Yes watching this video at the moment, and he’s saying the ‘performance zone is 120 to 130’.
How much was your trial pack? I’m finding the prices actually higher than expected. Over 80eu for 1 sensor to the UK, and over 150 euro for 2 sensor subscription to the UK.
I went for the subscription just now for the next two. I fancied the cap as well. Likely to cancel it though straight away, there is certainly some mental fatigue expected with all of this, just a warning to all. I have my performance already quite dialled and would not recommend it for everyone, in all honesty.
Ohhh boy this is such a loaded question because even if you were to know all the current science, you would then realize, we still don’t know enough. There is a lot of complexity as well because the whole issue is not as simple as supersapiens would like to make it which is to distill it into glucose zones.
My personal belief is that we will eventually be able to get to the point where an app and AI can do most of the leg work and manage your energy systems for optimal health/performance. However, we are nowhere near that yet. I would say at this point, an app like supersapiens is good for verifying and validating a diet plan/nutrition timing strategy. I don’t think the tech is good enough where you would seriously modify your diet/training nutrition to try to achieve some numbers on a CGM. That is because there are some limitations to the technology and once those are well understood, then you can understand how you can effectively use the tool.
Just a little taste of why it can be so hard to just look at the blood glucose number and make decisions based on it alone is that it is like trying to gauge how much water there is in a given area just by looking at the rate of flow of it’s rivers. There is glycogen in the liver, in the muscles and the liver is also producing glucose. Fructose is not measured and is at least a third of what is absorbed when we are consuming high calorie Maurten or an equivalent. To be able to take all this into account takes time/education/practice or a coach.
I would say the first step for you is to document everything. Food diary, training journal, glucose level chart data, perceived exertion and mental state. It’s as they say in mythbusters, the only difference between messing around and science is writing it down. With those in hand, you then have most of your options about how to analyze and improve in whatever you’re looking to improve.
I absolutely knew it was loaded, was my intention to get some input here
Really appreciate the input. Honestly speaking i have mainly used it to simply see how my body reacts to a variety of foods under a variety of circumstances. Being a former postdoc, having this mini lab on my arm with other inputs is pure bliss in some ways, and tormenting in another! It has made me more aware of the sheer number of things that can affect this number.
I honestly think the intraworkout benefit is super useful, but the easiest part. It is a sinpler equation than outside of the workout, at least from what i have found out so far. Biggest disappointment: carrots!
Edit: i am scavenging to find material on the components to why it stays elevated some days, in particular for athletes.
Really liked this from Froome on Supersapiens, and is something I get mentally too when tackling hard efforts deep into a workout - basically I think oh I’m tailing off, must be running out of energy and I kinda give in to that. But Froome says when he’s at that point and he sees live he has sufficient glucose available he knows he can push through. I know he’s selling the tech a bit, but that point really speaks to my regular experience, especially as I often run calorie deficits so available energy is sometimes a roll of the dice.
I hope I can help but this kind of sounds concerning to me as I wouldn’t expect blood glucose to be elevated for extended periods of time in a healthy person. First thing first, what are you considering elevated? Have you tried verifying the calibration of the cgm with a finger stick method? Have you been taking acetaminophen (paracetamol)?
When I played with my sensor, it was pretty spot on and I would usually fall back down to a baseline of about 86mg/dl as my baseline. It sure was fun eating massive meals to test my ability to pack away all those calories
OK, I should put it in context. My fasting amount is about the same: ca 80-90mg/dL. After most meals (being vegan now for many years), it slowly comes back down to that. However, I think this is loaded coming right back…
The SS app shows your exposure for the day. I don’t see how this is applicable for endurance athletes with a normal range. Take for example: I do 2 hours SS, or like today, I will go out for 5 hours in the mountains, my levels will be elevated by default since I need to fuel. Following that, we all get hungry, levels up again. Work stress, see some clear fluctuations. The fact that SS recommends 120mg/mL+ for any workout does not align with keeping an average of less than 90 in my eyes. Or am I missing something here?
My question more was based on this fuelling aspect and also the nature of internal recovery with bodilly stresses from inflammation etc (with small meals throughout the day, which with this method, again keeps you elevated) which I am curious about, but I am sure is extremely complex…
The levels are going to be highly personal, the SS app allows you to customise the ranges and also the total daily exposure you are shooting for. There is now such thing really as a general recommended level, largely because I think there are two many variables here and not enough data for back up any recommendation. This is an interesting article (from a competitive product: Normal Glucose Levels - The Ultimate Guide from Levels Health).
SS recently introduced the distinction between “off-” and “on-” hours and I believe that further iterations of the app will discount “on-hours” in terms of overall glucose exposure (a bit like measuring your average HR across the day - if you exercise your HR is going to go up and we know that’s good for you, but it would make your average HR for the day higher!). Here’s some links if you haven’t seen them around off/on:
Thanks for the those. I had forgotten about that article set, it’s fairly useful though i still think it is a bit vague, and most likely for good reason. The part “have a super sugary snack after workout, time it for two hours, see if it drops in a sufficient way” to somewhat aid recovery, is all well and good but the effects of whether it has been useful or not is really not easy to ascertain. Just one example. Despite that, aiming generally for 110 seems to be a nice guideline from them for workout fuelling.
I think they’re overselling a few things in their articles, possibly in a way that promotes the use of their product more often than is necessary and they don’t provide a lot of nuance or personalization.
For example, yes, there is the window right after exercise where one can rapidly replenish glycogen stores, but, unless you are going to do another quality workout within another 8 hours, it may not be so critical to suck down a bunch of gummies or post workout energy drink while watching the cgm. Studies have shown that normal and adequate meals are enough to replenish those glycogen stores in 24 hours. A proper diet plan here will be more useful than a cgm.
Another thing is that your numbers may be highly personalized. Maybe at 110 mg/dl, you feel a bit weak on your v02 max workouts, maybe you want to be so well fed that you’re bumping up towards 150mg/dl. It’s also good practice for race day to see if you can stomach that level of feeding. For example, during Ronan Mclaughlin’s everest WR, he was in the 150mg/dl range all day for that effort. Of course that’s an extreme case (interval training for a bit more than 6 hours lol), but the basic principles of feeding are the same.
I would recommend doing a lot of experimenting while trying to stay in tune with how you feel (RPE).
I think re the recovery window they are referring to quick glycogen synthesis, rather than combining it with protein. I don’t give a toss frankly about that window, especially for protein, I am not pro enough to care. If I feel empty, will eat what is required.
The experimentation has been amazing quite frankly. I have seen that there has been a significant benefit for the higher loaded ranges for workouts. I had threshold this morning, and it was pretty tough and I did not look at the CGM, but it correlated pretty well when I looked afterwards. I am starting to see some patterns which I hope to remedy.
Another one to “fix” is that I think it is helping my diet. It is focussing me on getting more fats in. I have felt tons better since then tbh.
On The Move today, George was talking about Pogocar drinking a Fanta at the end of the time trial. He said, “we’re all wearing these CGMs these days so we drink a soda and we know exactly what us does.” I’m curious how many he really means. If it was that prevalent in the pro cycling community, I would have thought we’d know more about this.
They won’t be wearing one after a race as it’s banned but in training you can see how you get a mediocre spike and then drops down somewhat sharply afterwards. I always felt best when i kept the peak somewhat blunted after a workout, and then slowly fuelled to keep tbe carbs trickling in for constant supply.
My sensor keeps disconnecting from my garmin ride and forces me to scan it again.
Do you any of you experience the same thing?
Oddly enough this never happens when i‘m at home. I never actually have to scan my sensor again when opening the app so i don‘t think it‘s my phone putting the app to sleep.
If you’re in the U.S. and have an iPhone¹ but don’t want to wait for SuperSapiens, you might want to check out Veri.
¹ Android app is in development
While Veri isn’t solely focused on athletes like SuperSapiens (no real-time readings, you need to periodically scan), it’s already available in the U.S. and is reasonably priced at $129 for 14 days or $199 for 28 days. And you can save 25% with my referral code:
I’m near the end of my 28-day test and have been really impressed. The approval and ordering process was smooth and the mobile app is polished and informative. The Veri app doesn’t rely on a sensor manufacturer’s app, so no need to install anything else—unlike some other CGM offerings. They also have a small (but growing) community forum where Veri customers can share findings and insights about using the product, similar to the TrainerRoad forum.
I’ve already learned a lot about how my blood sugar responds to different foods, activities, and sleep quality. It definitely provides more actionable feedback than finger-prick testing, something I started a few weeks prior to using Veri. A finger-prick test just gives you a single data point, but a CGM shows you the current trend (flat, curving up, curving down) that allows you to make better-informed decisions.
One of the biggest surprises for me is that I don’t get a spike from ice cream…woohoo!