How exactly do you calculate your carb intake during and after a workout?
Is it also necessary to have a pre workout meal with some carbs when you have an intra workout shake?
I experimented with Insulin pre workout for some time. However, I could never go beyond 5 ius and even at that dose I went hypo several times during my workouts. I shot Humulin-R immediately pre workout. My intra workout shake consisted of 75-100g Vitargo (depending on what bodypart I was training), 25g Whey Hydrolysate, 5g Creatin, 5g Leucin and some addititonal supps like Trimethylglycine, Taurine, Beta-Alanin, etc. followed by an immediate post workout meal consisting of 500g sweet potatoes, 250g chicken and some veggies. Bodyweight is around 200 pounds, working out 5-6 times a week for no longer than an hour.
You went "hyper"...not "hypo". How do I know that. Well, 5 iu of regular human insulin taken immediately pre-training is NOT enough to make anyone go hypo under those circumstances. Why? For starters. you were eating 75-100 grams of Karbolyn and 25 grams whey hydrolysate intra-workout, which is the equivalent of 100-125 grams of carbs from a blood glucose control standpoint (note: the body can easily convert hydrolyzed proteins into glucose when needed). Furthermore, you wouldn't have been exposed to more than 2-3 iu of exo. insulin during training...maximum...as Novolin-R releases fairly evenly over roughly a 5 hour period. This means that your body would have required "at least" 40-60 grams of carbs per iu in order to just maintain its BG levels.
But we also have to consider the additional glucose that was still in your bloodstream from your pre-training meal. So, in order to go hypo during training from 2-3 iu of insulin, your body would have required not only the 100-125 gram of carbs referenced above, but also all of your previously existing blood glucose.
There's more. You see also would have had to overwhelm your body's natural defense system against hypoglycemia. You see, the liver is easily capable of defending against a 5 iu dose of Novolin-R, even without any carbs at all. As soon as BG levels would have started to drop below normal, your body's natural defense system would have kicked in and your liver would have started dumping glucose into the bloodstream in order to normalize BG levels.
So, in order to go hypo from 5 iu you would have had to exhaust your entire supply of glucose from your 125 grams of carbs, your previously existing blood glucose, and depleted your liver's back-up supply of glucose. All that from just 2-3 iu?
You also said you consumed an additional 500 grams of sweet potatoes and 250 grams of chicken "immediately" after training, which would have provided you with another large burst of glucose within 2 hours of your insulin injection.
That is a whole lot of blood glucose available to the body within a short period of time---way more than enough to deal with a 5 iu dose of Novolin-R.
Remember, the symptoms of elevated BG levels can often mimic those of low BG levels...and it can be difficult for beginners to distinguish between the two. I have encountered numerous first-time insulin users and relative beginners who told me they went hypo on 3-5 iu of regular human insulin and many of these guys ate even more carbs than you did. I knew one guy who consumed 800 grams of carbs over a 4 hour period and swore to me he went hypo from 3 iu. In every case the problem wasn't hypoglycemia, but hyperglycemia. They ate so many carbs in an attempt to stave off hypoglycemia that they actually overwhelmed the body's ability to shuttle glucose into the cells and were stricken with a bad case of hyperglycemia.
I have no doubt that this is what happened in your case. Even if you were doing one non-stop super-set for your entire workout, there is still no way you body could have rifled through that much glucose.
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