I've been noticing that after exercise (brisk walking, 30 min.) my blood sugar increases. For example, today I had 5.8 mmol/L before and 8.0 mmol/L after exercise. Doctors, nurses, etc. have warned me against hypoglycemia and told me to carry rapid-absorption carbs with me at all times just in case but as it turns out in my case the sugar goes up and it stays in the blood for a while before the cells take it up and it goes down back to normal levels. Isn't this doing more harm than good? How should I deal with it?
Type 2 High Blood Sugar After Exercise
- Thread starter Rmoliv
- Start Date
- Messages
- 14,295
- Type of diabetes
- I reversed my Type 2
- Treatment type
- Diet only
This sometimes happens for some people. Gentle exercise tends to reduce blood glucose and more exertion raises it.
Put ultra-simply, it's just your body releasing blood sugar to your muscles to fuel the activity. It's almost like it reduces your liver's reserves a bit, then as soon as you next eat, it recharges it.
It's not usually a big concern, if you are on diet and exercise or the milder meds. Our bodies are very good at looking after us.
With a recent HbA1c of 85, it's unlikely you would be in danger of hypos at the moment, although you may experience falso hypos as your blood sugars regulate themselves to your lifestyle changes.
I hope that helps.
Bill166
Member
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- Type of diabetes
- Type 1
- Treatment type
- Insulin
Agree totally with DCUKMod - I've had type 1 diabetes for 37 years, and find that this effect depends on how hard you're exercising.
Gentle aerobic exercise, you burn up blood glucose and levels go down. More vigorous activity will stress muscles and prompt the liver to deliver glucose into your system. What level of exercise qualifies as stressful will depend on the individual.
If you had a matching insulin response this would be useful, but for a diabetic it just raises bg. I've found that I should never eat glucose before cycling up a steep hill - my bg levels are usually higher at the top, then I burn it up to return to normal by continuing with the ride.
Gentle aerobic exercise, you burn up blood glucose and levels go down. More vigorous activity will stress muscles and prompt the liver to deliver glucose into your system. What level of exercise qualifies as stressful will depend on the individual.
If you had a matching insulin response this would be useful, but for a diabetic it just raises bg. I've found that I should never eat glucose before cycling up a steep hill - my bg levels are usually higher at the top, then I burn it up to return to normal by continuing with the ride.
Thank you both for your replies.
I don’t find my walks to be too strenuous but it involves a fast pace and some steep hills maybe that’s enough to trigger too much glucose release into the bloodstream. Could the temperature influence it as well? Because even in the early morning it’s been hot outside here. Today it was about 23C at 7:30am when I went out for a walk.
Should I rather walk at a leisurely pace?
I don’t find my walks to be too strenuous but it involves a fast pace and some steep hills maybe that’s enough to trigger too much glucose release into the bloodstream. Could the temperature influence it as well? Because even in the early morning it’s been hot outside here. Today it was about 23C at 7:30am when I went out for a walk.
Should I rather walk at a leisurely pace?
The increase in BG levels is temporary, may last couple of hours. It is directly related to your HR and HR zones. The higher the HR during physical activity, the higher BG may rise, especially when your HR gets close to what's called an anaerobic threshold. If you are not used to physical activity and are generally unfit, your HR may go up quite high, despite low/moderate intensity of the exercise. The more you exercise and fitter you become, the better it'll get. Just give it time and it'll settle down eventually.
I’m very unfit at the moment and yes my HR gets easily high. Good to know it might settle down with time and further training.
Hi - I noticed the same last year before my early morning workouts /weight training and told my Diabetes Consultant - he advised that this was normal as the sugars begin to rise as soon as you wake up - so he advised that I test ny blood and do a correction before my session starts (if my levels were nornal as this would counteract the expected rise) or do a correction afterwards if needbe - I decided to go with the 1st option and have experienced minimal issues through this method - So for example, if I wake up at blood levels of 6.5 before an intense workout, then I take 2 x units of Novorapid - I test after my workout / before breakfast a couple of hours later and my levels tend to be in the same range I woke up at - ie: 6.0 - 6.5...hope this helps 
I was very unfit right up until 4 months ago but i started with a 15 min walk and gradually increased it to 30 just a normal pace, so one day i went out the bush for an hours brisk walk and my sugars were quite high so i try to do moderate 30 mins a day walking the dog... He demands it.
