Managing type 1 diabetes (T1D) during exercise comes with its own set of challenges. Maintaining stable glucose levels, knowing when and how much to fuel, and ensuring proper recovery are all crucial elements for optimal performance and health. But until now, it’s often been a guessing game.

That’s where our new carb and fat oxidation estimator comes in. This feature offers personalised calculations based on your body weight, training status, and exercise intensity, giving you a precise look at how much fat and carbohydrates you’re burning during your workout. With this data, you can make informed decisions about fuelling after exercise—minimising the risk of glucose dips or spikes.

Why Is This Relevant for Type 1 Diabetes?

While physical activity leads to a host of health benefits, there can also be challenges at times, such as an increased risk of lows after exercise, especially if fuelling isn’t done correctly. If you’re not fuelling enough during exercise, you may risk hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar) both during and after the session, which can be dangerous and affect performance and recovery before the next workout. On the flip side, over-fuelling can lead to hyperglycaemia (high blood sugar) and make recovery more difficult (while also making weight management more difficult).

Our carb oxidation estimator helps solve this problem by taking the guesswork out of your fuelling strategy. It provides data on how much carbohydrate you’re burning, allowing you to fuel appropriately after exercise and better plan fuelling future workouts or a similar type.

Benefits of This Feature for People using Enhance-d

This tool has been specifically designed to support our users in several key ways:

• Improved Glucose Stability: With estimates of carbohydrate oxidation, you can ensure a steady fuel supply that meets your recovery requirement after exercise.
• Optimised Fuelling Strategy: Personalised results provide you with more insight into how to eat or drink based on your unique energy expenditure, helping you stay energised without overdoing it.
• Better Recovery: Proper fuelling is key for recovery. This tool helps ensure you’re replenishing glycogen stores effectively to recover faster after your workout.
• Confidence in Exercise: Knowing how much fuel your body needs helps you exercise with confidence, reducing anxiety about mismanaging your nutrition.

How the Calculation Works

The carb and fat oxidation estimator is based on established physiological principles. It factors in your body weight, training status, and exercise intensity (heart rate is required to run the calculation) to provide a highly personalised estimation of how much fat and carbohydrates your body is oxidising (burning) during a workout.

Here’s how it works:

• Body Weight: Larger individuals generally burn more energy overall, so the tool adjusts the calculations based on your weight to reflect how much carbohydrate and fat you’re oxidising.
• Training Status: The tool considers five levels of training status, from sedentary to highly trained. Those who are more trained tend to rely more on fat oxidation, while untrained individuals may burn more carbohydrates at the same exercise intensity.
• Exercise Intensity: Based on the time spent in different heart rate zones, the estimator calculates the rate of carbohydrate and fat oxidation. For example, higher intensities lead to more carbohydrate oxidation, while lower intensities favour fat oxidation.