For the past three weeks, I have incorporated a regular and very intense form of cardiovascular training into my powerlifting workouts and the impact this has had on my blood sugars and my insulin sensitivity has been drastic! This is good, because it's increased my metabolism and I'm needing much less insulin than I needed a month ago! Meanwhile, I don't feel as though I can predict my blood sugar during the day and things feel a bit out of my control because my insulin needs adjusting. Therefore, it's time for a science experiment . :)

The cardio activity is very short sprints across the floor in my gym pushing anywhere between 130 to 200lbs in front of me on the floor. I use a 100lb iron plate and then load dumbbells of whatever weight I want to work with on top of the plate. I place my hands on the front of the plate, my butt is somewhat in the air (the lower you can keep your hips, the more ab work, but the more easily you can push more weight), and I push it as fast as I can across the room. Then rest, and repeat ten times.

I've been doing this three days a week following my powerlifting training exercises. Doing intervals of intense (max heart rate) work has proven to help burn fat without burning up as much muscle as constant jogging or running because the interval of the increase in your heart rate allows time for your body to oxidize fat (use fat as fuel ), whereas during a constant jog your body uses mostly glucose and muscle first for fuel.

I've noticed during these intervals that my blood sugar does NOT drop drastically because the intensity of the weight involved impacts my blood sugar the same way weightlifting does.

HOWEVER, the hours following this work HUGELY drops my blood sugar as my body works to recover and transport fuel to all my muscles. The first two weeks I did these sprints, I would drop low if I took any insulin for my meals in the 5-6 hours following my workout. PLUS, because I usually workout around 6pm, the next morning I found my insulin-to-carbohydrate ratio to be way too much, and I continued to drop low while I was at work by 9 a.m.

I began dropping my insulin-to-carbohydrate ratio s because I was dropping low after every meal. I used to be very carb-sensitive and insulin-INsensitive at breakfast, needing at least 7 units no matter what I ate. Now, I can actually apply the same carb-to-insulin ratio that I use during the rest of the day 1:10, and my blood sugar doesn't spike after breakfast the way it used to. More importantly, I'm not dropping low quickly after breakfast either.

I've also cut back on my afternoon meals from 1:10 to 1:15, because I was dropping low shortly after lunch. Now, let me tell you, this really happened differently over the course of a week until I figured out the right balance because my blood sugar previous to lunch was still out of whack due to the drastic lows I was having around 9 a.m.

During those first two weeks, however, I also was waking up with a low blood sugar on some days, which to me implied that my Lantus dose also needed adjusting. So I reduced my Lantus dose (was 24 units at the time) by 2 units, then a few days later I reduced it again. I've settled on 21 units and woke up this morning with a blood sugar of 113.