# Exercise does not help



## genie (Feb 22, 2020)

Hi there

I have been diagnosed type ii diabetic almost 2 years now and I havent been on any medication. My fasting blood glucose was pretty good when I exercised and if I didnt it was also still about 6ish which is ok for me too.

However in these recent 2 weeks my blood sugar spikes. I know i havent been active for quite long time (probably 6 months) but my sugar level was still not bad. Last two week my fasting sugar is always 7.5 and sometime 8 mmol. I decided to exercise this week and i was active almost everyday but still i didnt see any improvement. My sugar still spikes high even though i ate just a lil bit of veggie and seems never goes down. 

I wanted to give it one month to slowly improve but im also very worried. Should I go doctor and start taking med? Im planning to have baby so I really really dont want to take any med but it seems i dont have any choice.

Could anyone please advise? Thanks a lot


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## genie (Feb 22, 2020)

Benny G said:


> Here in the UK a doctor will usually give 3 months for a medicine or regime change to take effect. Perhaps you could continue your healthy eating and exercise regime for 3 months, this will also help you get in shape if you are wanting to have another child.


Thanks Benny. I would definitely continue my diet and exercise. But i’m just wondering i should consult with doctor at this stage? Cos i’m afraid i probably will have to start taking medicine


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## Toucan (Feb 22, 2020)

Hello @genie 
A few  thoughts -
Have you started a new batch of test strips lately and are they still in date? Also I think meters sometimes de-grade with time, so might be worth checking it.

Have you had a cold or other infection lately? i find that this will push my readings up and they stay up for a while.

Has your eating pattern changed? Sometimes new things and extras creep in over time. What sort of veggies are you eating, as some can still be surprisingly high in carbs? If it has changed maybe look back at what you were eating when readings were steady and revert to that.

Otherwise though, if you are worried I should certainly, go and get checked out, as stress is not good for anyone. It could even be the stress and worrying about it that is pushing the readings up. 

@genie advice of just keep eating and exercising well, keep it monitored, but not worrying about it is also a good way forward.


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## genie (Feb 22, 2020)

Toucan said:


> Hello @genie
> A few  thoughts -
> Have you started a new batch of test strips lately and are they still in date? Also I think meters sometimes de-grade with time, so might be worth checking it.
> 
> ...



Thanks a lot @Toucan. Yeah I decided to just go see doctor next week. I dont think it’s the problem of the device or the test strip cos it just happens these two weeks only. Before that everything is still normal. I probably just go see doctor to not worrying too much. Everytime monitoring myself and seeing the unchanged number even after exercising so hard or eating very little veggie salad makes me feel very frustrated 

Thanks for your advice


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## Neens (Feb 22, 2020)

genie said:


> Thanks a lot @Toucan. Yeah I decided to just go see doctor next week. I dont think it’s the problem of the device or the test strip cos it just happens these two weeks only. Before that everything is still normal. I probably just go see doctor to not worrying too much. Everytime monitoring myself and seeing the unchanged number even after exercising so hard or eating very little veggie salad makes me feel very frustrated
> 
> Thanks for your advice


Hi @genie - glad you have a dr/apt next week - my advice was going to be the same as the end of @Toucan 's post - I am not knowledgeable enough to have advised the first part of the list but would have encouraged healthcare team on the basis of the stress these spikes can cause and the fact that stress alone can push up BG. And also to advise on necessary next steps with conceiving in mind.

Our body and our diabetes changes over time so what used to work for us may need to be adapted, I guess (from what I have read). 
Good luck.


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## Jodee (Feb 22, 2020)

Hi Genie, you say "only eating very little veggie salad"  Why only little?
Vegetables and salad as a guideline should be half the plate, what to watch is the starchy veg like potatoes, reducing carbs generally.
Exercise does help I have found.


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## Drummer (Feb 22, 2020)

My salads are huge - and eaten with protein and fat - but I am a rather boringly typical type two. 
If you are eating small amounts of low carb foods and still seeing high readings they maybe prompt your GP about other forms of diabetes, as low carb seems to deal with quite a few cases of the boring kind, but not everyone gets to be boring.


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## NotWorriedAtAll (Feb 22, 2020)

If you are exercising heavily and getting stressed and not eating more calories in the form of fats then that could explain why your blood sugar levels are not as good as you would like.
Exercise can without a high enough calorie intake can cause your body to think it is in famine mode and then the liver releases glucose into the system to provide enough energy to make sure you can stay conscious etc while exercising.

This is why many people get a high spike in the morning after a night's sleep because the liver boosts the glucose levels to enable the person to get up and on with the day.

Maybe you need to eat more? Stuff like fat bombs made with whipped cream and a teeny bit of 100% cocoa powder and some desiccated coconut or a piece of cheese or some almonds or walnuts or a slice of salami? It seems counter intuitive but sometimes eating more is the answer rather than cutting down especially if you are exercising from a point of not having done so for a while.

If your body doesn't feel like it is in famine mode then it won't go into emergency over drive with the glucose production.

The other thing to consider is dehydration. If you are exercising more and not eating many carbs your body won't be holding onto water as well and so maybe your blood is more concentrated which will give a reading higher than you'd expect.  Make sure you are well hydrated before taking your reading.  Good luck.


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## genie (Feb 23, 2020)

Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts.

I have to reduce my intake cos I found out that when I eat as usual (which always help me to keep my BG low), my sugar level still spikes even after I exercise. For example, if my meal normally increases my BG to 1.5-2 mmol after eating, now it spikes to 4 mmol. And if usually exercise the day before would help my BG go down to 4mmol after a good sleep, now it doesn’t help at all. My BG reduces by maybe 1 mmol after sleeping. 2 hours after I ate, my BG spikes to at least 4 mmol and reduces by only 1mmol another 2-3 hours which means it remains very high through out 5-6 hours after I ate. 

I’m just afraid my system is getting worse and so even low carb + exercise couldn’t help anymore. That’s my biggest concern.

But I’ve read a paper in 2018 which they found that diabetic type II is reversible even after 10 years onset of the condition. So I just hope it is only because of some external factors and my body will still adapt if I keep doing what I have been done before.


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## Toucan (Feb 23, 2020)

genie said:


> But I’ve read a paper in 2018 which they found that diabetic type II is reversible even after 10 years onset of the condition. So I just hope it is only because of some external factors and my body will still adapt if I keep doing what I have been done before.


Hello again @genie 
In a book I read recently by Professor Roy Taylor 'Life Without Diabetes' - he says that yes it is possible to put Type 2 Diabetes into remission after have lived with it for many years. He does however also say that the longer it has been from diagnosis the more difficult it becomes to do this.


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## everydayupsanddowns (Feb 24, 2020)

genie said:


> Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts.
> 
> I have to reduce my intake cos I found out that when I eat as usual (which always help me to keep my BG low), my sugar level still spikes even after I exercise. For example, if my meal normally increases my BG to 1.5-2 mmol after eating, now it spikes to 4 mmol. And if usually exercise the day before would help my BG go down to 4mmol after a good sleep, now it doesn’t help at all. My BG reduces by maybe 1 mmol after sleeping. 2 hours after I ate, my BG spikes to at least 4 mmol and reduces by only 1mmol another 2-3 hours which means it remains very high through out 5-6 hours after I ate.
> 
> ...



Hello @genie

Welcome to the forum!

Well done for the food changes and increased activity you have been using to manage your diabetes so far. Interesting to see that you diabetes doesn’t seem to be responding in the same way any more.

Do you have diabetes in your family? It’s important to recognise that diabetes, particularly T2 seems to be an umbrella term for a number of connected, but quite different conditions. In the recent Newcastle study there were a very promising number of people who managed to get their diabetes into ‘remission’ (something of a controversial term, but essentially defined in the study as HbA1c below 48mmol/mol without medication). And many could stay that way as long as they maintained a careful diet.

But not everyone had those results.

Additionally, diabetes can be much trickier to classify that one might imagine. There are a number of types that can be easily mistaken for T2, like LADA, which might look quite T2-like to start with, and even respond to T2 meds initially... but is actually a slow-onset form of T1.

Additionally, some forms of T2 seem to progress over time, while others don’t.

So it might be quite hard to know exactly what is going on in your case. And you certainly shouldn’t blame yourself if some results that you have seen are possible for others do not happen for you. 

Hope you find a way to get your diabetes to behave. If the rate of change increases, and you begin to find BG harder and harder to manage, it might be worth mentioning LADA to your GP as their are blood tests that can give additional clues.


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## genie (Feb 24, 2020)

everydayupsanddowns said:


> Hello @genie
> 
> Welcome to the forum!
> 
> ...


Thank you @everydayupsanddowns and everyone here. Luckily I got my sugar level down since yesterday to 6.7 after eating and 5.3 fasting today. 
Now I suspect my old test strips cos since yesterday I used my new test strips the sugar level seems very good even though my diet is still the same. It might also be another medicine that I used to treat the bacteria on my skin. The doctor told me that it shouldnt be affect my sugar level though cos it’s for external use. But yesterday I stopped using that as well as change to new test strips and luckily thank God it’s going down 

I sincerely thank to everyone here for giving me advices and also sympathy. It really helps me a lot to ease my stress ☺️☺️☺️


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## Toucan (Feb 25, 2020)

Hello again @genie 
Good to hear that you are getting some better test results, - Yes meters and test strips can often be responsible for mis-readings at detailed level. Their % error can some be more than the small % change that many of us are looking at!
Really good that you are feeling less stressed.


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