Weight lifting and my insulin sensivity

[thomasb]

I've been working out with weight about 4-6 times a week since august trying to gain some muscle. just before and during christmas i needed to adjust my basals to(pumping) 0.45 u/hour. the highest i've been. I also needed more bolus, about 1 unit more than i had so far.

Now i'm back to my usual routines with weightlifting in the morning, and diet consisting mostly of protein and carbs only in the morning and at lunch. I've had to lower my basal back to 0.15 u/hour and i usually don't bolus for stuff i eat at home(like tuna, sallad, a couple of eggs and one piece of bread).

I'm suprised how much my insulin need have changed. I also drop really fast if i do cardio, i took a 45 min walk yesterday, started at 9.9 mmol and 0.3 active insulin, and i was at 2.5 45 min later. Which is not so fun, since i have to bring my meter everywhere. But, i still feel great so it's worth it.

Just thought it's interesting how much weightlifting affects me...

[gambi]

The same has happened to me, I went to a trainer to change up my routine a little and I can definetly tell a difference. I am the point now where I do not bolus for dinner - if I am going to do cardio afterwards. I'll usually life weights before dinner at the gym, then eat something light and then do my cardio at home, I eat low carb so at the most 30 carbs. I also have to turn off my pump and hour before I start exercising - it took awhile to get this routine down but its working now. I have CGMS and noticed that I get a very small spike that comes down immediatley. I averaging to be about 120 after it's all said and down.

Where I was using about 20 units of Apidra a day in my pump (total for bolus and basal), I'm now using about 15.

It could aslo be the byetta, but I like to think has to do with my exercise.

[shiftzor]

problem is once u start, you cant stop ;) ive had the same thing working out 3 times a week and cardio (badminton/biking), insulin requirement drops through the roof. Problem comes at christmas when you decide to take a week off or cant do cardio/work out for w/e reason things go a bit mental and the longer its left unchecked the worse it gets. I can still go low in the night hours after my workout ive not perfected that yet ;)

Currently i do novo: 2 - 3.5 - 3.5 and 10lantus, 0.5units of novo is alot for me (example: 11.0mmol/l to 5.4mmol/l in 2 hours).

[Cyborg]

Exercise reduces your insulin resistance making you more sensitive to insulin. If you are on a pump, you can have a separate profile set up specifically for the days you exercise.

[thomasb]

yeah, christmas was a pain for me since i stopped working out at all for 3 weeks. and ate. all the time.
im happy to be back in the routines though. i read about that bodybuilder guy, former mr universe, doug something, and how he needed almost no basal either when he was cutting, having around 3-4% bodyfat. interesting. Does that amount of bodyfat also affect insulin needs much?

[BriOnH]

Thamasb, what you are experiencing is very, very routine as far as your sugar levels vs weights, and cardio. Weight lifting, if you are going for bulk and do say 10 reps of x weight 3 times would require more insuling then if you were lifting a lighter weight say a 100 times. From my experience the longer I keep my heart rate up the less insulin I require.

Glad to read you are working out. It truely is one of the best medicines for us.