CMG users: What have you learned?

#1

Curious. My bg levels seem higher than I expected. Variability is also low (SD/mean=0.1) and other than when I exercise before bedtime I only get to about 70-75 at night. With exercise I drop occasionally 65ish for an hour or two. Waking up and walking around the house takes me from 85 to 100 and a long 3.5 mph walk will get that close to 110. If I eat a really sugary/carby thing I get a 150 reading in < 1 hour which is gone in another hour but most meals add 10-15 in 45 minutes and fall of afterwards…Erythritol really doesn’t do anything; neither do diet sodas.

There is general agreement between my ketomojo measurements and libre 2…most points are +/- 10%. However, the first two monitors definitely had LESS variability with the CGM monitors than the ketomojo. I try to measure the cgm about 4-5 minutes after the blood sticks…

What have you learned?

(Michael) #2

I learned that stress can instantly increase you blood glucose - if I strained to move something, you could see my glucose shoot up some and then come back down equally quickly. The same effect was noticed when my daughter stressed me out - up and then back down once the stress was relieved.

I learned that when fat adapted, I could run at under 2 mmol/L of blood glucose (the limit of low for the dexcom) and feel fine. Fat adapted for the win and to avoid hypoglycemic events being a concern.

I learned how protein effects my blood sugars as a type 2 diabetic, and the differences between my measurements and those who are insulin sensitive.

I learned that exercise would give a temporary bump in glucose, but later (like you noted), my blood sugars would run a little lower to compensate and provide the insulin sensitivity purported from high intensity exercise or a levelling with a smaller increase if low intensity exercise was performed.

I was thinking about buying some more 10 day sensors to re-investigate my current state now that my first year has passed. We’ll see.

(Bob M) #3

My blood sugar is often higher after exercise. In fact, the days I exercise are always higher than the days I don’t. There may be exceptions, but I’ve never seen one.

Protein does nothing to my blood sugar that I can find.

A high carb meal (other than pizza) causes my blood sugar to shoot up, but I’m at the original point within an hour.

Pizza causes high blood sugar for a long time.

Many things I though would cause higher blood sugar don’t: popcorn and salsa to name two.

#4

I can understand salsa! Will need to check popcorn as I love it with butter and cheese

(Bob M) #5

@Fracmeister I got a zero rise for popcorn.

Here’s Thanksgiving, 2017: The 9.7 is “dinner”, and the hump immediately thereafter is dessert. Between each two lines is an hour.

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Contrast that with pizza eaten starting at 6PM:

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Only had pizza a few times when I had my CGM (used these for over a year), but every time was high blood sugar for a long time.

Edit: Here’s what a 36 hour fast looks like. Wednesday was eating; Thursday was a fast; Friday was exercise in the morning (while fasted), then eating:

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Edit 2: Whoa! Those are flat, considering I ate both Wednesday and Friday. The higher blood sugar Friday morning was due to exercise.

But I just found these, and I’m always shocked when I look back at something like this. Many folks are concerned about “the area under the curve” for blood glucose. There’s really nothing here to create a curve.

#6

Your variability is quite low. I think the SDEVMEAN may be as valuable as the MEAN.

At night I am in the 70-90 range but it goes up if I even get up and walk to the bathroom. Every morning i have my biggest consistent rise. Here is one day where I almost immediately exercise (walk 3-5-3.8 mph) for 5 miles vs one where I do not. The exercise only impacts how quickly I fall to lunch time…

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So far almost every meal results in *some" increase but low carb meals are hard to spot. A slice of banana nut bread (last night, yummy) results in a quick 30 point increase and just as quick drop.

I am tempted to have a nice big slice of pizza just to check and see if I get the same long elevation but I am off to vacation tomorrow and am sure i will have loads of carbs to compare to.

(Bob M) #7

I think pizza might be because of the way you eat it. Eat a piece, wait a bit, eat a piece, wait a bit, eat a piece. But there must be something else, too. Gluten?

The Thanksgiving curve I showed had both bread and stuffing (and potatoes), but the bread was Einkorn sourdough I made myself. It has gluten, but it’s different.

With my software, those curves were all I got. So, I can’t blow them up the same way you can.

Are you sure it goes up even if you eat as compared to when you don’t? Eating should shut off the glucose-sparing effect, or at least I thought it did. (I’ve never tested this, as I haven’t eaten breakfast in years, except when on vacation.)

#8

I downloaded the data and put it in excel. Easy to do with the libre data.

It goes up pretty much whether I eat nothing, a “keto muffin” (my typical) or a full on chorizo and eggs mess i like when I am hungry.

just drops down faster when I walk.

#9

If I am converting the units right your range is 4-7 mmol/l or 72-126 mg/dl

Even 9.7 is 175 mg/dl and if you only peak there briefly after Turkey Day and maybe to 135 after dessert and then back to baseline in an hour I am going to say you are “insulin sensitive” — I think the units to measure insulin sensitivity would be the standard deviation of BG divided by the mean—maybe converted to a %. Some people think it should be “<33% for diabetics” and others suggest “<20%” I dont plan to digitize yours but I am guessing it is +/- 10% (visual)…I will be able to report on the impact of New Mexico red and green enchiladas in a week.

(Bob M) #10

I’m using the original device supplied when I bought the Free Style libre from Sweden (OTC over there). This was waaaaaayyyy before you could hook this to your phone or get the data.

9.7*18= 175, way high I think. 8.2 = 148. Not has high as a T2, but pretty high.

With the original device, you only got a number when you took a reading. So that pizza time looks like it’s > 7.1 (128), but you’d never know what the actual result was unless you took a reading during that. The difference with pizza is that it lasts from 6pm to 9pm, whereas something like bread and potatoes are up and down within an hour.

I’ve done a 2 hour Kraft test, and my blood sugar and insulin were in normal ranges at the 2 hour point. (The blood sugar was, but the insulin depends on where you look; it’s either OK or slightly high.) I am relatively insulin sensitive, though that hasn’t helped me lose weight (I’m still overweight, though I think no longer obese by BMI).

(Jane) #11

I wore one once - a gift from a friend. I learned rice gave me the sharpest spike by almost double over flour-based food. But my glucose returned to baseline much quicker than with flour.

I only had a week so I did a range of testing from fasting to strict keto to eating fried rice, which I hadn’t had in over 4 years since going keto. I tested low carb wraps (practically no glucose response :+1:).

Someone posted that sugar alcohols were BS and I have no response to erithrytol but had a significant response to the other sugar alcohols in an ice cream bar that was low carb but loaded with sugar alcohols. It surprised me because my glucose response to the “low carb” bar was almost as much as say chicken and dumplings. Although even when I ate flour-foods I didn’t eat a lot - not a normal portion anyway. Potatoes weren’t too bad, either.

I was pleased my baseline glucose stayed low while IF’ing, spikes with carbs weren’t very high (except for rice) and I returned to baseline pretty quick, which I am hoping means 4 years of keto has done a lot of healing of my pre-diabetic insulin resistance.

(Bob M) #12

They are 100% worth wearing. The day before Thanksgiving, the family was having sushi, so I ordered sashimi (all fish) with a soup (no rice, only shrimp and vegetables). The soup caused an explosion in blood sugar, due to whatever they used to thicken it (maybe corn starch). I was shocked.

Now, I just assume that soup from an Asian restaurant will cause high blood sugar.

#13

On keto, my FBG is often > 100 mg/dL.

My highest BG is in the morning. It goes down when I eat.

Exercising increases my BG. Running can get me to 160, for instance. Interval training, too. Walking is less stressful to my BG, but it can also get higher than if I’m just sitting. Getting up a set of stairs also increases my BG. I can get to a 140, for instance. Well, truth be told, I’m one of those people who always moves fast. I can be either very quiet, either doing things very fast.

The advice of going for a walk after meals to lower BG doesn’t work on me.

I think I must have some liver malfunction and since I’m insulin resistant, what the liver dumps, stays in my blood, nobody wants it.

Stevia, erythritol, aspartame and diet sodas don’t affect me.

(Bob M) #14

Do you do any lifting, such as body weight training? Muscle would provide a place for that to go. (Aerobics will add a bit of muscle and provide a sink, but not as much as lifting will.)

#15

I definitely need to do more. I used to, but haven’t been lifting for a few months.