# anyone else taking almost no insulin since starting exercising?



## megga (Sep 5, 2021)

I have had to half my basil rate 15 u/day to 7.3 u/day, and yesterday I only had 2 units basal, and still had to prop up my BG with a banana.
Got up, BG 4, had a banana,
breakfast, 0 fat greek yogurt, popped some nuts, seeds and dry fruit in 0 basal
5.3 mile walk and had a home made protein bar
mid afternoon 2 chocolate chip biscuits as blood dropping a bit from the walk
evening meal, whole wheat pasta, with home made sauce and Basa 2 units of insulin
2 hours later banana
 woke this morning with BG at 4 again.

is like this most days now, almost like my honeymoon period 20 years ago when I first became T1

when doing fasting, my BG levels are very stable


----------



## helli (Sep 5, 2021)

Yep, I always reduce my basal when exercising.
Yesterday, I suspended my basal for 3 hours (I went to the gym and did a long hilly hike) and reduced my basal by 30% and still needed extra carbs to keep my levels up. Made me grateful I still had some Christmas cake!


----------



## Chris Hobson (Sep 5, 2021)

I was mis-diagnosed as type 1 in May 2013. It was pressed upon me that getting back into shape would make a big difference to my condition and I took up doing triathlons. As I got fitter I had to keep reducing my insulin doses as I kept getting mild hypos. By Feb 2014 I had stopped using insulin altogether and on my next review I was provisionally reclassified as type 2. I was initially put on linagliptin but was eventually able to go to diet and exercise only. I occasionally have to return to the linagliptin when my BG goes a little too high but for most of the time I can do without it. My diet isn't really strictly low carb, I prefer to rely on lots of exercise instead.


----------



## EmmaL76 (Sep 5, 2021)

Hi Chris.. can just ask what lead to the misdiagnosed type 1, were any test done ? Were you of normal weight ? And what made them change their mind and switch to type 2 ? The ability to maintain BG without insulin ? Sorry for all the questions


----------



## Chris Hobson (Sep 5, 2021)

I'm not really sure how the medical people arrived at their conclusion. I went undiagnosed for quite a while and ended up in hospital with a blood infection. I was very slightly overweight but by the time of my diagnosis I had lost a stone in weight due to me not metabolising carbs any more. I was in a pretty bad state and was hooked up to a drip stand pumping antibiotics and insulin into me. Once these took effect though, I recovered really quickly. The specialist doctor suggested that I might still be type 1 even after I stopped injecting, referring to a honeymoon period when the pancreas briefly comes back to life due to have been given a bit of a rest due to the injections. He said it would take about eighteen months to be sure. I don't recall that there were any tests available at the time, they seemed to be going on how bad the symptoms were at the time. When I first started injecting insulin it made me hyperactive and I felt literally twenty years younger, I was just fizzing with energy. As a consequence getting fit was relatively easy.


----------



## Chris Hobson (Sep 5, 2021)

This is my account of my diagnosis and my attempts to get fit from nearer the time.



			https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/threads/tiny-steps.63909/


----------



## everydayupsanddowns (Sep 5, 2021)

I belonged to a gym when the kids were at school (before we had dogs) and i definitely noticed the difference between term time, when I went 3x a week, vs holidays when the rhythm of the house changed and I only went occasionally.

I was OK with half terms, but after a week of no gym visits I’d definitely need to hike my doses up.


----------



## megga (Sep 5, 2021)

helli said:


> Yep, I always reduce my basal when exercising.
> Yesterday, I suspended my basal for 3 hours (I went to the gym and did a long hilly hike) and reduced my basal by 30% and still needed extra carbs to keep my levels up. Made me grateful I still had some Christmas cake!


Christmas cake is a particular weakness of mine, alas it just doesn't last in my house. My wife, Jo makes her own


----------



## EmmaL76 (Sep 5, 2021)

Chris Hobson said:


> This is my account of my diagnosis and my attempts to get fit from nearer the time.
> 
> 
> 
> https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/threads/tiny-steps.63909/


Oh my Chris, you must be so proud of yourself. Such dedication and commitment. Honestly hats off to you. Thank-you so much for sharing your story. I’ve felt so unsure about my own diagnoses. I struggle so much with the exercise part. I was mega fit before and had so much energy and I really want to get back to that. My a1c was 37 on Friday but I feel dreadful. Your story gave me some hope. Thankyou so much


----------



## TheClockworkDodo (Sep 6, 2021)

I need fairly minimal insulin levels anyway, @megga - I'm on 5 units of basal, and as I'm on MDI and my basal is Tresiba, which lasts for 48 hours, I don't have the option of reducing it in advance, as I'll never know anything like that far in advance whether I'll be well enough to do any exercise (I have another condition which fluctuates fairly randomly and is worsened by exercise).  So any time I do any gardening I have to break out the hobnobs.  And the dried apricots.  And then the grape juice, when I inevitably hypo!

Last time I did a longish walk (longish for me being a couple of miles round some botanical gardens) I had one really bad hypo halfway round, treated it, bolused for and ate my sandwiches and a banana, promptly had another really bad hypo, treated that and bought a flapjack and a huge chunk of shortbread, bolused for about half the flapjack, ate all of both of them - and then had another hypo on the way home.  Which means my bolus insulin to carbs ratio was about 1:40 instead of 1:27, and that was still too much insulin - it would have been really handy to be able to suspend my basal!


----------



## HannahC (Sep 8, 2021)

Hi Juliet, might be worth checking with your nurse because I was told to correct hypo and leave it. So especially with the second and third. Don't I inject for what you've used to treat the hypo. Just wait for the next meal and correct then. I had a time when I'd correct between but bloods would crash as I wasn't leaving it long enough before then eating and injecting. Type one for 21 years and always learning! I've joined the gym last week and loving it but I've been early morning or late evening and having to work out the best way to sort injections!


----------



## TheClockworkDodo (Sep 9, 2021)

Hi Hannah, welcome to the forum   

Sorry, I am not always very clear (my other condition makes my brain very foggy) so perhaps my post wasn't as clear as it should have been - I never inject for what I've used to treat the hypo, I was just injecting (a very small amount) for the next meal/cake.  I hardly ever need to do a correction dose and am even less likely to do one between meals as I am nearly always fighting off hypos before meals (I can't reduce insulin, I need so little that if I reduced it I'd be fighting off hypers in between meals and it's easier to deal with/prevent the hypos than the hypers - that is, it is if I don't do any exercise!).

Hope you can manage to get your timing sorted for the injections around your gym sessions.


----------



## HannahC (Sep 9, 2021)

Ahhh I see, my mistake! It's all fun and games isn't it. I'd put off gymming it as bloods were always spot on, but now I'm just battling the best way to try and get fit too. I'll get there  x


----------

