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Type 1 and exercise

Rickmac1988

Active Member
Messages
43
Location
London
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Hi all,

Does anyone find exercise and diabetes a terrible mix? Whenever I go to hospital for a check up I'm told 'check your blood' before carrying out any activity and the usual spiel, which I find never helps.

Today I went for a 5K run and checked my blood before and it was 11. I checked again before leaving the house and it was 16.9. I thought as I'm going running I'll leave it as this as the exercise will sort it out. I also had two choc digestives and some glucose tabs before heading out.

I was running for 28 mins and disconnected from my insulin pump for about an hour in total.

I then made my evening meal of spaghetti carbonara (carb loading) and before my food my blood was 4.7. I felt hypo so didn't bother bolusing for my carb-loaded meal.

I then had a vanilla yoghurt after and didn't bolus.

I tested my blood around an hour after and it was 9.0.

Then this evening as I left the house I felt hypo again so I smashed several more glucose tabs. Didn't have time to check my blood as you it's not easy when you're out and about.

This leaves me begging the question is this normal behaviour after this kind of exercise?

I go running and play football quite a lot so often notice hypos late in the evening after.
Does anyone else get this?

And is the advice we're given from doctors about having a few sips of lucozade to treat a hypo an utter myth?

Cheers,

Rick
 
Last edited:
Exercise is weird with T1.

I often find that an activity like running will make me spike, but then I gradually come down if it's a fairly lengthy one.

Swimming doesn't make me spike (unless it's short course sprints). The same with cycling.

Lucozade to treat hypos is no myth, it's very effective as is any carbohydrate drink over a food. It's absorbed faster in liquid form.

It's common to have hypos hours after exercise, it's to do with a mixture of increased insulin sensitivity caused by the increased efficiency of the GLUT4 transporters (the means in which glucose enters your muscles) and the replenishment of your liver's glycogen stores.

To minimise post workout hypos, it's good practice to have a small amount of carbs without insulin, or a reduced amount of insulin with the meal following your exercise.

The amount of carbs you'll need to eat post exercise to keep your BG up, or the reduction in insulin you'll need to implement with your meal, depends primarily on your genetic make up and the intensity of the exercise.
 
Running spikes me. Unless it's a hiit session. The only way to know is to test and then test more...
Personally I would have blouses for pasta if only at 4.7.
 
Lol @GrantGam that'll teach me to commute type!

I wonder if clothing does affect hypos - everything else seems to.
 
Diakat said:
Lol @GrantGamI wonder if clothing does affect hypos - everything else seems to.
Click to expand...

Heat certainly does have an effect on the efficency and impact of insulin, so I guess you could argue that clothing may have an impact - depending on the external temperature and lack of/excess amounts of clothing!
 
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