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Type 1 and strenuous sports

AdamStr

AdamStr

Newbie
Messages
1
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Hello all!

This is my first post (diagnosed with type 1 a month ago) so hi all! What a great community you guys are!

I have always been fairly active and love outdoors - hiking, climbing, swimming, surfing. So I am determined to carry on regardless of the T1D.

For those of you who enjoy similar activities - how do you manage your sugars and avoid hypos?

I found that an hour of swimming or surfing drops my BG by 4 -4,5 mmol/L... I guess that translates to around 20-30g of carbs... How do you keep yourself fuelled? I am experimenting with various energy gels, glucotabs, sports bars etc but not sure what works best... I also reduce bolus insulin with breakfast if I know I will be doing sports (to get me to around 10mmol/L before i start).

Any pointers/comments would be welcome!

Adam
 
Hi @AdamStr there's an entire forum area dedicated to sport and exercise here: http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/category/fitness-exercise-and-sport.33/ Rather than rewrite everything there, I'd advise taking a look. There are many of us who participate in a variety of strenuous sports, and it's quite normal. Another place with useful info is www.runsweet.org.

There are many strategies relating to exercise and insulin. Most of them relate to lowering bolus or basal depending on when you plan to exercise, rather than focussing on topping up with glucose if you possibly can.

As mentioned in another topic, there's a current England Rugby Union player who is Type 1 so it shouldn't stop you!
 
Hi im a competitive rower and used to swim 16 hours a week + being type 1 diabetic so trust me it can be done ! So I normally take half a bolous or even less if I'm a little low and I have to be around 10-12 otherwise I hypo. It's really important that you have some long acting carbs like brown bread sandwich but also something short acting like dried apricots, raisins, grapes ! Run sweet is a really good website ! Hope this helps and feel free to message me any time :)
 
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