Why does my blood sugar go up after one hour of walking?
When you are diabetic, your blood sugar will often vary depending on your activity level and how you are eating. With exercise, your blood sugar will normally decrease. However, higher intensity exercise, which can include walking for some individuals who are out of shape, can sometimes increase blood sugar due to stress hormones being released. However, this stress hormone effect should go away after an hour or so after you exercise.
I too have diabetes so I read everything I can. One reason that you might see a rise in blood sugar after exercise is what you eat prior to your exercise. If you eat at least 15 mg of carbohydrate and exercise no longer than an hour you should not see the rise. If you exercise on an empty stomach the liver will dump glucose into your bloodstream. This will account for the increase fingerstick.
The liver dump makes sense since I always exercise on an empty stomach first thing in the morning. I will eat 15g carb beforehand and track. Thanks for the info
