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factoring in exercise.....

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the_anticarb

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Just a quick question, how do you factor in exercise into dafne? Do you work out how much a certain amount of exercise will drop your blood sugar and then equate that to either units of insulin to subtract of your meal or snack, or do you then eat carbs to cover that amount of drop before you do your exercise? Or would both approaches work?

I need to start doing more exercise but am scared of going hypo so how do i factor it in?

Thanks
 
You can use both approaches anticarb, I prefer to reduce my previous insulin dose depending on the level of exercise I do rather than cover with extra food.

Nigel
 
the_anticarb said:
Thanks nigel - how do I go about working it out?

AC
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The only way of knowing what effect exercise has on bg is by testing anticarb, check your DAFNE handbook and look at the section Physical Activity and Exercise for guidance. I find for a 30-60 minute walk I need to reduce my insulin by a third which works for me, anything over 1 hour and I reduce my QA by half but still take snacks just in case and always carry Glucotabs.

My daily exercise is always pre-planed so I mainly choose to reduce my insulin rather than take extra carbs in, but if your exercise routine is hit and miss and not always planed it would be best to eat extra carbs before, during or after exercise.

Nigel
 
Thanks guys, also helpful to know that the effects of exercise can last a long time after you finish exercising, went for one hour walk yesterday and went hypo towards the end (but had just got back home so not too instrusive) then did some vigorous housework for an hour later on and went hypo then too, not sure if that was due to the housework or the previous exercise (or both) but will be mindful to have a bit of extra carbs in future.
 
PS I did dafne a long time ago, then went the low carb way and gave up the novorapid, don't have any of my dafne course materials any more but now I am back on novorapid due to pregnancy it's really helpful to be able to come on here and get advice, don't know what I'd do without it!
 
I find that a decent amount of exercise effects for me over a number of hours. I'll often find my numbers are drifting lower several hours after exercise. They say it can affect sugar levels for up to 48 hours afterwards.

I've never knowingly done this but if I were to exercise moderately hard say every other day, I'd consider lowering my background insulin a bit.

Sometimes exercise can, sometimes, lead to a jump in blood sugar, so I think extra testing is the best judge of how the exercise affects you.
 
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