Ratios & Inactivity

[helli]

I think it is interesting to talk about changing ratios regarding activity/exercise.
I very rarely change my ratios; I change my basal.
Like @pawprint91 I am active most days so I don't think of reducing anything but will increase my basal when I have a couple of sloth-like days.
I guess it depends upon the basal you use. This is easy on a pump. I used to do it on MDI when I used Lantus. I assume it is an easy tweak with Levemir. But something that would not be possible with Tresiba.

 

[Amity Island]

I think it is interesting to talk about changing ratios regarding activity/exercise.
I very rarely change my ratios; I change my basal.
Like @pawprint91 I am active most days so I don't think of reducing anything but will increase my basal when I have a couple of sloth-like days.
I guess it depends upon the basal you use. This is easy on a pump. I used to do it on MDI when I used Lantus. I assume it is an easy tweak with Levemir. But something that would not be possible with Tresiba.

It's possible with Tresiba, if planned. However, I keep same basal tresiba dose, just adjust carbs/insulin to suit if necessary.

 

[Tdm]

I'm on glagarine,at 24 hrs, so just let me basal be. As for smart insulin, i use excercise to 'supercharge' my insulin when its needed, if i can be bothered

 

[helli]

I'm on glagarine,at 24 hrs, so just let me basal be. As for smart insulin, i use excercise to 'supercharge' my insulin when its needed, if i can be bothered

Lantus is a brand of glargine. If I did not exercise for 24 hours and left my basal be, my levels would go high at night.
The way I understand it, our liver dumps more glucose when exercising (and our muscles "suck up" insulin). As a result, we need to refill our liver supplies over the next 48 hours. If I have a couple of days without exercise, my liver supplies are not emptied so it dumps more and I need more basal.

I attended a lecture on Type 1 diabetes and exercise given by a consultant to Type 1 athletes. His advice was to reduce basal by 25% after exercise for this reason.

 

[pawprint91]

I think it is interesting to talk about changing ratios regarding activity/exercise.
I very rarely change my ratios; I change my basal.
Like @pawprint91 I am active most days so I don't think of reducing anything but will increase my basal when I have a couple of sloth-like days.
I guess it depends upon the basal you use. This is easy on a pump. I used to do it on MDI when I used Lantus. I assume it is an easy tweak with Levemir. But something that would not be possible with Tresiba.

I attempted to try this approach at the weekend, but sadly it was not as successful as I hoped - not because I had any hideous hypos, but because it turns out I am actually not that good at sitting still! My levels definitely sat lower than normal, but there was too much movement (albeit gentle) for me to judge the true outcome of my 'experiment'.

 

[SimonP]

I get a similar thing if I don't do anything on say a Saturday morning (aside from sitting at the PC reading the paper/browsing the web/etc, while the kids are happily playing), I can keep giving myself extra insulin in the hope it will start to come down over the next hour and my blood sugar will stay stubbornly high, however if I do go and do something, even if it's not particularly energetic, whatever is left on-board will all suddenly come into play and I'll need to eat ASAP. I should of course be able to fix this by planning to do something on such days, but I don't pay enough attention (I get dawn phenomenon anyway and a rise from coffee, so I tend to get a rise in the morning irrespective, then lose track of time and forget).

Note to self, do a better job of fixing this! 🙂

Re reducing basal, I currently leave my basal alone for short exercise (h), reduce my basal by ~25% for intermediate exercise (~5h rides) and reduce it by ~40% for longer durations, I also significantly reduce bolus (or don't need any at all) while exercising. I don't reduce basal following exercise.

I used to need to reduce basal by ~40% and also reduce it (tapering back to normal over 2 days) the following day or two, but this requirement (to avoid overnight lows) seems to have gone away. However, I think what is quite probably happening (without doing some historic data diving, which I really should do, eventually), is that I now split my basal equally between pre-breakfast and pre-bed doses, and do almost all of the reduction to the morning dose, this means I'll have less basal on board during the evening/overnight following the exercise vs my previous regimen of taking all of my basal pre-bed (which I actually moved away from as I was tending to go low overnight even without significant exercise).

To @helli's point, I don't tend to raise my basal if I'm not going to exercise, though perhaps I should actually do this if I know I won't be able to get out at all due to e.g. work commitments, though I don't tend to start running high until I've had some back to back days without doing any significant exercise. Something else to consider, thanks.