My Experience and thoughts on Using a Continuous Glucose Monitor

Why Am I Doing This?

In a nutshell, I am trying to understand how my body handles glucose, which indicates how insulin sensitive or resistant I may be as I age. 

It’s one way to understand how efficiently my metabolism is working.  Our metabolism is not just responsible for maintaining a healthy weight, but also our energy levels, hormone balance, immune health, skin and digestive health. I am proactively taking care of my health as I age.

Why Is Insulin An Issue?

Insulin is a fabulous hormone and does a beautiful job of taking care of our health in the right amounts. But in excess, it can have inflammatory effects on the body. And if chronically elevated, it can lead to numerous metabolic issues including Type 2 Diabetes, and on a more noticeable level, weight gain and feeling lousy.

As we transition through perimenopause and menopause, our oestrogen levels decline, and we naturally become less insulin sensitive. What this is means is that our bodies are less efficient at removing glucose from the blood stream.

So we need to understand how to work with our bodies with appropriate nutrition, sleep, movement and stress management.

Take this scenario – If we eat a diet rich in starchy carbohydrates, especially refined carbohydrates and sugars, those foods are quickly broken down and absorbed into the blood stream as glucose. We get a BIG spike in our blood glucose levels.  The safe level of glucose in the blood is around 4g, so the body works quickly to get the glucose out of the blood stream and store it for future use in the liver, muscles and then fat cells where it doesn’t cause harm.  This is the job of the pancreas. It produces as much insulin as possible to do this quickly.

There’s 2 issues here:

1) After a blood sugar spike, insulin can overshoot which is where we get reactive low blood sugar after a meal.  We may experience this as feeling an energy dip in the afternoon, sugar cravings, caffeine cravings, hangry feelings or feeling stressy and moody.

2. Over time, if we carry on eating in this way, our cells start to become ‘deaf’ to insulin, so glucose stays around a bit longer causing metabolic havoc. Then, the poor old pancreas has to pump out more and more insulin. As insulin is a ‘storage’ hormone, we may find we start to gain more weight and feel pretty awful.  Our blood lipids and blood pressure may also get involved and start to show signs of being less than optimum.

If left unchecked this can lead to Type 2 Diabetes.

So, it’s a big deal.

Should You Be Worried?

If you mostly eat a diet that is rich in unprocessed natural foods, generally lower in carbohydrates and well balanced with good quality protein and healthy fats – then probably not, especially if you are a healthy weight and feel well. 

But if you like to understand your health, then using a CGM can give you an insight into your personal responses.  We are all biochemically unique.

Using a CGM, can give you an indication of how best to support YOUR healthy blood glucose.  Some foods may spike your blood sugar more than others, whereas your friend may be able to tolerate them well. 

Having blood glucose spikes is normal and having a large one isn’t necessarily an issue now and again, especially if you recover quickly, you’re not diabetic and you’re generally well. 

I can’t stress enough that it’s important not to get obsessed with this. Treat it cautiously and curiously. Having a perfect blood glucose response is NOT an essential goal. I would not recommend using one for people who have experienced eating disorders, unless they are being guided by a professional and only if needed for pre-diabetes or diabetes. 

How I’m doing This

I’ve chosen to work with the company Veri which is essentially an App that tracks glucose and gives helpful insights and tips. It lets you record your meals, exercise and sleep in a simple way, so you can quickly get to grips with which of your favourite meals work better for you.

Veri use the Freestyle Libre sensors.  This is a device that’s applied to the arm, usually the back of the arm. It has a filament (the sensor) that sits below the skin and measures glucose in the interstitial fluid. Therefore, it lags slightly behind actual blood glucose levels (insulin-dependent diabetics should still blood test) but is still a valuable tool to measure general trends.

The sensor automatically stores glucose responses.  

To get your results, you simply press the Scan button in the Freestyle App, hold it against the sensor on your arm and the results show up first in the Freestyle Libre App. If using Veri you easily pair the Veri App with the Freestyle App and it transfers the data automatically. 

You can do this as many times as you like during the day. If you’re like me, you do this A LOT in your first days of using it, because it’s fascinating. Don’t freak out in the first couple of days though, it takes a while to get calibrated and to understand exactly what’s going on.

My Experience Of The First 4 Days

Absolutely Fascinating! Overall my levels are within acceptable ranges, and the swings in my blood sugar are also considered appropriate, but there are definitely some interesting trends.

1. Sleep and Night-time – My glucose levels sometimes dip below the norm at night. It’s normal for glucose to be low at night, and our body turns to fat burning, rather than glucose burning to keep the body doing its maintenance and repair work while we sleep. However, on a restless night, I noticed more dips and I wonder if the dip comes first before I wake, or if I wake because I dip.  And why? I need to give this some more thought.  

2. Breakfasts – my best scoring breakfasts (according to Veri’s App and my glucose results) are my Protein Smoothie and a Full English.  They result in a slower and smaller rise in blood glucose.  My Overnight Oats, even with around 3-4 tbsp of seeds and 2 tbsp of coconut yoghurt result in a higher glucose spike.  

It’s important to look at the quality of the food here though – not just at the glucose data.  My full English has plenty of fibre with tomatoes, mushrooms and avocado, but it did have bacon and we don’t necessarily want to eat large amounts of processed meats. It’s a meal I have 2 or 3 times a month.

Also, I may not give up the oats, but I will be looking at how I can ‘dress’ them with other food items or have them before exercise for example, so that I can benefit from the fibre and keep my glucose levels steady. I shall play around with portion sizes too, and swap to pinhead oats that may result in a lesser spike.

3. My best scoring meal – a 10/10 according to Veri’s algorithm is my Scromlette!  If you follow me on my social media, you will know this is one of my favourite go-to fast foods!  It’s basically some sauteed veg with 2 eggs stirred through – like an omelette, but more scrambled!

4. Exercise – I do Crossfit 3 times a week which is a high intensity exercise. This is the thing that spikes my glucose levels the most. But they recover quickly.  During high-intensity exercise, our body releases glucose into the blood stream to fuel the muscles as they work.  I knew this, but it was still a bit of a surprise to see it! The important thing is that levels recover quickly – I’m metabolically flexible here!

5. My lowest scoring meal so far was Poussin with roasted potatoes and half a plate of veggies.  I always aim to eat a balanced plate with around ¼ or slightly less of my plate comprising starchy carbs like potatoes, so this was quite a surprise for me.  Will I stop eating potatoes? No, but again, I will look at ways to play around with portions and with other helpful hacks that can mitigate this response.  If you want to know more, you might be interested to follow The Glucose Goddess and see her recommendations which follow on from some of the research carried out by the Zoe Project. Many of her insights are based on her own experience, but she also draws on the latest research.

What I Like So Far

– I like the Veri App – it’s easy to use and gives me useful data. They’re a new company, so there’s regular updates as they’re improving their service and they have plans to expand the App to include new products. 

– After a day or two, I’ve become used to having the sensor on my arm. I was a bit concerned about knocking it at first and getting it wet. But of course, they are designed for regular people to use. So far so good

– I’m enjoying getting to know my body

What I’m Not So Keen On

– It doesn’t look great on the arm.  You can either just wear the sensor on its own. However, I wanted to make sure it didn’t get knocked in the gym, so I wear a plaster over the top – but this is grey and is quite noticeable.  This isn’t an issue with long sleeves, but with short sleeves be prepared for people to ask you what’s going on!

– I’d just say you need to be careful to keep a balanced reaction to the results. Don’t obsess and don’t judge your body negatively if your levels aren’t optimum. This is designed to help you, not make you feel bad about your body.

And please don’t hesitate to call me if you’d like to work with me on your metabolic health. 

With best wishes

Alexis