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Why do you feel you need to change your food intake, and how do you interpret your CGM results? If you don't have a form of diabetes it doesn't really make a di

Why do you feel you need to change your food intake, and how do you interpret your CGM results? If you don't have a form of diabetes it doesn't really make a difference. Your glucose will go back down to 85 fairly soon.

jrvarela56 4y ago
Family history of developing type 2 diabetes. I take the CGM results as a sign of my pancreas having to pump out insulin to counter the blood sugar. From what I understand, consistently exceeding certain level (110/120? forgot) for prolonged periods (an hour was the warning given by the device) eventually leads to insulin resistance.
- code_duck 4y ago
  I see, sounds reasonable. I definitely learned a lot about how my body responds to different foods and other reasons glucose can rise (besides food, glucose also rises in response to metabolic activity). Which CGM are you using? I have a Dexcom, which has configurable alarm thresholds. I have type 1 diabetes. Generally I try to avoid being over 140 for very long, and over 200 is considered dangerous. My Tandem insulin pump used a non-configurable setting of 110 as the level it tries to maintain by increasing or decreasing insulin dosages.
  - jrvarela56 4y ago
    I used Levels, which integrates to Librelink from Abbot. Levels just puts a nice UI on top of Librelink, like scoring meals and days, finding associations between meals and giving you tips. I stopped using these because they are expensive (at least 100 per month if I only used Librelink, think it depends on country as my moms buys hers in Colombia not the US) and I was just looking to learn about certain meals/timing/etc.
nostrebored 4y ago
I’ve put on weight and I find the cgm to be a way more objective and practical metric than calorie counting. It’s simply hard to consume enough low GI foods to put on weight. There are certain foods that my body seems to process poorly. My blood glucose spikes as much from crackers and rice as it does from more traditional sweets. My heuristics for other foods that I assumed were sweet (often fatty foods with mild sweetener) were also wrong. And I’m not weighing everything, counting calories, etc. I just tap my phone onto the device a few times a day. Other things have also been surprising. I smoke hookah fairly regularly and found that it raises my fasting blood glucose by almost ten points (80 -> 90). I find it’s an easy North Star metric with a single exception being intense physical activity which releases glycogen stores. There are other factions within the community that believe that blood glucose spikes are responsible for things like abdominal fat storage and you’ll see that they continually try to game the number with things like nut consumption and drinking vinegar. This seems less useful to me.
- jrvarela56 4y ago
  Have you tried taking a fiber supplement before meals? If you're still using the cgm I recommend you try and measure - I was impressed! I noticed the effect with salads and figured the fiber could help in a similar way.
  - code_duck 4y ago
    Fiber and protein do slow down carb absorption, but for me fat content makes the biggest difference.
- code_duck 4y ago
  I have type 1 diabetes (actually LADA) so I keep a very careful eye on my glucose. Definitely the foods that make it rise the fastest are starchy vegetables like potatoes and grains. Fat plays a major role in absorption - a potato by itself causes a quick spike, while if I add cheese, it takes about twice as long to fully digest. Protein and fiber slow things down, too. Generally sugar causes a spike that goes down quickly compared to other carb sources. Many people with t1 find that aerobic exercise like a brisk walk lowers glucose in the short term, and it even has an effect for a day or two. Often people report that intense anaerobic exercise like weightlifting raises glucose levels. Insulin definitely plays a role in fat storage (that’s one of the major things it does as a hormone).

jrvarela56 4y ago

Family history of developing type 2 diabetes. I take the CGM results as a sign of my pancreas having to pump out insulin to counter the blood sugar. From what I understand, consistently exceeding certain level (110/120? forgot) for prolonged periods (an hour was the warning given by the device) eventually leads to insulin resistance.

code_duck 4y ago
I see, sounds reasonable. I definitely learned a lot about how my body responds to different foods and other reasons glucose can rise (besides food, glucose also rises in response to metabolic activity). Which CGM are you using? I have a Dexcom, which has configurable alarm thresholds. I have type 1 diabetes. Generally I try to avoid being over 140 for very long, and over 200 is considered dangerous. My Tandem insulin pump used a non-configurable setting of 110 as the level it tries to maintain by increasing or decreasing insulin dosages.
- jrvarela56 4y ago
  I used Levels, which integrates to Librelink from Abbot. Levels just puts a nice UI on top of Librelink, like scoring meals and days, finding associations between meals and giving you tips. I stopped using these because they are expensive (at least 100 per month if I only used Librelink, think it depends on country as my moms buys hers in Colombia not the US) and I was just looking to learn about certain meals/timing/etc.

nostrebored 4y ago

I’ve put on weight and I find the cgm to be a way more objective and practical metric than calorie counting. It’s simply hard to consume enough low GI foods to put on weight. There are certain foods that my body seems to process poorly. My blood glucose spikes as much from crackers and rice as it does from more traditional sweets. My heuristics for other foods that I assumed were sweet (often fatty foods with mild sweetener) were also wrong. And I’m not weighing everything, counting calories, etc. I just tap my phone onto the device a few times a day. Other things have also been surprising. I smoke hookah fairly regularly and found that it raises my fasting blood glucose by almost ten points (80 -> 90). I find it’s an easy North Star metric with a single exception being intense physical activity which releases glycogen stores. There are other factions within the community that believe that blood glucose spikes are responsible for things like abdominal fat storage and you’ll see that they continually try to game the number with things like nut consumption and drinking vinegar. This seems less useful to me.

jrvarela56 4y ago
Have you tried taking a fiber supplement before meals? If you're still using the cgm I recommend you try and measure - I was impressed! I noticed the effect with salads and figured the fiber could help in a similar way.
- code_duck 4y ago
  Fiber and protein do slow down carb absorption, but for me fat content makes the biggest difference.
code_duck 4y ago
I have type 1 diabetes (actually LADA) so I keep a very careful eye on my glucose. Definitely the foods that make it rise the fastest are starchy vegetables like potatoes and grains. Fat plays a major role in absorption - a potato by itself causes a quick spike, while if I add cheese, it takes about twice as long to fully digest. Protein and fiber slow things down, too. Generally sugar causes a spike that goes down quickly compared to other carb sources. Many people with t1 find that aerobic exercise like a brisk walk lowers glucose in the short term, and it even has an effect for a day or two. Often people report that intense anaerobic exercise like weightlifting raises glucose levels. Insulin definitely plays a role in fat storage (that’s one of the major things it does as a hormone).