Exercise in type 1 diabetes is not simple, but it is feasible when you learn the essential science of juggling insulin, timing, nutrition, and aerobic and anaerobic exercise.
Let’s take a closer look at how to exercise safely with type 1 diabetes in an excerpt from my book.Exercise with Type 1 Diabetes.
How much exercise do you need?
Regular exercise can have a significant impact on your weight, insulin sensitivity, and your ability to manage your blood sugar levels. The more consistent you are with your daily exercise, the more you will benefit from them.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends moderate-intensive physical activity for at least 150 minutes a week.
This breaks down into approximately 20-25 minutes per day. It’s a little long way! (And don’t underestimate the value of a regular walk!)
If you are introducing regular exercise into your daily routine, plan your healthcare team about how to adjust your insulin dose. Insulin sensitivity may increase rapidly and gradually. This means that insulin doses (basal and/or bolus) must be reduced to prevent hypoglycemia.
Management of insulin onboard
Exercising safely starts with managing your insulin onboard (IOB) and workout timing. IOB refers to whether insulin is currently activated in the bloodstream.
If you have too many IOBs within a few hours of your workout, you are very likely to have a very high risk of hypoglycemia.
There are three general approaches to managing IOBs to prevent hypoglycemia during exercise.
- Eat insulin for food, or exercise for a few hours after taking it
- Exercise immediately after meals, but reduce dietary bolus and basal insulin
- Exercise when you feel it and consume lots of candy and juice to go through it
If there is too much or too little basal/background insulin via injected long-acting or pumped rapidly acting insulin, fasting exercise is simply not going as planned. Learning how to fine-tune and adjust the background dose is a must.
Please note that adjustments to the basal/background insulin dose should be made with very small tweaks. This is a change of 1 or 2 units in total for people who are sensitive to insulin.
For those using large doses, your doctor may recommend a larger adjustment of 3+ units at a time. Look at the effects over the next few days and then adjust them again as needed.
The basics to consider finely tuned background insulin dosages for fasting exercises are as follows:
Hypoglycemia during fasting exercise probably means: Whether it’s aerobic or anaerobic, you’re getting too much basal/background insulin.
- If you are using injected long-acting insulin: Small adjustments can make a big difference. Reducing just one or two units can cope with these lows, but don’t be surprised if it means you need a little more for your meal. Many people take quite a lot of basal insulin, so the introduction of physical activity causes repeated collisions in blood glucose levels. Lower those doses!
- If you are using an insulin pump: Most people feel that they need to slow down their base speed from an hour to 25-75% in front Aerobic exercise. It certainly requires a lot of trial and error. Also, most people have already adjusted their base rates to explain the spikes early in the morning due to the dawn phenomenon, so there is not much factor to consider whether they are pumping or not.
Hyperglycemia during fasting exercise probably means: You are not taking sufficient insulin via the basal/background or you need a small bolus to deal with spikes caused by anaerobic movements and dawning events.
Anaerobic exercise increases blood sugar levels: Some people feel they need a small bolus before, during or after intense strength training or other anaerobic exercise. This is normal! Experiment carefully and take good notes.
The smallest adjustments can make a big difference! Only one unit added or subtracted from the total basal/background insulin dose makes it much easier to enjoy exercise safely.
Why “fasting” exercise reduces your risk Low price
If the amount of rapid action insulin in the system is the lowest (IOB), training time can significantly reduce the risk of hypoglycemia.
In the context of type 1 diabetes, the phrase “fasting” exercise refers to exercise at least a few hours after the last meal and taken. By exercising in front You eat a meal, you are exercising when you don’t have a large bolus of insulin that acts rapidly on your bloodstream. Most rapidly acting insulins are fully active in the system for approximately 4 hours after administration.
Fasting exercise is do not have It is intended for endurance sports – hours of exercise – because your body will inevitably need to eventually burn refuel for long exercise events.
“Fasting” exercise still requires basal/background insulin, even at significantly reduced doses via insulin pumps. If you are using long-acting basal insulin, you should gradually reduce your daily dosage when adding exercise to your daily routine.
As someone who lives with type 1 diabetes, we need it Some Active insulin is always there to stay alive. Adequate basic/background insulin can immediately enter diabetic ketosidosis whenever there is always a type 1 diabetes. This is extremely dangerous and fatal.
The “fasting” exercise is not equal at any time of the day. Break first workouts tend to cause less changes in blood glucose levels, as levels of hormones like cortisol are still high overnight. Pre-training training when eating insulin at breakfast is a completely different animal.
aErosion and anaerobic movement
To better predict the impact of blood sugar levels and insulin needs, we need to learn the difference between aerobic (arerobic) and anaerobic exercise.
Aerobic exercise This is an activity that can be run for a long time without stopping. During aerobic exercise, your heart rate is still low enough, so your body can circulate oxygen into the fat cells and burn for fuel. Alternatively, if you have a lot of IOBs, the fuel source could be glucagon and glucose in the bloodstream.
Examples of aerobic exercise: Walking, jogging, kayaking, rollerblading, power yoga, skating, vacuuming, gardening, cycling, dancing, hiking, child tracking, and more.
Aerobic exercise increases the way insulin picks up glucose and transports it to cells. This is because cells require more glucose to keep the body moving and running. In people with T1D, this can cause dramatic hypoglycemia.
Carefully timed workouts to reduce IOB can significantly reduce the amount of glucose aerobic exercises used for fuel.
Anaerobic exercise This is an activity that is usually performed at an intensity that can only be maintained for a few minutes at most. Then take a break somewhere between 30 seconds to 2 minutes and run another round or something.
Examples of anaerobic exercise: Weight, Splint, CrossFit, HIIT Workout, Spinning Intervals, and more.
During anaerobic exercise, the heart rate is very high and the body needs to use glucose as fuel by converting glucose (glycogen) accumulated in muscle tissue and lactic acid into glucose. The glucose then returns to the muscles for fuel. Insulin.
In some types of anaerobic exercise, insulin from the basal speed/dose may be sufficient. It may be necessary for more intense anaerobic exercise more Insulin that controls that excess glucose.
After anaerobic exercise, the liver may release the glucose accumulated from the liver, which may help replenish muscle glucose storage. Insulin. In people with T1D, this can cause unexpected spikes in blood sugar levels.
Mixed workouts with aerobic and anaerobic exercise: Combining both types of exercises into one training requires consideration of the effects of both.
For example, lifting the weight for 30 minutes after that The elevated blood glucose level caused by lifting your weight for 30 minutes can be offset by jogging that lowers your blood glucose level.
You’ll expect to see a 30-minute aerobic exercise for the first time and your blood sugar levels will go down (even if it’s an IOB-NO-NO IOB), and expect a 30-minute weightlifter to regain it.
Like other types of training, aerobic and anaerobic mix requires careful preparation of consistency while examining what happens.
When you shouldn’t exercisee
There are a few situations that you need do not have Movement as a T1D person.
If your blood sugar level exceeds 250 mg/dl: Exercise with blood glucose levels above 250 mg/dL is at risk of developing ketones, especially if the IOB is not sufficient. Thoughtful, corrective exercise with insulin can help lower blood sugar levels, it should be done with ketones in mind. If your blood sugar level exceeds 300 mg/dl before exercising, a ketone test is a must!
If you already have ketones: Exercise with ketones is extremely dangerous, and can further promote ketone production and increase the risk of diabetic ketosidosis (DKA). If you show signs of DKA, contact your healthcare team for support or visit your local emergency department.
Take good notes to prepare for the low price
No matter what type of exercise you are doing, you should always carry fast-acting carbohydrates such as glucose tabs, juices, jelly beans, and trash.
Finally, take a good note!
If you experience hypoglycemia per Zumba class, you’ll be loud and clear that there’s too much insulin on board during and during class.
If your blood sugar levels are consistently spiked after an hour of weightlifting workout, make it loud and clear that you probably need a post-exercise bolus of quick-acting insulin.
Take good notes. Blood glucose levels fluctuating during exercise can be very frustrating, do not have Illegal. Take a deep breath and continue the experiment!
