BG Before Exercise

We all know how physical activity is beneficial for our health, and I can swear that for a diabetic its positive effects are way more evident and crucial. However, its management in terms of BG requires a bit of knowledge and skills which you will only acquire with experience. 

For this reason, I have decided to write a guide on diabetes management and exercise, which will be extended into many other articles. To start, we have to operate a division between aerobic and anaerobic exercise.

For the second one, given that it doesn't imply a massive and immediate impact on BG in the very short term, the pre-exercise management is quite simple and the safe range at which your glycaemia can be before the start of your workout is quite wide. In general, unless you are in an hypoglicaemia or your blood glucose levels are dropping really fast, I wouldn't suggest you to assume any form of carbs appositely to support your BG before you exercise: this would probably end up spiking your glycaemia, minimizing the beneficial effects of exercise itself. On the other side, if your blood glucose levels present a growing trend before your anaerobic workout, I would advise you do a little bolus to prevent the hyperglicaemic effects of the adrenalin which will be naturally released during the exercise.

Instead, talking about aerobic exercise, things become a little more complex, since its influence on BG will, in all likelihood, be immediate, causing a drop in its levels. For this reason, if you find yourself in an hyperglicaemia before your training session I suggest you treat it with a smaller bolus than the one you would usually inject, and if your BG is simply rising not too rapidly but you aren't high yet you could even try not to inject at all, carefully checking if the trend is naturally inverted by exercise after some minutes. On the other hand, if you find yourself with average to low glycaemia, and you are looking forward to an intense training session, you should take a few grams of fast-acting carbs some minutes before your workout to prevent your blood glucose levels from dropping too much. An exception to this has to be made if your BG has been stable at in-range levels for quite a long time before exercising and you haven't eaten or injected any insulin in the previous two/three hours: in that case, the drop in your blood glucose level will probably be less huge.

Now that you have read this preparatory guide you are ready to learn more about how you should actually behave during your training session: you can find more information in this dedicated article. Thank you for your time, and don't forget to keep reading my website!