Levels Experiment Day 1
- 3 minutes read - 635 wordsSetup
Day 1 consisted of getting the apps installed on my phone, attaching the continuous glucose monitor (CGM) to my arm, and start tracking my food.
There are 2 apps required. The first one, LibreLink is just for the CGM. It’s the bit that uploads and records your glucose readings. The second one is the Levels app. Levels imports the readings from LibreLink, and you have to allow LibreLink to share your data with Levels. There’s about a one hour delay between recording your readings and when they show up on the Levels app.
The link to the getting started video is included in the box that Levels sends to you. The video is easy to follow. I could have installed both apps before I received the package in the mail, but you know how that goes.
Then, I carefully attached the CGM to my arm. It didn’t hurt, but it isn’t completely sensation free. I wouldn’t let the unknown of attaching the CGM to your arm be the thing to stop you from doing this experiment. Frankly, the $400 price tag is going to be the thing that stops most people.
Tracking Food and Exercise and Taking Readings
The Levels app is very easy to use. Hit the plus sign at the bottom of the screen to enter food or exercise. Entering food is as easy as taking a photo and entering a note about what you are eating.
Entering exercise is the same process. Or, you can connect the Levels app to Google Fit or Apple Health and it will automatically add exercise where your heart rate is above 150 beats per minute for 5 minutes.
Understanding Your Readings
Day 1 is a good time to learn the basics. The app has a built-in Learn section to help get your started and keep you motivated.
The people at Levels would like us to keep our readings below 110 mg/dL as much as possible. That’s well below the 140 level that’s considered normal. What should your glucose levels be? article goes into great detail on why they are recommending that level. Basically, CGMs provide more granularity than traditional meters, and they are looking at a group of studies of nondiabetic individuals wearing CMG to derive optimal glucose levels.
My Day 1 Readings
Day 1 readings are not necessarily accurate. It takes a day or so for the CGM to calibrate. So we’ll look at this data with that in mind.
Week 1 we are supposed to eat and exercise as we normally would
At the top of the screenshot, we can see that I was given a metabolic score of 71 out of 100. That’s based on how much time I spent above 110 mg/dL and how stable my levels were. I started about noon, so this isn’t a full day either.
At the bottom of the screenshot, you can see a food entry of kombucha. That was the last food entry I made yesterday at 6:33 PM. You can see from the graph that my glucose continued to rise, and spiked to 129 mg/dL a couple hours later. I was watching a movie and I didn’t do any exercise or much movement at all after eating.
Day 1 Conclusions
I got everything installed and working. I collected some data. It is very easy to enter my meals and exercise.
The results aren’t really valid on day 1 due to time required for the CGM calibration. But, I think I see an issue with how I’ve been eating. I tend to start eating and keep eating without giving my system time to process the glucose from the last intake. Moving after eating will help flatten the peaks too. It’s something I’m going to keep an eye on.
Check back tomorrow for Day 2 results.