The body store sugar (glucose/glycogen) in the muscles and liver. When exercising the body releases the energy to the bloodstream to be able to consume it and bg goes up, when consumed the bg will drop relating to the amount of exercise you do. If I lift weights it might cut bg a few numbers but most times it doesn't show at all. Lifting weights tough but is low cardio compared to bicycling for example. So the energy needed when biking is more over a shorter time while lifting weights consume energy over a longer time period (up to 48hrs)
Diabetics don't differ from non-diabetics in the way the body works regarding the use of energy. One should always be sure to have enough energy before a workout, and try to keep things balanced. If a person starts off with a lower 4-6 mmol/l before exercise it's more likely that the person goes hypo during extreme exercise without even feeling it and that's why a blood sugar measurement after training often spikes. This is a false positive due to the body converting glycogen in the liver to glycose and pumps it out into the blood. The bg drops soon after and sometimes really fast after this "high". I've gone from 9mmol/l to 2.8mmol/l in 10 minutes after finishing a long tough ride on my cross-country bike. If no new energy is consumed during or after exercise, the bg might lower in a slow pase and drop to dangerous low levels after a few hours. So, if one exercise extremely tough a few hour before bed that person should check bg and eat something to not drop to much during sleep.
My dad did the classic and exercised over a whole day (go-kart training) and didn’t eat right. In the evening the bg looked normal and he took insulin with supper and went to bed. Luckily he made so much noise going into hypo chock my brother woke and managed to stuff dad with sugar. If I remember right my dad had a 1.8mmol/l. So, the big warning is, do NOT treat a high bg after workout as a "high", it's most certainly a false positive.
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