Using an insulin pump during exercise allows you to reduce your basal rate instead of eating carbohydrate to compensate for the lowering effect exercise often has on blood glucose. Your body needs insulin and carbohydrate to use glucose for energy during exercise. How much you need to reduce your insulin and how much carbohydrate you need to eat varies with different types of exercise and with how often you exercise. It takes trial and error to get the balance right.
It is important to keep in mind that the body needs insulin during exercise, therefore, it is not recommended that you discontinue using the pump unless the exercise is of short duration (1 hour or less).
If you are performing exercise in which you usually become low, you can use the temporary basal rate feature to reduce the chance of hypoglycemia. In order to lower the concentration of insulin in your blood during exercise, the temporary basal rate feature needs to be set at least one hour before you begin to exercise. You may also choose to change your basal rate pattern for the days you exercise.
It takes trial and error to determine how much to reduce the basal rate and for how long. Do not lower the basal rate over 50% as you will be depriving your cells of insulin needed to use glucose during exercise. If lowering the basal rate 50% still produces hypoglycemia, you will need to eat extra carbohydrate in addition to lowering the basal rate.
