How many minutes of walking to drop BG?

[Skater P]

I use walking to try and get a quick BG drop if it looks like I'm going hight, but I may not be walking for long enough.

It looks like cycling takes about 15 to register a drop (though there is a lag between my CGM and my bike computer) so it might be shorter, I may need to look at more than the most recent 6 rides.

 

[helli]

I find my BG is impacted too much on too many other things for me to use exercise to reduce my BG.
For example, how much IoB? When did I last eat? What did I eat? How intense is my exercise (walking could be a "saunter" or a "forced march")? How stressed am I? Am I unwell? What is my current BG (high BG will rise further if I try to exercise)? When did I last do intensive exercise?

And then I have the issues of having time available. So, insulin is far more suitable for reducing BG than a walk or cycle ride so I do the opposite - adjust my insulin if I am doing or have done recently) exercise.

 

[Lucyr]

use walking to try and get a quick BG drop if it looks like I'm going hight, but I may not be walking for long enough.

Try a longer walk? Or more / better timed insulin to prevent the high?

 

[Mike3]

Hiya @Skater P tonight i misjudged the dose for my meal as I was preoccupied with a drop just before eating. After about an hour and a half my BG was creeping up to 13 so I went out for a 15min walk with 1.5 units (probably half what I really needed) fast acting peaking. It brought me down to 9.5, sat there for half an hour and now it is at 8.

Had a similar experience earlier this week after having my pre diagnosis fav, southern fried chicken and chips. Wow that was a troublesome meal - never again. Somehow I jumped to 15 which persisted. On this occasion IOB was waining so a 25-30 walk brought it down to 9 where again it sat there for a while before gradually coming down. I had a digestive just in case it continued to creep down through the night which worked well.

Walking really works when I get things wrong, but it also works too well when I get things right, and then I go low. I’ll be asking for advice on this one soon as I think my increasing insulin sensitivity is making things complicated.

 

[rebrascora]

If I don't have IOB then about 40 mins brisk walking will show my levels starting to drop a bit.

If I have IOB then 10-15 mins can sometimes turn things around and start to drop them. I find running up and down stairs 10-20 times with IOB is pretty effective and doesn't take long. Sometimes I can't be bothered though and just jab more insulin. In some respects as Type 1s we should be using our insulin to manage our BG (just like our pancreas did before it ran dry) and I didn't run up and down stairs before I got diabetes, but doing regular exercise/movement particularly after meals can be a healthy choice, so may be one of those situations where our diabetes makes us more healthy because it prompts us to get active more frequently as well as making us more conscious of the food we eat and how that impacts our BG levels. .