Very high bs brought on by exercise
 

I'm a T2, on metformin. I've been exercising pretty much daily since the beginning of May. I get up early, do some weights and some cardio, then eat breakfast. I have never checked my sugars immediately after exercising until this morning, and was quite alarmed to get a result of 10.4 (187). I retested right away and got 9.8 (176). I had my regular post-workout breakfast shake (water, cream, strawberries and vanilla whey powder, total net carbs = 7) and checked them a half hour later (twice again) and they were over 11 (198).
Since I've been working out, I've had good sugars when I've checked them (which I admit isn't every day) including several readings in the 5-6 (90-108) range, which I rarely, if ever, saw before starting low carb. Prior to starting low carb, my A1C was over 10 (180) and at my last appointment it was 7.0 (126) and the doctor was very pleased with all my tests.
I'm going to see my endo June 10, so I will definitely continue checking this and discuss it with him when I see him, but I was wondering if anyone knew of bs spiking like this due to starting a new exercise program? This morning, I pushed myself extra hard on my elliptical, so when I finished my heart rate was way up. Could that be a factor? Another possibility that occured to me is that maybe I need to eat before I exercise?

Thanks so much for your help!

Jenn

Hello Jade,

I can tell you my experience is similar. I play racquetball rather well and was concerned about the possibilities of getting low blood sugars, and needing to take a snack along. I start feeling "shakey" after the third match. Pulled out my meter and it ran 250! Alarmed I did a retake and it came to 255. Within the hour of returning home it got back to around 110. I called my endocrinologist and he was unconcerned as long as the numbers when down following exercise.

I have since asked other "experts" and basically they say that your liver is pumping out the glucose to enable the exercise you are demanding. And it is pumping more than needed and more than your own insulin can handle.

I also run and lift weights, but for me it is the intensity of racquetball, male competitiveness, and short breaks between games that puts my numbers so high. I don't feel great about it, but have learned to leave the meter at home! I have also cut my play time down to an hour max.

Do others have insights on this? Is this your experience with exercise?

Here are some "experts" which I found helpful in my search for answers::

http://www.therasense.com/educator/.../exercise_1.htm

http://www.joslin.harvard.edu/educa..._exercise.shtml

I was exactly in the same situation once started checking my BGs about 2 years ago. i'm used to exercise and always did this first thing in am, of course, before I had anything to eat. I thought it's better to exercise on emopty stomack for weight loss.
since I've noticed that streneous cardio and weights along with any workout longer than 45 minutes pushes my BGs 60-70 points, I've made some adjustments to my routine. I still exercise in am (cardio mostly) but eat a small snack like a low GI fruit or some berries 10-15 minutes before exercise. this way i can be sure that Bgs eigher remain stable during exercise or be lower once I've complete my routine. fruit and berries are digested very fast and not disrupt my workout but they put breaks on a "liver dump". if for some reasons fruit is not acceptable, than try some PB or switch exercise time to after lunch or dinner. morning is when we are most IR, and hence, the higher BGs.
I also try not to go for longer than 45-50 minutes in one session and do weights before or after dinner, not too close to bed time. also, i've noticed that going at a lower pace (i do have ellptical machine) but incerasing incline and resistance works much better BGs wise and weigth loss as well.
walking uphill is very good option too. this is my personal experience, keep in mind YMMV. in any case, exercise is a life saver for me and for all diabetics.
Cheers,
Dina

I do strength training and cardio daily. I always eat breakfast as soon as I wake up, or the dawn affect will get me. This morning it was 100 at 8am and by 8:30 because I didn't eat right away, it was up to 113.

How interesting that you eat as soon as you get up to avoid DP. I haven't tried that lately...been fasting 2-3 hours before brunch (I just eat 2 meals per day because I exercise 30 mins after each meal and don't care to do the third work-out.)

I am definately going to try to eat a light meal tomorrow morning and see what happens! In the past, I have found a small rise even if I exercise before breakfast (in the am), so I just have hung in there for 2-3 hours, then ate brunch and exercised. Seems the morning is sensitive to all kinds of things for me!
Best Wishes,
Sherry

...........Im running long slow :-))) run and do 2-3 time inside gym ...at the begging its was so high...((( 300 )))....but then as I got in shape everything start looking really very normal.....I wonder though if that will happen again if I will take a long break....when this will happen - I promise- I will check it :-)))

Not diabetic myself, but fairly familiar with the workings on involved with the disease...

Pushing yourself too hard while being underfueled definitely can cause those kinds of sugars. As a diabetic you really can't do strenuous activity while being underfueled, you will force your liver to rapidly dump glycogen into the blood. For a regular person with limited IR this isn't a problem since they can regulate their blood sugar, but as a diabetic you have to be careful to avoid situations which might trigger a liver dump (example: going too long w/o eating, or as in your case, doing too much physical activity on too little fuel).

Next time make sure you eat enough before starting exercise, and don't push yourself as hard as you did... you should be alright then.

ok, im pretty sure this is a problem that is exacerbated by lc. since we don't have enough circulating fuel/ insulin, we get a liver dump. being a person who refuses to let my T1 diabetes keep me from doing anything, ive developed, through lots of testing, a formula for adding insulin during my workout. if i exercise to an anaerobic state (heart rate over 180) off an on for about an hour, I need 1 extra unit of rapid acting insulin. after lots of charting, i feel confident enought to take that unit before exercising at a known activity, with my heart monitor on. im thinking of just increasing my pump basals, but im not sure exactly how to do that (my next task!) I'd advise charting for a long time before introducing a pre-exercise bolus. btw, i need this extra bolus, even if I've just bolused for a 6 carb breakfast!

im very interested in this question, since i do advanced stepping on a 14 inch bench every day for an hour. and weight lifting every other day. lower key activities have the predictable effect of making me go low, so I reduce my basals to 50% for the duration of shopping, cleaning, dog walking.

ok, i take it back about not letting diabetes keep me from anything- sometimes i tell my s.o. that im not able to do the house cleaning because of D ;)

Just a follow-up with a little personal experiment. I mentioned in the earlier post that my racquetball ball workout gave me readings of 250 between matches. The way I've handled this is to avoid further testing during matches. Ha!

But I did the following this time. I ate a small apple and took one glucophage 1 hour before the workout. I did tests after every two matches.

1st test (approx. 30 minutes) 115
2nd test (approx. 1 hour) 142
3rd test (approx. 1.5 hour) 145

Much better than the earlier readings. I wonder if I had not taken the glucophage how high they would have gotten? Next time I'll try that.

Just in case this helps anyone I'm posting these results.

Dr. B addresses this in his book, I believe in the chapter on exercise. Since Type 2’s are insulin resistant (by definition), you body has a difficult time processing the blood glucose so your cells can burn it.

If you exercise hard, your cells require more energy, which causes your liver to create some glucose through gloconeogenesis (sp?).

Anyway, since your insulin is not very effective in ushering this new glucose into your cells where it can be burned, it builds up in your blood.

This can cause the curious phenomenon of having hypoglycemic symptoms while actually having high BG’s. The high BG’s will cause damage, according to Dr. B.

I forget how he says to manage this, however. I’ll look it up tonight when I get home…. :idea:

- Danny

I'm a Type 2..controlled by low carb diet and much exercise. I started swimming in the aerobic range of intensity..and found through the usual trial and error that the best time for me to do this is an hour after lunch..It will lower my bg immediately..unless it's around 90 and then there's no immediate difference. Long term though it stays down the rest of the day. When I swam at 10:30 am...it went up...and then an hour later back down again. I always eat right away when I get up and the later I get up..the higher the fasting numbers...It seems like everyone needs to see what works for them...trial and error..right now my weight loss seems stalled but since my clothes are getting bigger...must be on the right track...muscle weights more than fat...and takes in bg better...so I'll start strength training this week...I think the most important thing for me..is low carbs, low carbs, low carbs..Guess I'm lucky my Dr..who is a DO, doesn't give out meds and ADA diet but instead uses the low carb way to control blood sugar levels..

I don't exercise, I'm afraid, but I do find that I have to eat as soon as I get up or my blood sugar starts to rise. I get up at 6:30 on weekdays, do a blood test - usually it's between 4.0 (72) to 4.3 (77), and then eat. If I sleep in for a couple of hours on a weekend, it has started to go up - maybe 4.7 (85) or 4.9 (88) - still not too bad, but I assume if I waited longer, it would go higher still.

BTW, what is a DO please?

Karen D.

A DO is a Dr. of Ostepathic Medicine..they do the same training as our MD's but more..since they also can do adjustments. Mine is less into using drugs and more into natural supplements and hard work. (on my part)...but if you need meds, he certainly gives them. I like his approach because it's very personal instead of generic and I get good feedback..

High BS After Exercise in Morning
 

I have higher bs in morning becasue of the "dawn phenomenon." If I exercise in the morning bs get even higher, so I do it later in the day. I think Berstein mentions this in his book. The muscels working need glucose and there is a lot of morning insulin clearance, viola!

If this happens at other times of the day, you've got me stumped.