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Post exercise glucose levels

Kevlar87

Kevlar87

Well-Known Member
Messages
68
Location
London
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Tomatoes
Hi guys

I've had type 1 for 21 years and ever since I was younger I've played a lot of football/sports

The one problem I get is that my blood glucose always shoots up after playing football for like 1-1.5 hours

It's always frustrated me as sometimes it's one into the double digits after exercising :/

any advice or things to try out?
 
Take a correction bolus before you start playing. Your glucose is probably shooting up while you are playing and not just afterwards due to the anaerobic nature of short, fast sprinting.
 
Also, make sure that you are checking your bg levels the first time you do it!
 
@Kevlar87, I'd go easy on the bolus dose if you do decide to inject before your football game, exercise can speed up the rate in which insulin is absorbed and may lead to a hypo, if you do inject don't do it in your legs and opt for the arms of stomach.

Just a thought, do you have a snack during your game? if not it might just be that your experiencing a liver dump if your body is running on reserves.
 
Depends on when you have had a meal. Generally if you exercise before a meal, BGL will rise however if you exercise after meal BGL will lower. There are plenty of guidelines for either changing your dose and/or changing your cabs, there is a sports and exercise topic in this forum.
 
I was lucky enough to have a meeting with Dr Ian Gellan last year who was Steve Redgraves' diabetic advisor and he advised me to take only half of my bolus if exercising within 1.5hrs of taking insulin. With regards to your bs spike afterwards, I was advised to put the lowered basal rate (used during exercise) back up to 100% as soon as I'd finished exercising. Assuming that you're on a pump?
When I used your inject I found that during a run or heavy weights session I'd take a small bolus beforehand. Obviously be careful not to overdo the bolus as it may have the opposite effect!
 
vxrich said:
I was lucky enough to have a meeting with Dr Ian Gellan last year who was Steve Redgraves' diabetic advisor and he advised me to take only half of my bolus if exercising within 1.5hrs of taking insulin. With regards to your bs spike afterwards, I was advised to put the lowered basal rate (used during exercise) back up to 100% as soon as I'd finished exercising. Assuming that you're on a pump?
When I used your inject I found that during a run or heavy weights session I'd take a small bolus beforehand. Obviously be careful not to overdo the bolus as it may have the opposite effect!
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Oh, thats very interesting because that's what I do with both, but everything I have read says to keep the basal low for a while AFTER exercise. But if I do that I end up with high blood sugars later. I though I was just odd.
 
Blackers183 said:
Depends on when you have had a meal. Generally if you exercise before a meal, BGL will rise however if you exercise after meal BGL will lower. There are plenty of guidelines for either changing your dose and/or changing your cabs, there is a sports and exercise topic in this forum.
Click to expand...
I don't find it is a before or after thing, I find it is about the type of exercise, aerobic or anaerobic.
 
Hi RuthW, I'm on a pump and if I do aerobic I reduce by 50% for half hour before. If I'm doing hiit I increase by 50% half hour before. Sometimes I take a bolus of 1 unit during the exercise if I look like I'm rising and I know afterwards it will continue to go up so I may correct again. But I do get a snatch back of sugar so sometimes I ride it out.
If I'm doing weights I try to start the session in the 5s and bolus as I start to rise.
All sessions though I blood test around about every 15 to 20 minutes. Some people will say that's over the top but I have to drive home from the gym. I tend to not go higher than 9 (mainly hit 8s) doing this with hiit.
After hiit, I go for lower basil through the night if I've done it in the evening.

Basal not basil!
 
MrsVimes, very useful advice. Thank you. I think I am maybe making my adjustments for aerobic too far in advance. And your advice on weights sounds like it might work for me. I'll give it a try.
 
LucySW said:
Anaerobic spikes you more then?

Both spike me.
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I am really amazed that aerobic exercise spikes you. Have you checked your heart rate, etc while exercising? I can't say I have ever checked mine, but I have found a rise once when I thought I was exercising aerobically, but I was in fact hoofing it uphill at a great rate, so I think maybe my heart was in the anaerobic range. I slowed down and by the end my blood sugar had dropped again. Maybe you just exercise with great vigor!
 
Okay, I may be using the wrong terminology. I mean doing aerobic-type exercise - not weights, but running or cross-training - but pushing my heart rate and keeping it 85-90% MHR for periods.
 
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Hi guys thanks for the responses!

@Blackers183 I usually play football before I eat so I guess that's why it will rise. And usually I can feel it rising after I play.

@noblehead I don't snack before or during sports. do you think that's why I'm spiking then? To get this right, because I haven't snacked, the liver is dumping due to the impending hypo, which therefore results in my glucose spiking?
 
The stress hormones released during competitive play can make your blood sugar spike, whether the exercise is aerobic or anaerobic. One way to work out what is happening is to compare a real match with a training session. If it is the same amount of exertion roughly, but the training causes your blood sugar to drop and the match causes it to spike, then it is probably cortisol or another stress-associated hormone. Anyway, the cure is the same - work out how much insulin it takes to stay in range.
 
It's a possibility @Kevlar87, you could try having a carby snack during the game to see if it makes any difference to your post-exercise bg levels.
 
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