During moderate to intense exercise, blood sugar levels tend to increase while exercising and decrease shortly after exercising in healthy individuals. However, certain factors influence this rise and fall of blood sugar. Some of these are the time of day when exercise is performed, the health of the individual exercising and the type of workout implemented in a routine. Suffering from diabetes is the most influential of the factors, with exercise actually beneficial in regulating unhealthy blood glucose levels. Contrary to popular belief, what you consume before exercising has little impact on sugar levels following a workout session.
Why Blood Sugar Spikes After Exercising
Exercising provokes production and release of glucose necessary for the energy required to continue vigorous physical activity. In addition, intense or prolonged exercise generates manufacturing of human growth hormone, a substance that burns excess fat and calories for energy instead of glucose. However, your liver continues to pump glycogen into the blood, not realizing that HGH is assisting in the energy production process. As a result, higher than normal sugar levels remain in the body several hours following a workout session. This spike usually decreases as metabolic activity is reduced.
Diabetics and Spikes After Exercise
Although diabetics definitely benefit from exercising, they must be careful concerning post-exercise blood sugar spikes. Since a diabetic's body is unable to manage extreme swings in blood glucose, he needs to monitor sugar spikes after exercising. To control these spikes, a diabetic who participates in regular exercise sessions should do several things, such as eating diabetic-based meals, avoiding refined sugars and getting physically active immediately after meals. This causes rapid glucose utilization and provokes cells into depleting this excess energy, thereby reducing a potentially large glucose spike.
Reducing Post-Exercise Spikes
Even individuals without diabetes benefit from reducing post-exercise blood sugar spikes. Maintaining consistent energy levels without interference from sudden spikes allows you to continue exercising longer without feeling fatigued. Sometimes all it takes is to reduce the intensity of the exercise. Instead of running, trying power walking or moderate walking. Warming up prior to exercise also helps limit the amount of the glucose spike afterwards by gradually and deliberately releasing glucose into the bloodstream.
Normal Blood Sugar Levels
Blood sugar levels are usually measured during different physiological conditions. For example, "fasting" might precede testing for blood glucose levels. The test would occur about eight hours following your last meal by which time your stomach is empty. The range considered normal for this circumstance is between 70 to 100 milligrams per deciliter. During the day, after you have eaten breakfast, lunch and dinner, glucose normally rises but should not rise above 140 milligrams. Anything higher than 400 is extremely abnormal and requires medical intervention.
References
- Restore Unity; Understanding Blood Sugar Spikes After Exercise; February 2002
- Health Guide Info; Why Does My Blood Sugar Level Spike After I Exercise?; May 27, 2011
- Diabetes Self-Management; Strike the Spike -- Controlling After-Meal Blood Glucose Highs; Gary Scheiner, MS, CDE; Aug. 4, 2006
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center: How Exercise Affects Your Blood Sugar
- Johns Hopkins Health Alerts; Diabetes and Exercise -- Keeping Your Blood Glucose Levels in Check; Feb. 7, 2006
