Adding to the great response from
@Tophat1900
Regarding your last question, there are many things which affect whether BG will go up or down: type of exercise, intensity of exercise, how fit your girlfriend is at that exercise, duration of exercise, how long since she last injected insulin...
Most cardio will cause BG to drop unless it is interval training or if she is straining when BG will go up.
Most resistance training will cause BG to rise unless it is high reps and low weights ... but that is effectively cardio.
Exercise makes insulin more effective so, if she has injected recently (within the last 2 - 3 hours), she may see a drop in BG.
For example,
- 30 minutes on the cross trainer (cardio) as fast as I can maintain and my BG will go down if I don't plan for it
- 60 minutes at the climbing wall (resistance and interval) and my BG will go up if I don't plan for it
- 3 hours walking and my BG will barely move
Unfortunately, it is trial and error with plenty of hypo treatment on hand and plenty of BG testing.
If she has a pump this is easier to achieve through temporary basals instead of carb loading before cardio to avoid the BG fall.
Also work remembering that her BG may go down over the next 24 hours so don't stop testing when the exercise stops.
I manage this by reducing my basal insulin for the next day.