• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Shivering after exercise!

M

ma5on

Well-Known Member
Messages
61
Can anyone help me with this one?

I've started working out at the gym again - About an hour on the treadmill (power walk/run) and then 15 mins on the bike.

I stretch properly before and after and feel fine generally (no breathlessness or stiffness), BUT when I get home find that within an hour I start shivering uncontrollably!!!

Last time I went (Tues) I couldn't get warm at all (even well into the night), and I am going back to the gym tonight and dreading a repeat of this.

My sugar before exercise was around 5mmol so I ate a fun-size Twix (loving the benefit of exercise!) :D , ate 1 glucose tab after the treadmill, then tested after my workout and bs was 10.9mmol.

Had a salad for dinner (no carbs - prawns and greens), then a mini Twister lolly (5g carbs). Did no insulin for this.....figured my exercise would cover it.

Went to bed and my sugar was 18.5mmol. :shock:

Corrected with 4 units (1 unit to 2mmol drop ratio) and after a sleepless night (of shivering!) finally got up at 5.30 feeling like it was through the roof when actualy it was 4.2mmol.

Firstly - can anyone advise on the shivering thing? It's really uncomfortable!!!

Second - Assume this high then subsequent low was caused by a glucose dump - I thought I might have avoided this by having a snack before the gym...... :?

Any thoughts/ideas greatly appreciated!!! :D

Thanks

ma5on
 
HI
there is a good reason behind this, When you exercise, You help your blood pump around your body, You quicken your heartrate,
So when all of a sudden trhat has stopped and your body is going into cooldown, Your body can't understand why one minute it was nice and warm from exercising then the next once you stop it goes cold!
Hence the body natural reaction to cool down is to start shivering and make you think that you are cold!
sometimes it takes longer for the body to digest some sort's of chocolate, Hence the mixture between the twix and exercise caused your blood sugar to rise! Your insulin would of started to kick in through exercise! Then your liver thinks Oh i don't like this and does a liver dump to help with glucose!
I have done it myself, I am not on any medication. been for a long walk and my blood sugar after eating went to 21.2
I found the next morning on waking up that it had dropped down to 7.8!
Don't be affraid of the gym, your body is getting used to you doing exercise! I am sure you will soon be in control of the exercise side of this!
Hope all goes well at the gym!
Hope that what i have written makes some sort of sense to you!
Sandy
 
Thanks Sandy

What you say makes great sense, and things seem to be settling down now.

You would have laughed at me yesterday though - nearly fell off the treadmill, and when I tested I had dropped to 2.0!!! When I started I was 12.5, so I guess at least what I'm doing is effective!!! (Am yet to lose any weight though!)

Thank you for taking the time to reply, much appreciated 9especially when you have so much going on in your own life - hope things are better!) :)

ma5on x
 
Hi Mason
I am glad what I was saying has helped! Oh poor you with the drop! That is a good thing but bad thing! I hope that you are okay!
I am fine and happy!
Sandy
 
Although they don't teach this on the DAFNE courses, you do have to take protien and veg into consideration when you are an insulin user.

These low glycaemic items are often best covered with the older regular insulins eg actrapid, humulin S and hypurin. You can achieve the same sort of effect by using two small injections of rapid acting insulin spaced apart. For a piece of steak that looks like a deck of cards (and I always have them MUCH bigger) you would need 2 units of regular insulin. This equates to 1.5 units of rapid acting insulin. For a handful of prawns and some salad/green beans you can see that you wouldn't need that much insulin. I'm surprised you had such a spike as well.
 
Thanks Katharine - I though I was losing the plot a bit!

Yep, Fergus explained about the proteing thing too - My dietician actually instructed me NOT to inject if I wasn't eating any carbs - when will they sort themselves out and start giving proper advice???

The spikes aer a bit worrying to be honest. I ran for an hour on Monday, followed bt 20 mins on the bike, and a powerplate session. Lowest sugar this time was 4.5 - excellent (despite feeling hypo!), and was impressed with my ability to test and pedal!!! :D

Sugar on getting home - 7.5 (but had a thumbsized glass of sugary orange just in case I was heading down!), so was ok with that.

Dinner (at 3pm) was a steak sandwich and salad - did the insulin to cover it (8 units) and tested 2 hours later - BM was 18.5mmol. Guessed it was coming down so tested 2 hours later when it was 17.5. Did a correction dose of 4 units. Bedtime (9.30pm cos it was a "schoolnight") back up to 19.5!!!

Didn't want to correct any more so did my usual overnight of Levemir (25ui) and went to bed.

Woke up every hour through the night feeling high but tested in the low 4's everytime. I actually had a glucose tablet at 2am and another at 4am, and when I got up at 5.30 my sugar was 4.2.

Does this make sense to anyone???? I'm still struggling to understand it all...... :?

Thanks

ma5on

Decided to correct
 
Back
Top