Help with use of insulin/carbs to sustain moderate to strenuous exercise without crazy highs and lows

Sports & Exercise
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Hi, all.
I am in need of a way to exercise in the mornings that will not have bad BG effects during or after exercise. I have much to learn and would appreciate any anecdotal or other advice. I somehow cannot seem to reason everything out - it was easier to manage while on MDI. Here is my situation:

  1. I am on Omnipod 5 pump.
  2. I am an early morning exerciser - I love this time and have been doing it 30 years or more, so do not want to change this.
    A. I wake up about 4:30 am and have coffee with Sugar-Free Delight, no bolus for it, and drink 16-24 ounces of water.
    B. I begin exercise by 5:30 am (4-5 days 4.3 fast walking miles - about 14:30 minute miles, not dawdling) and 2 days 45 minutes to an hour of free weights/ double split routine with weights I can lift 8-12 reps and a couple of sets per body part). On weights days, I either go for an easy to moderate walk right after of between 2.5 -4.3 miles depending on how I feel.
  3. During weights, my blood sugar, often in 140s -150 at start, will stay put through half of workout and then begin to fall. I will usually eat a Kind Mini (8grams) at that time to sustain walk after. Today I tried eating 1/2 a small banana and sugar was steady 143 and began to rise after weights for walk.
  4. For walk days, I usually eat 2 glucose tabs before heading out the door.

Those are the basics and I have tried everything from turning on activity mode right upon waking while in bed and turning it off well into the walk, to pausing insulin and and turning it back on during walk and even giving boluses at mile 3 (today at mile 2.4). I have not found results I want. I have had to stop in recent walks to eat and wait for sugar to go up, only to have high am sugars later. Today, I thought I was onto something: ate 1/2 of said banana about 20 minutes into 45 or so minute workout with weights. Bg had dropped from 140s to 127. By end of weights I was 136. Despite activity being on from 5:59 -6:59, IOB was .5 at 6:49 when weights were done (I have it set to 2.5 duration), and I began weights at 6am (later than usual today). Turned activity off about 5 blocks from home on walk. BG hung at 145 -148 through most if walk, but at 2.4 miles, I decided to give a correction. It used my cgm to figure 1 unit. I stayed high at 14os until home and took time getting breakfast ready. Got home 8:06 at 125bg. By 8:22, I was 109 and falling. Got scared and ate 4g of gummies at .8 IOB. Levelled at 110 at 8:37 and bolused for both gummies and breakfast 1:7 bf ratio, 4.15 units, then it began another rise. Had 10 min prebolus, btw. So after eating I was 133 and rising and now am in 150s - I am not doing a good job at all here. As per this particular day, would I have beem]n better to not eat gummies since it began to go up by itself? Or should I have left activity mode on for most or all of walk? I feel I am getting dumber about all this and there are so many combinations of how to do this, I do not know where to begin. Here is what I would love:

  1. To eat as few calories as I can. Exercise is also my weight management, but I am fit and average weight 5’7 134 pounds.
  2. To get to fat-burning stage of exercise and not feel as if I am just consuming and burning empty calories.
  3. To find my unique go-to routines for my exercise.
  4. To not ever have to stop due to lows.
  5. To not have a rollercoaster effect and learn to work with OP5.
  6. To understand the timing and amounts of carbs and insulin for my needs.

Please note: i was scared at 119 and 111 post exercise due to a night of terror last Thursday with some bad decisions I made in coming back to pump (from week on mdi) with probably some Tresiba in me and then being up all night with horrible highs and lows and a midnight walk and just never having awful lows, eating too much, double arrows up, then falling again same way and trying to think how to keep living. I was probably too unafraid before. Before, a 111 and falling would not have fazed me. So this is a particular time in my learning curve. More of my specifics if it helps:

T1D for 2.5 years, honeymoon over for at least 1.5 years
Settings (made more aggressive since beginning pump in November and resetting right before my one-week pump break):

10 units max bolus
Target and correct above, both 110
I/C ratios, 1:7 for breakfast, 1:9 for lunch, and 1:10 for dinner

Correction factors 35, 12am-4:30am, 40 for 4:30-6am (exercise time), 35 for 6am-9am, and 30 for 9am-12am. I was trying to help OP5 give me more basal. My insulin sensitivity on mdi, was 1/2 unit would bring me down 50. But that had Tresiba in there. I think my true Ins sensitivity might be 1 unit brings down 84.

Duration of insulin 2.5 (have had it on 2, though, as well)

I am using 21-24 units of insulin a day for 106 to 121 grams of carbs, but not inclusive of correction carbs.

I don’t snack and eat meals 4-5 hours apart.

OP5 still won’t keep me lower overnight - 132 upon waking this morning, usually 120s and I eat supper hours before bedtime.

My A1C in November was 6.1 and Feb was 5.9. I would love to have a little better because I am willing to work for it. I would like a tighter range, but my Standard deviation is 14 at present. The omnipod is now doing better than I did on shots, but is requiring lots of corrections and work until I can figure it out.

Finally, and maybe unrelated, I did change my dinner IC ratio from 9.5 to 10 after 2 nights in a row dropping after eating. Can anyone help explain why I could bolus at 112 at 5:12 pm (10 min prebolus), drop to 81 at end of meal at 5:52 and then be 71 and falling a minute later? Did this night before last also on similar meal and both times are a Reeses dark mini (6g) and later bolused back 1/2 of those carbs to not go high. My other meals go up after eating and then come down. Not down first. I am unclear on how long to prebolus, but do not want to be high at bedtime.

Well, thanks for reading or skimming all of this, and the extra bottom conundrum that is new for me, and maybe just a ratio I made too aggressive for supper. I look forward to any and all help as I try to fine-tune everything so I can exercise well with the pump.
Laura

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Hi Laura,
There is a lot to go through here. Let’s look at the weights and walking separately, because they will probably need to be managed differently.

The first thing that I think would help you is to stop with using the activity mode. Any automated mode is going to be like little gremlins constantly doing stuff behind the scenes, and you don’t fully know what they are doing.

The only thing the exercise mode does in that pump is set a higher target. It does not make any changes to your correction factor!

So what is wrong with that algorithm?

Lemme ask you this: If you take insulin when you are walking versus when you are sitting, in which case would the insulin be more powerful and drop you more?

Of course you know the answer to that! :arrow_up:

The activity mode was designed for thousands. Let’s come up with something designed just for Laura.

Next question - what meter are you using? If you are only using your CGM for exercise, your readings are always going to be behind what you really are. That can be a pretty big deal during exercise.

Another question - is the general problem with your walk that you are dropping at some point? I don’t necessarily mean the one time you referenced, but in general. Is that the issue?

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@Eric Thanks, Eric. I appreciate the insight and have not enjoyed activity mode. And, yes, walking and weights are different and if I can get a handle on each separately, the right methods will come when doing both. Walk is the biggest issue. And, yes, I can eat 8 carbs prior to stepping foot out the door and still need to eat again. I did not mind on MDI because I could eat and walk without huge drops in the intervening 5 minutes of g6 update, but with pump, I am having to check every few blocks after a half mile it seems and then get a result like Wednesday where I walked past church, but thought I better take a quick look and sure enough, it was way low, so went back to sit and wait. The pump has me drop in ways that are substantially faster than mdi.

And, honestly, Eric, I am one of the most squeamish people I have ever known. I am hard-wired like that and have been since childhood. So, I can run miles and miles on a broken ankle as I did in high school for cross country practice, and can take pain, but the most awful thing to me is having to check finger for BG. Of, course, I have almost learned to (never had a lesson due to all the drama around diagnosis and such and so had to read directions -yuk) do it with one or two sticks to get enough blood. I did it all last Thursday night and actually do more lately because something has been off with dexcoms lately. But I do use the Contour Next One and have tried the genteel lancets that fit, but can’t tell the difference. I just can hardly make myself squish blood out, but have learned to wait. Thankfully, this one lets you have more than one try. Anyway, not something I have done around exercise, but if necessary I can.

Finally, before my pump break, I had at one time given myself a scenario of “learning” where I knew to eat glucose if in the 130s, because from there it drops like a rock and I feel it. And, of course that is on the interstitial measure and late. So, I guess I am just so shocked to find that I will be able to do this once the key that fits is found. The endo people are not helpful with these specifics, so I am glad to be in the right place. I am so impressed with folks not having to go high and low to exercise and I want to manage this. I have, on a side note, found that I can pause insulin to take my dog, who sniffs more than walks, but goes fast between sniffing places, on his .8 walk, set it for 30 minutes and turn it off if I start to go up. But getting managing during exercise will take more trial an error.

So, thanks for confirming the gremlins!:grin: I am thinking I must need to find the right IOB to begin exercise with (however accurate that is - wouldn’t it just be relying on the 2.5 hour duration I put in with its microboluses?), eat the right thing at the right time span before leaving, use pause insulin feature, eat glucose as needed on walk, figure out when to turn pause off, and when to give insulin to avoid high. I guess I just never thought about all this before, but do these seem to be the things to look at? And any suggestions to start with since I can rule out activity mode now? Thanks!

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QG, you are in the right place now! :+1:

So let’s go through these. Getting a handle on the cause of the problem makes the answer much easier for you to see. To process everything in context.

Please engage on these questions. Then we can start moving toward the fixes!

Answer this for me:

Next, let’s assume you have a BG target of 150 while using activity mode.

And as an example, let’s say your BG is 160 but you are exercising…what is your pump doing to you when you are at 160?

Super important for you to answer this!! :arrow_up:

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I have some success to report to you and will give you all the details here and ask for suggestions as far as how I might reason this out to make it make sense and use this learning forever! It does make sense, but my reason he may be wrong. So, here is the situation for this mornings exercise: Good morning Eric! I’m just messaging you because you’ve really got me in the right place and we could always copy and paste this as well. I have some success to report to you and will give you all the details here and ask for suggestions as far as how am I reason this out to make it make sense and use this learning forever! It does make sense, but my reasoning may be wrong. So here is the situation for this mornings exercise: First, it is much later than I normally walk because of it being a Saturday and they having a 2nd cup of coffee. But my pace was on point with my fast paced walking. Second, I was hungry and so happy at the end of this walk that I wanted to go ahead and eat since it was later than my normal eating time and I felt so good I ate a breakfast that is not my normal one, it was one piece of Daves, 14 carb bread, seed, bread, with 2 tablespoons of peanut butter some mayonnaise, that’s a southern thing, and I used to hate mayonnaise, and another banana. So the ending is convoluted because of that in one decision I question now. All right, that may have been wordy, but it sets the scenario. Here are the specifics:

  1. At a blood sugar of 127, having come down from 150 after coffee and sugar, free delight times two, and this is now 7:54 AM, I ate half a banana of 12 carbs, I did weigh it.
  2. Two minutes later, I paused insulin on the Omnipod and set it for two hours, so it wouldn’t accidentally come back on.
  3. 17 minutes later, 8:13, giving the banana a chance to get in me a bit, maybe, I headed out the door. My blood glucose at that time was 119 and, by the way I had .05 insulin on board when I paused insulin, but zero on board when I left.
  4. At 8:25 on my walk, and a fast one at 14 to 14 1/2 minute pace, my blood glucose was 128 and steady. And I can’t believe it, but this was the peak!!! Very exciting times!
  5. My blood glucose gradually dropped, never heading straight down, always level, to 117, just 11 points, by the 3 mile mark. This morning I walked 4.5 miles so had only a mile and a half to go. And here is where I may have messed up.
  6. Because it had dropped from 120 something to 119 to 117 more rapidly than it had been, I guess my brain went into the old paradigm and got scared that it would drop like a rock before I got home. So I took one glucose tab of 4 g. And I did stop for a few minutes to talk to an elderly woman. I haven’t seen in a while and check on her. So that should’ve given me a little time for the glucose to get in me.
  7. I arrived home at 9:33 AM with a blood sugar of 117 and it had just turned up from 115. So here’s where the rub is:
  8. My blood sugar rose to 135 and level by 9:52 AM while I was making my breakfast sandwich instead of my usual eggs and toast.
  9. I had bolused at 9:44 for the 38 carbs and was given six units of insulin and my blood glucose at that time was 124 and level according to the Omnipod, but I knew better. I did a pre-bolus of 10 minutes which is what I do for breakfast routinely.
  10. And the sad ending is that at 10:05 I had finished eating and my blood glucose was 145 and so-called level and the darn Omnipod when I put in my blood glucose doesn’t wanna give me any insulin.

Ugh - at 10:37 as I write this I was 172 and I went ahead and made it give me .1 units even though it thinks I have 4.1 units on board, and maybe I do but I don’t wanna go higher.

So given all that, and I hope I was specific enough, what do you think? I know I am onto something good here! And I believe I just should not have eaten that glucose tablet. But here are my questions from this morning:

  1. When I took the glucose tab at the 3 mile mark, did my sugar not have to fall fast, because without any insulin on board, it would just circulate in the blood, and I could’ve made it home? I guess, like you seem to have been pointing me, too, not having insulin on board is a great thing for exercise! So maybe my thinking was wrong that it might just any time start shooting straight down when I forgot to think that I had no insulin on board. So did I not need that 4 g of glucose? I can’t tell if I’m paying the price because of breakfast, but I really believe it’s because of the glucose tablet. Do you think I could’ve made it home just fine?
  2. And is it healthy for muscles to not have insulin on board when you exercise?
  3. I love the idea of a banana, being real food, being what I load with before exercise if you think this is a good paradigm to start from. And maybe you could look at the time I waited and see if that seemed sufficient, but I have never seen such good numbers on a walk! I am so excited about the potential here!
  4. I guess another combination, but this might be convoluting things as well, would be to eat less of the banana at the beginning, and the other part of it midway through. But as I said, if this would’ve worked without having to consume any extra carbs, that would be what I’d prefer. Just thought I’d ask that I hope you understand what I’m asking.
  5. And because of the rise right as I was going to have breakfast, I am assuming that is from the glucose tablet not from anything else. So how long do you think it takes a glucose tab to start working? I have thought, with me, that it’s really about 20 minutes and even longer even though it’s supposed to be quick. I was home exactly 30 minutes from taking the glucose tablet. So, geez, did I almost nail this workout? I really think I may have been very close! And I really felt great on my walk, and I don’t know if that’s psychological because I could not believe the numbers just hanging so low. But I felt physically great. And if I blew it with the glucose tablet, I would like to know if that’s it or if it was the timing of it. And I still don’t know what would’ve happened if I had come home and not eaten right away, but my general routine is to come home and give a few minutes before I start preparing breakfast, prebolus for 10 min and then eat and my more aggressive bf ratio seems to work. I sort of feel like the oddball here is that glucose tablet and not the contents of my breakfast nor the timing, but I could be wrong.
  6. Gosh, Eric! When this gets ironed out, and I know it will, I can’t wait to ask some questions to the forum about the timing of my postmeal so-called highs when I have them. And honestly, I am still unsure of my exact basal rate for anytime of the day because I use the .6 per hour in manual when I wanted to come down and it comes down much better than the .5 ratio. And I tried to stretch my pod out for three days, but didn’t even make it to the full 2 1/2 which was unfortunately after supper and so I had high blood sugar last night in the 180s but at least the algorithm knows it gave me 25.6 units total yesterday and that was 9.05 basal, and I have been popping it into my .6/hr during the day to sort of teach it. I am honestly not sure why, but sort of would like it to do its best on auto (especially since I am unsure of basal, but narrowing it down with a .5 and a .6 program to go to), feeling that when I give myself time, and I am usually impulsive and not patient, and feel I have maxed out OP5’s ability to do auto (with me making exercise changes and such), then I can try it on manual and master the ins and outs, and then have time to absorb how best to loop and use that. In the interim, I would just love to see what can be done! My best A1C on both shots and this pump were both 5.9. I feel that I am at the best place yet since I can see room for improvement, and better yet, ways to work to get there. I am sorry I did not find this forum from day 1!

Okay, hope this makes sense and is not intruding on your life. I surely welcome your input and guidance given this new day if a new way to exercise. Activity is not only ineffective, but it was detrimental and what made me take my dumb week of pump break. Anyway, thanks in advance! And I really can cut and paste this on my thread if you see fit. Take care and enjoy the weekend! Thanks so much for the thoughts around insulin use during exercise with a pump. My thick skull is about to get this! Yay!:grin::grin::grin::grin:

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@Eric I believe insulin when walking acts fast, versus sitting. Also believe pump when over 150 on activity mode is delivering insulin - as if it does not know activity means I am working out.

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Hi QG, all of this looks like a great start. Good positive stuff here, and a few things to learn from it.

I think it was fine to take the tablet, but the bigger deal is that when you are finished, you need to take insulin. Immediately after you are done, take insulin.

Why?

Because you have been on zero basal for a while. And once you stop the exercise, your body has no insulin and no activity.

That’s a common thing, the post-activity spike.

Yes, it’s fine. It isn’t the insulin you gotta worry about, it’s your BG and which direction you are heading.

A low BG or a high BG - those are unhealthy. But the amount of insulin does not matter, as long as you have the right amount of carbs to go with it.

Having no insulin does not matter, as long as your BG is good.

A banana is fine for fueling. You just have to get used to the delivery speed it has.

I think for a walk, you might be able to wait until right before you begin. But you just have to test it out and figure out the timing.

Also, don’t get it in your head that you always do it X minutes before. It does not always need to be the same time!

If your BG is 90, you would do it a longer time before starting than if your BG is 120.

Make sense?

Yes, of course that is fine too. You just gotta learn how much and when.

And to repeat what I said above, it is not always the same. It…just…depends…

That is the only thing that does not change - It…just…depends…

That’s where you just have to do things and try them and learn from them. It is not a formula, it is a way of learning how to adjust for different circumstances.

As I mentioned before, you just have to get in the habit of taking insulin right when you finish. Maybe even 15 minutes before you finish, depending on what your BG is.

Leaving that for the other thread!. :joy:

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Yes, insulin has a much stronger affect on your BG when you are active, compared to when you are not active.

And yes, your pump - even on activity mode - uses the exact same correction factor and gives you insulin in the same amount for corrections, regardless of what you are doing.

Contemplate that for a minute!

During activity, your body responds to insulin much more strongly. And during activity, the pump will still treat a high BG the same as it would if you were not being active.

Does that make ANY sense to you?!?!

Ditch the pump’s activity mode, please.

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Ha! It is done ditched! Thanks!

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I did that after a few times using activity mode that just didn’t work for me.

I confess to following this thread as it is of interest to me. I am not tempted to chime in because my own experiences with exercise, fueling and insulin are definitely a work in progress. I’ve just learned to be observant, to have fuel and, as I have a pump, insulin.

I can see my BG on my Garmin bike computer when riding. Apple Watch is a bit useless for that if it is recording a workout. I am seriously thinking about retiring the Apple Watch for a Garmin.

My advice @Quadgirl is you will be able to work things out acceptably by observation and experience. One more thing, what works well may not be so perfect on another day. This means having to always pay attention.

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With biking, doing a BG test can be a bit of a challenge! :joy:

But having your Dex mounted on your bike is helpful. :+1: And also the drink-holder on the bike is nice for having carbs available.

For me, carrying carbs is not too hard. It’s carrying water that is always the limiting factor. Like you can’t really carry 1/2 a gallon without a hydration vest.

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@CarlosLuis
Can you share your experiences using activity mode? What did you see with it?

I know we are all different, but shared experiences are always helpful to learn from.

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You asked for it, but I will do this in the morning.
Early to bed makes you healthy, wealthy and wise. Well 1 out of 3 is good in baseball.

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I need to say that I am a type 2 with an inherited tendency of my body’s cells to resist insulin when they need glucose.

My daily exercise is bicycle riding on the road and using a smart trainer controlled by Zwift. My Tandem trainer advised me to start activity mode about 40 minutes prior to exercising.

I did that for about a month, but it seemed to cause my BG to just steadily rise over the course of a ride. So I just quit using it. Generally the reduction in basal in normal C-IQ is sufficient for 2 + hour road rides. These rides begin about 2 hours after breakfast of 24 g carbs. I will eat a Sam’s club nut bar after warm up before the ride.

My BG will steadily rise from around 100mg/dl to 120-130 to the halfway point, then slowly decreasing to the 90s by the end. I carry a small plastic flask (made by Hammer Nutrition) with my own mix of glucose syrup and electrolytes. Depending upon the strength - 1 oz = 6 pr 8 grams of carb. Then there is my kit that has glucose tablets, meter, a Kind bar and pack of peanut butter crackers. Glucose will give a quick boost, but doesn’t last long,

On my group ride last Saturday at the halfway point my BG had dropped to 79 so I ate my crackers and actually did a bolus about 60% of recommended, and started the return loop. This worked perfectly. I have noticed for me that food plus some insulin gives me better performance.

Sometime I can ride for 3 hours without fueling. It just depends on wind, being stupidly competitive or just because.

Stationary riding is more problematic. The Zwift app is a game. While I don’t get into organized races, there is a ghost figure that is my previous best record. I find that I almost never free wheel on Zwift but pedal hard on the climbs and pedal fast on the descents. This may be the difference then on the road.

What happens is around 30 minutes my BG will drop. I may or may not fuel using the glucose syrup mix. When I stop my BG will slowly rise on its own.

Absolutely, When I first got the Dexcom G6 I modified the receiver by putting a Garmin mount on it. This way the receiver could be on the handlebars. The only issue with this was the display washing out in bright sunlight. I finally found the Dexcom display widget so that Dexcom will display on my Garmin Edge 1030 bike computer. That is not perfect, as it sometimes drops out to - - - for a time on the road, maybe a loss of cell data, I don’t know. But overall it is quite helpful.

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I am really conflicted about my Apple Watch 6. I bought it because my Garmin Fenix 3 HR would not run the Dexcom Display widget. I am seriously thinking about getting a new Garmin watch. I think Garmin will share data with Apple Health but not the reverse. That would be my concern, because I do like the Health app.

My other issue is that I use the workout function of the watch when doing resistance workouts. The only way I can see BG is to look at my pump. This is really stupid of Apple in my opinion to not have Dexcom show up on workout screens.

Anyway, I am a firm believer in doing what works, adapt where possible and tweak, not twerk, as needed.

Probably too much information, but hey, that’s who I am, just ask my boys.

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@CarlosLuis Thanks for your input. We are both on the road to figuring things out. I do appreciate that your experiences match mine and what Eric knows about how this works - it is all a confidence builder! Also, I was hoping to ask someone - I do not have an apple watch, but want something to be able to see my bg while walking without taking out phone all the time. Am I right to assume the dexcom can send information to watch and phone and still work properly with the Op5 use? I currently, well for several years, am using a Polar watch to track distance, hr and all that, but would love blood glucose data. I feel sort of intertwined in Apple universe, though not in love with it, but now it seems easier than switching phone types, so Apple watch would be fine. However, I have used Garmin products in the past. For my purposes of walking data and hiking and such, which would you recommend for me? My phone is an older xs model and when I can afford a used one of the smallest they make, I will get it. Forgot its number. And of course, that smallest one will have to work with omnipod. So anyway, if you recommend Apple watch, which version might I need and how hard is all this to get connected? And, if you recommend Garmin, can you say which model or models will show bg, if you know? And have you considered any other brands? Thanks if you have time! Also, I would actually love for you to not hold back on posting your learning curve experiences. I relish the thought of learning vicariously and I bet others might also. Just my 2 cents! Thanks so much!
Laura

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@Eric I read through your answers to my questions, Eric, and sure appreciate the insight. I actually did, a few weeks back, give insulin at the 3 mile mark, so I am glad that is a real thing! I am also glad to try to be more flexible and understand that there is no one system to use, but to get smart and learn how/what to do at different times and blood glucose values. I will develop a whole toolbox! And, I did want to ask:

  1. If I loaded up with say a whole banana and left right away, rather than 1/2, do you think I may be able to avoid eating again on walk? And then just bolus with insulin near end or when I stop, depending on bg?
    I eat breakfast about 30 minutes after exercise.

  2. Am I wrong for wanting to give body some nutrition instead of just glucose during exercise? If not, any reason for banana over say a Kind bar, except of course calories?

  3. For an Apple phone XS model user like me, which watch might you recommend for me to see bg’s while exercising? And is there one that will let me record weight training sessions?

  4. I know everyone is different, and I have had a couple of days of too-aggressive corrections because I seem hard-wired to want to react fast rather than be smart, but now fear has crept in (so soon will balance back out - but I do know myself), but is there a blood glucose range and/or direction that you might suggest I give insulin if still on walk? And would I use suggested from cgm on OP5 or what I think I know at the time? I realize this may be too personalized, but grasping a bit. Also, I am about to open yet another thread about OP5 seeming to get too aggressive in background or me needing to adjust something due to a couple of days of lows then rollercoastering. So I am not in a stable place right now to implement, but asking for future. I am taking a few days off of exercise and that may be throwing things off as well, but avoiding allergy meds and trying to extend my first ever honeymoon from those corticosteroids and hoping it will continue if I don’t overdo it. Thanks, as always!
    Laura

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Thanks for sharing @CarlosLuis!

Absolutely! :heavy_plus_sign: :100: for this!

I don’t know why this is not more heavily emphasized to athletes with diabetes. Instead we get all the keto this and low carb that.

You’ve got the formula right there. carbs + insulin = performance

Oh, one other suggestion on your Dexcom stuff on your bike. Do you still have your receiver mounted on your bike?

Here is a neat trick you can do.

When you are going on a ride, change your low alert number to the highest setting it can be. That’s 100.

Also, change your high alert number to the lowest setting it can be. That’s 120.

That’s crazy Eric, why do that?

By doing that, if you don’t acknowledge the alerts, it will keep alerting you every 5 minutes any time your BG is anything but 100-120. :grinning: So it is basically just an easy way to always see your number without needing to do any button pushes on the receiver.

That would certainly be annoying at home, but if your are by yourself for a ride it is not a problem.

For the brightness problem, you might be able to get some window tinting film like they sell for car windows, and put that on the receiver screen to help you see it.

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I just saw my endo yesterday. He also advised turning on activity mode early. He said sometimes as much as 2 hours before the activity.

I am not a very technical user and both my endo and I are very happy with Control-IQ. I think the activity mode works for me but I don’t know for sure. I do feel that the key to maintaining target range levels while exercising is reducing the basal rate. But clearly everyone is different on this.

A quick story (which I haven’t shared with anyone prior to this): Back in 2018 I did about 6 weeks of bicycling in Europe - starting in Bordeaux and ending eventually in Italy. It was a wonderful trip, but I was a little ambitious on the first day, and also had not packed any candies or tablets for a ride that was about 110 miles. So there I was on a canal in southern france at about 9 at night, running very low on glucose. Fortunately I did have good bike lights but I was far away from any food. So I proceeded very slowly, trying to keep from going too low, as I made my way slowly to the town where there was an Airbnb that I was spending the night. I went this way for 8 or 9 miles, and got into the town late and shaking. Went and had a french ‘taco’ at a fast food place and felt much better.
The first thing I did the next day was get some licorice allsorts and kept them in my bag for the rest of the trip. I didn’t use them very often, but I was glad when I needed them and they were right there.

Nowadays I always pack a granola bar or salt water taffy in my bag when going out on my bike.

Except when I forget. And then I usually regret it.

e

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@Quadgirl I an afraid I don’t know watches that will display Dexcom without being tethered to a phone. Both the Apple Watch and the Garmin watches and bicycle computers require a phone, With Garmin the data is shared to Garmin Connect app on the phone. This is not an issue with me because my phone is attached to my hip :grin:.

Maybe someone has more experience with smart watches, mine are only with Apple and Garmin.

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Ah, well, it is in a drawer because I have a T:Slim pump, We only get 2 Bluetooth connections, phone and receiver or phone and pump. The Garmin Connect app receives Dexcom data by sharing.

Thanks for the tip to fool the receiver into displaying. It might be helpful to some others.

This picture is the back of the receiver with a Garmin twist lock mount installed. I cut the outer cover so the mount would be attached to the receiver back. I think those covers are silicone rubber, stuff doesn’t stick. The lanyard is a Garmin stretchy tether. All my electronics, lights, computer, etc are tethered in case they come loose. I’ve never lost any thing, but a friend of mine has found bicycle computers on rides.
image

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