[Subby]

Originally Posted by sprzepiora

Try using a carby drink like gatoraid and test, test, test. You want to test before, during and after. It isn't unusual for me to see anywhere from 25 to 80 point drop, so be prepared.

Sarah, this is good advice. To add to it, be methodical and discover a routine that works for you. You could use gatorade, fruit juice, glucose tabs, or any carb that works quickly for you.

Experiment with:
-Taking a certain amount of grams before you start.
-Taking a certain amount of grams at 15 minutes intervals to really help avoid lows.

The amounts are unique to you. You need to perform some experiments, try an amount, an exercise, and BG test at every point. Doing something like this is not perfect, but it is likely to let you exercise longer, with less and not so bad lows. I know first hand how tricky it can be, you might really need to work out a way to prop yourself up virtually from minute to minute.

Also, start your exercise gently and build up gradually. It can be almost impossible to control BG's if you "throw yourself into" rigourous exercise. Has to be slow and steady. Start at a child's pace at the gym and build up, you will gain knowledge of how you react to exercise and simultaneously not be facing such extreme dynamics on the spot.

Also, assuming you inject, you may also be able to pick better times of the day to exercise to have less of an effect. 4 hours after a bolus is wise, as much of the insulin should be gone by then and is not "sitting" there to potentially create lows, once you start exercising and increasing insulin uptake. So go for just before lunch or dinner.

Likewise, you might have part of the day you are more insulin resistant than other times, when insulin works more effectively for you (if you don't or haven't noticed this, forget this point). You can actually use this to your advantage by exercising around the times that insulin doesn't work quite as well for you. This way your basal dose will not rush in as much.

In this and any case watch for lows within the few hours and up to 24 hours. Again you need to get experience as to how your body reacts.

Lastly let me repeat you are not alone in this. I found it very very hard to exercise on MDI. It was exacerbated by a fatigue condition that stopped me conditioning myself. But even without that it's a tricky thing. A tricky thing that you can do!

[Subby]

It wasn't clear above: when talking about taking carbs while you exercise, I was talking about "a certain amount" of grams of carbs within whatever food it is. It's best to stick to one food, and work out a way to measure the amounts out in portions relating to the grams of carbs.

I know it seems boring and anal. Bit that's a price well worth paying for the chance to be able to exercise with less problems.

My carb of choice is often fruit juice. I like the small Poppers tropical juce boxes: they are 15g of carbs and work fast for me. Really handy to use for hypos and for using as a controlled carb in this kind of situation.

[sarah91]

Thanks for the advice. I'll give it a go next time I go to the gym.