The Lowdown on the NutriSense Continuous Glucose Monitor
If you’ve been here for a minute, you know I love talking about blood sugar.
Listen to Episode 55: How to Tell if Your Blood Sugar is a Problem for a deep dive on all that. It’s damn near impossible for anything to work well in your body if your blood sugar regulation is a mess. (That includes your hormones, friends.)
Because I love this stuff so much, I did a 2 1/2 month experiment with NutriSense’s Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM).
I got so many questions about it on Instagram that figured I’d answer all your Qs in blog format!
My chiropractor introduced me to the company—he’s a health and nutrition buff like myself and loves to experiment and biohack. We were geeking out over the data together one day, and I decided to purchase a two week trial for my own experimentation. After that initial period, I wanted to tinker around a little bit more, so NutriSense gifted me a 2 month trial.
Be sure to listen to my interview with Cofounder of NutriSense and Director of Nutrition, Kara Collier, RDN here where we talk all about it!
Listen in to hear the breakdown on who this CGM is good for, who it’s NOT good for, and how it can be a beneficial step to help some who are looking to take their established health behaviors to the next level.
What is a CGM?
CONTINUOUS GLUCOSE MONITOR
A CGM is a small device that tracks your glucose levels continuously and in real time. You place the device on the back of your arm and wear it for 14 days. By scanning the device with the NutriSense app on your phone, you can see how your glucose is changing in real time and in response to all types of variables, such as food, exercise, stress, and sleep. It can help you understand how your body responds to these different variables so you can improve your health.
Specifically with NutriSense CGM, you fill out a sign up form and choose a program (they offer 2 types of trials and 3 different monthly commitments), then fill out a health questionnaire to determine if you qualify (this is an important step because this is not a tool recommended for everyone. Read on to learn who I do NOT recommend this device for). Once accepted, you’ll receive 2 14-day sensors in the mail within 2 weeks with everything you need to start tracking.
Up until now, CGMs have only been available by prescription for diabetics, but NutriSense CGM is available for all to try.
Logistics
Answers to the questions everyone asked me about wearing one!
Don’t need to go anywhere to get it or have a doctor apply it for you.
The sensor is super easy to apply and remove.
Does not hurt, non-obtrusive.
You can do all your normal activities while wearing it - you forget it’s there!
Water resistant - I wore it in the shower and the sauna with no problem.
Use your phone to scan the device any time.
Excellent at tracking how your glucose levels change throughout your day.
Leave it on for 2 weeks then replace with another.
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Before I talk about who I think should try a CGM, I want to give my professional opinion on who should avoid wearing them.
Who it’s not good for:
Anyone with an active eating disorder, or disordered eating tendencies.
NutriSense does their best to screen for this in the initial questionnaire, because they understand this type of data collection can be a MASSIVE trigger for disordered thought patterns and behaviors.
With that said, if tracking data tends to make you feel neurotic or hypervigilant, I would not recommend a CGM, even if you don’t have a history of eating disorders.
A CGM helps you assess overall patterns. If you’re someone who gets caught up in minutia - if you can become obsessive about tracking and assessing every individual marker, every stat and every value and questioning “what does this mean?” then a CGM is most likely not a good fit for you.
I also wouldn’t recommend a CGM for someone just dipping their toe into the world of “healthy eating”. Wearing a CGM is *not* the first place to start if you’re looking to clean up your diet.
I suggest get a handle on eating well first, either by doing a nutrition program like Eat to Achieve™ or the Carb Compatibility Project™.
Who it’s good for:
I definitely would not recommend a CGM for just anyone. As I mentioned, I really don’t think a CGM is a “getting started” place for folks looking to get healthy, but instead for those looking to dial in and personalize their already established good behaviors.
I’m always going to advocate for starting with the basics:
Whole foods diet
Manage stress
Move your body
Sleep hygiene
In my opinion, a continuous glucose monitor is best suited for someone who already has a good handle on eating well and is looking for “next level” data. After consulting with other practitioners, this seems to be the common consensus amongst us.
Some real-world examples:
My chiropractor already had a really good handle on his health. He’d been on a keto and low carb diet, and wanted to see his day-to-day blood sugar responses, especially in regards to intense exercise. The Nutrisense CGM gave him such good data and confirmed to keep on doing what he was doing.
A client of mine had worked with me on her hormones and her gut health. After several months of working together, all of her biomarkers looked great. However, her insulin and blood sugar markers were a little puzzling to me—I felt that there was something wonky going on. Since she has a family history of T2 diabetes (and was worried about it), I recommended the Nutrisense CGM. It made sense for her to track to find specific foods she was responding to and look for trends to get to the bottom of what might been going on. Her biggest finding was that she is much more insulin sensitive in the morning, but very reactive to carbohydrates in the evening. She learned to stack most of her carbs in the beginning half of the day for better overall blood sugar regulation.
I think a CGM could also be useful for someone who is avoiding carbs altogether, but maybe not sure that’s the best approach. Maybe you’ve read up on the benefits of a low carb diet, a keto diet, or even intermittent fasting, and you’re doing these practices because you’re worried about blood sugar. The CGM will give you real time data. You might learn that you don’t have to be so worried about avoiding carbohydrates.
One thing I wanted to experiment with personally was how my body reacted on my own nutrition program, The Carb Compatibility Project™. This is a 4-week process where I help folks dial in their ideal carbohydrate sweet spot. I’ve done this process myself several times, and I always feel best on the week 2-3 plan, so that’s the way I typically eat.
I wanted to investigate: does the data actually reflect what I’m feeling physically? I wore the CGM throughout the entire 4 week process, and saw that my blood sugar markers looked the best on week 2-3, which was extremely validating for me!
Some screenshots of my own CGM data below.
Some unexpected finds:
Stress makes my blood sugar go haywire, regardless of diet.
There were a few stressful days/weeks sprinkled into the mix, and no matter how I ate, my blood sugar was all over the place. This was a huge eye-opener!
I hyper-respond to dates & GoMacro bars—they really spike my blood sugar!
But even when I get a big glucose response, I’m able to clear it quickly.
Since I’ve trended toward low blood sugar in the past, and have a family history of diabetes and heart disease, I’ve invested a lot of attention into regulating my blood sugar through diet. Wearing a CGM helped to validate that I all of the efforts I have made with diet and lifestyle are really paying off when it comes to my blood sugar control!
