When I go out for a run my blood glucose always goes up. If I just go for a walk it goes down. This is a well known phenomenon and (I believe) is something to do with the “flight or fight” condition. (The body produces more glucose in order to give energy when it is needed.) That is a very simple explanation to a quite complicated physiological issue
First I should mention that I have no medical training and my comments are based on understanding from the forum and other reading as well as my personal experience.
While it is the case that the liver dumps more glucose when exercising, this does not always result in a higher BG as the body uses more glucose when doing some exercise although this kicks in later than the glucose dump. As with everything diabetes, there are multiple factors at play including
- how long you exercise (including whether it is continuous or stop/start like HIIT)
- how intensive the exercise is
- the type of exercise (typically, cardio lowers BG and resistance training will raise it)
- how fit you are at that type of exercise (if you are less fitm you are more likely to be stressed which will raise BG)
- is there anything else that can affect your stress levels such as weather (stress raises BG)
I am not a runner but I often cycle and I am reasonably fit. The type of cycling I do can have different affects on my BG.
- a gentle trundle along the tow path whilst chatting to my friends is probably analogous to your walking. It has very little impact on my BG.
- an intensive 45 minutes to an hour at my weekly spin class will cause my BG to go down
- an outdoor cycle ride in the wind and rain slogging up a steep hill will cause my BG to go up.
And, whatever exercise I do, my BG is lower for the next 24 to 48 hours.
@mark1985 what exercise are you doing at the gym? Are you on something like the treadmill or something like the weight rack? And how is your BG the day after the gym?
