[undercover-cop]

Hey guys. Was looking for an answer on an issue with diabetes and weight training and came across this forum.

I'm 19 years old and I've had diabetes for 9 years. I'm not new to diabetes and I'm pretty much well trained on how to handle it, but exercising is a new field for me.

I'm on a fat loss program, I eat healthy and exercise almost daily by weight lifting. However something I noticed and that has been bugging me. Whenever I return home from the gym and test my sugar level, it's always sky high. This is very annoying and disappointing to me since I cannot lose weight if my sugar levels are high. I make sure I test my sugar level and inject the right amount of insulin before the gym.. yet when I return home my sugar is usually very high.

Is this normal? Note that in the process of the next 2-3 hours my sugar drops lower on its own without much insulin.. usually much less insulin is required than what I usually inject.

 

[Richard157]

Hello and welcome! Are you Type 1 or Type 2? Many type 2 diabetics use insulin so I wasn't sure. If you do mild exercise like walking your blood sugar (BS) is not likely to go high. If you run, jog for long distances, lift weights or do any kind of more strenuous exercise then your BS can run high after the exercise session.

Your body needs glucose to provide the necessary energy for all kinds of exertion. If you lift weights and do not have enough glucose in your body then your liver dumps a supply of glucose into your system. That is one of the functions of your liver. The problem with this is that te dump is usually too much, it may be much more than you need. That is why your BS was too high after your ecercise. To keep this from happening you would need to eat something containing high carbs before starting your weight lifting. All carbs convert to glucose. With that supply of glucose already in your system, your liver should not have to supply extra glucose and you should not have high BS when you have finished your weight lifting. You would have to experiment to decide how many carbs to eat beforehand. The more weight lifting you are going to do, the more carbs you will need. I test before, during and after exercising because I can drop too low and have a hypo if I don't. Many athletes drink gatorade before and during exercise so they will have enough carbs and nutrients to keep them in good shape during their activity. This is especially important for diabetics.

 

[undercover-cop]

Thanks Richard. That pretty much sums it all up perfectly.

By the way, it is type 1 diabetes. Guess you missed it in the thread title ;-)

 

[Shanny]

Welcome to our forum - good to meet you! I hope you'll come around often and let us know how you're doing.

take care,

I'm 19 years old and I've had diabetes for 9 years. I'm not new to diabetes and I'm pretty much well trained on how to handle it, but exercising is a new field for me.