Publication Date: 1/6/2010
Here's a list of suggestions:
- Be sure to check the blood sugar before, and after exercise, regularly. It'd also be very helpful to check one hour before, as well as immediately before exercise, so you can tell which way your sugar is heading!
- Usually, people with four injections a day are taking insulin lispro (Humalog), insulin aspart (NovoLog), or Regular insulin at mealtime as part of their program. We suggest that people on such a program decrease the dose of insulin at the meal before the exercise by one-half. Sometimes the dose of insulin at the following meal also needs to be decreased (depending on the blood sugar level at that time).
- Use the abdomen or buttocks (rather than an extremity that you'll be using during the exercise) for your shot before exercise.
- If your exercise will occur a long time after a meal, be sure to have a snack that's high in carb before starting the exercise.
- Of course, it'd be smart to carry some carbohydrate food with you while exercising, in case you feel like you're starting to crash. And, if it's prolonged exercise, when thirsty, we advise drinking fruit juice or a commercial product like Gatorade, instead of pure water, to help keep the sugar level up.
- For more information about carbohydrate and exercise, look at the discussion on the Internet about ExCarbs.
- Ideally, it'd also help if your exercise were at the same time every day (though this isn't realistic for most people).
- For more hints about avoiding hypoglycemia related to exercise, look at How to Protect from Hypoglycemia.
