Pump and exercise - any tips?

Hi

I'm a fitness instructor. You start to lose condition if you miss 2 weeks of your usual exercise. So bearing in mind you missed a month it would have felt much harder than before.

Sorry no tips on using your pump!

Annette

Hi Mushy

Have you got the Pumping Insulin book (Fourth Edition) by John Walsh? There's some excellent stuff on exercise and carbs needed in there....

Basically:
Based on body weight:-
Intense activity requires one half gram of carb per pound of body weight per hour.
Someone who weighs 120lb would normally require no more than 60 grams of car per hour for strenuous exercise.

Or 15 to 30grams to consume during exercise for every 30-60 minutes....but that time and quantity of carbs seems vague to me....

However, it really depends a little uponwhether you are high, normal or low before exercising. This can have an impact too.

Pumping Insulin book has an excellent chapter on exercise, it really is worthwhile reading it a few times to take it all in though, as it tackles things like when your BG's are too high-NOT to exercise, anaerobic exercise, why the blood sugar may rise after exercise, ways to avoid exercise lows etc...

Afraid I can't give you more info than that, hope it helps....being the only person that has tried to answer this question, it makes me wonder just how many of go to the gym!!!!
Sharon

Hi,
I didn't answer before because I think my own experiences are very diferent to yours so wouldn't be much help.
Much of the info included in the John Walsh book , including the ex carb chart has been used to compile this paper(It's not that easy to follow though, far less user friendly than the book as it's written as an academic paper)
http://www.diabetes.ca/files/Perkins--FINAL.pdf

hi
probably a late answer as I am new today to this forum!
I run my first half-marathon last Oct and I am type1 with a pump too! I ended with a worse time than expected 2hr6mn but my sugar levels were 5.4!!!!!!!! I thought WOWWWWWWWW
What I can say with my experience both gym/swimming/running is that have as little insulin running from a meal as possible, have a slow carb before exercise and reduce the pump before during and after and experiment. Some days I went out running training for this half-m and I had hypo after hypo and pannicked thinking i would never be able to achieve it but I did. I find there is an exact figure to reduce, it epends on many factors and i analize my day and take it as it comes. I always have a meal after exercise, never before otherwise I can garantee a night of hypos.
I hope you are getting on alright!

I too struggle with exercise carb intake basal/bolus reduction & the pump.

After a long period of trying to exercise without additional carb intake, I have had to accept that it is often necessary. These days, I do the following (which seems to work most times):

45min/2000m swim before dinner:
Reduce basal to 40% for 1 hr commencing 2 hrs before the swim
Test before swim, if BG under 8, drink sports drink during swim, between 250-500ml depending on starting BG. If BG over 10 no extra carb.
4 hrs after swim reduce basal to 80% for 12 hrs then to 90% for 12 hrs.

For 30 mins x-training I try & do less than 2 hrs after eating as I have been advised that a bolus reduction of 50% with the preceding meal should push my blood sugar up enough to exercise without additional carb intake and without having an impact on overall Hba1c results. (this stat is also written on WWW.runsweet.com which although difficult to navigate, does have some useful info if you can find it). I also test before the exercise & have additional carb via a sports drink if I think I need it.

It's unfortunate, but with type 1 it's almost impossible to exercise more than 30 mins without additional carb.

There's a summary of the Pumping Insulin exercise section on WWW.diabetes.net I have found this very useful as it provides simple to understand explanations about how to balance reducing basal, reducing bolus & adding fewer carbs for a good result.

Trial & error are unfortunately the only real ways forward.

Keep plugging at it, it'll all work out in the long run (as I keep telling myself).

WARNING

This works for me, but really think about it before you try the same!

I am like you Mushy...I exercise to get firt, and lose weight, so teh idea of eating to exercise seem rather wrong, although I completely agree with the logic.

I also exercise for about 45 minutes (classess mainly). I test about 3/4 hour before hand. Assuming that I am between say, 4.5 and 7, I do nothing, except take my pump off half an hour before exercise. Once I have finished, I put teh pump nabck on, test, and adjust as necessary. the main difference though is that I exercise before meals, ie straight after work..and I am also very sensitive to exercise.(ie it make my levels plummet) I can usually get by with no hypo, or maybe just 1 glucose tab if I dip a little low. It is important though to test after the exercise.

i was finding, particualt if I was at the gym, that I would have to wait around for ages after a gym class, to get y BG up enough to drive.

Obviously, this may be completely wrong for you, but I find it usful to learn what works for others, so I can sometimes adapt their approach to work for me.