Running & liver dumps - ways to avoid?

Hello - so, just been for a run - 1st one in a couple of weeks as was lowering carbs and calories further and didn't have the energy to run during the transition - anyway, have upped calories again so have the energy, though carbs slightly lower than before (were about 50, now about 30).

Pre-run blood sugars were 6, post run they are now 10.8... I know this is cos of my liver having a fit and chucking out glucose but:
A) is this as bad as a sugar high from eating something that causes a spike?
B) is there a way to stop it happening next time?

Prior to today, my blood sugars would normally come down a couple of points post run - so was a little disappointing to go to the effort of going on a run only for them to be worse afterwards! ;-)

Thanks for the replies... Hooked, I'm surprised you DN didn't tell you it's your liver releasing glucose cos there's not enough glucose in your system...? Though having said that, I'm not *that* surprised! ;-)

Do either/both of you low carb?

I'm pretty sure you'd only possibly experience a hypo if you were insulin dependent (or close to). So long as your body is producing some of its own insulin, what happens is this:

- Your blood sugar is 9 when you start your run.
- At some underermined point (lets say 2 miles for the sake of argument) you've used enough of that 9mmol for your body to get nervous about it. Again, lets say for the sake of argument you're now at 5mmol's
- your body then starts looking for other sources of glucose, but it can't find any reserves in your system, so it sends a message to the liver to produce some for you.
- the liver has a lil panic as it doesn't know how much longer you're going to run for so it just chucks out a blanket amount of glucose, hoping that will cover it.
- more often than not, it's over compensated, thus you end up with a higher blood glucose reading after your run/whatever exercise you're doing.

It's a bit overly simplistic, but hopefully makes sense?

I know that being low carb (as I am) there's an even greater chance of this happening as I've very little circulating glucose that my body could convert. What I don't know (but hoping someone on here will ) is whether my body will adapt to low carb and running, and start using fat (or something else?!) as a fuel instead, and whether I can help my body do that?

I know 'normal' people carb load before a run to stop the liver chucking out glucose (as it can actually make you feel very nauseous) but I don't know what non-carby's are meant to do ;-)

I still think the same process happens... It's just that, yes, as you say - you have to be careful of hypos... But being insulin dependent shouldn't stop your liver having the same 'panic' if it perceives you dropping low, and therefore it dumping a bunch of glucose into your system, as that's got nothing to do with insulin/your pancreas... So I still think that's why you go high during longer runs etc... And I'm interested if anyone can answer my q's too

Hey Smidge, very interesting, thank you! And you made me laugh with visions of you splashing around in the pool :-D
If you saw me 'running', you'd laugh too! ;-)

And thanks for addressing my q's... The high dropped back to a 6 within the hour, so didn't stay long at all... Obvs I don't yet know what it will do tomoz, but that was my experience too when running a few weeks back - the the next day all my readings were a point or two lower...

As for my 'b' question and you saying to have low carbs, that's what I've read on running forums too; to 'carb load' before a run... But I'm trying to stay in ketosis as its what keeps my blood sugars most stable, so I'm worried if I start eating carbs pre run I'll knock myself back out of ketosis... I'm sure I read something somewhere that your body will stop looking for glucose as a fuel source and starting using fat for fuel instead - so maybe if I just continue my body will get used to it/switch over fuels...? Anyone else know...?