Running on eggs: cracking the blood sugar challenge

Load up on the carbs. That’s the received running wisdom. Over the next week I’m going to try something different: loading up on eggs.

Bear with me. I’m no expert (see the below disclaimer), but this week I’ve spotted something: on each of the runs I’ve done there’s been an average 40% slide in my blood sugar from the start to finish of the run.

Except on the morning I grabbed a hard boiled egg as I was leaving the flat because my level was on the low side (3.0mmol/l or 54mg/dl). When I got back just over a half hour later it was 2.9. That’s a fall of just 3%.

It’s not all down to the egg, of course. The variables at play when it comes to determining BM and how quickly it deteriorates are myriad: insulin dose, meals, general health and so on. One piddly little egg isn’t going to make that big a distance, is it?

Over the next few weeks I’m going to try and find out. Before every run I’m going to munch a boiled egg; not the banana I usually grab as I’m heading out the door. Then I’m going to revert back to bananas and compare the difference.

We all know bananas are full of sugar; eggs, protein. Bananas usually result in a spike in sugar levels. At the end of a 30 minute run (the duration I’m doing at the moment) my levels are often higher than when I started off.

Having too much sugar sloshing around your system makes you feel like crap. It’s also dangerous. What’s more, I find it slows me down. Too much sugar in your blood stream is sugar that’s not available to the body to use as energy.

So the aim is to sustain a flat level throughout the 30 minutes I’m running. Of course I’ll have something sugary in my pocket in case it dips and I’ll have to rethink the strategy as my mileage increases but for the next few weeks I’m going to be braving eggy burps on my runs.

Will let you know how it goes.

Disclaimer: I have no medical training. I am not a doctor, a nutritionist, a physio or a sports therapist; I doubt they’d even give me job handing out oranges at half time of a football match. I am just a type-one diabetic and former fat bloke with a stupid idea. This blog is my account of following that idea to its conclusion. Do not attempt anything similar without seeking prior medical (and psychiatric) advice.