walking vs. BG readings

[Kim_in_TN]

I did a little test today to see how taking a brisk walk around the block would affect my BG readings. I had noticed before that it always seemed to immediately bring them down, but there was some discussion about excercise and possible increases on another forum. So ... I did a test.

This morning my BG before was 99, after was 93.
This afternoon my BG before was 142, after was 133.

It definitely does brings mine down several points! That's motivation for me to keep walking, even if it is just once around the block.

[Scratch]

If you're walking, yeah, the blood sugars will tend to come down. Now, vigorous exercise, exercise up near the aerobic/anaerobic threshold, that'll often cause blood sugars to rise because the body responds to the stress of the situation by raiding the glycogen supply.

[Kim_in_TN]

If you're walking, yeah, the blood sugars will tend to come down. Now, vigorous exercise, exercise up near the aerobic/anaerobic threshold, that'll often cause blood sugars to rise because the body responds to the stress of the situation by raiding the glycogen supply.

Whatcha talkin' about? That WAS vigorous exercise! For ME anyway!:T

[labob]

The one really great thing about walking (or just about any kind of exercise) is that the more you do it, the better you get at it. Can't say that about everything -- I've been singing my whole life and it's still hit or miss whether I end up in the right key.

Start with a leisurely stroll around the block, and once that gets too easy, increase your distance by just a little bit every few days. Keep doing that and in a couple of months you will be shocked by how much progress you've made. That's a guarantee. And your glucose levels will thank you.

[ant hill]

I have had a feast of chocolate with no bolus!!! :nurse: Now you may think that I am mad!!! Whell on the contrary, I went for a bike ride and work up a sweat and feel good :D and the BG's whell what do you think. You would be surprised!!! :star:

[Lizzie G]

yup - thats the other great thing about working out...i need to eat chocolate about 45 mins before so i dont flatline....tried all the healthy stuff but give mes indigestion, im just rolling with it now!

[ant hill]

Of course it's all about planing isn't it and to have some easy reach to something to get you out of a low!! So don't forget that folks. So flatlining Lizzie is not an option but you have the good idea though.

Labob, You are so correct in pushing the limit but it's to keep at it as this is an excellent way to burn FAT!!!! so the idea is take the thing that is considered bad and work it off.
Even ballet dancers do the same thing as they work their bodies so it's a balance and the other thing and that's water and you drink plenty of it. ;)

Kim, You did find that to get the BG the way you want it. But Sratch is right in saying that to really put pressure on the body will trigger the liver to dump Glycogen in the blood stream. So walking is not stressing the body enough to kick in the liver's supply of Glycogen. :) Kim, Don't be too disheartened over walking and really stress the your body, Just keep walking and do it often. If you're are getting a good workout then good and keep at it. :D

[kgm0612]

Kim.....

I walk 3 to 3 1/2 miles almost every evening........either with my neighbor or on my treadmill. I usually eat dinner by 5pm and I start walking between 6 and 6:30pm. It usually takes us 45 mins to an hour to complete the walk. Once I get inside, I test my BS. If my dinner consisted mainly of low carbs, then I find my BS after my walk to be around the same, if not lower than what I tested prior to eating.. If I consumed a bit too many carbs, my BS after my walk is usually higher than what I tested at prior to eating. This is only my theory based on my own experiences.

Karen

[Eddy]

yup - thats the other great thing about working out...i need to eat chocolate about 45 mins before so i dont flatline....tried all the healthy stuff but give mes indigestion, im just rolling with it now!

"Yes, I need a prescription for chocolate bars, please..."

[matingara]

It definitely does brings mine down several points! That's motivation for me to keep walking, even if it is just once around the block.

my walk is once around the block also! but living in the hills my block is about 3 miles around! and it is full of hills and slopes. in fact, there are not very many flat bits!

i think this adds to the intensity of the exercise.

now after i finish the walk i am doing sit ups and push ups as an anaerobic addition. this is all helping!

-- Joel.

[Signmom99]

Ok, I thought I was getting it, but now think I am getting confused.

Recently I joined the gym (fitness center) at the local hospital. I have been going nightly and walking on the treadmill, eliptical and such and try to get my heart rate up around 130-140. Sometimess I jog a little and push it to 150. Thought this was good to have it up higher to work harder and thus better exercise. I am exercising for losing weight as well as lowering (controlling) my BG's.

A few nights ago I met with the trainer and started to work on toning/firming/building (not body building type though) my muscles. (In my late 40's btw). So have added that to my work out as well. Need to get rid of the 'gut' and firm everything else up after losing 50lbs and 30 more to go I could use the firming.

Am I doing this wrong for lowering my Bg's?

[Scratch]

Ok, I thought I was getting it, but now think I am getting confused.

Recently I joined the gym (fitness center) at the local hospital. I have been going nightly and walking on the treadmill, eliptical and such and try to get my heart rate up around 130-140. Sometimess I jog a little and push it to 150. Thought this was good to have it up higher to work harder and thus better exercise. I am exercising for losing weight as well as lowering (controlling) my BG's.

A few nights ago I met with the trainer and started to work on toning/firming/building (not body building type though) my muscles. (In my late 40's btw). So have added that to my work out as well. Need to get rid of the 'gut' and firm everything else up after losing 50lbs and 30 more to go I could use the firming.

Am I doing this wrong for lowering my Bg's?
Getting your muscles working with a strengthening program is a very good idea. Your muscles are primarily what use glucose and if you have insulin resistance as a type 2 diabetic, active working muscle should do better.

It should also help to improve your base metabolic function too and hopefully make it easier for you to burn and lose fat.

It's become far too easy for many of us to live a sedentary lifestyle and a result of that is our bodies don't get the work that are genetically capable of handling.

Listen to your trainer. It sounds favorable that he or she knows what they're doing.

[Signmom99]

But what is confusing me is that people on this board are talking about vigorous exercising is increasing their BG's. Is that not necessarily true?

I still intend to tone my muscles and build them up a little since losing weight off/on over the last 20 yrs (more off than on, lol) has inevitably eaten some muscle. I just want to make sure that if I should be doing is less intensely that I do that. After all, most of us don't want to work any harder than what is good for us anyway..............heehee!

[Scratch]

But what is confusing me is that people on this board are talking about vigorous exercising is increasing their BG's. Is that not necessarily true?

I still intend to tone my muscles and build them up a little since losing weight off/on over the last 20 yrs (more off than on, lol) has inevitably eaten some muscle. I just want to make sure that if I should be doing is less intensely that I do that. After all, most of us don't want to work any harder than what is good for us anyway..............heehee!
It's not necessarily going to push your blood sugars up.

One of my favorite tricks as a type 1 for strength training is eating and injecting insulin prior to working out. With the insulin on board, I'll see my blood sugars drop while strength training.

With that in mind, it's possible that you'll see your blood sugars move down. They might also move up some, but in general the overall process of making your muscles active and turning them into the glucose burning machines they should be will over a period of time help to bring your blood sugars down along with your insulin resistance.

And hey. You never know. You could end up getting bit by the crazy bug and turn into one of those crazy sorts that looks forward to working out. For me over these 14 months or so now, it's been kind of cool to find out how much more my body has been capable of. It takes some time and patience, but almost all of us can do things that we might think are impossible.

[Signmom99]

Thanks Scratch. I have been working out after eating dinner. The trainer told me to increase my carbs a little while I was doing this, that in his opinion I would need more carbs to work out without starving my muscles. Although he is not a diabetic trainer. He is a PT in training. found that out through the grapevine.

I guess what I will do is keep track checking my meter before and after at intervals and over a course of a month or so and see what happens.

Does anyone know where to get the cheapest strips if not going through insurance? I use the contour and go through a lot of strips while learning and whatnot. But don't want to use too many through insurance since hubby may change jobs in about a year and I don't want "prior condition-diabetic" on my chart.

[Larry H.]

I usually walk at least a half an hour day and sometimes twice that. For some time now I have incorporated using the Heath Rider work out equipment my mom has in her basement.. Usually I get lower numbers but the other night I did more in the evening that usual and I got the highest readings for me ever.. I don't know if that is due to the exercise or not. It was suggested that I do more muscle type exercise as I was loosing so much just from walking alone.. In summer when I am able to push the reel lawn mower about for hours on end several times a day I saw way lower numbers all around than in the winter here.

[Inq]

To SignMom99:

The lowest strips I found in California is from RiteAid. There
meter was basically free and the strips cost $.50 each as
compared to $1.00, I was paying. Also, on Tuesdays, RiteAid
customers (unsure if only for seniors) get 10% off on ALL
RiteAid products. Hope this helps!

Inq

[jacobsam622]

Ok, I thought I was getting it, but now think I am getting confused.

Recently I joined the gym (fitness center) at the local hospital. I have been going nightly and walking on the treadmill, eliptical and such and try to get my heart rate up around 130-140. Sometimess I jog a little and push it to 150. Thought this was good to have it up higher to work harder and thus better exercise. I am exercising for losing weight as well as lowering (controlling) my BG's.

A few nights ago I met with the trainer and started to work on toning/firming/building (not body building type though) my muscles. (In my late 40's btw). So have added that to my work out as well. Need to get rid of the 'gut' and firm everything else up after losing 50lbs and 30 more to go I could use the firming.

Am I doing this wrong for lowering my Bg's?

A few things you should keep in mine about exercising. One the first 20 minutes your body burns glucose, so to burn fat you need to do cardio for at 30 minutes. Second you should never exercise when your blood sugar is over 275.
weight training should be done no more then three time's a week unless you are a body builder. Change your routine every time you work out our bodies have this irksum abilitly to abjust it fat stores if you do the same routine each time. Last thing is have fun ;)

[genie86333]

SignMom99

Another brand that's cheap is the TrueTrak system...I recently had to replace my meter because I'd misplaced mine while moving (only to have it magically reappear 3 weeks later on the middle of my bedroom floor!?!?!?) and got the meter & 100 strips for $59.70. (Although the meter was on sale - it's normally about $14 instead of $9.99. - good thing it was on sale since I had exactly $60 to work with!) You can find them at Safeway or K-Marts that have a Pharmacy.

[Scrabblechick]

Walgreen's also carries the True Track. I like mine. Around here, the strips retail for about $48/100.

As for exercise, I notice that walking really brings my BG down nicely. The other night we ate at Ryan's buffet (I was pretty good, though). BUT, we exercised about 90 minutes after eating, for about 30 minutes, and when I checked my BG after we got home, it was 89! Lowest it's been since I started monitoring. I was thrilled.

I'm working up to 30-45 minutes of walking most days a week.

[rochie-08]

I try and workout at the gym 4 - 5 days a week. I'll either take a class, do 3 miles on the treadmill or use the equipment on the floor. I find when I workout my evening BG is around 100 or lower. When I do not workout, the are a little bit higher. I truly believe that one must workout if they are a diabetic to get your BG under control.

[ant hill]

I am about to cut some more wood for the fireplace for our winter so I will be with the chainsaw and I wont have a bolus for the breakfast!! so I would be fine. :D
As for the BG meter I need to get new batteries for the Advantage. :)

[Richard157]

I am 68 and type 1. I have arthritis so I have to be careful when I exercise because of physical limitations. I strengthened my leg muscles on my treadmill over a two year period. In the spring of 2007 I was able to walk 3 miles in one hour. That is about all I can handle and as fast as I can walk. I want to take 5 mile walks by June of this year. The 3 mile walks lower my blood sugar 20-40 points. There are several hills on my routes so my heart really pumps hard and fast while on those hills. I lower my basal on my pump from 0.6 to 0.1 and eat a snack of 20 carbs before walking. My BG still drops at least 20 points. I want a BG of about 120 before starting.

I have a Relion meter from Walmart. A meter and 100 strips cost me between $50 and $55.

Richard

[Kim_in_TN]

I am 68 and type 1. I have arthritis so I have to be careful when I exercise because of physical limitations. I strengthened my leg muscles on my treadmill over a two year period. In the spring of 2007 I was able to walk 3 miles in one hour. That is about all I can handle and as fast as I can walk. I want to take 5 mile walks by June of this year. The 3 mile walks lower my blood sugar 20-40 points. There are several hills on my routes so my heart really pumps hard and fast while on those hills. I lower my basal on my pump from 0.6 to 0.1 and eat a snack of 20 carbs before walking. My BG still drops at least 20 points. I want a BG of about 120 before starting.

I have a Relion meter from Walmart. A meter and 100 strips cost me between $50 and $55.

Richard

Richard, that is fantastic how you have increased your walking gradually over time! Treadmills just tend to bore me so I don't know if I could ever last an hour on one, no matter how in shape I was! LOL! GOOD JOB!:D