Higher BG after exercise

[Mellampard]

Hi,
I am a type 2 diabetic who is struggling trying to lose weight and keep her bg levels down. I am on 16 units of insulin in a morning (before breakfast) and 10 units before tea. (Mixtard 30).
I have recently started a group called "Waist Wise" and have started walking every morning at 6.30am, only for about half an hour, but fairly quickly. I noticed this morning that my waking level was 8.4 and then after the walk, when i thought it would go down, it was 9.6??? I dont have my insulin and breakfast until after my walk!
I used to go to the gym and found that my bg levels used to drop significantly after 30mins excersise, so what am i doing wrong?
I am also struggling with what sort of diet I should follow to keep my levels low!
Thanks
Mel :?: :?:

 

[cearapeter]

Hi

Its not unusual for your BS levels to go up after exercise (your body needs energy so its produced). Speak with your doctor or DN.

Keep with the exercise - don't give up. We are all members of a club no one wants to belong to!

Ceara

 

[phoenix]

It may be the timing of your exercise.
Your exercise sounds as if it is aerobic so should cause glucose levels to fall but doing it after a 'fast' and without eating may be the problem.
Several things 'conspire' to make pre breakfast exercise more likely to raise levels.
a)When we get going in the morning glucose is released to provide the energy needed.
b) cortisol levels increase which in turn increases insulin resistance. Obviously this causes a problem for many people with type 2 who may already fairly insulin resistant.
c) those of us that use injected insulin may have insufficient insulin from the basal to deal with this extra glucose/extra insulin resistance. (and as you take yours in the morning it is probably running out anyway).
Most research shows that the best time for people with type 2 to exercise is after meals.
exercise after dinner

You're going to have to experiment to solve the problem. On basal/bolus insulin I used to eat something with some low gi carbs with a reduced insulin bolus, and then wait a while and then exercise, but you can't do that with mixed insulin and have to be careful of the timing of the insulin peak and exercise.
Sorry as I've never used this type of insulin I'm not sure of how near (in time) to injecting is a good time to exercise.

 

[benniesmum]

It isn't just exercise!

My BG almost always goes up after Aerobic exercise if I haven't eaten in the previous 2-3 hrs. And it's nearly always higher in the morning than the previous evening. But it falls back during the day.

But I noticed today that if you don't eat immediately after getting up, it goes up even more!

It was 6.2 at 11pm last night (last food at 9pm)
6.4 this morning when I got up at 7:30am
7.5 after my bloodtest at 9:10!
(Absolutely no food, and only drinking water)

It's so frustrating. But appears to be quite 'normal'.

 

[benniesmum]

Hi Phoenix, I'm a T2 so not on Insulin. (This is a Type 2 Diabetes forum if you hadn't noticed!)

I've tried exercising after eating too, and get much the same result. A bit of research has suggested this might be because my liver is getting a shot of adrenalin once the sugar is depleted from my bloodstream. This makes it dump glucose. But as my muscles can't process this fast enough, either because they're resistant or there isn't enough insulin, a bit of excess remains.

On the plus side, I'm steadily increasing my time and my blood sugar isn't going any higher (low 6s). Hopefully it will stay there, even though I'm increasing my distance/time running.

 

[phoenix]

Hi Phoenix, I'm a T2 so not on Insulin. (This is a Type 2 Diabetes forum if you hadn't noticed!)

yes but the original post was from someone on mixed insulin, that does have a huge influence on in the timing of exercise.

 

[CollieBoy]

Benniesmum,
Some type 2s are on insulin. (I was put on it at diagnosis and had to fight my way off, but it is more usual to progress from D&E to oral to insulin) with diabetes it is better not to assume anything!