continuous glucose monitors are all the rage right
now but is it worth it for weight loss today I'm going to do a ruthless review of a glucose monitor
after wearing it myself for over six months do they actually help with weight loss is it a waste
of money especially if your goal is weight loss or is there value in it so we're going to break it
down today in this video hey guys welcome back to my tree if you're not familiar what a continuous
glucose monitor is it's literally a little device that you attach to the back of your arm it doesn't
hurt you don't even feel it you clip it on you pay for a yearly membership to use the app plus these
suckers are pretty expensive sometimes over 200 a month just for the two monitors to attach to and
200 a year for the app to actually track it now there are some pros and cons there are some things
that I've found with these monitors that can help you and there's some things that could hold you
back from your goals so I'm going to share with you guys my thoughts on that today so you can
figure out if this is the type of investment you want to make for yourself for your Optimal Health
for your future I wore the continuous glucose monitor for six months my goal was weight loss
at the time I was following a low carb ketogenic lifestyle okay what that means is the foods that
I was eating was not gonna cause a glucose Spike unless I went off keto and I ate something you
know with higher carbohydrates maybe had a cheat day and then that's when I would see the glucose
Spike from that so over the course of six months my glucose remained incredibly stable I had scores
of 97 within the levels app levels is the um the glucose blender I was using very high metabolic
scores I'm I'm entering my food in I'm looking at this and I'm like wow I am doing amazing
I'm going to reach all my body goals because my glucose is so stable there's nothing my body
can do other than lose the body fat right well I was wrong over the course of those six months
I not only didn't lose anything but I gained wait how is it possible to have completely flat
and stable glucose and be tracking it all on a monitor 24 7 and gain weight well this is where
I think the glucose monitor can actually hold you back and might work against you versus for
you so first things first let's talk about the benefits of the glucose monitor and who it may
be right for so the glucose monitor I think on a positive side is helpful to kind of get to know
your body on a deeper level to see how food reacts to your body and how your body responds to food
and how it rebounds from different foods and that sort of thing I think that's kind of cool also if
someone is maybe trying to come away from a very high processed already very high packaged maybe a
lot of fast food type of diet I could see how the glucose monitor would motivate you to start making
making some more whole food choices to start making a change in that direction right I can see
how that would be a positive change and influence the other thing that it is very motivating to
see that you're you're doing the right thing in the mind of the app and what the app tells you is
the right thing now depending on your goal if your goal is simply to have stable glucose then yes
a glucose monitor like this is going to help you achieve that goal if your actual goal is to lose
body fat then a glucose monitor is not necessarily going to do that for you and here is why I think
it could be you know what the cons are from that as an example for me while I was keto low glucose
stable all the time and didn't lose any weight I I by using the actual monitor I became obsessed
with checking my glucose constantly throughout the day I started having a bad relationship with
food I started thinking of food as either good or bad versus is this healthy is this what my
body needs at this moment and so that I think is a major drawback of this the next thing um
once I decided to take the glucose monitor off I decided to do that because I made a shift and
more so focusing on like my microbiome health and what my microbiome needed is is higher in
carb and showing up on the glucose monitor it can Spike my glucose now remember my goal
is fat loss not just to have stable blood glucose I want to achieve fat loss but also
optimize my health once I made this shift for myself and I started seeing these spikes on my
glucose monitor it started making me feel like I was doing the wrong thing and it started making
me feel like oh my gosh my glucose is spiking what's gonna have I'm gonna gain weight now
because my glucose is spiking um so I decided to take the glucose monitor off at that point once
I was like I'm healing my microbiome this is going to require me to start eating oatmeal to start
eating sweet potatoes and and different types of foods that are not going to be simply foods
to please the glucose monitor so what happened to me after that point was I started healing
my relationship with food so I started going um months a couple months without worrying if I'm
having stable glucose but more so focusing in on eating the foods to heal my microbiome and then
what happened from that point is I probably had a single spike a day because I was consuming I'm
intermittent fasting and I was using this with omad which means I'm doing one meal a day so I'm
having one glucose spike a day and then I'm going a long period without spikes now if you're eating
all day long probably a glucose monitor is very helpful and maybe spiking your glucose all day
long is going to keep you stalled out towards your goals I knew in my mind I'm having one meal
so clearly I can only have one glucose spike in that meal and so I was okay with that one glucose
bike no big deal my body can rebound from that I'm giving it a nice long period of fasted time after
that I lost 24 pounds in the three months since I took the glucose monitor off and I also quit keto
and I also eating started eating more carbs and I also healed my relationship with food the first
month I lost 15 pounds and I was not eating really that healthy of foods I was just eating one meal
a day and it was whatever I wanted sometimes it's french fries sometimes it's whatever I just wanted
to heal my relationship with food and I lost a ton of weight that first month and then the second
month I lost five pounds and the next month and I lost another four pound and then it ended up
being 24 pounds that's just a little background about me getting back to the continuous glucose
monitor then I as I healed my microbiome I started craving more whole plant type foods so over the
last couple weeks I started eating more of like a plant-based lifestyle and then I was curious
I wonder what's going on with my glucose since I started eating a plant-based lifestyle so I put
I have two I had two in stock an entire month's worth so I put one on okay so I've got it on now
it's been about a week since I've had this glucose monitor on and guess what I see my glucose spiking
and it will spike it will Spike like quite a bit you know between 34 to 50 point points it will
Spike from the whole plant foods that I'm eating and then it will come back down and then it'll
be at Baseline and it will rebound very quickly so it's not like I'm either staying spiked or
anything like that all right so I'm spiking every day so I know I'm spiking every day but when
I see it on my monitor it does give me a negative feeling like I'm doing something wrong however I'm
feeding my body Whole Foods fruits vegetables all of these amazing Foods and I know I'm eating
the right types of foods for my body and so that in itself is kind of a disconnect um the next
thing is on the glucose monitor my glucose spikes like a lot with sweet potato but not very much
with a white potato now sweet potatoes are full of antioxidants and have a ton of really great
nutrition especially for the gut microbiome and so what is more important to me spiking my glucose or
giving my body the antioxidants and the food from my microbiome as one of the superfoods that came
up on my microbiome test it's a clear choice for me but if I didn't have this knowledge I wouldn't
know the difference right so it doesn't mean that a food is bad for you if you have a glucose
Spike from it now remember this is just my opinion okay based on my own personal experience
so the other thing is there is such a thing as meal timing right haven't you heard that you can
minimize a glucose Spike if you eat protein first do you know why that is guys think about this
logically if you eat protein first and and then have a lower glucose Spike from the carbs you eat
second that means that the protein is spiking your blood insulin so that when you consume the carbs
it's just getting shuttled into storage quicker so it's not sticking around your bloodstream
is that necessarily a good thing maybe not necessarily depending on if you're just a healthy
person focusing on fat loss it doesn't really you don't necessarily need that glucose to be out
of your system so super quick your body might actually need it in your blood to then do what it
needs to do for your brain and stuff like that and to use it and to burn it versus storing it so
put that into perspective because I know a lot of we've heard this right and I've talked about
this even in previous videos because while I was using the glucose monitor I would share about it
I would share my results I used it to like compare different foods and stuff I talked about the meal
timing and and the glucose Spike It wasn't until after I started eating like really the plant-based
Whole Foods and I'm eating very nutritious healthy foods for my body that I recognize that the
glucose monitor can actually stop you from eating healthful Foods just because it gives you
a glucose Spike if you wear it I think it's great and I think it's fine as long as you use it within
your mindset of is this taking me away from eating healthier foods or is this taking me away from
eating unhealthy Foods if it's taking you away from eating some healthy foods then maybe it's not
very good after this one is up this two weeks I'm not putting another one back on I'm just not doing
it it's very toxic for me in my for my mental health to be thinking of food as good and bad at
this point in my life and in my journey because I'm continually improving my body composition
eating these healthy foods by focusing on my microbiome now I'm investing my money in separate
places so instead of the glucose monitor I invest it in these microbiome tests so I can check that
out and see what has changed so I know what types of foods I should be focusing on and eating
regardless of the glucose Spike that might come from it now you might have been using a glucose
monitor and it might be moving you forward you might be losing weight you might be achieving your
goals and that would be the case if you're coming from a situation where maybe you were just eating
the standard American diet all day long and then you're moving into a position where now all of a
sudden you're more mindful of eating Whole Foods and eating less processed foods right now there's
a way to eat a ketogenic diet in an unhealthy way in a healthy way but for me I stayed on it for way
too long that was my problem and it created a lot of inflammation even though my glucose levels
were low so as you embark on your journey to reach your health goals hopefully this helps you
because this is a major investment because it's very expensive to do this type of monitoring
the other thing is it's a little strange and a little odd that my glucose would spike higher
here when I would do a workout then when I eat a carb heavy meal so and then they say having a
spike from a workout is good but having a spike from food is bad so it doesn't make sense I would
think any Spike would be bad if a spike is a spike right a spike in clear glucose is a spike in your
glucose whether it's coming from stored glycogen that is going into your bloodstream because of
the exercise or you're consuming it and it's in your bloodstream it's in your bloodstream anyway
so doesn't isn't that strange but then also when you take a shower or go into a hot tub like I
do my glucose again will Spike higher so I will have a very carb heavy meal we're talking 150 to
200 grams of carbs within a single meal and my glucose will Spike higher when I take a shower
and have like heat on me then from that meal okay so are they like should we not take showers
like I don't think we should worry so much about having completely stable glucose depending on the
goal and I want to remind you guys depending on the goal if you have diabetes and you are um on a
glucose monitor to monitor that for health reasons that's totally different okay I'm talking about
just the regularly healthy person who's putting on a glucose monitor and once again if you feel
like it's helping you move forward to your goals then maybe it's a good thing if you think it is
actually getting in your head and giving you this bad relationship with food and is actually taking
you in the opposite direction and making you stop eating some of the variety of the healthy
carb Rich fruits and vegetables and Foods out there then maybe that's not actually going to
improve your health and move you forward into a positive direction right I'm curious have
you tried a glucose monitor before were you thinking about trying a glucose monitor um uh
the one that I use levels if you still want to do it and you're like you know what I think this
is going to be a great thing for me then that's amazing I'll put the link in the description so
you can check out the one that I have otherwise I do like the platform I do like how they have it
set up I do like how they give you tips and stuff based on the information of what's happening but
at the same time don't get too wrapped up in like okay as long as I have stable glucose my goal is
fat loss I'm gonna lose the fat because at the end of the day the amount of food you eat matters
probably the most the type of Food Matters too right the type of foods matter too but some foods
that spike your glucose is not bad for fat loss it can still actually help you lose fat right and
I'm proof of that so thanks guys for watching this video you're going to want to check out this
video next and I'll see you in the next one