Although I’ve never been diabetic (or even prediabetic) I’ve used a glucometer and blood ketone meter everyday for almost 2 years. It was instrumental in guiding my dietary efforts and in keeping me motivated during my weight loss journey. I’m now at optimal body weight, but I still use it everyday to guide my efforts as I work to optimize my metabolic health.
Rather than using general rules of thumb, or measuring/weighing my food and tracking macros, I used the glucometer to measure my body’s specific reaction to the foods I ate. With a bit of testing, I determined my personal carb tolerance. I learned that my BG (and by inference insulin) responds differently to beef vs fish vs pork vs chicken.
I am person that thrives on feedback. Seeing how what I ate effected my body kept me motivated to stay on course. I also used a smart scale that synced with my phone to track my weight. And a FitBit to track my activity, sleep, and HR during workouts.
I use a Mojo to measure ketones. I typically only do it once, first thing in the morning. I use a glucometer from Walmart for BG because the strips are cheap and readily available. For the first few months, I tested my BG multiple times a day, after meals to assess the impact. Currently, I use my morning BG reading to guide my eating/fasting regime. I’m thinking about increasing the resistant starch in my diet, which will require re-incorporating potatoes, rice, beans, or grains into my diet. The glucometer will be essential to helping me figure out how I can do this.
I don’t like to guess at what can easily be tested. Not only do I know when I’m in ketosis, I know the degree of ketosis. I calculate my GKI and strive to keep it under 3 most of the time.
This video does an excellent job at explaining how and why the glucometer is a useful tool: