CGM devices for weight management

Just googled it. Read the “pro” argument. Basically said CGMs will tell you not to eat sugar. If you don’t eat sugar, your body will burn fat. Hmm. Didn’t convince me. If my body burns what I feed it, doesn’t it still just matter HOW MUCH I eat?
They didn’t say anything to convince me otherwise.

There's a lady in one of the support groups I'm in here on MFP who is taking part in a program called Data Driven Fasting, where you basically monitor your BGL and don't eat until it goes below your trigger level. I wonder if these CGM devices are marketing along that same idea - if I were taking part in a program like that, I'd rather have a CGM than have to prick my finger several times a day to see if I'm "allowed" to eat yet.
Personally, I think it's all just another ploy to make sales. Unless you have a medical need to monitor your BGL, I don't think you really need to be attaching a device to yourself!

paperpudding wrote: »

CGM monitors are great for insulin dependant diabetics

Pointless for rest of us.

Maybe.
If the Apple Watch had a cgm I’d have discovered I am a diabetic probably six to nine months before I did. And I likely would not have developed numbness in my feet and legs. (for whatever reason it hit me pretty fast)

I’m hoping for the CGM on the Apple Watch. With luck it will happen in September. But probably not.

lmf1012 wrote: »

My Facebook feed has been inundated lately with all things fitness or diet related thanks to my recent marketplace searches no doubt and have come across two CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitoring) devices marketed to help with weight loss and metabolic health.

I have ZERO desire to put one of these on (I have a somewhat irrational fear of needles, etc.) but curious what the masses think about measuring blood sugar responses to meals, exercise, and sleep and using that information to adjust eating, etc. to lose weight.

The Veri device seems to be marketed mainly toward metabolic health where as Signos had a definitive focus on weight loss.

Just to mention, I am the biggest NEEDLE WEENIE on the planet, I have kicked syringes out of a doctors hands when I was young. So I had huge anxiety about installing the CGM, winged, closed my eyes, and then did it and I thought I missed or it didn't work. I virtually felt nothing. One thing of note you have to make sure you put it into your fat flabby area of your arm or belly. so that it is not flexing withing a muscle wall. I am using Nutrisense at the moment, they did tell me they are working to integrate with MyFitness Pal, see how that goes. I am hoping SuperSapiens will be available in the USA soon they are geared towards athletes.

Most people do not need to balance their blood sugar. Their body produces insulin and does it for them, whether they understand it or not.
I think we all know excessive amounts of sugar are not good for health or weight without reading a book about it.
Regardless of that, CGM's are of no value to anyone other than insulin dependant diabetics - and elite cyclists according to PP.

and those people in US or anywhere who have insulin dependant diabetes can benifit from CGM's

plenty of apps that give the rest of information you are using and some people here synchonise smart watches, fitbits etc with MFP

people who have impaired glucose tolerance, or for whom high carb diet is not healthy - they do not need CGM's.
we don't need every point of data to change our lifestyles and/or lose weight.

psuLemon wrote: »

I see zero value in a CGM. Unless you are prediabetic/diabetic where that may be value in understanding those numbers. Even then, if you keep carbs low and get regular blood work, then you should be fine

They are very valuable for type 1 diabetics- fir them it isn't any 'may be' and it doesn't replace regular blood work.
It allows them to quickly adjust to highs or lows of blood sugars, avoid hypos and give right amount of insulin and to do so without frequent finger pricking.

They are a very good invention when used for purpose.

Of course this is irelevant to everyone else though.

Do I use a BGM, negative. Would I use one now that they're becoming more popular, negative. Do I have diabetes, no and my BGL is in the mid to high 4's and have been stable for 10 years. 13+ years ago my BGL was in the mid to high 5's and subsequently like a few here consume a whole food low carb diet which for the most part has helped mitigate that increase along with losing around 55lbs 12 years ago.

We seem to have a consensus that unless a person is prediabetic or has diabetes a BGM is pretty well useless. I'm going to add a little more context and nuance, as I'm sure y'all suspected this was something I would do.

In 1970 diabetes in the US was around 2% and now it's 11% with an additional 30% prediabetic which translates into about 140 million people. The pathway that elicits that effect is hyperinsulinemia. Hyperinsulinemia which is elevated insulin production is what makes sure there's always enough insulin to remove the glucose from our blood and this process is happening until that production continues to fail and blood glucose levels rise to prediabetic numbers, then to diabetes from the continual increase in blood glucose and the popular fix is medications like metformin which isn't really addressing the cause, but that's western medicine, no doubt about that.

Does the Dr. check for hyperinsulinemia when we go for a blood test, no, they check blood glucose. Basically a person could and is experiencing hyperinsulinemia when they're showing a slightly higher average and higher but not in the wheelhouse of pre or diabetes, so basically a person doesn't have prediabetes if they're 5.9 but do if they have 6.0 what if from the get go Dr's were checking for hyperinsulinemia along with blood glucose, anyway I digress, that doesn't appear to be happening anytime soon, shout out to the ADA and other governing bodies.

Back to BGM's. If ultra processed foods which have been on the rise since 1970, dramatically I might add, have effectively created a scenario where people are overconsuming and gaining weight then most of those calories are refined carbohydrates, dietary fats, sugar and salt which over the course since the 70's have directly affected this increase in prediabetes and diabetes and obesity and a few more non communicable diseases then a BGM might be the right fit at the right time. Early awareness can be beneficial and apparently good for cyclists as well. Food for though. Cheers