So I went to this 10 Years of BERTIE event in Bournemouth yesterday and found out some interesting things that I didn't know before about sport & exercise. You may know this stuff but I thought I'd share just in case! There was a lady there who talked about her experience of having diabetes as somebody who does ALOT of exercise.
As we've all found out when you do exercise, depending on what exercise you are doing, your blood glucose level either goes high or low (or if you are lucky it stays about the same). After a lot of experimenting and a long time, she has worked out how different exercises and different times of day etc effect her levels.
When you do Aerobic exercise, such as a 30 minute run, you are using up glycogen and then glucose, so your levels are likely to drop. In this case, the woman who spoke to us said that when she runs she makes sure it is in the morning because she is more insulin resistant at that time of day and she can start her run at a level of 5 and finish at a level of 5. When she goes swimming she takes a box of jaffa cakes (hehe) and eats one every 30 lengths. This keeps her levels stable throughout her swim.
When you do Anaerobic exercise, such as a sprint or weight-lifting... adrenaline is released into the body and blood glucose levels are more likely to rise and you may even need to take extra insulin to compensate for this. Sofaraway (AKA Nikki) has said that she takes 2 units of insulin before playing football, so i'm guessing this is because there is a lot of standing around/walking involved and then sudden sprints.
The woman said that it may even help to do anaerobic exercise at the end of aerobic exercise, as this can help bring your BG level up. So at the end of her run she will sprint for the last 2 minutes, in order to stop herself going hypo.
Also, she has been told that you should consume 15g (and that is all that is needed) of carbohydrates, within 40 minutes of exercise in order to restore the glycogen in your muscles. This should help to prevent hypos in the following hours after exercise.
Obviously, once again... everybody is different. Not everyone will be more insulin resistant in the morning, some people may need more carbs etc etc, but I found this information really interesting and I think it may help me to work out what to do for the best in future!
As we've all found out when you do exercise, depending on what exercise you are doing, your blood glucose level either goes high or low (or if you are lucky it stays about the same). After a lot of experimenting and a long time, she has worked out how different exercises and different times of day etc effect her levels.
When you do Aerobic exercise, such as a 30 minute run, you are using up glycogen and then glucose, so your levels are likely to drop. In this case, the woman who spoke to us said that when she runs she makes sure it is in the morning because she is more insulin resistant at that time of day and she can start her run at a level of 5 and finish at a level of 5. When she goes swimming she takes a box of jaffa cakes (hehe) and eats one every 30 lengths. This keeps her levels stable throughout her swim.
When you do Anaerobic exercise, such as a sprint or weight-lifting... adrenaline is released into the body and blood glucose levels are more likely to rise and you may even need to take extra insulin to compensate for this. Sofaraway (AKA Nikki) has said that she takes 2 units of insulin before playing football, so i'm guessing this is because there is a lot of standing around/walking involved and then sudden sprints.
The woman said that it may even help to do anaerobic exercise at the end of aerobic exercise, as this can help bring your BG level up. So at the end of her run she will sprint for the last 2 minutes, in order to stop herself going hypo.
Also, she has been told that you should consume 15g (and that is all that is needed) of carbohydrates, within 40 minutes of exercise in order to restore the glycogen in your muscles. This should help to prevent hypos in the following hours after exercise.
Obviously, once again... everybody is different. Not everyone will be more insulin resistant in the morning, some people may need more carbs etc etc, but I found this information really interesting and I think it may help me to work out what to do for the best in future!
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