CGM for the Metabolically Healthy

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Glycemic Index & Load
The glycemic index (GI) and glycemic load (GL) are averages across a group of people, while a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) draws your own curve. In a study of 800 people, the same meal produced bigger differences in blood glucose response between people than different foods did, which is why the two often disagree.

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What a glucose monitor measures

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A (CGM) measures sugar in the interstitial fluid under the skin — the fluid between cells — not in the blood inside your vessels. A fine sensor stays under the skin and gives a reading every few minutes, and those readings join up into the line on your phone. Sugar has to seep out of the vessels into that fluid first, so the monitor runs several to fifteen-odd minutes behind fingertip blood, and its number is not exactly blood glucose.

Many people panic when they see that line shoot up after a meal. In a metabolically healthy person, a curve that rises and then falls back is what this system does every day: sugar enters the blood, and the body moves it into cells. It is not diabetes, and it is not a quiet loss of control.

There is a ready reference for what normal looks like. In a multicenter observational study, 153 healthy people without diabetes and without obesity wore a CGM, and they spent about 96% of their time inside the normal range (Shah 2019). So the question is not whether your glucose moves, but how much movement counts as normal.

Educational content, not medical advice — consult a clinician.

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CGM for the Metabolically Healthy

Story

Connected to · 1

contrast · 1

Glycemic Index & Load
The glycemic index (GI) and glycemic load (GL) are averages across a group of people, while a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) draws your own curve. In a study of 800 people, the same meal produced bigger differences in blood glucose response between people than different foods did, which is why the two often disagree.

Read full story

Stop 1/6

What a glucose monitor measures

EVIDENCECOHORT 1

READ THE ORIGINAL

A (CGM) measures sugar in the interstitial fluid under the skin — the fluid between cells — not in the blood inside your vessels. A fine sensor stays under the skin and gives a reading every few minutes, and those readings join up into the line on your phone. Sugar has to seep out of the vessels into that fluid first, so the monitor runs several to fifteen-odd minutes behind fingertip blood, and its number is not exactly blood glucose.

Many people panic when they see that line shoot up after a meal. In a metabolically healthy person, a curve that rises and then falls back is what this system does every day: sugar enters the blood, and the body moves it into cells. It is not diabetes, and it is not a quiet loss of control.

There is a ready reference for what normal looks like. In a multicenter observational study, 153 healthy people without diabetes and without obesity wore a CGM, and they spent about 96% of their time inside the normal range (Shah 2019). So the question is not whether your glucose moves, but how much movement counts as normal.

Educational content, not medical advice — consult a clinician.