My Adventures with a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM)

[viscousmemories]

I signed up for a "social experiment" proposed by a Twitter rando that involves wearing a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) for 28 days with the aim of keeping my glucose levels under 140 each day.

Starting from the belief that maintaining low blood sugar levels (e.g. through a keto diet) leads to better health (specifically weight loss), the rando's main hypothesis is that having a monetary incentive would motivate people to stay on target.

The experiment goes like this:

1. Send $800 to rando
2. Get a CGM and associated software
3. Wear the CGM for 28 days
4. Get $25 back each day glucose is <140mg/dL
5. Profit

Ok, number five might not be true. Those of you who are math(s)-aware will notice that successfully completing the experiment only nets me $700 of the $800 I put up at the start, so I'm definitely not profiting. But I don't think rando is profiting either given the normal cost of CGMs and the effort he has put into corralling the 30ish participants.

Tomorrow marks one week since I began this experiment, and already I have learned some very interesting things about how different foods impact my glucose levels. I've also lost about 6 lbs, so win/win. At the conclusion of this experiment (and maybe sooner) I will post a lot of charts and food pr0n in this thread so that others might learn things I learned, and all will be better people for it.

[BrotherMan]

One of the slightly surprising things that hit my glucose level: Apples. I was constantly above average having consumed simply two or three apples per day. (As included in my regular diet, accounting for calories.) Which, technically, shouldn't be surprising when you think about what apples are. The balance to the higher glycemic index is that apples also provide a good amount of fiber.

The key to my weightloss is twofold: Realizing just how many calories I was consuming compared to how many I actually needed. Changing my carb-load balance. I didn't go keto so much as cut out the heavier carbs (breads and such).

[Kyuss Apollo]

I did a keto diet last summer and lost 27 lbs. I did a similar diet/life-style change back in 2014-2015 that got me down to approx. 10% body fat, so I knew it would work. Bort is absolutely right -- eliminating most of the bread and fruit-drinks and even my apple consumption was a huge factor in my success both times, whether I was in true ketosis or just in a sort of fasting mode.

But then over the fall and winter I started doing dumb stuff again like taking the kid out to get pizza and then me eating pizza too, and the Halloween candy eating extravaganza and then the Thanksgiving Thanksgrabbing and... yeah.

Good luck with your endeavor VM! I never did the glucose monitoring or got the keto test, I looked at all that stuff but I couldn't budget it in.

[viscousmemories]

I can't believe I never followed up on this but in my defense there was a global pandemic happening.

I don't have access to the GCM data anymore because the app beta expired but it wasn't terribly interesting anyway.

What I learned is that I am not like other bears when it comes to how my body processes carbohydrates. My glucose never went >120mg/dL no matter what I ate. I even tried a serving of Americone Dream near the end of the experiment and no spike. Lest anyone think the GCM was defective, keep in mind that I went through multiple GCM's during the experiment and confirmed the measurements with occasional prick tests.

By the end of the experiment I had earned back all the money I had wagered but I hadn't lost any weight. I was disappointed but it helped me understand why low/no carb dieting hadn't been as wildly impactful for me as I had been led to expect it would be. Now I'm back to intermittent fasting and caloric restriction in an effort to lose weight (in my case eating only between 11:00AM and 5:00PM and limiting calories to ~1800) which works, but is slow and frequently miserable.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by viscousmemories

Now I'm back to intermittent fasting and caloric restriction in an effort to lose weight (in my case eating only between 11:00AM and 5:00PM and limiting calories to ~1800) which works, but is slow and frequently miserable.

I know someone who's had some success with that regime. Despite misery. Which may not even be connected.