Featuring my 9-day experiment using a continuous glucose monitor.
Most people only see their blood sugar numbers during annual lab work or occasional check-ins with a clinician. Yet glucose is changing inside your body every minute of the day—responding to meals, movement, sleep, stress, and hormones. A continuous glucose monitor (CGM) gives you a way to see those changes in real time, providing insights that can dramatically improve your metabolic health.
CGMs can help patients better understand how lifestyle habits impact blood sugar. To experience that firsthand, I wore a Stelo CGM by Dexcom (available online without a prescription) for nine days and tracked how food, exercise, and daily activities affected my glucose levels. The patterns were clearer than I expected, and in some cases, surprising.
Here’s what I learned—and why it matters for anyone managing diabetes, prediabetes, or simply trying to lose weight and improve overall health.
The Power of Real-Time Glucose Data
A CGM offers continuous, moment-by-moment information that can reveal your metabolic patterns with incredible clarity. This isn’t just helpful for people with diabetes; it’s beneficial for anyone who wants better energy, fewer cravings, improved fat loss, or early insight into blood sugar dysregulation.
Seeing your glucose line rise and fall teaches you:
- which foods fuel steady energy
- which meals or snacks trigger large spikes
- how different types of exercise affect you
- how alcohol, stress, or sleep contribute to variability
- how your body uniquely responds—something no generic advice can tell you
With a CGM, you’re not guessing. You’re learning your body in real time.
My 9-Day CGM Experiment with Stelo
When I started wearing the CGM, I wanted to approach it with curiosity, not judgment. My goal was to understand—not to chase perfect numbers, but to identify patterns. Over the nine days, I ate my normal foods, did my normal workouts, and monitored how each choice shifted my glucose levels. What emerged was a surprisingly consistent story about what stabilized me, what spiked me, and what brought my glucose down naturally.
What Kept My Blood Sugar Stable
One of the clearest patterns I noticed was how strongly balanced meals influenced my glucose stability. Anytime I ate protein, carbohydrates, and healthy fats together, my digestion slowed and the glucose from my meal entered my bloodstream gradually. Even meals higher in carbs stayed remarkably stable when I combined them with lean protein or added fats like avocado or nuts. The CGM showed smooth, gradual curves instead of sharp peaks.
I also discovered the power of walking after meals. Even a simple 10–15 minute walk made a dramatic difference. On days when I ate the exact same type of meal but didn’t walk afterward, my glucose climbed noticeably higher. When I added the walk, the rise was minimal and returned to baseline quickly. The Stelo graph made this connection crystal clear: post-meal movement is one of the most effective tools for glucose control.
Another stabilizing factor was morning exercise. Exercising early in the day, when insulin levels are naturally lower, helped my body become more insulin sensitive for hours afterward. My entire morning glucose line stayed flatter on days when I worked out early.
What Spiked My Blood Sugar
While many things kept me steady, a few caused fast, noticeable spikes.
The first surprise was how quickly a pear eaten on its own spiked my glucose. Even though fruit is natural, it contains fructose and digests quickly, especially without protein or fat to slow it down. Within minutes, my CGM showed a sharp upward climb. When I paired fruit with protein later in the week, that spike all but disappeared.
A cookie eaten alone had an even more dramatic effect. Refined carbs and sugars entered my bloodstream quickly, and the spike was steep. Seeing the difference between whole, balanced meals and isolated, sugary snacks was eye-opening.
One of the most surprising spikes came from running. I expected exercise to lower my glucose, but high-intensity running actually triggered the opposite. The exertion released stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, signaling my liver to push extra glucose into my bloodstream. Even though this isn’t “bad”—it’s a normal physiological response—it was fascinating to see it play out so clearly.
What Lowered My Blood Sugar
Several activities naturally lowered my glucose, and these patterns were remarkably consistent.
Surprisingly, alcohol lowered my glucose significantly. Alcohol slows the liver’s release of stored glucose, which caused my levels to drop. While this isn’t a recommendation to drink for glucose control—far from it—it was useful to observe how even one drink influenced my readings. Additionally, alcohol does effect how food is processed for up to 24 hours. I’ll expand on that in a future article.
One of the most stabilizing activities was swimming. Swimming uses many muscle groups at once, and the steady, continuous movement helped my muscles pull glucose from my bloodstream efficiently. My glucose line dropped gently and stayed level for hours afterward.
Again, the simplest—and maybe most powerful—glucose-lowering activity of all was walking. Gentle, sustained movement consistently brought my blood sugar down, whether after meals or later in the evening. Walking repeatedly proved to be the most effective, accessible tool for controlling glucose.
My 9-Day Snapshot
At the end of the experiment, my data showed an average glucose of 97 mg/dL and an estimated A1C of about 5.0%. While these numbers were reassuring, what mattered most was the story behind them: how everyday habits—meals, movement, timing, and even stress—shaped my metabolic health hour by hour.
What Your Own CGM Story Could Reveal
No two people respond the same way to food or exercise. What caused a spike for me might be neutral for you—and vice versa. That’s why CGMs are so powerful: they take the guesswork out of metabolic health.
For diabetics, CGMs can reduce complications, improve medication management, and prevent dangerous highs and lows. For those with prediabetes, CGMs can identify problems long before they show up in fasting labs. And for individuals trying to lose weight, CGMs help stabilize insulin—the hormone that determines whether your body stores fat or burns it.
A CGM gives you the power to understand your body at a deeper level, improve your long-term health, and make confident decisions every day.
Instaclinic is here to help you start that journey. 💙
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