Need Advice on Basal Testing and Exercise

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Nairn on August 19, 2009 at 10:11am

Hey, Mike,
I had to smile when I read that you ride at a "fairy brisk pace." Not that there's anything wrong with that. Thanks for sharing.
I would suggest that you just ride as easy as you can. If you're skipping breakfast, you've got more time to get to work anyway. Get your pace down to where it almost isn't exercise.
There's no perfect way to do basal testing if you're not going to settle into bed or on a couch for the day. You can only do the best you can.
Could you do the testing on a weekend instead of workdays?

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Permalink Reply by Vanessa G on August 19, 2009 at 12:24pm

Well you do need a temp basal rate, because the exercise has long lasting effects on your body, as the glucose goes to the muscles to replace lost glycogen (i think that's the reason.) If it were me, I'd lower my basal rate 2-3 hours in advance of the ride (because you want it to be lowered by the time you are riding) and I'd need to keep it low for most of the day or at least through lunch. Since you are low so often, try adjusting it by 5-10% at a time until you find that magic balance. You may also have to adjust the bolus calc too. After I exercise I reduce the amount I bolus by almost half. I constantly shift my basal and bolus rate based on how rigorous my exercise is. I find that you have to shift it well in advance of the activity and put it back to "normal" many hours later. that's just me. But I like hard exercise and so it wouldn't be acceptable to ease up on the exercise as a solution. There is a mathematical equation that will work for you, you just have to find it. In the greatest book I've read.. "Pumping Insulin" there are some great tips for this.

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Nairn on August 20, 2009 at 11:43am

These other replies don't seem to be in response to the question about basal rate testing.
I certainly wasn't advising anyone to cut back on exercise. I was talking about what to do for one day of basal rate testing.

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Permalink Reply by Cynthia Kahn on August 20, 2009 at 7:53am

A few other places you might go for information is the diabetes exercise and sports association. It is online at www.diabetes-exercise.org or the Adventures for the Cure guys. Adam Driscoll is a type 1 diabetic and an avid cyclist.

Cynthia

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Permalink Reply by Progress Trumps Perfection on October 12, 2009 at 5:45am

I'm way too late on this, but my opinion is that the purpose of basal rate testing is to test your basal rates based on normal activity and fasting. Normal activity for you includes biking to/from work, so I would just conduct the testing on a day/days you bike to/from work. If you are dropping too low to complete the test, you may want to go ahead and lower your basal rate for an hour or two before the usual time you drop low (if there is a "usual" time).

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