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Type One and the gym

LoisCoxx

Active Member
I'm 17 and type one of five years,
and i've recently started going to the gym to get healthy and tone up in the pre post christmas period and beyond hopefully! (i'm 5ft 7 and nine and a half stone which i think is normal so i'm not aiming for a lot of weight loss!)

i'm usually in the gym a good two hours including changing and showering (and steam room of course!) so i probably do a good 1 hr 10 mins cardio and weights session and then another 20 mins swim. sometimes i do a 45 min spin class (hell!)

anyway i was just wondering if any of you had any tips on how to keep BGs up and constant when i'm at the gym and also in the time after. i don't really want a lot of calories or heavy snacks as i never fancy it after and they make me feel sick during! i already take glucose tablets into the gym with me, but i hate them and they never ever seem to get my BG up quickly enough, it's annoying.. i often hypo during/as i'm changing after and have to run to the changing room to drink juice or in the two hours after.

Sorry for the long rambly post and thanks in advance!
Lois xxx
 
i think some take a sports drink to sip whilst training.....but it gets complicated with bs going high then low later.some take less insulin before they train......ask the guys who work up thete they may give help....otherwise some one will be along that are fitter than me xxxx
 

Hey Lois, I am a personal trainer and also type 1 diabetic so I should be able to help you. One thing I will say is it is advised diabetics do not use to steam rooms as the heat causes the insulin to be absorbed more rapidly, not saying it is a factor of your hypos but it is something to watch out for.... you need to be eating about an hour (maybe even 30 minutes)before you go into the gym and try to eat something that is a slow release carbohydrate or just a balanced meal before hand. Keep hydrated always! Exercising for a long period of time you will definitely see a drop in blood sugar levels as the glucose you have stored is leaving the blood into the muscles all of the time you are exercising. Obviously exercise is brilliant, but maybe you should consider making your workouts slightly shorter, eat carbs/protein before and after working out (you could inject slightly less insulin for the food you eat before hand so your levels are higher than usual) Nutrition and exercise go hand in hand, being diabetic also it is essential you plan what you eat before and after to avoid any hypos! hope this helps in some way and if you have any questions I'm happy to help!
 
My insulin-carb ratio decreases if I know I'm going to go to the gym and always keep my blood sugars running a bit higher (normally about 12ish) before a work out. Keep a stash of jelly babies on you if you feel yourself going hypo just have 4 of those, they're easier to eat than glucose sweets. And I always have a special k bar in my bag to eat afterwards xx
 
Also fruit pastilles are a good alternative to glucose tabs

Taste nice and easy to store in their small tube and absorbed quickly too, I find 3 work quite well.

Also Cadburys brunch bars are a good (tasty) carb snack for afterwards.

Let us know how you get on (am joining the gym soon myself)
 

This was extremely helpful thankyou! i do try to eat soonish before i go to the gym and always have a bottle of water on me. i avoid sports drinks as they shoot my levels up and it all goes crazy! yes i may consider going slightly shorter on the workouts, it nearly kills me anyway (!!) i don't always use steam room, but i love it, however, i do stick to only five minutes because i had heard about the heat insulin thing (is this why my blood sugars drop when on holiday in a hot country too?) going to go ahead with the injecting slightly less insulin and see how it works out.. thankyou for your help!!
 
zoecrean said:
Also fruit pastilles are a good alternative to glucose tabs

Taste nice and easy to store in their small tube and absorbed quickly too, I find 3 work quite well.
Click to expand...
bethan90 said:
Keep a stash of jelly babies on you if you feel yourself going hypo just have 4 of those,
Click to expand...
This sounds like a much more appealing idea than glucose tabs! thanks ladies

And thankyou all for your help in general, i'm going to test out some of these ideas at the gym this week! i'll definitely let you know how i get on! thanks xxx
 
I go swimming often and usually try and make sure my blood is a little higher than it should be before just to accommodate for the exercise...
 
How do you all fit your bolus injections around gym and what sort of adjustments do you make before and after? I'm more focusing on weight training at the moment to put the size I worked hard for back on before being diagnosed.

P.S.

Sorry to hijack thread!
 

Definitely avoid sports drinks! stick to the water! Isotonic sports drinks such as Lucozade Sport etc are mainly targeted at the long distance runner type athletes and that's why you will struggle to get your sugars down from it. If you are eating soonish before hand but doing the correct insulin dose for your food you eat, it absorbs quicker through exercise which is why you are probably experiencing hypos whilst in the gym. So like we said, if you reduce the amount of insulin you inject before working out, your blood sugars will be higher than usual and also not as much insulin will be absorbed so you come down to a normal range without hitting the hypo stage. If this doesn't work after a few attempts of reducing your insulin ratio to food, it may be that you literally are working yourself so hard that you would bring down your blood sugars through exercise without any insulin before hand... it is a bit of trial and error to see what works for you unfortunately but if you become stuck don't be afraid to ask I will always try and help as I know how difficult it can be!
P.S sorry for the essay lol also hopefully other exercise professionals could shed some light on this issue for you.
 

haha, I have private messaged you back!
 
Louise, it's worth reading some of the information on Runsweet.
This explains why people with T1 can have problems with exercise and gives some help on what to do about it.
The site is the brainchild of Ian Gallen, Steve Redgrave's diabetologist who has become something of an authority on diabetes and sport.
(only problem is that the sites sometimes a bit disjointed and takes a bit of navigating around)
http://www.runsweet.com/StartingSports.html
 

Definitely agree with you there Phoenix, Great informative website! (once you get the hang of it)
 

Ah i'll have a look, sounds interesting! i'm sure i'll get my head around the navigation eventually )
 
Definitely following this thread.

Am on a fitness regime but I feel like it's being blown off course because I'm not losing weight.

Am trying the 'eat a bit of fibre one hour before exercise' to give my body something to burn off. Seems positive so far but early days.

For the record I do a 45-min workout, early morning. 1 day cardio, next day weights.

The other trouble is finding something to eat post-workout which doesn't spike my blood sugar. Am also low-carbing,

Trial and error, then but I do actually feel sharper in mind and body. Just this spare tyre won't shift...

Thanks for the runsweet link - bookmarked.
 
ok....no sports drinks...i.ve got that but what about the reduced sugar ones about 20 carbs a bottle...should these be avoided too???? x
 
elainechi said:
ok....no sports drinks...i.ve got that but what about the reduced sugar ones about 20 carbs a bottle...should these be avoided too???? x
Click to expand...

I saw those. I think they replace the 'essential minerals' you lose while sweating/exercising? 20 carbs sounds OK.

I've also read that milk is just as good as a post-exercise drink. I tried drinking a half-pint of semi-skimmed after a hard workout but it was pushing my BG too high.
 
Hi Lois,

I will share some of my personal experiences with you see if they proove useful. Naturally we are all slightly different and what works for one of us is not ideal for the other.

As a general rule I would not exercise with sugars above 10 maybe 11 absolute max. Simply because you will be at high sugars and low insulin (unless you have injects just before hand) and your body will be burning fat to maintain the energy levels (which will produce ketones). I can tell you exercising with high sugars and increasing ketone levels is horrible. I would also not exercise if I am lower than 5 or have some sugary stuff before starting out.

Session length you should keep to about 40mins to 1hr max. The other thing to keep in mind is that exercises which release cortisol and andrenaline will increase your blood sugar levels (as a general rule). These are things such as cycling and and form of quick burst CV. Exercises which are based arround resistance training tend to lower your blood sugars. So a good way to start is if your sugars are lowish do a 5mins-10mins quick CV burst and then your resistance work for 25mins or so followed by another quick CV burst... naturally the longer your cv the more it will shift into burning your sugar levels so it's a matter of balancing it out.

The exception to this rule I have found was swimming, it's just a nightmare as far as it causes your sugars to drop and keep dropping for a long time post workout so keep a close eye out with that one.

Another interesting thing I have noticed is that when you are doing a completely new exercise which your body is not used to it will burn your sugars faster than if it is used to that exercise. In any case having those lucozade tablets or a sports drink handy and checking your levels mid session is a good way to go.

Best of luck!
Frankie
 
I "used to" do really long rowing sessions especially at weekends and always checked my BG before hand.
Soemtimes I'd have a large helping of ice cream :shock: about an hour before and other times would have orange juice and morning coffee biscuits to nibble on each half hour or so during breaks. Every day I did this and ended up finishing 4th in the world for most metres rowed in 2003-2004 season. Yeah, did lose a couple of stone but I burned off over a million calories that year, my HRM rolled over after 999999 calories
3 hours a day i averaged for the whole year, which included 90 mins or more before and after work, and sat night 3 hour session, jesus I think I was doing more than Steve Redgrave lol.
During this time, my basal insulin was down really low compared to what I'm on now and because of regular exercise, seemed to keep low, even if I missed a few days, or even a week or more later when I was doing less rowing.
I found a heart rate monitor dead useful to try and keep my pulse down in the fat burning mode.
Then it all went wrong, I started putting weight on and had my cortisol levels checked, they were quite high and I did explain I was doing lots of excercise, but the docs didn't seem to listen to that. Anyway, all these years later, I still can't lose weight and the endocrinologist appointment is in december, no point in going although they believe I might have cyclical cushings, nowts happening. My basal insulin intake was at 40 while doing exercise, and is curently at 120, it's been like this for ages, it went up suddenly and has never really dropped, even on this low carb, I've managed to drop it to 55BD, but that's it.

That's my story as far as exercising and insulin goes, but I guess not everyone will be overdoing it like I did.

Kev
 
As a general rule I would not exercise with sugars above 10 maybe 11 absolute max. Simply because you will be at high sugars and low insulin (unless you have injects just before hand) and your body will be burning fat to maintain the energy levels
Click to expand...
That's nonsense, which you'd have realised if had known why you're using the expensive ketone test strips. If you overdo the Lucozade before a run, you will not get DKA.
 
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