Type-1 Question: How long does exercise drop BG Levels?
Spokez70
Posts: 548 Member
I was just wondering how long exercise 'pushes out' and affects your blood glucose level. My 12 year old daughter has Type-1 Diabetes and pumps Humalog. She is generally pretty active- but yesterday we were at a family holiday get together where she was extremely active running around all day- a lot more than usual. There was also a ton of food and junk food to try to figure out the carbs on. We were happy we managed her levels pretty good all day through everything with no highs or lows. She was 107 at 8:39pm before bed and we gave her about a 15 Carb bedtime snack with no bolus- just not wanting her levels to drop too low in the night.
We don't normally check her levels in the middle of the night but we did last night because of everything. At 2:23am she felt fine but was 62 so my wife gave her 3 sugar tablets and put her back to bed. Despite that she still woke up on her own at 5:33am feeling low- checked herself and she was down to 47. That is probably 8-10 hours beyond most of the physical activity which settled down around 8pm the night before. I was just wondering if that was caused by all the exercise that many hours later? It seems doubtful to me but I don't have any other explanation- her numbers are usually pretty stable overnight. Any insight would be appreciated.
We don't normally check her levels in the middle of the night but we did last night because of everything. At 2:23am she felt fine but was 62 so my wife gave her 3 sugar tablets and put her back to bed. Despite that she still woke up on her own at 5:33am feeling low- checked herself and she was down to 47. That is probably 8-10 hours beyond most of the physical activity which settled down around 8pm the night before. I was just wondering if that was caused by all the exercise that many hours later? It seems doubtful to me but I don't have any other explanation- her numbers are usually pretty stable overnight. Any insight would be appreciated.
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It really depends on the type of activity. However, physical activity can make you run at a deficit for a long time. I often experience lows at night after a hard workout in the morning.0
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We call this ‘delayed hypoglycemia’ in the beetus world. I’ve been a T1D for about 15 years. I still don’t know when I’m going to have a case of it. The only thing you can do is just Wilford Brimley her diabetes. “Check your sugars, and check em often.”0
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Thanks for the feedback. I also poster this on CWD and got a lot of interesting replies in case anyone is interested.
http://forums.childrenwithdiabetes.com/showthread.php?t=720140 -
Yeah, I have experienced sustained "burn" from exercise for hours after - that is, *only* if my blood sugar was okay before exercise. If it is trending higher, I have experienced sustained high blood sugar - just a way my body is trying to "help" I guess :grumble:0
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exercise actually raises bs and it comes down about two hours later. If exercising before bed be sure to eat light snack before turing in like and orange or apple something with 15-30 carbs so you wont bottome out.0
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Honestly, for me it is kind of erratic. I have lows hours after exercise sometimes and other times it shoots up a little. I agree with jonnyrosko that you should just check her BG often to be safe, especially when she has been super active that day. That's what I do anyway!0
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I have had diabetes close to thirty years and this does sound normal if she was active all day. When more active, increase the carbs and test more often. I honestly wouldn't rely on glucose tablets because those are equivalent to half a piece of bread. When I run low a peanut butter and jelly sandwich sets me straight.0
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exercise actually raises bs and it comes down about two hours later. If exercising before bed be sure to eat light snack before turing in like and orange or apple something with 15-30 carbs so you wont bottome out.
Just wanted to point out that this is not true for everyone, as far as it rising during excercise.. Before I go excercise- I eat a large carb meal. The other night was 85g and I only worked out for 45 minnutes. I did not bolus for my meal AT ALL. When I was done excercising my blood sugar was only 117.0 -
exercise actually raises bs and it comes down about two hours later. If exercising before bed be sure to eat light snack before turing in like and orange or apple something with 15-30 carbs so you wont bottome out.
Just wanted to point out that this is not true for everyone, as far as it rising during excercise.. Before I go excercise- I eat a large carb meal. The other night was 85g and I only worked out for 45 minnutes. I did not bolus for my meal AT ALL. When I was done excercising my blood sugar was only 117.
I agree with this. When I take my daughter cycling I would not even consider starting <150 or so because from past experience even cutting her basal rate by 50% and drinking a bottle of real Gatorade during the ride without a bolus for it- I can expect her to drop 50-60 points in an hour. That is with moderate riding 10-12mph and exertion level where she can carry on a normal conversation (not out of breath, etc.)
Edit to say YDMV0 -
Obviously it's different for everyone and depends on type of exercise and whether or not it's been done before.
I won't give you my blood sugar levels as they are mmol/L so different scale to what is used in America and some other countries.
I always test often so I know how different exercises affect me. With your daughter it seems absolutely reasonable she still had the effects of the exercise affecting her sugars several hours later. When I first started out at the gym I would have hypos that would start 30-40 hours post exercise. Once I had figured out what the gym exercise did to me and for how long I was able to adjust both basal and bolus rates of my insulin to avoid these hypos. This is good if it's an exercise I do regularly as I know exactly how it affects me now but add in another type or intensity of exercise that my body is not used to that's when I can have hypos up to 48 hours after the actual exercise.
I know I'm no help to you but at least you know that others with Type 1 can have quite delayed effects post exercise
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I've been diabetic for 19 years now and post-exercise lows have always been an issue for me. I played field hockey and ran track in high school, and 8 hours after practice my blood sugar would plummet. Now, however, it is a bit more erratic. I ran a half-marathon last spring and found it really challenging to manage my blood sugar during training and the race. I began to experience lows during exercise which had never been an issue for me and still had my "8 hours later lows." I felt like I was eating ALL THE TIME.
I moved to Boston recently and am too much of a bum to run outside so do my cardio at a local gym. I try to workout in the mornings and my blood sugar will drop in the afternoons, which is a lot less frightening than at nighttime when I am asleep. Like an original poster stated, I've found that when my blood sugar is high before I work out, it stays high throughout the workout and doesn't drop later. But then I have to deal with being high so... still am trying to find the right balance.
I practice bikram yoga from time to time. It is done in a 100 degree + room. The after effects of bikram on my blood sugar are annoying - the lows tend to last a couple hours. I know it's common for blood sugar to drop in the heat and I have always responded to heat like so as well.
Final point! I swear haha. Does your daughter use a CGM or have you thought about getting one? I figure I'll throw my two cents in if she doesn't have one. It really has done wonders for catching my lows. I tend to go low at night and don't feel them as well as I used to. I also live alone and have had some really scary low mornings. I use the Dexcom G4 platinum and have for about 6 weeks now and I can't tell you how many times it has alerted me to my low blood sugars either during the day or waking me up at night. Also, it differentiates between "dropping blood sugar" and "rapidly dropping blood sugar" (same with highs) and the "rapidly" signal has helped me lessen the effects of my exercise lows. I've found that my blood sugar control is a lot better and I think that has to do with seeing my lows as they drop and being able to correct them earlier.
Hopefully some of this will be able to help you out!0
