walking and morning glucose

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mhtyler

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
So I had a bit of a toot the other night...translation; too many carbs, and when I do my sugar shoots up for several days. This AM it was 133, that's 6.3 mmol/L. So I went for a 15-minute walk. Result: 135 (6.3). Why no effect? Well, I've ideas, but feel free to chime in. First, it means that I've taken in more sugar than my liver can handle, secondly, morning counter-regulatory hormones are at their peak, and finally my pancreas is putting out little insulin. Result: the walk did nothing. Or did it? It seems unlikely that I have broken the laws of physics and my muscles can run on nothing. Another possibility is that my muscles DID take glucose from my blood, and my liver promptly made more sugar, because that's what it does when it's deaf to insulin and has too much on hand anyway. Or...3rd scenario, my skeletal muscles are already chock-full of glucose, and so they just burned off some of their stored glucose. If the latter, I might expect a compensatory drop in sugar later on when it replenishes. Of course, being a complex organism there could be a combination in play. It is my observation that even a short walk in the late afternoon or evening will affect glucose immediately. I assume that the counter-regulatory hormones are then at their lowest, therefore insulin is more effective. I go for regular short walks after each meal, but I usually don't eat until noon. Thoughts?
 
I find I need to do about 40 mins of walking to bring my levels down. Muscles work off their own stores I think, but then mine suck it back out of my blood when I sleep to replenish their stores, so I often have nocturnal hypos after a long walk during the day. 15 mins wouldn't be enough to see any reduction for me. Interestingly though, if I run up and down stairs 20 times which only takes 10 mins and gives me real muscle burn and heart and lungs work out, my levels will drop a couple of mmols, which is not what I expected as in theory that sort of anaerobic exercise should (and does) pit my body under stress and should therefore cause my liver to release more of it's stores.
We are all different so I wouldn't be despondent or concerned about your insulin production, you may see the effect through the night and find your waking reading tomorrow is better as a result.
 
People with T2D tend to have low glycogen stores in muscles due to the insulin resistance. During exercise muscles use glucose without requiring insulin anyway, as they contract and suck up glucose via a transporter.

Exercise can also cause more glucose to be released from the liver.

Some research has shown the 'fixed point' in the morning can be elevated in people with T2D, so it may have just settled at 6.3 even though it may have gone down during exercise.

And that 6.3 is effectively an estimate, possibly up to 15% different to a lab result, so it may have been higher or lower in reality.

I guess what happened is the metabolism was doing its thing and trying to keep glucose at a fixed level, but it may be that the fixed point is elevated due to the diabetes.
 
I find I have to do a minium of 20 mins to have any effect on my levels.
 
When do you do your walking, grovesy? In the past, when I've walked in the AM...nothing, whereas if I do the same walk in the afternoon, or especially in the evening my glucose responds nicely. I say in the past, because as I begin to lose weight again (I was on a brief hiatus from weight loss) I find that near my lowest weight number my walks are impacting my glucose in the AM as well. Something that wouldn't have happened 18 LBs ago. I was doing 10 minute walks, but I feel much stronger now, and so I do 15 minute walks, and once I get 10,000 steps I do a couple of 10 mins to shave off sugar spikes.
 
harbottle said:
People with T2D tend to have low glycogen stores in muscles due to the insulin resistance. During exercise muscles use glucose without requiring insulin anyway, as they contract and suck up glucose via a transport
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grovesy said:
I walk usally 1 pmish.
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Is it brisk or leisurely? I find even a slow walk works, but there's no question but that a brisk is more effective. However, if I go too strongly it seems to backfire. Odd that a short walk has no effect for you even in the afternoon. Have you tried a short evening walk? Evening walks are definitely the best.
 
grovesy said:
I don’t do slow or lesiuriley! My other half accuses me of doing a route March.
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When I'm walking with the family, they complain I'm too fast!
I once had a passer by comment 'you look like you're marching to a battle!'
 
I once overtook a jogger with my brisk, extended walk! I am sure I was expending far less energy than she was, but I was covering more ground. I see my walk as a yomp.
 
rebrascora said:
I once overtook a jogger with my brisk, extended walk! I am sure I was expending far less energy than she was, but I was covering more ground. I see my walk as a yomp.
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Presumably a yomp requires a bergen too though? 🙂

I am also guilty of the above, I do sometimes look down and find my 9yo jogging beside me and slow down a bit for her - the alternative is that I have to do my own "yomp" by carrying her on my shoulders as I continue at a near, though slightly diminished, pace!

I'm just reading Burn by Herman Pontzer (really interesting thus far and I don't see any reason it won't remain that way, so recommended) and I've just read that people are very good judges of when it becomes energetically more efficient to run than to walk (and vice versa presumably), which obviously depends on the person in question. But I thought it was interesting to read the comments about people walking faster than some joggers (I may do too for all I know, I've never noticed) - I wonder if this is because the joggers feel they should be jogging (but in fact walking might be more efficient for them) or it's simply down to person-to-person variation in the best-efficiency transition speed.

Apologies for dragging the thread somewhat off topic!
 
grovesy said:
I don’t do slow or lesiuriley! My other half accuses me of doing a route March.
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My other half says the same about me..
@mhtyler I prefer to walk in the mornings if not at work. I don't check my BG until at least 30 minutes after getting home as I know they will be higher after exercise but that may just be me.
 
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