Dear Ginger,
Do the carbs that you have to eat for exercise make you gain weight?
-Anonymous
This is a great question. The simple answer is that the exercise is totally worth the small amount of calories (from carbs) that you have to eat in order to do the exercise in the first place. And remember, EVERYONE has to fuel their bodies, we just have to do it at more specific moments throughout the day.
In the end, your body is becoming more efficient and in better shape, so despite that you have to eat in order to exercise, eventually you’ll be taking less insulin and needing less carbs to endure your workout. Before I started working out regularly, I needed about 32 units of long-acting insulin every day to control my blood sugars. Now I only need 25 units! (Remember, everyone is different, so be sure to check your blood sugars to figure out what works for you).
However, there is a smart and practical way to go about fueling with carbs for a workout to keep your blood sugar up. The NON-SMART way is to eat a bunch of junk food (candy, chips, soda) and think that that means you can exercise and make it all count as nothing.
There are a couple different SMART ways to go about it. Here are two methods I use:
1. I exercise after a meal and don’t bolus for all of the carbs in the meal. This involves a little math and experimenting. I know that for my body, I can eat a large apple (15-20 carbs) and that will get me through about an hour of moderate cardio exercise. So, if I were eating a meal of a sandwich and an apple, I would only bolus for the sandwich as long as I was going to be working out very shortly after the meal.
2. Workout whenever you want to and have a healthy source of carbs with you (fruit, oatmeal, juice). What I do most often is make a water bottle with dextrose in it (dextrose). A half-cup of dextrose is 50 grams of carbs, which is a lot, but when I’m going to be working out for more than an hour, it’s exactly what I need. I sip it gradually during my workout and usually check my blood sugar halfway through anyway.
Please keep in mind that these quantities are what my body needs and I’ve done a lot of experimenting (i.e. checking my blood sugar A LOT) to figure out how to maintain good blood sugar control while working out.
You can’t workout and FEEL GOOD if your blood sugar is going all over the place, really low or really high, so it’s really important that if you exercise regularly, you figure out how to make it work. And remember to check your blood sugar often! It helps so much, I promise!!!
Read more Ask Ginger columns:
Using a pump: How to get rid of the adhesive goo?
When friends are too "helpful": Getting those without much diabetes knowledge to stop scolding you about diabetes care.
Applying for a job: Should you be upfront about diabetes?
