Prolonged hypers post exercise

[Donna Louise]

I am exercising 3 times a week mainly indoor rowing. (I have lost 10 pounds in the last 3 weeks through healthy eating). About an hour after exercising my sugars are about 12 and are still high about 4 hours later. When I measure my sugars on waking they are over 8 when they were previously about 7 I feel fine and am taking my meds as normal? Bit worried, any ideas as to why this is happening?

 

[helli]

How intense is your exercise, how long do you do it for and do you experience discomfort from your exercise?
I ask because there is quite a bit going on which can affect your blood sugars. To start with, our liver releases glucose to give us the energy for exercise. This can raise our blood sugars. Then, if we continue to exercise, our body becomes more efficient at using insulin so we need less to use the sugar so our levels can drop. But there are other things which can affect our levels such as stress.
This is why high intensity interval training tends to cause levels to go up and prolonger exercise at a comfortable levels tends to cause them to go down.

The example I would for me is cycling.
If I pootle along a flat route chatting with my mates, my heart rate remains stable and so does myt blood sugars.
If I do a medium intensity 45 minute ride, I get out of breath and my heart will rise but be sustained and my blood sugars will fall.
If I do short sprints, heart rate will and I will get very out of breath quickly and my levels will rise.
If I cycle up a long steep hill against the wind on a horrible wet day, my levels will rise.

Exercise is not equal.

 

[Donna Louise]

I row quite vigorously for 35 mins, cycle only moderately for about 10mins weights. I don't experience any discomfort, in fact I feel pretty good. I don't feel breathless just sweaty. Appreciate 'not all exercise is equal', more concerned about the prolonged knock on effects of blood sugars and what I can do to correct the hypers.

 

[ianf0ster]

Hi @Donna Louise and welcome to the forum.
May I ask if you are low carbing or not? If not then it may be the carbs you eat (for energy) before your exercise that are compounding the higher BG cause by the exercise.

 

[Donna Louise]

Hi ianf0ster, thank you for your welcome.
I'm not low-carbing, I eat a banana and a low fat muller rice pot about an hour before I exercise. I am attempting to eat healthily (still eating carbs) and have lost 10 lbs in the last 3 weeks.
What do you think I can do to help things?

 

[EmmaL76]

That might be it, the banana and muller would be about 40g carbs and your exercising after an hour which will be when that food hits it peak. Plus exercise can raise sugars also. Although a perfectly healthy option, most of us would see high numbers after those with or without a workout. It’s really hard to get your head around especially when you feel like you making all the right choices and putting in the work, but it does get easier I promise xx

 

[Kaylz]

There may be your problem then, a pot of the plain rice has near 30g carbs and 100g banana around 20g carbs, have you tested these foods alone without adding the exercise? I suspect they may be higher if you weren't exercising after it if I'm honest xx

 

[Donna Louise]

That might be it, the banana and muller would be about 40g carbs and your exercising after an hour which will be when that food hits it peak. Plus exercise can raise sugars also. Although a perfectly healthy option, most of us would see high numbers after those with or without a workout. It’s really hard to get your head around especially when you feel like you making all the right choices and putting in the work, but it does get easier I promise xx

Thank you for your email. Have only ever taken meds(although one of them is gliclizide) so I had never had to consider amount of carbs. What would be a better option?

 

[EmmaL76]

How about something like this, these are my favourite from m&s. Quite filling and 6.9g carbs other supermarkets do similar ones. Look for anything under 10g if you want to avoid a big spike xx

 

[Donna Louise]

There may be your problem then, a pot of the plain rice has near 30g carbs and 100g banana around 20g carbs, have you tested these foods alone without adding the exercise? I suspect they may be higher if you weren't exercising after it if I'm honest xx

Thank you for your email. Have only ever used meds which meant I didn't need to test, but am taking gliclizide now so am testing.
So counting carbs is not something I've done. How can I bring the sugars down otherwise?

 

[Donna Louise]

How about something like this, these are my favourite from m&s. Quite filling and 6.9g carbs other supermarkets do similar ones. Look for anything under 10g if you want to avoid a big spike xx

 

[Donna Louise]

So should I eat this an hour before exercising? xx

 

[ianf0ster]

So should I eat this an hour before exercising? xx

The comments about reducing the amount of carbohydrates don't only apply to before exercise. Rather than low carb manufactured food products, I prefer to eat real natural food even when that comes with the fat it naturally comes with (i.e. as eaten for generations before the obesity/diabetes crisis).

If you were 'fat adapted' then you wouldn't need to eat anything before exercise (unless you are a professional athlete). Because you would have access to all that stored fuel in the form of your body fat.
But since you aren't in that position I suggest eating something with some healthy fats and medium carbs. In order to make it similar to what you currently eat I suggest something such as some of the higher carb nuts (cashews, pistachios even almonds), and /or some berries (strawberry, raspberry, blackberry or blueberry) and /or some seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, flax, chia) with some full fat greek style yogurt.

 

[ianf0ster]

Eating enough protein with some fat will keep your energy high and keep you feeling satiated without feeling bloated for much longer than a meal of carbohydrates will.

 

[Deleted member 21371]

I never ate specifically low carb for exercise.
Fat before exercise usually makes me feel sick, and certainly takes the edge off the workout.
I usually took an apple.
I did a lot of exercise, and yes, you will see BG possibly rise initially.
Any change in routine will normally take about two weeks to settle down again.
However, that's quite normal, and as your muscles start to lose some of the insulin resistance, and start to use the glucose releases, (a couple of weeks) you'll notice a great improvement.
Also, the effects of the exercise will last a few days beyond the point at which you did the exercise.
As to the impact, I usually try to triple my heart rate, then keep it at double, but I certainly wouldn't advise that for anyone else.
The loss of weight is excellent so far!

 

[Donna Louise]

Thank you so much for your message. That makes sense, my heart rate is about double, get a bit sweaty but good otherwise.

The comments about reducing the amount of carbohydrates don't only apply to before exercise. Rather than low carb manufactured food products, I prefer to eat real natural food even when that comes with the fat it naturally comes with (i.e. as eaten for generations before the obesity/diabetes crisis).

If you were 'fat adapted' then you wouldn't need to eat anything before exercise (unless you are a professional athlete). Because you would have access to all that stored fuel in the form of your body fat.
But since you aren't in that position I suggest eating something with some healthy fats and medium carbs. In order to make it similar to what you currently eat I suggest something such as some of the higher carb nuts (cashews, pistachios even almonds), and /or some berries (strawberry, raspberry, blackberry or blueberry) and /or some seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, flax, chia) with some full fat greek style yogurt

Eating enough protein with some fat will keep your energy high and keep you feeling satiated without feeling bloated for much longer than a meal of carbohydrates will.

Thank you very much, I will give that a go!

 

[Donna Louise]

Eating enough protein with some fat will keep your energy high and keep you feeling satiated without feeling bloated for much longer than a meal of carbohydrates will.

Thank you very much for you advice.

 

[Drummer]

I eat at 12 hourly intervals, and that is it.
We can usually store enough energy to face just about anything for several days and survive - so I can't see the logic in preparing to exercise by eating.
When I go out for the day I usually take something to drink, but that is all I need. It doesn't feel like I am doing anything unusual - but perhaps I am.

 

[Donna Louise]

Thank you for your help. I think I'm going to stick to a little bit of everything in moderation. I've lost 10 pounds doing this so far and I hope the blood sugars will sort themselves out as I loose weight.

 

[ianf0ster]

Thank you for your help. I think I'm going to stick to a little bit of everything in moderation. I've lost 10 pounds doing this so far and I hope the blood sugars will sort themselves out as I loose weight.

I would just like to point out that although @travellor promotes 'moderation', they actually used the 'Newcastle Diet' to get to the place they're in currently.
The Newcastle Diet is much more extreme than 'Low Carb' can be (of course 'Low Carb' can also be as extreme as desired).
Newcastle is an 800 Calories per day for 8 week regime. The meal replacement shakes consist of 600 calories , 46.4 % of which are carbohydrates , 32.5% of protein and 20.1% of fat.

This equals approx 75 gms of carbohydrates - which is well into the 'Low Carb' and not so far from the 'Ketogenic levels'.
Yet they say that 1,500 to 2,000 calories including up to 130 gms of carbohydrates is exceedingly strict!

Perhaps some do better with meal replacement shakes, but to claim that Low Carb is excessive, unsustainable etc. when compared to Newcastle is just crazy!

Oh, and Newcastle doesn't claim to cure diabetes - just to put it into remission like Low Carb does. The success rates for the two methods are comparable with Low Carb having the edge by upt to 10% more remissions at the 2yr point.