# Eating After Late Night Exercise



## TheetherealOne (Nov 6, 2020)

I often can only exercise after the kids are gone to bed. This may be 2100. An hours good exercise, and done. But need to find reasonable way to get blood sugar up afterwards that doesn't involve  honey or Haribo, or any other crap, defeating the object of exercising. Will go to bed about 1130, and get up about 0615. Using Medtronic 640g pump
 Looking for sustainable way to keep blood sugar up.
All ideas welcome.

Cheers in advance.


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## Inka (Nov 7, 2020)

Hi @TheetherealOne  What time do you eat your evening meal? Do you set a temp basal prior to exercising? How low do you go? Have you tested overnight to see if you’re dropping (or conversely going high)?


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## TheetherealOne (Nov 7, 2020)

Inka said:


> Hi @TheetherealOne  What time do you eat your evening meal? Do you set a temp basal prior to exercising? How low do you go? Have you tested overnight to see if you’re dropping (or conversely going high)?


I eat my evening meal about 6pm.  If I do an hours exercise, I can drop about 10mmol. I then am trying to find a healthy way to get it back up, to where it needs to be, for overnight basal to do its thing.  Do you know if turning off overnight basal will have any implications?


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## Inka (Nov 7, 2020)

Ok. I’d asked about the evening meal in case reducing your bonus for that would be an option but I think probably not as you’re not exercising until 3 hours after.

You drop 10mmol? So what blood sugar are you usually starting at? Say at 12mmol and dropping to 2?

Do you set a temp basal rate for exercise?

No, I definitely wouldn’t turn off basal overnight! That could potentially be dangerous. I’d set a temp basal for the exercise, top up with glucose during the exercise if/as needed, then top up again if low at the end of exercise and if needed, eat a small longer-acting carb snack.

If you’re low/hypo, you need something sugar-y and quick-acting - Dextro tablets, jelly babies, regular Coke, etc. For something like aerobics, I eat Dextro tablets with a mouthful of water, same for swimming. For lighter exercise eg walking, I sometimes swig Coke as needed and have something like a flapjack too as it’s a good mix of fast and longer-acting carbs.


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## TheetherealOne (Nov 7, 2020)

Inka said:


> Ok. I she’d about the evening meal in case reducing your bonus for that would be an option but I think probably not as you’re not exercising until 3 hours after.
> 
> You drop 10mmol? So what blood sugar are you usually starting at? Say at 12mmol and dropping to 2?
> 
> ...


Dextrose sweets gave been my usual go-to. Have tried Difestive biscuits too. I think flapjacks are a better option, though. Thank you.
I was dtopping from 14. The problem us that this involved maintaining BG artificially high for too long. Have tried watermelon before exercise. Perhaps Dextros will be the main tool.
Thank again


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## Inka (Nov 7, 2020)

I know what you mean. It _is_ hard to get and maintain the right blood sugar for exercise. I used to start higher than I do now but I’ve gradually found that starting a bit lower (ie higher than usual but not too high, if that makes sense) and topping up with glucose works best. It makes me feel better too.

My main concern about exercising late evening would be a delayed hypo during the night, so I’d probably set an alarm to test around 2am at least until I was sure all was ok.

Yes, flapjacks are great. I sometimes have ones with added chocolate or dried fruit for an extra boost. I like the Dextro tablets because they’re not too nice and more ‘medicinal’ so they don’t distract me by tempting me to overeat them.


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## everydayupsanddowns (Nov 8, 2020)

Welcome to the forum @TheetherealOne 

I wonder if this new programme to support people with T1D to exercise might be relevant?









						Live Well Move More!
					

Diabetes UK would value your help with our new Live Well, Move More Programme which aims to support people living with diabetes to be more active. We know that moving more can really help people to manage their diabetes, and we will be helping people to making it part of their day-to-day.   We...




					forum.diabetes.org.uk
				




Maybe drop @Francesca DUK a line and see if it might help you?


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