Spikes After Exercise

When we exercise, our body does two things whether we have diabetes or not
- it becomes more efficient at using insulin
- it thinks we will need extra glucose to provide the energy to maintain the exercise so dumps some from our liver

For those with healthy pancreas (without diabetes), their incredibly clever pancreas would adjust their insulin production to match these exercise effects and they would see little impact on their BG.

For those of us with diabetes the short term impact on BG would depend on the type of exercise, how long we do it and how fir we are (at that type of exercise).
Typically (but not always .. because we are all different), longer cardio exercise with little stress would see a drop in BG whereas resistance, stop-start cardio or cardio with some stress such as cycling uphill against a hot wind, may see a rise in BG in the short term.
However, due to the liver dump, the medium term impact (over the next 24 to 48 hours) is likely to be a reduced BG because we have less glucose in our liver to continuously drip and more of what we eat will go towards restocking these supplies.

Hi @Safin777,
If I do vigorous exercise my BSL rises. My doctor informed me that this is because of release of adrenaline. Adrenaline stimulates release of stored glucose in the liver - adrenaline is about preparing us for an emergency. Glucose release is part of the the mechanism to fuel our fight or flight.
Unfortunately there is not sufficient insulin automatically available in us diabetics to keep a lid on the BSL rise when this happens.
If the exercise was less vigorous or I was fitter then less adrenaline is released. And my BSLs does not rise too much and my bsls may lower a bit.
But later on those muscles I have been used and are aching a bit will make a call on the body to replenish the sugar stores in the muscles themselves. This comes out of the blood stream some 6 + hours later and may cause a low blood sugar at that time or later particularly if a diabetic is on insulin or other blood sugar lowering agent.
Being on insulin by pump I try to ensure that I either eat more carbs before that timing to prevent a hypo orI lower my insulin dosage to the same effect.
I hope that answers your query. My experience has been that life gets easier with graded exercise to gradually increase your fitness level but please check with your doctor about this.

no need to give up !! All I can suggest is discussing it with your doctor. How high are the BSL rises? Are they significant? Would medication make a difference or only complicate things?

Sorry to hear that consulting a doctor is soo difficult to arrange.. If the BSL rises wth exercise are within what is suggested as desirable say 2 hours after a meal then I guess that may be OK. Perhaps a phone call to a dsn might help clarify things like that and also if you over that limit. I hope that you can keep exercising without worry !!