Active Low-Carber Forums - View Single Post

My first comment is that home bG meters are scarily inaccurate. I once experimented by taking six readings from the same finger stick, one after the other and got wildly differing readings. I stopped testing for a long time.

That said, last week I tested higher than I wanted after exercise so I went to Dr. Google. I found one explanation I'd never read before:

Quote:

Why Do Blood Glucose Levels Sometimes Go Up after Physical Activity?

When you exercise your muscles need more glucose to supply energy. In response, your liver increases the amount of glucose it releases into your bloodstream. Remember, however, that the glucose needs insulin in order to be used by your muscles. So if you do not have enough insulin available, your blood glucose levels can actually increase right after exercise. Basically, stimulated by the demand from your exercising muscles, your body is pouring glucose into your bloodstream. If you do not have enough insulin available to "unlock the door" to your muscles, the glucose cannot get into your muscles to provide needed energy. The end result is that glucose backs-up in your bloodstream, causing higher blood glucose readings.

http://www.joslin.org/info/why_do_b...l_activity.html

I have no idea if this is substantiated by other resources. Since essentially the first stick in the morning is "fasting" it seems that insulin is already low. Dr. Fung tells us that when we fast, we suppress insulin.