Did you know you can now buy a CGM, continuous glucose monitor, without a prescription, for $99.00. That will get you 2 units, each unit good for about 2 weeks of tracking. So that’s a months worth of glucose monitoring for a $100.00.
My mom actually bought one.
Thought I would share because I thought it was cool and a great deal.
I decided to bite the bullet and give this thing a try.
I did the no obligation $99.00 for two monitors, good for 1 month worth of tracking.
Super fast shipping. I ordered on Sunday and it was at my house on Tuesday. It shipped via Amazon Freight, though I didn’t buy on Amazon.
This is what the package looks like.
Comes with spring loaded applicator.
You don’t feel the needle when you put it on. You feel the thump from the applicator applying the device and it helps hide the feeling of a needle actually entering your skin.
You have to download an app, it’s the Stelo by Dexcom app. It’s free to use.
Main page looks like this.
Pretty cool gadget for those of you who like gadgets. I have been eating low carb, damn near ketogenic since I got this. Biggest bumps in glucose have been from my workouts.
I plan to get my goal weight and then bring carbs back in slowly, at that time I will use the second device for more information regarding a more paleo higher carb type of eating.
CGMs are super cool. I love that you’re doing this. Keep us posted on how things are going!
Will do. It is actually really neat. I know for a long time I wanted to play with one of these, but they were prescription only or they required you signing up with an online dr and then paying 300ish dollars a month or more.
Nifty tool to see how your diet and other things might be contributing to increases in glucose circulating.
I was surprised how big a bump I got from doing cardio on Wednesday or today doing a squat and dead lift session. Both brought me up higher than eating an apple did.
Great post, I looked into these myself, they’re pretty cheap in the UK and don’t think they’ve ever needed a prescription. I really must get round to doing it, I’d love the real time feedback seeing which carbs affect it the most, how protein & fat impacts that peaks and how quickly it returns to baseline etc.
I will tell you that protein and fats seem have very little impact. I eat large portions too.
Dinner last night I had 20 ounces of pork chops, that is 2 good sized pork chops, .5 cup of full fat lactose free cottage cheese, a giant bowl of mixed greens with ranch dressing. Desert was a sugar free keto type of chocolate with hazelnut. My glucose never went over 93.
One thing that was funny that did raise my glucose to 106 this morning was a really hot shower. I thought that was kind of funny.
Sorry, I wasn’t clear, I was thinking more about the impact that fats/protein have on slowing carbs impact on blood sugar.
It’s good to know that the protein and fat have little impact on your levels, have you tried a whey shake in isolation of any other food?
Yeah, it again has no very little to no impact. I am sure it depends on the type of whey protein and the sweeteners and total carbs that the protein powder has. Mine is a whey protein isolate, 4 grams of carbs and is sweetened with erythritol.
I do know that my mom, who started using these CGM’s before myself, said that if she eats protein and a fat prior to eating fruit it has a beneficial effect of not having such a big spike. She has also said walking after eating really brings it down quickly too. She now makes a point to walk after each meal.
That’d great, really valuable data, going to do it myself!
I know that @T3hPwnisher is a big proponent of walking, and gives the 10 mins after a meal recommendation (more for accumulating movement than this specifically I believe) but just gives more credence to the power of walking for overall health and awesomeness.
For both, actually. Walking after a meal has been demonstrated to reduce blood sugar more effectively than Metformin from what I’ve seen. It’s really just an incredible gift we can give ourselves. Stan Efferding talks a lot about the benefits of this, to also include controlling glucose uptake and nutrition partitioning.
With me eating pretty much no carbs, it’s not too big a deal, but still a great protocol, and I DO try to get in a walk after my weekly carb meal.
Had 2 large green grapes today for a test. I remember Peter Attia saying grapes would always send his skyrocketing and they were more like candy than fruit.
Pretty big jump for 2 grapes. 128 is as high as it went.
Believe it or not, but Reese’s peanut butter Valentine’s heart had little to no effect on making my glucose rise earlier today. I only had one.
Take that for what it is. 
I’m wondering if the fat blunts the impact of the sugar.
That is the same thing I was thinking.
In the name of science you need to eat at least 10x that amount.
Haha. I might do that once I hit my goal weight. I will report back, but that will probably be closer to after memorial day.
Exactly this.
Haha good read thanks for that.
So RD approval to eat copious amounts of Reese’s?
I mean, you could do worse… And with Easter coming, you can probably get the egg-shaped one at a lower cost than real eggs right now. lol
