I recently started morning walks. I walk around the park at medium pace without eating or drinking anything at all. I noticed that before my walk my sugar levels are around 4.7 but strangely after completing around 8000 steps (takes me 1¼ hours to do this) my sugar levels rise to 12.1. I thought this is a one off but this happens constantly every time I do these walks. I'm confused, walking should be good for me and burn my sugar levels, but the opposite is happening! I wonder if anyone else has this problem and why this is happening?
Sugar levels rising after moderate walking around the park
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Hi @mmohan - the simple version of a really complicated answer is that your liver is capable of producing lots of glucose, and not just from current meals. Your body is basically sensing a need for more energy and providing it in the way it's most used to.
This seems to be confusing, but you should find that your blood levels go down again quickly (worth measuring to make sure), and unless you are feeling unwell, your walking should be only a good thing.
This seems to be confusing, but you should find that your blood levels go down again quickly (worth measuring to make sure), and unless you are feeling unwell, your walking should be only a good thing.
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I find I need to eat soon after getting up in the mornings before doing much but especially exercise. Just a low carb breakfast will be enough to tell my liver not to chuck out glucose to fuel me for the morning. This stops a rise in blood sugar levels that I’m not comfortable with.
JoKalsbeek
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I'm with @Rachox : my Dawn Phenomenon (the liver dumping glucose) will merrily continue until I eat, and if I do some walking, it'll just keep rising. The liver thinks it's being helpful, when it's not. If you're going for a walk, maybe have some nuts or cheese beforehand, so your liver knows to take it easier.
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Agree with the above. Your liver detects that you're exercising, helpfully provides fuel from stores....that's probably what you're seeing. You are using stored glucose, that's why the levels are up. Interesting to see what your level is 30 mins after you finish your walk.
I find that my levels zoom during strenuous exercise, which is a good thing as that's when I need the fuel, and drop back really quickly when I finish. Nothing to do with food, all down to my liver, which is much better behaved than it used to be.
I find that my levels zoom during strenuous exercise, which is a good thing as that's when I need the fuel, and drop back really quickly when I finish. Nothing to do with food, all down to my liver, which is much better behaved than it used to be.
OrsonKartt
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You could try a Handful of macadamia nuts before you walk. It worked for me this morning.
Fingers crossed it works for you too as we are all different and sometimes things don’t stay the same
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I walk a similar amount every morning and have the same effect. I do not like it either. I tend to eat afterwards as my mornings are used and I don't have time before. It's frustrating so my sympathies.
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Physical activity is beneficial period. @Jennifer Harper thanks for your input, but you should be aware that nobody is arguing against that; it's a question of trying to understand (usually in the context of wearing a continuous glucose monitor) why one's blood glucose might be going UP during and after that exercise, when one's instinctive thought is that the exercise - requiring energy - should be making it go down.
~short version~ the liver is more complex than we tend to give it credit.
~short version~ the liver is more complex than we tend to give it credit.
Hepatic release/conversion of glycogen into glucose? 4.7 (assuming this is HbA1c) is quite a low figure already but HbA1c is not a measure of available blood glucose - it is an index expressing the last 3 months of glycated haemoglobin. You'd see more about what is going on by wearing a CGM showing instantaneous glucose levels. You might see the BG fall to very low levels as you burn available glucose early in the walk and then the liver kicks in with hepatic release to boost available BG and hence the spike, but even then HbA1c should not surge to 12.1 in an hour, so maybe 4.7 is not your HbA1c and you are talking about some other measurement?
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@Robert Hancock - if you don't mind I'm going to clip out that phrase for my own notes - I love it.
"HbA1c is not a measure of available blood glucose - it is an index expressing the last 3 months of glycated haemoglobin"
Simply true on its face, but it's a lovely insight into the heart of the issue - available blood glucose - the amount of ready energy available to your cells from blood glucose... a sentence that even by itself lays out lots of other things - which cells, how well can the glucose enter, how well can the cell deal with the glucose, how well can the cell turn it into energy...
A lot of that (not all by any means) is related to insulin, but not so much directly to the amount of glycated haemoglobin, but it's the best measure we have.
I don't want to derail the thread, but I just wanted to say how much I like that phrase...
"HbA1c is not a measure of available blood glucose - it is an index expressing the last 3 months of glycated haemoglobin"
Simply true on its face, but it's a lovely insight into the heart of the issue - available blood glucose - the amount of ready energy available to your cells from blood glucose... a sentence that even by itself lays out lots of other things - which cells, how well can the glucose enter, how well can the cell deal with the glucose, how well can the cell turn it into energy...
A lot of that (not all by any means) is related to insulin, but not so much directly to the amount of glycated haemoglobin, but it's the best measure we have.
I don't want to derail the thread, but I just wanted to say how much I like that phrase...
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Those aren't HbA1c readings. Those are current glucose levels expressed as mmol/litre as per IFCC measurements which are standard in the UK - this is a UK-based forum and most of the members here are British or European, so in general measurements will be given in mmol/litre (for CGM/fingerprick) and mmol/mol (for HbA1c).
It's confusing as the numbers overlap, and most people are only familiar with one system. It's probably safer to start from the premise that when someone on the forum says something like "my BG was 5.1 this morning" they mean a fingerprick test and they mean 5.1mmol/l.
Most people in the UK in target categories don't get more than one or two HbA1c tests a year through the NHS.
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Could I make a humble appeal to people posting here about including the units after the figures? I realize this is a UK forum but it is not geofenced, so many people around the world are reading it (including me) and it's very difficult to understand some of the figures being published without units. It's also good scientific, engineering, and medical practice to include units. Do you remember how a several $million US satellite crashed into an asteroid when inches were confused with centimetres? Units are useful.
I'm very surprised that people in the UK only get one or two HbA1c tests a year on the NHS — although the Japanese NHS medical system is probably just as bankrupt financially as the UK NHS, we still get tested every month. Ridiculous really when they won't prescribe CGM here (unless you are using insulin), when CGM would probably work out cheaper in the longer run than the monthly HbA1c blood tests.
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With most people on here using the same units, the numbers on here are usually clear enough, and newly diagnosed diabetics usually aren't aware that different countries use different units, they have enough on their minds as it is.
I read about diabetes a lot internationally so I encounter all units when reading, context is usually a dead giveaway. And I keep a chart handy to double check the numbers if they use different units than I do, just like I convert from fahrenheit, oz. or stones.
This website ends with .uk, which is a dead give away that this forum is ased in the UK, welcoming as it is to everyone around the globe.
Blood sugars always rise with exercise, it's normal & natural. Liver releases sugars to keep the body going too. It's all natural . It's a waiting game for them to reduce . I was always too bothered to give them enough time to do this naturally. Then had hypo!! So sorry, it's just a wait and see. Natural processes can take hours remember. X
"Blood sugars always rise with exercise," That's not my experience and I expect it is determined from where in terms of available blood glucose you start the exercise.
afaiu it's more to do with what sort of exercise you do - if the exercise is hard (or hard for you) then it will produce stress hormones which cause the liver to release glucose, which often results in an increase in BG level (this is typically seen for activities such as weight lifting, sprinting, etc.). If you do gentle exercise (walking, gardening), then you produce fewer exercise related stress hormones, so get less glucose produced which usually results in a drop in BG level. Other activities sit somewhere in the middle and often move between the two states - e.g. when cycling, going up hills produces a rise, while riding on the flat produces a drop.
As a given exercise session proceeds your muscles also become more sensitive to insulin, so even hard exercise will eventually produce a drop in BG level (probably caused by a tapering off of the stress hormones as well as muscle insulin sensitivity rising.)
Re the OP's question, I wonder if part of it might be that his/her BG is already quite low at the start of the exercise, so even if it were gentle he/she may be getting additional glucose produced due to glucagon secretion (i.e. the body trying to avoid low blood sugar) and a subsequent overshoot.
As a given exercise session proceeds your muscles also become more sensitive to insulin, so even hard exercise will eventually produce a drop in BG level (probably caused by a tapering off of the stress hormones as well as muscle insulin sensitivity rising.)
Re the OP's question, I wonder if part of it might be that his/her BG is already quite low at the start of the exercise, so even if it were gentle he/she may be getting additional glucose produced due to glucagon secretion (i.e. the body trying to avoid low blood sugar) and a subsequent overshoot.
