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Glucose level rising after exercise or long run

M

mkashani

Member
Messages
15
This happens to me every time. It is a fact , but it annoys me. I am Type 2 diabetic on medication and I am using the freestyle libra sensor. I was thinking that it was a good idea to do some workout or go for a run to burn some calories and excess sugar. No, It is Wrong, and the opposite happens. In fact , in my case, my glucose jumps from 7.5 to 12.5 mml/l. To me this seems very counter intuitive and hard to swallow! The increase of adrenalin level during exercise is given as a reason. Is there any other logical explanation for this?!
 
I get the same despite having something light before my workout. It does drop relatively quickly now as I have got more into exercise. If I run it takes longer than if I use the spin bike and weights. For me its just what it is and I try not to dwell too much on it but I do think adrenalin has something to do with it also.
 
This item has come up multiple times in the last weeks/months.
For me and several others training mildly (walking, normal biking etc) lowers my BG, training hard (running, cycling full out) initially highers my BG but after a time, say an hour it drops (fast).
As far as I think to know it's your liver saying "You are using your glucose? Here have some more."
 
Hi Lainie
Thanks for your message, appreciated. I also admire your achievement in controlling your Type2 diabetes with dieting only! Well done.
 
Exercise can make our levels rise or fall.
There are a number of reasons behind this but the main two which cause my levels to rise are discomfort and interval training.
I am pretty active and do exercise most days. If I think of my cycling
- when I pootle along a flat canal tow path chatting to my mates, my levels will remain flat(ish)
- when I go for an hour by myself reasonably fast along undulating country roads, my levels fall
- when I climb a steep hill against the wind in the driving rain, my levels will rise
- when I pedal as hard as a I can for 5 minutes and then coast for 10 and then repeat, my levels will rise
 
I get this rise in BG upon exercise as well. Virtually the only regular serious exercise I do apart from hiking/walking is swimming, and although I wouldn’t describe my regular session as ‘intense’ exercise, it’s obviously enough to put the body under a bit of stress. I was initially very suprised and not a little annoyed at the way BG shot up when I monitored with the Libre, but now I look upon that kind of rise from exercise as productive.

I’ve no idea whether the liver ever runs out of stored glucose (I should think it must do), and the same applies to the glucose stored in the muscles themselves, but figure that once the muscles and the liver have used up the immediately available local glucose stores, the BG is going to go down nicely again until I put some more gas in the tank, so to speak. And if I’m monitoring what goes in carefully and not overdoing the carbs & sugars, the excess glucose washing around is going to get less and less over time. I don’t suppose we can train our bodies not to store glucose, because thats a natural metabolic process, but we can make sure it’s used up as intended.

I also think the gain from the exercise itself is probably greater than the harm done with the short, time limited puff of excess BG, so long as we’re not feeding the problem with so called energy drinks etc. and doing the exercise sufficiently regularly to use up any stored glucose.
 
Aside from releasing hormones you also have to take into account muscle repair action after the event, as hard exercise can cause inflammation which is another trigger for glucose production as muscles are repaired.

I am insulin dependent so have to counter insulin with the rise afterwards which can be a real pain, but you can't get fixated on the rise, it's temporary and the benefits from exercise, physically and mentally are huge.

I tend to find hard and long runs produce a rise and have used a sprint before to release glucose when going low, but walking for long periods of time will cause my levels to drop to hypo levels, just depends on how hard/difficult the exercise is.
 
Think I should get a Libre free trial and see what happens when I go hill walking!
 
Rise and fall in blood glucose in response to stimulus is a perfectly normal thing. The issue for us as T2s is when BG levels don't fall, or reduce only to a comparatively high point.

For me the harder the exercise the bigger the rise, which is a good thing in my book. It's the liver doing what it should do and providing glucose for muscle action. Remember this is glucose that's being created by the liver via gluconeogenesis and not being derived in this instance from dietary carb. It's using up the stores.

I didn't test today before and after football but I normally see a fairly steep rise and a very quick drop off when the game's over. I'll go from (eg) 5.2 to 8.0 back to 5.0 over 90 minutes. I need to stay moving at half-time to keep my levels up. I have bonked out with what I thought (in no state to test) was a very low BG only once while playing.
 

It does indeed run out, depending on how hard you're exercising, for me this is generally 1h30 to 2h after I start.
 
mkashani said:
It comes at a price ( some say it is moderate!), but I do recommend it. I find it a very useful monitoring tool.
Click to expand...

I was thinking of the free 2-week trial. Need to time it so it's not 2 weeks of solid rain as I don't go walking in that weather!
 
A good insight, Thank you. And I am impressed how you manage to control your diabetes with diet only. Something I can only aspire to, at the moment! Regards.
 
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