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Type 1 Hyper during/post vigorous excercise

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lewis10694

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In September last year I was told I had Type 1 diabetes. Some of the test results showed negative for Type 1 but i was informed this could just be a false negative and that I would be treated as if it was type 1 and be retested in around 3 years.
In the last 2 months I have been doing MMA (mixed martial arts) which is extremely high intensity, exhausting exercise. I noticed this was causing huge spikes in my blood sugar and couldn't understand why. The days I go to these classes I have started eating extremely minimal (as close to zero as possible) amounts of carbs to try to curb this. I can see from my libre scanner that this is still causing me to go hyper and when i check my blood using my aviva meter before going home i have gone from numbers in the 5.0-5.5 mmol/mol pre-class, to 12.0 - 15.0 post class.
Is this typical for type 1 diabetes or could this be a sign that it is one of the rarer types of diabetes that i may have? Should I push for a retest to get a diagnosis, so that I can better understand whats going on and find better ways to manage my sugar levels?
 

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When we exercise, there are two diabetes related things which happen to our bodies
- our liver releases glucose
- our muscles burn sugar with less insulin (I think of this as insulin becomes more efficient)

Typically, the first happens before the second and, for most, stop start exercise may not have sufficient time of constant exercise for the second to happen. Furthermore, things like stress raises our BG and weights, climbing, HIIT may cause some stress.
This is all dependent on how fit you are at the exercise you are doing and our starting BG (any exercise at a high BG is going to be stressful to our body). So we are all different at different exercises for different lengths of time with different starting BG and even at different times of the day.

However, due to the first reaction (liver releasing glucose), our liver supplies need to be topped up. As a result, for the next 24 to 48 hours after exercise, it is common to have a lower BG.

I do a number of different exercises
- 30 minute spin class causes my BG to fall
- 30 minutes running on the treadmill causes my BG to fall
- 30 minutes running on the road causes my BG to rise
- weights cause my BG to rise
- climbing causes my BG to rise

I am not familiar with MMA but this may help explain your exercise highs.
When I saw this with climbing, I would give myself an extra bolus before I started. This was a little scary as I felt I was giving myself enough insulin to have a hypo but over time I learnt to trust this. I would give myself a correction dose that, under normal circumstances, should lead to a BG between 3.0 and 3.5.
 
In general HIIT increases blood glucose levels (sort of like fight-or-flight mode and the liver dumps glucose). I have done MMA and know other diabetics who also have done and it sure does spike the glucose levels, you will have to tinker with a small does of insulin before workouts to see how it works for you (much easier especially as you have a libre). Although be very careful of over injecting as the last thing you want is a hypo when competing with others.
 
Hi Helen, I was looking around the forum as I have too been suffering from high levels when doing excercise or physical activity. For example on Friday I done a ‘Go Ape’ course and after 2 hours of climbing ropes and all the other high activities my levels were 18.6. Today I run for a train for approximately 10 minutes and my levels went to 10.5.

I thought this was a unique problem to me as I was sure levels should drop on excercise!

Just wanted to say thanks for your useful explanation, as always! Really really helpful!
 
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