Exercise and basal

[Lauren8443]

I have just started going to the gym and obviously know that I need to reducing bonus and basal as a result, but how do I know by how much?

I am going to the gym and working out intensely for 1 hr-1hr 1/2 ...

I changed my basal today from 17 to 15u and have only had a tiny bit of bolus and still going low quite easily.

Also, do I just reduce my basal the days I know I’m going to exercise and return it to normal on rest days? I take it in the morning.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Xx

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I generally found that when I was visiting the gym 3 times a week I needed to reduce basal all the time. Then when I stopped/took a break (eg school holidays) it would take about a week before my basal need started to go up a bit and then settle. Then back at the gym and after a week I’d need to crank it back down.

So I always had the same basal dose (or pattern when switched to pump) on gym and non-gym days but it was more the general level of activity week-by-week that meant I needed less basal.

I would suggest starting with a 10% reduction of your current dose, and see how that goes for a week or so (unless you are having multiple hypos). Then drop down another 10% if you need to.

Hope it goes well 🙂

 

[SB2015]

I have just started going to the gym and obviously know that I need to reducing bonus and basal as a result, but how do I know by how much?

I am going to the gym and working out intensely for 1 hr-1hr 1/2 ...

I changed my basal today from 17 to 15u and have only had a tiny bit of bolus and still going low quite easily.

Also, do I just reduce my basal the days I know I’m going to exercise and return it to normal on rest days? I take it in the morning.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Xx

Like Mike I find that my reductions tend to depend on the intensity of the activity, and how long it goes on for. It really is trial and improvement, which I know is frustrating, but a good starting point is to adjust by 10% and go from there.

The options that I was given when on Multiple Daily Injections were
If exercising soon after a meal
used a reduction in the bolus for that meal, and if an intensive session I might reduce the basal that night by a bit as well.

If exercising before a meal
I would eat some quick acting carbs, with reduced insulin to cover it, just before to get me through the session, and then reduce the bolus at the meal that followed to allow my muscles etc to top up their stores after the meal.

The amounts I only worked out my recording what I did, testing and reviewing what to do next time.

 

[khskel]

I think it also depends on what basal you are on pumping or Levemir you can change with immediate effect but something like lantus takes a day or two for the reduction to kick in.

 

[christophe]

Got to agree with the comments above in as much as it all depends on intensity and duration. Personally I like to leave the basal alone having got it to where it is right, 17 units for me too coincidentally. Then at a reasonable intensity, the basal handles the initial rise from starting work and any carb you might need to add during (to prevent going low/ maintain a level in range depending on duration) but watch out for the bounce afterwards, when you back off and cool down the bg goes up until the body is convinced you are not working anymore..
For me, and I know this is going to be different for everyone, start at a normal in range bg, if it's a bit high then I will have 1unit or possibly 2 of Novorapid so that it is active during the exercise. The warm up seems to be enough to start the release of stored glucose so there will be a bit of a rise.. a period of quite high intensity (like 80% for 20 minutes) will destroy this rise, if there is a bit of active insulin then the intensity shouldn't be so high otherwise the drop in bg gets a bit dramatic.. after that it is a matter of balancing the intensity/bg/stored glucose release and anything eaten/drunk to maintain the level for the duration. Simple, right?
No it isn't.. but it is possible to hold it all together and make it work! I look forward to the bg dropping so I can have a few grams of something tasty without needing to inject...
The constant measuring and calculation gives a whole different dimension to the exercise, as if it wasn't hard enough already!

 

[Matt Cycle]

Reading about peoples experiences I've found exercise and type 1 a very individual thing in terms of its effects. For me there are too many variables affecting it to compare what others are doing. Over the years I've just worked it out what sort of works for me. Nobody wants hypos or hypers but you can get bogged down in the technicalities. For me personally the most important thing is just getting out there and then dealing with any diabetic things if they happen to occur. Testing regularly, go low - eat something, go high - insulin possibly, hopefully it'll be somewhere in between. Basal is a funny one and I was similar to Mike when on MDI in that I rarely changed it. I did occasionally reduce it when on split Levemir doses but this often caused problems. On the pump I've now got finer and easier adjustments I can make and I reduce the basal when exercising and when I get back and into the next day. On the pump with bolus I rarely adjust ratios after exercise. With all this what works one week may be different the next week. As everything T1 related it's a lifetime of making things up as you go along, er I mean, a work in progress. 🙄