Daisy Mae's swimming BG thread

Yes, I would just take it all at once.

How many carbs does it have?

okay, so i had an incredible swim. probably the best yet. but i screwed up the carb count on the chocolate protein shake. i thought it had 36 gms of carbs, but it only had 16. so after my swim i bolused 2.8 units (2 units to cover the time off my pump: 4.5 hours ; and then .8 units for the shake; totaling 2.8 units ). so, i dont know whats going to happen. i tested when i got home, 1/2 hour later and my BG was 117. no spike (yet) from the shake.
but let me lay out the numbers for you:

another experiement:

1:30 pm : 130
2pm : 112 took 1 Gtab
2:30pm: 103 took 1 Gtab
3pm: 107 took 1 Gtab
3:30 pm 96 gave myself 2.8 units and drank (warm) chocolate shake

retested at 4pm, and BG was 117.

so, not matter what happens later with my BGs, i can say that today was a miracle i never thought could or would happen for me. look at how low those BGs were while i was swimming. and just 1 Gtab kept me afloat for each 1/2 hour period !!! yay for me. :blush:

i had a hard, strong swim. i focused on my form and my strength. i think i have increased my speed since i started b/c i am now passing freestylers doing my breast stroke, which is, as most swimmers know, the slowest of strokes. freestylers are of the fastest. so that was a major ego boost for me.

for the first 1.5 i swam, and then the last 1/2 hour i used the kick board.the kick board work is very tiring. but i really push it hard, and i am finding that using the kick board has helped me enormously with both my form, my strength, my endurance, and the economy of my motion.

so, anyway, would love some feedback, especially regarding my screw-up with my carb intake/replacement. i dont know what to expect; what should i be looking out for?? any ideas? is there something i can do to remedy the situation this far after my swim? for example, try and make it up with a high carb dinner? its 4:45pm and i took my last bolus at 3:30pm. i would like to eat dinner around 6pm, which would be exactly 2.5 hours post swim & last bolus. does that sound like a reasonable plan?

tomorrow i will not be swimming. i am spending the day with my husband. but i will be doing a lot of walking and will be eating at my favorite burger joint where i will stuff myself silly with copious amounts of food. (cant wait :wink:)

please will someone get back to me regarding my mess up with the carbs. thanks guys!!!

DM

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Chris, i left the latest stats on the swimming thread. between you and eric, i hope i can get some direction and help. i certainly need it :wink:

This looks wonderful! Great job! You kept going, even at 103. That’s super.

Only 16 grams after all that swimming is not very much. You need to restore those carbs, DM. But keep an eye on it and eat as needed before dinner.

Keep track of your BG tests and use the 2.8 units and 16 grams as a measuring point, to see how much you would need for 40 grams.

Did you check your heart rate after the kickboard?

no, i didnt. i just always seem to forget to do that. i’ll write myself a post-it and put it on my front door for Friday’s swim. (and i’ll bring 2 or 3 of those shakes with me, as well )

PS: i am planning on swimming this saturday to make up for missing my thursday swim. apparently, since its summer and most people go away for the w/end, the pool is relatively empty. (just the way i like it :blush: )

It looks like you ate about 16 carbs to recover from your low. (assuming the piece of chocolate was only 8g of carbs).

So from my simple standpoint, I would just reduce your post swim insulin by 0.4 units +OR+ add 16g of additional carbs, which Eric would probably suggest so that you refuel your body for the next hard workout.

DM,
Things can get complicated when you try to use formulas to figure out basal replacement and bolusing for carbs after exercise.

You can figure out all the basal you missed, but you don’t want to replace 100% of that all-at-once, because that would cause a big drop if you do it with one bolus.

Figuring out carbs using IC ratios is also complicated, because exercise lowers your IC, but the lack of basal increases it. So formulas will be tricky.

But there is a very simple way to figure it out. Much like you have done with your basal adjustments pre-swim during the past few months.


Try to keep as much the same as possible. Just change one thing, and one thing only. The amount of insulin you take post-swim.

  • Always do the bolus right after you finish swimming.

  • Walk home and take the same amount of carbs 15 minutes later (as long as your BG is not too low when you get out of the pool, otherwise you need to do it sooner!

  • Change just this one thing - how much insulin you take. Make notes, make adjustments. Try it for a few days, adjust, try again.

So for the amount of carbs you should take…I have used the number 40 grams as a ballpark. I can work through some calculations based on your workouts and your body weight, but they can get kinda complex because it starts to change based on how much muscle glycogen you are using compared to fat metabolism, and for that you need to guess based on your average heart rate and the type of workout you are doing and the duration. But based on the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommendation of 0.5 to 0.7 grams per pound of body weight, 40 grams is a pretty close guess for you.

So just real simple - Bolus right when you are done. 40 grams (simple sugars) after you walk home. Test and take notes, adjust and try again. Just adjust the amount of insulin.

Easy, right?

i like this plan better. i am so insulin sensitive after the swim. i swim for 2 hours. i am missing 4.5 hours of basal. thats approximately 2.4 units of missed basal insulin. yesterday i bloused 2 units post swim, and i went low. but if i give myself more carbs at 50% bolus, perhaps that will work out fine. maybe, the post workout bolus could be a little less ( 1.7) plus the 50% bolus for my 36 gms carbs ???

i would much rather bolus (again) once i get home to cover the carbs. this way, my shakes will be nice and cold and much more yummy. i’ll just use my afternoon I:C which is 1:10 units per gms.

PS: although it only takes me 15 minutes to walk home from the pool, i bolus right when i get out of the pool, then i have to get up to the locker room and then the shower and then dry off and pack up my bag before i leave. so it ends up being a 1/2 an hour between insulin shot and home, not just 15 minutes. how would you suggest i handle the coordination of my dosing?

DM

Pick a safe bolus number to start with, whatever you feel comfortable with. You can adjust the bolus, but try to be consistent with the carbs so you can remove a variable. That way you know changes in BG will be from the changes to the bolus dose, and will find a good number.

If there is no way to take the carbs at the pool, maybe it would be better to wait until you are out of the shower and about to walk home before you take the bolus. But please try to not wait too long after you finish. Replace as soon as you can. This will be most important on hard days, not as crucial on easy days.

would it work if i took the “replenishment” bolus right after the pool, and then re-bolus for the carbs right when i walk in my front door ? or would that become insulin stacking?

That is fine, as long as you keep track of it!

Dismiss the idea of stacking. :wink:

thanks. i think that is the best option for me. it will allow me to really enjoy my replenishment carbs a whole lot more. F the stacking BS. i think that if there is under an hour btw bolusing, i should be fine. and in this case it will only be a matter of an extra 25 or so minutes.

at least i can try it and see what happens :rofl:

The other option is that if your BG is high, you can do it all as soon as you get out of the pool. If it is low, you can do it all when you get home. If it is medium, not high or low, you can do part after you get out of the pool, and the rest when you get home.

Lot’s of ways to adjust this.

makes 100% sense to me. great suggestion ; will follow :smile: .

today was a weird BG day. at first, i wasnt able to get my sugars above 70 while i was waiting 2 hours at home on 0% basal. finally at 1pm (when i usually leave for the pool), my BGs went up to 75, so i took 2 Gtabs and waited another 1/2 hour. when i tested at 1:30, i was at 143 (why such a jump???) so i left for the pool. i re-tested right before jumping in, and my BGs had gone up to 160 !!!

at 2pm, my Bgs had come down to 121
2:30pm 107 took 1 Gtab
3pm 116 took 1 Gtab
3:30 127
3:45 127 and at 3:50pm i took a 2 unit bolus (basal “replacement” )
then i walked home.

the moment i walked into my house, i re-tested and was 135. i bolused 1.6 units (pre-bolused for 15 minutes) and i drank 32 gms of (2) protein shakes. b/c i had difficulty getting my initial BGs to rise today, i was off my basal for almost 5 hours today. (darn it all ) so i dont know if i was aggressive enough with my 2 unit post-swim bolus. it was only a matter of a 1/2 hour, but i am certain that will make some kind of difference.

i feel kind of defeated :sob:, b/c wednesday was such a great success, and i fueled up BIG time yesterday. today’s swim was easy physically, despite working hard. (i think it was all the fuel from yesterday’s pig out :wink: ) i got out of the pool 15 minutes earlier than usual only b/c the pool got too crowded to swim in comfortably (5 people in my lane alone, swimming in circles; rediculus )

also, i am guessing that b/c i had been off my basal for such a long time, that i didnt actually need to take any Gtabs at all. just a guess from looking at my numbers.

i am guessing that i need to be more conservative with my Gtabs b/c i forget that i have 0% IOB. what 1 tab would do in other circumstances is completely another story when i am off my pump.

all suggestions and shared experiences will help; so come on and pipe in :loudspeaker:

thanks everyone !!!

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Just an abstract thought, and I am not sure it would work, but might be worth trying.

Recently my son started running with the cross-country team. When he goes anaerobic his bg shot up pretty good. Maybe when you are 107 at 2:30, you could just do one or two really hard anaerobic laps to bring your bg up rather than the Gtab.

thats a fantastic suggestion. i will try that tomorrow !!! thx.
(maybe i should ask our exercise/D-life guru, Eric :sunglasses:)

Yes you can do this, and it’s kinda neat. You can swim (or run) faster to raise your heart rate in order to raise your BG. But it might take several minutes of higher intensity to accomplish this.

The problem with doing it is if you are trying to hit certain workout goals. Like if you have a target of hitting a certain distance over the course of 2 hours, and you are trying to maintain a steady-state, doing the higher intensity laps kind of throws the workout into a different state.

So yes it will work, and it is a kinda cool thing to do - controlling your BG with your workout intensity. But personally I don’t want to do that. I don’t want my BG to dictate my speed or what workout I am running. That kind of goes counter to my philosophy of never letting diabetes interfere. My philosophy is that Coach decides how fast or far I run, not my BG.


To address your original thoughts, you were at 70 with 2 hours of zero basal, then you went up to 75, and added 2 gtabs.

So your BG was already on its way up, and you had 2 hours of zero basal. And then you added the gtabs on top of it. So that big spike to 160 is no surprise. You gotta trust that zero basal!

But overall, you ended at 127 so that looks pretty good to me.

Was the 32 grams you had afterwards carbs or protein?

Did you see this today?
timing-of-pre-workout-carb-consumption

32 gms carbs and 36 gms protein