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blood sugers high after exercise

M

mark1985

Active Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
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He/Him
Hi
I have started going to the gym again and getting into my running again. I am eating a balance diet but not easy working nights so meals are all over the place. The issue I am finding is that my bloods are always high atm. I tried the low carb diet but found that caused other issues so not practical to carry on with. feeling like I'm at the start again with no clue what to do. any advice please.
 
Easier said than done but having consistency with timings of meals and exercise helps massively.

I always inject a small amount of insulin before I go to the gym. I go early morning pre breakfast. Exercise releases glucose from the liver so the inlaying injected offsets this.
 
Apologies, I see you are type 2 so probably not injecting.

You should practise low internsity work outs like walking/jogging to begin with.

Eat a lot of protein to fill you up and maintain a low carb diet.
 
When I go out for a run my blood glucose always goes up. If I just go for a walk it goes down. This is a well known phenomenon and (I believe) is something to do with the “flight or fight” condition. (The body produces more glucose in order to give energy when it is needed.) That is a very simple explanation to a quite complicated physiological issue!
 
JohnS said:
When I go out for a run my blood glucose always goes up. If I just go for a walk it goes down. This is a well known phenomenon and (I believe) is something to do with the “flight or fight” condition. (The body produces more glucose in order to give energy when it is needed.) That is a very simple explanation to a quite complicated physiological issue
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First I should mention that I have no medical training and my comments are based on understanding from the forum and other reading as well as my personal experience.
While it is the case that the liver dumps more glucose when exercising, this does not always result in a higher BG as the body uses more glucose when doing some exercise although this kicks in later than the glucose dump. As with everything diabetes, there are multiple factors at play including
- how long you exercise (including whether it is continuous or stop/start like HIIT)
- how intensive the exercise is
- the type of exercise (typically, cardio lowers BG and resistance training will raise it)
- how fit you are at that type of exercise (if you are less fit, you are more likely to be stressed which will raise BG)
- is there anything else that can affect your stress levels such as weather (stress raises BG)

I am not a runner but I often cycle and I am reasonably fit. The type of cycling I do can have different affects on my BG.
- a gentle trundle along the tow path whilst chatting to my friends is probably analogous to your walking. It has very little impact on my BG.
- an intensive 45 minutes to an hour at my weekly spin class will cause my BG to go down
- an outdoor cycle ride in the wind and rain slogging up a steep hill will cause my BG to go up.
And, whatever exercise I do, my BG is lower for the next 24 to 48 hours.

@mark1985 what exercise are you doing at the gym? Are you on something like the treadmill or something like the weight rack? And how is your BG the day after the gym?
 
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@mark1985 like you I am type 2 and currently have quite a busy exercise regime with visits to the gym up to three times a week, plus three runs a week and a game of golf. Fortunately I have been able to retire early so don't have the issues around work and meal times.
From your post it is not clear exactly what the position is, for example when you say your bloods are high, does that mean above 8 mmol/L or above 10 mmol/L or even higher? Also what exactly do you mean by 'balanced diet' as this can mean different things to different people? For example I eat a balanced diet but it is low carb and has plenty of fish, meat and fats so that my intake at around 2,500 - 3,000 calories per day aligns with the amount of activity I do each day and allows me to maintain or even add a little weight.
I have also read somewhere that doing weights before doing cardio activity can be beneficial for some people as it encourages cells to increase insulin sensitivity which can help improve BG uptake during and after the cardio exercise, thus keeping BG lower.
 
mark1985 said:
Hi
I have started going to the gym again and getting into my running again. I am eating a balance diet but not easy working nights so meals are all over the place. The issue I am finding is that my bloods are always high atm. I tried the low carb diet but found that caused other issues so not practical to carry on with. feeling like I'm at the start again with no clue what to do. any advice please.
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When you say low carb didn't work for you, it may depend on exactly how you went about it, how low, did you increase protein and healthy fats, did you reduce carbs too quickly.
Perhaps looking more carefully at your diet would be a first step to see what you may need to change. Keeping a food dairy of everything you eat and drink with an estimate of the carbs and record your before and 2 hour post meal readings you may spot foods which should be off the menu or have in reduced portions.
Maybe some ideas to approach low carb in a better way in this link https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/
 
Could you walk or cycle (gently!) to/from the gym and for runs add on 10 - 15min (or longer) walk afterwards?

These gentle (low stress) exercises will tend to cause BG to drop (as the liver is no longer being asked to produce glucose but you're still burning it doing exercise) after the high stress gym/running (when the liver was actively "helping" due to stress hormones). They also serve to prolong the duration of exercise which will enhance post-exercise muscle insulin sensitivity.
 
mark1985 said:
Hi
I have started going to the gym again and getting into my running again. I am eating a balance diet but not easy working nights so meals are all over the place. The issue I am finding is that my bloods are always high atm. I tried the low carb diet but found that caused other issues so not practical to carry on with. feeling like I'm at the start again with no clue what to do. any advice please.
Click to expand...
I'm with you on the low carb diet I had issues too so I try to pick low GI carbs as a compromise might be worth considering?
 
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