Real Time Glucose Tracking app

I just thought I would share this for ‘next thing to track’

Well it looks like a diabetes patch to me, but I think it might be very useful to track for a couple of weeks to track RPE and glucose.

I make my own bottles of ‘beta-fuel’ and drink when I feel like it, or in the recovery valleys. This might confirm how that is going, and whether I need to take a swig for the last effort, or whether that’s just a placebo swig :wink:

Having looked at the cost it won’t be something I will be trying.

I agree that it seems to be health tech getting extra marketing, a bit like a sleep tracker.

Just thought I would share in case anyone was interested. Thanks for the classification @mcneese.chad :+1:

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I actually noticed a commercial yesterday for Freestyle Libre 2 which is for diabetics to scan and monitor sugar which looks identical to that.

Outside of use for diabetics this falls into “you’re taking this too seriously/trying too hard” category for amateur athletes, IMO of course

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When I mentioned this to my wife, a diabetes specialist midwife, she mentioned Libre as a company that made the constant monitoring discs. Maybe this is Libre branching out?

The Supersapiens biosensor is by Abbott Libre

Seems a massive environmental waste unless you need something like this for true medical reasons. Every 14 days you ditch the sensor, wouldn’t be so bad if they could be recycled back with supersapiens.

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This appears to be Libre 3 which is only available to Diabetics in Germany at the moment, Ive got a Libre 2 on my arm at the moent (as I’m type 1) , and great as it is I can’t see th at it would be any more help to a normal than the GI index on the side of a box

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I have been using NutriSense CGM for the last 6 months. You don’t need a prescription for that and the montly cost is pretty reasonable. I am not a diabetic. I use it only for nutrition purposes.

Just asking, but what benefit / information do you feel that the cgm gives you ?

Why would this be less beneficial than a powermeter, or HR monitor, or training and coaching that we all spend money on?

If it worked effectively (big if), you could figure out what your optimal fueling strategies were and be able to deliver peak performances more consistently. Are you sure you’re fueling properly?

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Super Sapiens is the new sponsor for The Cycling Podcast, they are starting to talk about the product and company in the “ad breaks”.

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such systems work with a considerable delay, 20min or more. it does not measure blood sugar real time due to technical reasons.
i am type1, have used all such systems, currently using Dexcom G6 and still measure my sugar with a traditional device once in a while.
especially in more extreme situations where blood sugar rises (food) or falls (sports) very fast the CGM is considerably off (20-40%) for some time and shows delay of 20+ min.

so therefore I dont see any use for a “real time monitiring” in sports

Here is a thread with a similar discussion:
https://www.trainerroad.com/forum/t/supersapiens-continuous-blood-glucose-monitoring/43759/43

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One more interesting observation: I have my “delayed realtime” data sent to my smartwatch from my Dexcom.
While on the bike I have my watch in easy reach to see “current” blood levels, mainly to know, if there is any slight risk of fainting with all the insuline in my blood.

Interestingly whenever the alarm starts to ring, I immediately feel weeker than before the alarm: So, knowing that my blood sugar is low (remember Type1 Diabetics often dont feel low blood sugar) … so actually knowing the data that my blood sugar is critical lets my brain jump in and make me really feel week.

Which is ironic: the low blood sugar does not come from one second to the next - it decreases fast but gradually.

Our bodies can compensate a lot… but our brain plays games with us all the time. So sometimes not knowing is better… :slight_smile:

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Ha, to be fair, I hadn’t considered the 20 minute delay, but I still think there has to be value in looking at what your glycogen levels were like during various efforts after the fact. I’d really like to know what my baseline glycogen levels are and then see how my current fueling strategies affect that.

I didn’t mean to sound like I was starting a row, just seemed the tone of comments was dismissive off the cuff. I would say that Supersapiens is way too expensive for me now.

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Talking as a T1, but we aim to have a blood sugar between 4 & 7 (sorry old school and in the uk) and if it is 5.5 it has nothing to do with if my nutrition is good or bad, if I need to eat or I am hungry. The problems for T1 and the reason we need to monitor, is that we have to introduce insulin into our system in order to make up for what we can’t produce, this makes it a lot harder to “stop”, in a normal, when the sugar level gets to 4 the body stops producing insulin and glucogen is released to bring the sugar level back up, in a T1 this doesn’t happen so the glucogen is released and is still fighting the insulin in the system.

In a normal if you are doing a TT, you can get away doing a 10 mile TT without food as the body will dump glucogen into the system and absorb that with insulin giving you the perfect blood sugar, if you eat before … it wont. and the insulin will absorb the sugar in your blood from the food … both could give you the same blood sugars, only one is correct, I would have though that unless you understand what is going on in the rest of the body, only seeing your blood sugars it would be very easy to make big mistakes

Lots of people ask me to do a blood test when they first see my glucose monitor, and I stopped doing it a long time ago as there are so many things that contribute, heat, time of day, when you last ate, anxiety e.t.c so it only causes miss information, miss direction and anxiey, this is my fear with this.

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Glucose variability is one of the most critical markers for metabolic health. Having high glucose variability is a precursor to a lot of health problems. On the other hand low variabilty is a great indicator of good metabolic health. Google glucose variability. A good link.

Absolutly but would this device help people to diagnose that ? and things like Z2 workouts use sugar from blood, > Threshold intervals cause adrenline to be released which spikes your blood sugar, cause people to be confused ? And the fact that zinc makes you less insulin sensative ?

There are enough queries in these forums with people asking “I just got my first HR monitor, and my heart rate is about 80, am I about to die” that my point (was going to say concern) is that it is more likely to cause people to think they don’t have to eat because there sugar level is ok, rather paying attention to effects different food have on glucose levels

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A CGM is just a measurement of glucose variability and how food, strees and exercise are affecting your glucose levels. It is just one tool in your arsenal. It is up to you to make decisions. The all point is that high glucose variability is a precursor for a host of significant health problems so you want to avoid that as much as possible. How quickly your glucose comes down to normal levels after a meal or a streesor is a good indicator of good health.

An interview with the man behind Supersapiens

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4n650Vw572nGpHhl14QKOT?si=ZwOH16jvQxWLlYff393zKw&utm_source=copy-link&dl_branch=1

Is there a shortage of these devices? Totally agree with you if these things are being used for sporting improvements when they could have a meaningful impact on someone’s health.

For a diabetic this makes sense - the data is helpful but not life saving in these instances. For cyclists - couldn’t you make the argument that as long as you have a predictable lag (and this may be an incorrect assumption on my part), you could track the data over time and come up with a feeding strategy based on the offset.

If the offset/delay was consistent people who see value in this could adapt accordingly

All that said - I’m not really convinced this is a great use of money at this point for most cyclists. For folks really struggling with core fueling principles, or those that are struggling significantly with gastric issues - this might be worth trying.

Once the price point comes down it might become a fairly standard thing - spend a few months using these things to come up with how your body responds to fueling during different intensity and duration - then check-in with it again every year or so to make sure you’re still able to do what works best for your body.

if all else stays constant then yes… but all other factors will barely be constant: temperature, humidity, quality of sleep, stress, etc… there are so many factors influencing blood sugar…

it is unfortunately not simple math like intake=blood sugar… if it was my life as a type1 diavetic woukd be much easier

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