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Exercise, weight loss and blood sugar

  • Thread starter Thread starter APBNAB
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APBNAB

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Good morning all, I am a type 1 diabetic, have been for over 25 years, not always controlled well but amtrying my hardest now. I have been following Weight Watchers diet for the past two weeks and have sucessfully lost 8lb, I have also been walking home from work each evening - approx 2/3 miles. My problem is that it all went wrong on Sunday whilst out for a walk with hubby, my bs went down to 2.2, we sorted it with glucose tablets and went on with our walk, through out Sunday my bs was below 5 for most of the day and I had a couple of very low blood sugar readings. Yesterday my bs was 19.5, I had extra insulin to bring it down but once again I went to 2.2 - very nearly had a hypo, now this morning is was 24.5.
Could someone advice me on how to control my readings whilst exercising and losing weight. Many thanks. :P xx
 
Hi,

it's excellent your losing weight good and steady by eating well and exercising!

i'm assuming you use a long acting insulin? if your going for a long walk it's a good idea to reduce it, as exercise can affect you for hours afterwards as your body is still working to restore energy and oxygen to your muscles even if you have stopped exercising. so if you reduce your long acting insulin the exercise with make up for you taking less.

How do you work out how much insulin to give yourself to bring it down from a high reading to a low one?

I go by the DAFNE rules i was taught which is one unit of fast acting insulin will bring my BG's down by 2-3mmols. and take no more than 4 at a time until you know how it affects you.

but make sure you don't correct your BG's after you've had a hypo because you can slip back into one..

Have you done DAFNE before? if not it would be great for anyone including you :) .. teaches you alot especially things like exercise and eating etc :) hope this helps a little
 
Thank you for your quick reply. I am on Lantus, long term and novorapid short term. I do carb count however the Daphne course is not available where I live in Norfolk.
 
Generally your insulin requirement will drop if you lose weight. Also maybe you're over correcting your hypos? It should only take 15g fast acting carbs followed by 10-20g slow acting carbs, depending on when your next meal is due. How much are you taking?
Incidentally, 2.2 isn't 'nearly' a hypo, it's very definitely a hypo. Anything below 4 is a hypo whether you have symptoms or not.
Have you tried adjusting your insulin to carbs ratios?
 
I definately am having too much when having a hypo, on monday I had 3 small mars bars, 3 cereal bars, a bottle of lucozage (320ml) and then had to have my glucogn injection. I do try to inject for the carbs I eat but something isnt working at the moment. My blood sugar was still 15.9 this morning, high 20's all day yeaterday. Would the over treating of the hype cause that?
 
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