Type 1 and exercise help

[Rosegarden12]

Looking for some advice, if anyone has any before contacting a DSN.

I am type one and my control is generally good. I have recently joined the gym in addition to following slimming world with the hope of improving my health in addition to losing weight.

The issue I’m having is blood sugars dropping dramatically during/following going to the gym. For example I had lunch yesterday and let them run higher than usual, so when I went to the gym and did cardio work they were 13.8 and stable, fast forward 45 minutes and they were 5.2 and going down aggressively followed by 2.7

Obviously I treated the hypo accordingly but going forward I don’t want to undo hard work by having lots of hypos and having to treat them.

Could it be having too much background insulin onboard? I’m currently on levemir and trurapi.

How long was your workout and what were you doing?

Were you drinking an energy drink having regular high carb snacks while working out?

Thank you for the reply. Did 45 minutes combination of exercise bike and power walk on the treadmill.

No, I had my lunch at 13:30 like usual then started my workout at 16:00. I don’t do energy drinks, would something like a banana half way through be ok?

Several options - at the meal before exercise, only give insulin for 75% of the carbs. Adjust that as you need. If you're pumping, use active mode. Potentially reduce your background a little but that's harder imo

I have to supplement with a carby snack 15 mins before exercise because I get the exact same as you, a massive drop off in sugars! If I am working out more than 30-40 mins then i need another. You will need to experiment on what works for you but it sound like you will also need to do similar to me! My DSN was very helpful with advice for this but I know they vary in quality!

The 'tail' of the short-acting insulin is longer than you might think, usually up to 5 hours. I've found the best time to do cardio is before breakfast, with either no fast acting insulin on board or very little. It might help if you mix up your workout a bit, though. Strength training, e.g. lifting weights, shouldn't drop your blood glucose as quickly and as much as cardio exercise, so perhaps do some of that first? You might find the 'Starting Sports' section on the Run Sweet website helpful.

www.runsweet.com/starting-sports/

Apparently milkshakes are a good thing to have while exercising to keep bloods up - if you can stomach that!

You would have the tail end of your fast acting insulin still working. A banana before would be a good idea. Also make sure you have something with you that is high energy/ high carb while working out. Common for sugars to drop after exercise. It can be a case of trial and error to figure out what works for you.

Have you done Daphne? They have a lot of good advice about exercise regimes and the link given above is good.

I second eating a banana before you exercise (no insulin) it can be tricky as we are all different but it used to work for me

Thank you! I will see how I get on over the next week or so, following some of he advice on here. If I’m still struggling will send an email over to the DSN. Thanks again.

I went back this morning on an empty stomach and having just done my background insulin, and they’ve gone from high 7s up to 14 so am definitely going to need some fast acting if going on a morning. It’s going to take a while, will get there. I describe being type 1 as walking a tightrope sometimes 😝

thank you for the link, I will definitely have a look at this.

I did a dafne course probably about 10 years ago, wasn’t really interested in exercise at the time. Found it amazing with regards to working out ratios and adjusting though. Thanks again, the advice on here has been great. It’s good to know there’s somewhere to reach out.

Oh and I definitely agree with regards to the tail end of fast acting insulin. The nurse I see at the gp surgery regularly tells me that after 2 hours there’s no more insulin on board. I’ve told her it’s not the case.

There is the Berties diabetes course online which has lots of useful advice. I still refer to it if I’m having trouble with my control.

Ooo thank you, haven’t head of this one - will have a look ☺️