What type of insulin regimen are you on? If you're on lantus plus a rapid-acting bolus such as novolog or humalog, what you could do is take a bit less of your bolus insulin at the meal preceding your exercise, so that you start off with your bg a bit higher (not too high...if it's up around 250, it's too high for a T1 to exercise). Then, check your bg's at the 15 minute and 30 minute mark to determine when you actually start to drop....you'll want to have a small snack shortly before you start dropping. Some fruit, juice, peanut butter crackers or cheese and crackers would be a good snack, depending on how long you're still going to be exercising. If you want to exercise for quite a while, you'll need a snack that also includes protein, as well as the carbs.

The other possibility would be to go on an insulin pump, although I don't know how easy that would be for a newly diagnosed diabetic in the UK. But, with the pump, you can actually set a basal pattern which considers your exercise routine. For example, let's say your regular basal is 1.0 units, but you exercise at 3 PM every day. You could set a pattern that would lower your basal an hour or two before exercising, keep it lowered (or maybe go even lower) during exercise, then go back to your normal basal a couple of hours after the exercise. This is just a "for instance"...you'd have to play with it to work out a perfect basal pattern for yourself.

I believe most diabetics are advised to test every 15 minutes to half hour when exercising anyway, so they can catch and treat lows before they become too serious.

Ruth

I think the nutrigrain bars will work longer for you than the glucose tabs, because it takes the body longer to process whole grains. You should, however, keep the glucose tablets on hand for emergencies, like if you're going too low and you need to get your numbers up rapidly. How many and how often...I can't tell you that. It's going to be a trial-and-error process...that's why I recommended testing about every half hour (and treating if necessary).

Another thing you could do is ask your doctor to switch you to a long-acting insulin like Lantus, combined with a rapid-acting insulin like Novolog or Humalog. You would have to learn to count carbs on that regimen, but the plus side is that if you know you're going to be exercising, you don't take your bolus insulin before exercising, or take less. For now, I'd just test every half hour and carry several nutrigrain bars and glucose tablets with you.

Oh, it should tell you on the package of glucose tablets how many carbs are in each one. If you do go low, you need to take the equivalent of 15g of carbs, wait 15 minutes, and test again...if you're back to an acceptable number, then you can continue to exercise; if not, then you treat again with another 15 g of carbs and wait another 15 minutes. Do not continue to exercise if your blood sugar levels have fallen below 3.9. And, if your bg is around 4.4 AND you're planning to continue exercising, then eat another nutrigrain bar.

Ruth

[QUOTE=SamQKitty;3626791]I think the nutrigrain bars will work longer for you than the glucose tabs, because it takes the body longer to process whole grains. You should, however, keep the glucose tablets on hand for emergencies, like if you're going too low and you need to get your numbers up rapidly. How many and how often...I can't tell you that. It's going to be a trial-and-error process...that's why I recommended testing about every half hour (and treating if necessary).

Another thing you could do is ask your doctor to switch you to a long-acting insulin like Lantus, combined with a rapid-acting insulin like Novolog or Humalog. You would have to learn to count carbs on that regimen, but the plus side is that if you know you're going to be exercising, you don't take your bolus insulin before exercising, or take less. For now, I'd just test every half hour and carry several nutrigrain bars and glucose tablets with you.

Oh, it should tell you on the package of glucose tablets how many carbs are in each one. If you do go low, you need to take the equivalent of 15g of carbs, wait 15 minutes, and test again...if you're back to an acceptable number, then you can continue to exercise; if not, then you treat again with another 15 g of carbs and wait another 15 minutes. Do not continue to exercise if your blood sugar levels have fallen below 3.9. And, if your bg is around 4.4 AND you're planning to continue exercising, then eat another nutrigrain bar.

Ruth


Thank you for your reply Ruth
Like you said I think I'll stick to the Nutrigrain bars until my next Doctors appointment when I'm going to ask for some advice on this subject.