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Exercise pushes my BGs up - what can I do to control this, please?

Energize

Well-Known Member
Messages
810
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hi

I'm eating an LCHF diet, on Metformin, and have got my glucose levels into a reasonable range, with recent HbA1c at 6%. Each morning my readings (Libre) start off at around 6.0 but rise to around 9.0 before starting to reduce.

I'd like to exercise a bit more, although limited due to arthritis, old injuries and long-term boney and muscular pain but I've noticed that each time I do any activity, either around the house, ie go upstairs, walk into the kitchen etc, my BGs will rise. Also, when I do go out for a short walk around the block, my BGs definitely rise. So, I try to time a walk to be when my BG is at itls lowest, which is usually before a meal but this is not always possible nor convenient, of course.

Does anyone have any ideas / suggestions how I can get around this BG rise, please?

Many thanks
 
when I excercise a lot like more hours my blood glucose also go up even the next morning sometimes, some says it is due to raised cortizol levels/ stress hormones... and yes I do suffer from stress..

if one is not used to a lot of excercise I guess the body will always be stressed in the beginning and when doing more than usual, and by the way I also have a lot of arthritis, but I have chosen the strategy to ignore that raise and just keep on getting more and more fit... and expanding my levels of "normal" excercise so that my body is not shocked from even a Little bit of excercise...

and one good thing has even come out of the hard work... my arthritis has become much less hurting and I can do more and more things without being exhausted...

so my advice is to tell you to ignore the raise when you know it is not due to eating carbs or too many proteins, as excercise is very important in the longer perspective for having a better life as a diabetic over all the years we have to live with that disease
 
When you exercise your body needs more glucose to fuel your muscles. So if you haven't eaten prior to exercise, your liver will dump glucose during exercise which will likely cause your BGL to spike as it tends to dump a bit too much. The only way around it is to eat something before exercising. I was always told to do that anyhow. If you don't, then your liver does the job for you which means you probably won't have enough insulin to combat the amount of glucose the liver is dumping.
 
The only way I found around this was to exercise at a lower intensity so that your liver doesn't go into panic mode and dump more glucose into the system.
 
As a gym class person I had this issue too and there is nothing more frustrating than exercising for an hour or so and finding your BS is up and rising. I was told about the liver dump and simply giving my body a wee bit carb to feed on during exercise solved the problem. It is never anything much something like one of these Ryvita Thins with a bit cream cheese or an oatcake is usually enough.
 
I may be considered controversial here, but unless one of eating more before exercising (making that more likely to be the reason for the increase in blood numbers), it sounds like your liver is releasing some of it's store to help you out with the exercise.

Where this happens, it's a bit like using a rechargeable battery. You withdraw power whilst exercising, but then the first thing that happens when you eat is you recharge the reserves.

I find if exercise is gentle for me, like walking, my numbers reduce. If the exercise is more intense, like running, or cycling on a sustained upward slope, then my numbers will increase.

My view is the exercise, whichever sort, is doing me good, and the overall result in my numbers is likely to be OK.

You may find that after you have exercised (even if the numbers go up immediately surrounding it), the rise you have from the next food you eat may be lower, as a result of re-charging those reserves.
 
Agree with @Mep excersise raises bg levels so either eat some fast acting carbs before exercise or start your exercise when your levels are higher and able to cope with mild exercise.

Low bg levels and exercise will always result in higher bg levels.
 

Don't fight it - you can't fight it and you possibly shouldn't fight it. credentials first: Biology graduate, I have been training most of my life (county level plus in two sports, but happy now to keep out of the limelight, and T2 since Oct 15.

Your liver stores glucose as glycogen and when you start to get active, the liver releases glycogen in the form of glucose - you get a spike in blood sugar. Stress can also cause a spike and I'm going to guess that with arthritis etc, there is at least some mental anguish when you have to get active.

So it's only natural that the blood sugar spikes. Apparently, a lot of people on this site have a spike every morning - it's a natural phenomenon - we all need energy at the start of the day and that means that glucose is going to get released.

But theer is light at the end of the tunnel: work through this and you will hopefully find that the benefit of regular exercise -nothing too strenuous, just a daily walk, will help your body control your blood sugar. Think of iot like this: Everybody wants a low heart beat and not to be breathless - but the best way of achieving this is to do some high intensity exercise that will initially raise your heart beat and make your breathless. The same principle applies to blood sugar. A short term spike after exercise will help you manage your levels for the rest of the day - that's the plan, the trick is to find the right sort of exercise that fits with your health, arthritis etc. (I had to relearn to walk after being on crutches for 3 years. My first attempt was just a few yards. I increased every day and eventually I finished my first marathon in my late 40's. I came last but I set out to prove that I can improve every day.

Good luck.
 
Hi all and thanks very much for your posts. Much appreciated.

My apologies for not getting back here sooner but various things have been stopping me. Anyway, I've now been able to read all your fantastic and informative posts

So, firstly, thanks for explaining how/why I should go out for a walk before waiting until my BG levels are low'ish. I'm clearly not helping matters, so I'll aim to go for a walk with a different / higher BG level and hope that helps.

In the mornings, after I get up, my BG levels significantly increase and, in spite of having coffee with cream plus ham and cheese, these BG levels don't drop until almost lunchtime. Perhaps I should go out for a walk, after coffee and ham/cheese, and maybe a little bite from a chocolate biscuit (have to take such opportunities - ex-chocoholic ) and I'll monitor my longer-term BG's, including the following day etc.

Also, maybe I should try eating a very small amount of quick-acting carb as soon as I get up in the mornings, to see if perhaps the rise in BG lessens as a result.

@Brunneria, you asked what sort of BG rise do I get after walking, well, I've not recorded this effectively so I will make a note of levels before and after walks in future. My memory is so bad I can't remember specific numbers, hence the need to write everything down. However, I have got a note of starting out with BG level of 5.7 and it being 7.2 on return. That is a walk of only less than 10 mins 'round the block' going slightly downhill for the first 1/3 and slightly up hill for most of the rest, then level for the last few yards!!! So, shouldn't be too taxing really As I've just said, I'll keep a more accurate note for the next few walks

@Freema, yes, I appreciate what you suggested re body being a bit stressed due to the arthritis and pain. Hopefully that will improve in time with more regular exercise. I'm also now being treated by Chiropractor so I'm hopeful things will improve - pain seems to have been less since last (first) treatment last week

Thanks for all your suggestions. I'm very appreciative of any advice and suggestions
 

Hello @Energize

Although it's probably already been covered in some respect (it's pretty late and I've had a few beers) I'll share my input, if it's worth anything.

The rise your talking of, although small and in my opinion fairly insignificant - is a rise all the same and I can understand why this may frustrate you... I'll tell you know though, it's really nothing to be worried about

The benefits of exercise well outweigh that of your resultant 1.5mmol/l BG rise (which doesn't account for the meter error margin of +/-15%). As a matter of interest, did you notice a gradual BGL decrease in the hours post exercise?

In my experience, I've found that longer bouts of moderately intense exercise tends to have a overall lowering effect on my BG than that of shorter, higher intensity exercise. To translate that to your situation, why don't you try a slightly slower but longer walk?
 
Hi Energise,
My HBa1C is around 50 and I do not have a meter, but I do a lot of exercise, and start the day with a breakfast which would shock the Low Carb folk but is slow absorption(GI).

I cycled 1890 miles in 2015 and Hiked 575 And I think I will exceed that this year. These are group walks and rides, I tend to average 10,000 steps a day as well.

If exercise did not help manage Blood Sugar levels I would be off the scale!

Good luck getting into more exercise and build up gently.
 
Thanks for your further posts. I've got plenty of food for thought now and will be experimenting on various things. It's good to know that the amouint my BG rises isn't worth worrying about. Hopefully it will all settle down as I get a bit fitter etc. Certainly, I feel pretty well in myself these days so I'm not grumbling

Thanks
 
I would exercise as much as you want and not worry about the readings.
 
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