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Exercise Type 2

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SarahBrown17904

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i am really confused about exercise if I follow the low carb plan and do 8k-10k steps 3 days a week why is my blood sugar going so low an hour or so after. I have tried carb breakfast but this spikes my blood. I am really confused
 
It’s the gliclazide which is giving you hypos. You need to cut back on this if your blood sugar is going too low an let your GP/diabetes nurse know.
 
Personally I would be talking to my GP abut reducing the medication. Eating carbs to counteract the meds you are taking is rather self defeating.
 
I would disagree with the advice you are being given from non gliclizide users

If your sugars were going low across the board, then yes the dose of Gliclizide may be too high and need adjusting.

However, that is not the situation you describe, which is specific to the efffcts of exercise and in that situation it is rather simplistic and potentially dangerous to advise cutting your meds just to bring post exercise sugars up - the drugs work 24 hours a day not just when you exercise so will be bringing your sugars down 24/7 not just when you exercise)
If your sugars are ok and in target for most of the day then look to do something different re carb intake before exercising ( when I started on Glic 21 years ago the advice was to test before and after exercise, not to exercise without taking a small amount of carbs on board if sugars were under 6 before starting, and to keep monitoringif they dropbelow 5 after / during exercise ). If you are going low across the day irrespective of exercise, then keep a diary for a few days and then speak to your doctor re cutting your Gliclizide dose
 
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SarahBrown17904 said:
i am really confused about exercise if I follow the low carb plan and do 8k-10k steps 3 days a week why is my blood sugar going so low an hour or so after. I have tried carb breakfast but this spikes my blood. I am really confused
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Normally if you reduce your carb intake you need to reduce your meds (Gliclazide) to prevent hypos. You shouldn't have to eat extra carbs to counteract the meds, even after moderate exercise.
 
I was put on gliclazide to being with, then I discovered low carb and started to get Hypos. At that point, the nurse said I must eat carbs at every meal and between meals. So I stopped taking the gliclazide (maybe I should have taken half tablets) and monitored my BG, as my BG were at reasonable levels, I never took gliclazide again. (I still take Metformin as I don't get the side effects.)

As I am not a doctor I can't advise you what to do, I can only tell you what I did. However, remember it is not possible to get the gliclazide dose right unless you have the amount the same amount of carbs at each meal and each day. Some people do need gliclazide, but lots of other people find that with low carb, they can keep their BG reasonable without it, I don't know of a way of finding out without trying.
 
Concordjan said:
Normally if you reduce your carb intake you need to reduce your meds (Gliclazide) to prevent hypos. You shouldn't have to eat extra carbs to counteract the meds, even after moderate exercise.
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If glic is part of a treatment package ( ie meds, diet, exercise) that is keeping sugars in the normal range for say 23 hours a day but the effect of exercise is to drop them low for the other 1 hour a day, then it would be ludicrous to stop the meds in order to bring sugars up for that 1 hour - the very obvious risk is that you raise them for the other 23 as well
 
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ringi said:
I was put on gliclazide to being with, then I discovered low carb and started to get Hypos. At that point, the nurse said I must eat carbs at every meal and between meals. So I stopped taking the gliclazide (maybe I should have taken half tablets) and monitored my BG, as my BG were at reasonable levels, I never took gliclazide again. (I still take Metformin as I don't get the side effects.)

As I am not a doctor I can't advise you what to do, I can only tell you what I did. However, remember it is not possible to get the gliclazide dose right unless you have the amount the same amount of carbs at each meal and each day. Some people do need gliclazide, but lots of other people find that with low carb, they can keep their BG reasonable without it, I don't know of a way of finding out without trying.
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I am on both low carb and Gliclizide and have been for 21 years. I take 60mg Glic mr and keps carbs in the 35-50g per day range, I do not get hypos. The combination of diet, meds and exercise is all a very individual balancing act and extremely dangerous for anyone to assume that the balance point is the same for everyone
 
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ringi said:
I was put on gliclazide to being with, then I discovered low carb and started to get Hypos. At that point, the nurse said I must eat carbs at every meal and between meals. So I stopped taking the gliclazide (maybe I should have taken half tablets) and monitored my BG, as my BG were at reasonable levels, I never took gliclazide again. (I still take Metformin as I don't get the side effects.)

As I am not a doctor I can't advise you what to do, I can only tell you what I did. However, remember it is not possible to get the gliclazide dose right unless you have the amount the same amount of carbs at each meal and each day. Some people do need gliclazide, but lots of other people find that with low carb, they can keep their BG reasonable without it, I don't know of a way of finding out without trying.
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incorrect comment re keeping level of carbs per meal / per day stable. That is more relevant to fixed dose insulin not to Glic where the blood concentration varies across the day and where the effects on both first and second phase insulin response is variable, both by time since drug ingestion and by individual
 
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All very well if you can get the help from your DN or GP. I was on 4x80mg of Gliclazide when I started low carb, got no help or advice, did cut meds but not enough initially and had a few quite severe hypos (especially after drinking red wine). Seem to have got the balance right now. I agree we are all different and have to find our own 'balance'.
 
i have had s** all good advice from medics re balancing diet & meds but have read extensively and always used my meter as a guide to what works for my body and what doesnt. One thing Ive learnt is that its a movable feast so to speak and what works today may well not work so well this time next month /year / decade so we have to be prepared to modify things along the way if we do not want this disease to progress / gain the upper hand
 
Boo1979 said:
incorrect comment re keeping level of carbs per meal / per day stable.
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There a reason I said ABOUT the same. It can't be made to work if most days is 300g of carbs, but some days are 40g of carbs. Likewise with mixing up lots of very high carb meals, with very low carb meal.
 
No approach to diabetes be it meds or diet would survive such wild swings in carbs
 
Boo1979 said:
No approach to diabetes be it meds or diet would survive such wild swings in carbs
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No, but that is what we get when someone tires out "low carb" without committing to it, only doing "low carbs" on the days they feel like it. With Gliclizide the result is not good! Just on Metformin then on the "low carb" days, the BG is better, and the other days are no worse than before they discovered low carb.
 
ringi said:
No, but that is what we get when someone tires out "low carb" without committing to it, only doing "low carbs" on the days they feel like it. With Gliclizide the result is not good! Just on Metformin then on the "low carb" days, the BG is better, and the other days are no worse than before they discovered low carb.
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I do low carb everyday and Gliclizide every day. Carb target is 35-50g daily but happily varies between 20 and 70g with no hypos and, 96% of readings within my personally set target range of 4-7.8 mmol and a projected hba1c of 36.2
 
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