Question:
I found out I had diabetes one month ago. Since then I have been eating
properly, exercising regularly, reading up on the disease, and testing my blood
glucose level several times per day.
I find consistently that my BGL is higher just after exercise than it is just
before I exercise. The exercise I am doing is walking for 30 minutes either
outside or on a treadmill.
Answer:
One is the time factor: when do you exercise in relation to your
mealtimes? For example, exercise won't prevent a mealtime peak ... so
if you are wrapping up your 30 minute walk about an hour after you ate,
you probably should not be surprised if it is up.
The other factor is your liver. After exercising for a while, if your
system finds that it needs to draw on additional energy, your liver will
release some of the glycogen it is storing into the bloodstream as blood
glucose. I theorize that you will get a rise from that release, and it
will cause a small spike if you quit exercising shortly before that.
The reality is that exercise can cause small spike, but in the long run
it helps to moderate bg levels in several ways: directly, by using bg
for energy, indirectly by increasing muscle mass and helping to lower
insuling resistance, and by helping to increase your bodies metbolic
rate.
