to asking my question. Should I reduce my levermir in the mornings I'm going to exercise. Or just have something like jelly babies with me if my Bms go low? Don't want to have a hypo on court. But want to loose some weight so was wondering if slightly less insulin in the morning would be the better option?

Personally I wouldn't adjust my basal insulin unless I was going to exercise for more than an hour, and then it would only be for a short time, which I can do as I'm on the pump. If I'm exercising straight after breakfast I reduce my breakfast bolus by 25%. If it's more than an hour after breakfast that would make me go high so I'd eat something just before exercising.

Hope this helps.

 

[SamJB]

When ever I do some decent cardio I'll drop my short acting by 1 or 2 units depending on the intensity - I usually do cardio before my evening meal. I'll also need to drop my basal by 2 units until I plateau around 8 units. After 2 days I'll need to increase it by 1 unit per day until that plateaus at 16 units.

Its taken me a while to figure this out. Everyone is different though and I'd encourage you to test strategically.

 

[copepod]

Very quickly, http://www.runsweet.com/ is an exellent resource for anyone who needs insulin and wants to take part in any sport. There are general physiology pages, plus case studies of how people have done certain sports.

 

[Riesenburg]

Hi there,

As suggested I would reduce the quick acting insulin AND make sure you have a carb drink handy. I started exercising intensely (4 times a week at the gym both CV and weight training), and found that when the exercise was new the sugar levels dropped a lot, once my body got used to it they no longer did. The way I managed was to test mid exercise, so I would do about 20mins of exercise and check my levels if they were anything under 5 carb drink was taken.

Also worth keeping in mind if you do CV it will raise your cortisol and adrenaline levels which will result in higher sugar levels in your body too. Make sure you don't go too high, I will usually try and stay under 11 otherwise ketosis and high sugars combined risk to cause more harm than good.

Generally, when starting out I reduced my quick acting by a small amount, had carb drinks and checked my levels 2-3 times during exercising. Once your body gets used to things they balance back out and I switched to the usual insulin dosage.

Hope that helps,
Frankie

 

[seahorse]

Thank you everybody for your advice & especially the runsweet link. A very useful website. Next time will just reduce my novo rapid a little & test mid session. Definately dont want a hypo during a match. Hopefully my body will get over the shock of exercise after awhile! Thanks again for all the helpful advice.

 

[head323]

well if u r low in morning no dont lower the insullin give same amount but if u r high give extra 2 untis . if i was low and was goin out and i know in my mind i was low and it cud happen again i wud certainly take sugar with me like coke lucozade even the sweets . doctors say now a days to eat bread and drink milk cause ure level wnt go up