Personal observations about how different exercise types affect blood glucose (BG) levels in diabetes management.

Morning Context

I started with elevated blood sugar due to “Dawn Phenomenon and some unwise overeating of protein the previous night.” After breakfast and a 2-unit insulin correction, exercise began at 11 AM.

Aerobic Exercise Phase

One hour of walking at 140 HR (approximately 400 calories, 2.5 miles with incline) caused rapid BG decline to 55 mg/dL. The aerobic exercise (and the effect of my earlier correction insulin) got my BG down to 55.

Correction & Anaerobic Exercise

Consuming 12g carbs (3 glucose tablets) followed by shoulder weight training raised glucose to 123 mg/dL. I observed that “intense weight lifting” caused the elevation, contrasting with previous experiences where similar situations resulted in 65-80 mg/dL.

Secondary Aerobic Phase

Returning to cycling for 25 minutes (100 calories) reversed the trend, dropping BG to 85 mg/dL. Within 5 minutes of resuming aerobic activity, “my BG rise stopped and it started to drop down.”

Conclusion

This represents “my conclusive 4th experiment” demonstrating: how my BG goes down with Aerobic exercises and goes up with few Anaerobic exercises like lifting heavy weights.

The pattern is clear:

• Aerobic exercise (walking, cycling) → Blood glucose decreases
• Anaerobic exercise (heavy weight lifting) → Blood glucose increases