It’s always great for TDFC to link in with others who share our passion for sport, exercise and overall fitness whilst living with Type 1 Diabetes. So it’s great that we could invite Daria to share some of her insight as someone highly engaged in an active lifestyle which encourages all of those things as well as a big emphasis on nutrition through her work… So no more words from us let Daria tell you about her work, experiences and her story.
“Fitness, nutrition and medication are the 3 pillars of diabetes management. Sport and exercise can affect blood sugars in different ways, depending on what type of activity is performed. We need to adapt our management to achieve best blood sugar results and top performance in sport. We can do this by altering our nutrition and medication around training sessions.
There are 3 types of exercise that diabetics are to be concerned about:
- Aerobic (cardiovascular exercise): Steady running, walking, cycling, non-expulsive repetitive movement. This type of exercise will make blood sugars drop quite drastically and rapidly, if not accommodated for.
- Anaerobic (resistance training): heavy weight training, variations of crossfit and similar. Adrenaline, cortisol and other stress hormones are released as a response to resistance training, which cause the liver to release some glucose into the bloodstream, causing blood sugars to rise.
- HIIT Training: any form of expulsive movement or sprint training. Fight or flight (stress hormones) are released, as well which is likely to cause blood sugars to spike during the workout and then quickly drop after the workout.
Fuelling yourself correctly for workouts is not just important for blood sugar control, but is also essential for giving your muscles enough energy to move and perform in an optimum manner. Setting up a routine for each type of workout you perform will massively reduce stress levels, help avoid highs and hypos mid-session or mid-match, and make exercise much more enjoyable.
There is no one way that will suit everyone, but as an example, I want to share my ways of managing the different workouts I do. These are long-distance running and road cycling, spin and boxing classes, as well as my all-time favourite gym weight training. I don’t play football, unfortunately, but from the experience of supporting other T1Ds, I know that matches can be stressful, and that in itself can cause a hormonal spike, which will rise blood sugars. There is no way of getting out of this, accept for using insulin to prevent the rise.
The way I prepare for my training is by keeping the timing if the workout the same: in the morning, after breakfast, as I find my performance is a lot better and I have set-up my pre-training routines for that time of day. I also eat the same old bowl of protein oats for breakfast every day to make BG response more predictable.
For long-distance running and cycling: These always cause a drop in my blood sugars, which I will prevent by either reducing the bolus for the meal prior to the workout or by having a 15-carb snack just before the training session. Most commonly, I will go for a session straight after breakfast, reduce my meal bolus by 20%, have a bowl of oats with berries and go. This will hold me stable for around 1.5 hours of cardiovascular exercise.
For spin & boxing classes: For me these classify as HIIT training, and will spike my blood sugars. Prior to the session, I will either eat a 5-10 carb protein bar piece with 0.5u of insulin or do my regular bolus for my oatmeal breakfast, if done in the morning. After the workout, I will have another 10g snack to catch the drop. Insulin sensitivity still increases during HIIT, despite the hormonal response, so be careful not to inject too much insulin prior to training.
For resistance gym workouts: I tend to need my regular bolus for my oatmeal in the morning. While I get to the gym, the food will already settle in and the insulin will still be active. This helps eliminate the spike. I also do a longer cardio warmup to make sure that I start in the lower BGs, and have some space to rise from the training.
For recipes, meal ideas and tips for living and thriving with Type 1 check out @t1level_daria and www.t1leveldaria.com .”
We’d just like to say thank you to Daria for her contribution and please get in touch if you have any questions about this article or would be interested in contributing to it in the future.
