Exercise and how it affects your numbers

poulingail

I'm glad I located this group so I could see a discussion on the effects of exercise.
Yesterday I went to the movies and had a monster un-buttered popcorn. You know the kind, with the free refill.
In order to eat some homemade soup for supper, I needed to get more exercise into my day and balance things out. So before eating the soup but still feeling the popcorn in my tummy, I went on the treadmill for a second workout that day. It went well enough but after 25 minutes, I started feeling weird. I lowered the incline and speed every minute or so, trying to get rid of the feeling. Finally I was down to 2 mph and 0 incline. I was shaky and weak. Now everyone reading this knows I have a low, right? This is a strange thing for me as I don't run low. Once I was in the 60s and felt bad but that was years ago.
I checked my blood and it was 53! That is the lowest reading I have ever had! I was forced to drink some orange juice (something I never have) and I even had 1/2C of ice cream. My calorie total for the day was off but the D comes first.

My question to you guys is

Do you ever run low?

Interested in hearing your stories.
Gail
A1c 5.7

dimplez711

Hi Gail! I noticed that I've been running low lately too. I'm thinking in your case that the popcorn, even in large quantities, didn't have enough carbs to keep you through a movie AND a workout. I learned from a T2D class that carbs burn off in about 2 hours. So depending on how long that movie was, plus the time before and during your workout, I could see how your sugar level dropped.

A recent instance for me was at the gym. I had just finished about 30 mins on the treadmill, and I moved to a weighted squat machine. I thought that my heart racing, and the sweating were a result from the previous exercise. Then suddenly, I had that sinking feeling which I think most of you can relate to. Within seconds, I started to feel extremely nauseous and disoriented. So I quickly chewed a glucose tablet and called it a day. It's a scary feeling, which I don't think non-D's quite understand.

I've started to use the term "hangry" (hungry+angry=hangry) to let my family/friends/coworkers know when I'm starting to run low and getting a bit crabby lol.

poulingail

Thanks for the comment. It's good to know I'm connecting with someone on this low. I knew the popcorn was still in my stomach; I could taste it. I think you are right though. The high calorie content was not quickly converted to energy as it was mostly the hidden fats used in the cooking that gave me the calories but did not produce the needed energy.

I don't have much experience with lows including my years at the gym, although I did keep a protein bar handy for a few bites if I felt myself getting fatigued.

nlkoelle

Hello!

I think you've got it figured out! I haven't gotten to the lows yet. I'm not looking forward to them, but I'm sure they are imminent. I started using MFP to track food intake and level out my eating on Feb 1st. On Feb 13 I added exercise to my daily routine. I am cycling 30 min in the morning, and 30 min in the evening at a pretty vigorous pace. A couple days ago, I added interval training while cycling (just one of the two rides per day). I'm trying very hard to get my A1C down. I think I'm doing it since my daily numbers are improving.

Have you (or anyone reading?) had a high A1C and worked your way down using diet and exercise? How long does it take before you start seeing "lows"? I'm prepared.. I have glucose tabs and healthy carbs available. I also make sure I have my meter with me all the time. I take pills at this point. (metformin, glipizide, & januvia)

I struggle with high morning numbers (dawn phenomenon). It drives me batty! I am eating ~1500 cals per day and exercising an hour a day. I'm now taking my evening metformin at bedtime instead of before supper to see if that helps. So far it hasn't, but maybe it will take my body a little time for it to take effect. My sugar was 161 this morning - but it can be as high as like 200! Two hours after meals I'm in good shape, well under 180.

LeannSz

HI All:

I'm kind of jealous I have given popcorn up all together because it makes my sugar sky rocket any corn product actually. I run very level these days but i'm always careful when and what I eat. When I worked out in the morning before eating anything it actually made my numbers go up not sure why and the Doc couldn't explain it.

I wanted to say to nlkoelle I had a similar issue of high waking sugar until I started making sure I have a snack about 2 hrs before bed. WHat could be happening is your sugar crashes in the night and you have nothing in there to keep it stable. This has worked for me you can try it I usually do something low in carbs like Cheese or greek yogurt. Hope that helps.

nlkoelle

HI All:

I'm kind of jealous I have given popcorn up all together because it makes my sugar sky rocket any corn product actually. I run very level these days but i'm always careful when and what I eat. When I worked out in the morning before eating anything it actually made my numbers go up not sure why and the Doc couldn't explain it.

I wanted to say to nlkoelle I had a similar issue of high waking sugar until I started making sure I have a snack about 2 hrs before bed. WHat could be happening is your sugar crashes in the night and you have nothing in there to keep it stable. This has worked for me you can try it I usually do something low in carbs like Cheese or greek yogurt. Hope that helps.

Thanks! I actually had string cheese close to bed time last night. This morning my reading was 92. I could not have been happier. It totally made up for less weight loss this week! I started this journey on Feb 1st. So my metabolism could maybe be catching up to the 60 min of daily cardio. Looking forward to losing more weight though too. Feel free to add me if you'd like. :-) Always open to finding more friends along the way!

Nikki -

poulingail

I generally do my treadmill workout around supper time - just before.
When I eat a big bowl of bran flakes for supper, my fasting is always under 100 in the morning.
I adore popcorn and often have a big bag in the evening. When I do, the number is over 100. I don't have elevated fastings any more since I lost 20 lbs. I take Janumet and have an A1c of 5.7 now. The lows I am getting now and then tell me I may see med adjustments in the future. That is certainly good news as I'm sure you understand The lows are not much fun but I know that if I stop exercising, my body will adjust on it's own. I'm insulin resistant, not insulin deprived. Yes, a real low needs a correction but not a 75 unless I'm planning to exercise..

bigbeardiver

Over the last several months I've been hitting a lot of lows. A year ago I was running consistently 240's all day which is a completely different feeling. This past summer I was hitting 40-70's in the middle of the day. I have the occasional spike still to the low numbers, for me I grab something quick and eat or drink to make it go up. In Dec 2011 I started intense exercise every day and eating a lot cleaner and found I hit even more lows. The hardest part for me was figuring out what to eat when to try to stay consistent.

poulingail

It sounds like you have found some tight control. Is your doctor looking to drop some of the medication? What is you A1c, if I may ask?

bigbeardiver

You can ask anything, my highest A1C ever was ... 15. I don't remember my last A1C 6.2 I think but it was the lowest in 15 years, previous to that I was 7.5. Ironically many years before I was diagnosed I was in a major car accident for some reason they did an A1C back then. Glad I had it as a baseline.

I stopped taking my meds, yes without Dr. consent, 3 weeks ago today. I still monitor every other morning to see how I am doing. I stopped taking them because I found myself blacking out at the gym after 30 minutes because my sugar dropped too low. Even if I ate prior to working out. Now I average 80-110 when I wake up, prior to eating.

LeannSz

You can ask anything, my highest A1C ever was ... 15. I don't remember my last A1C 6.2 I think but it was the lowest in 15 years, previous to that I was 7.5. Ironically many years before I was diagnosed I was in a major car accident for some reason they did an A1C back then. Glad I had it as a baseline.

I stopped taking my meds, yes without Dr. consent, 3 weeks ago today. I still monitor every other morning to see how I am doing. I stopped taking them because I found myself blacking out at the gym after 30 minutes because my sugar dropped too low. Even if I ate prior to working out. Now I average 80-110 when I wake up, prior to eating.

Sounds like your doing well then. Why aren't you telling your doctor?

poulingail

@bigbeardiver
I'd say that without the meds and having great fasting numbers you are pretty much a "normal" person. Congratulations. Can I assume you have not had any more blackouts? I would love to see my meds at least dropped to a lower dose in the future. Not now, I'm just not there yet, but maybe some day. ~~~~~~dream sequence~~~~~

bigbeardiver

I'll tell him when I see him next. I see him every 3 months so my next visit is next week. I'm sure we will discuss it. I don't hide it from him. I go in loaded with information. He is lucky I have not found a home lab to test my own blood work, otherwise he would be in trouble with everything I would calculate.

You can ask anything, my highest A1C ever was ... 15. I don't remember my last A1C 6.2 I think but it was the lowest in 15 years, previous to that I was 7.5. Ironically many years before I was diagnosed I was in a major car accident for some reason they did an A1C back then. Glad I had it as a baseline.

I stopped taking my meds, yes without Dr. consent, 3 weeks ago today. I still monitor every other morning to see how I am doing. I stopped taking them because I found myself blacking out at the gym after 30 minutes because my sugar dropped too low. Even if I ate prior to working out. Now I average 80-110 when I wake up, prior to eating.

Sounds like your doing well then. Why aren't you telling your doctor?

bigbeardiver

@bigbeardiver
I'd say that without the meds and having great fasting numbers you are pretty much a "normal" person. Congratulations. Can I assume you have not had any more blackouts? I would love to see my meds at least dropped to a lower dose in the future. Not now, I'm just not there yet, but maybe some day. ~~~~~~dream sequence~~~~~

Yeah. Didn't until tonight. I took some new energy mix that I had never tried before. It was just a sample but got my heart rate and everything going tonight. I went through my routine tonight and set some new personal records but then after workout my heart was racing and the lights got dim. I don't think it was BS related. I'll check in the morning, I'm sure the burger I just ate would throw off any BS numbers I did right now.

hwcoxjr

I go in loaded with information. He is lucky I have not found a home lab to test my own blood work, otherwise he would be in trouble with everything I would calculate.

I know what you mean, I'm newly diagnosed. When my Dr told me he asked me to test my sugars every morning for two weeks and come back to see him. When I came back to see him I had a spreadsheet with my morning, evening and a few random test during the day. I was able to tell him which meals had resulted in which readings and what things seemed to be hitting my sugars hard and which ones seemed to be tolerated better. I'm a geek, what can I say.

bigbeardiver

I have an excel sheet I put together and I enter the numbers for morning, lunch and dinner. This was I can see the averages and more importantly the time of the day. The glucose meters show a 7 or 14 day average typically and that really didn't give me the information I wanted. I wanted to see my wakeup numbers versus after dinner numbers.

The sheet also, based on number of samples would give me a whole average (just like the glucose meter), morning avg, lunch avg and dinner average. The counts are important because saying I have an average reading of 340 over 1 sample is very different than 340 over 15 samples.

I go in loaded with information. He is lucky I have not found a home lab to test my own blood work, otherwise he would be in trouble with everything I would calculate.

I know what you mean, I'm newly diagnosed. When my Dr told me he asked me to test my sugars every morning for two weeks and come back to see him. When I came back to see him I had a spreadsheet with my morning, evening and a few random test during the day. I was able to tell him which meals had resulted in which readings and what things seemed to be hitting my sugars hard and which ones seemed to be tolerated better. I'm a geek, what can I say.

Sharonks

HI All:

I'm kind of jealous I have given popcorn up all together because it makes my sugar sky rocket any corn product actually. I run very level these days but i'm always careful when and what I eat. When I worked out in the morning before eating anything it actually made my numbers go up not sure why and the Doc couldn't explain it.

I wanted to say to nlkoelle I had a similar issue of high waking sugar until I started making sure I have a snack about 2 hrs before bed. WHat could be happening is your sugar crashes in the night and you have nothing in there to keep it stable. This has worked for me you can try it I usually do something low in carbs like Cheese or greek yogurt. Hope that helps.

I have heard that the stress of exercise can raise your BS in the short term even though it will help in the long run. It happens to me whether I eat first or not if the exercise is strenuous. If its light aerobics then it seems to lower it right away.

I to have DP and found a high fat low carb snack right before bed helps. I usually eat an ounce of cheese and take my met. Still struggle with my morning numbers but they are better.

travisseger

I usually experience no change or a slight increase in my numbers immediately after exercising. However, my morning numbers are almost always lower if I have exercised the day before. My numbers are pretty stable, usually between 80-105 no matter what time of day I test, but I will drop into the 50's or 60's about once a week - usually when I get home from work and haven't yet had my evening meal. I definitely feel when it happens, there is a very distinct vision change - like somebody flipped a switch that changes my vision. Through testing, I have it pretty much pinned down that I experience that vision change as soon as my glucose drops to 72 or below.

poulingail

Through testing, I have it pretty much pinned down that I experience that vision change as soon as my glucose drops to 72 or below.

That is actually pretty amazing. When I get down to 72 I'm feeling the change (usually.) Your numbers sound awesome! My FBS is averaging 100 over 30 days and I'm quite satisfied although I know if I could lose more weight the numbers would trickle down as well.

poulingail

Time to wake up this thread.
I stopped losing weight many months ago but my fasting numbers continue to make a steady decline. My most recent fasting average is 90. My A1c has been holding in the upper 5 region since I joined MFP last September and started losing weight. How are your numbers holding up? If my fasting average gets closer to 80, I will contact my doctor for a med adjustment. As it is I saw him earlier this month when my FBS avg was just under 100 and won't go back until January because I have had great numbers for over a year.
Let me add a few things.
I bring my One Touch Ultra 2 meter to my doctor's office and he plugs it into his computer. That gives him a print-out graph and my numbers this month were in a tight grouping which he loved.
I take Janumet 50 - 1000. That's a combined pill twice a day with 50 of Januvia and 1000 Metformin. Some meds can cause lows but I don't find my meds doing that at all. They are more along the lines of making the insulin do it's job of picking up the sugar and bringing it to the cells (Met,) and prolonging the insulin production after eating (Jan. and it only works if there is sugar in the blood.)