Over the last almost decade of working with clients who want help losing weight (among other goals), I am always surprised at the various strategies they’ve been told will work (and essentially end up being another fad diet that doesn’t work). For today’s article, I want to talk about how glucose monitoring is a science-backed, effective, strategy for long-term weight loss. Before we dive in, a quick reminder that this is the last week to register for the Balance Your Blood Sugar Program.

Glucose Monitoring and Weight Loss

1. How blood sugar influences weight

Let’s start with how blood sugar influences weight. First of all, when we eat something that increases our blood sugar, our body releases insulin to take that sugar and put it into our cells for energy. This is a normal, healthy process. When it can become a problem is when the blood sugar spikes are too high, too often. Our cells can become ‘resistant’ or desensitized to the insulin. This is also known as insulin resistance, and our body requires more insulin to do the same job that it would have before.

Insulin is a fat-storage hormone so when we have chronically elevated levels of insulin (driven by high blood sugar), our body stores energy as fat, leading to weight gain.

2. Why eating less doesn’t work

You may be of the camp that if you just eat less, the weight will come off. The problem is that as you eat less, your body is smart and it reduces your metabolic rate to preserve energy. Not only that but long term, and we’ve seen this in clients with a history of yo-yo dieting, this can negatively affect your thyroid (which impacts metabolism and weight) and lead to major nutrient deficiencies.

Further, particularly if you are female, undereating can be a major stressor on your hormones. Stressors increase cortisol, a stress hormone, which in and of itself can elevate insulin and also lead to weight gain.

The long and the short of it is that undereating doesn’t typically lead to easy, long-term weight-loss.

3. How CGM (continuous glucose monitor) helps

Every single one of us responds slightly differently to different foods, stressors, and exercise. In fact, according to Harvard, when looking at individual responses to the same food, they’ve found a wide variation in blood glucose even when people are eating an identical meal. 

When you track your own blood sugar with continuous glucose monitoring, you get to see EXACTLY how a meal influences your blood sugar. Not only does this individual data help educate you on your own physiology, but it also proves motivating because you can finally see exactly how your body metabolizes different foods.

For me personally, and the members of our last round of the Balance Your Blood Sugar Program (my CGM group coaching program), someone can tell you that certain meals tend not to be conducive to blood sugar balance (and therefore weightloss), but actually seeing the data in real-time when you’re using a CGM really solidifies your understanding.

In research shared on Pubmed, the following results occurred for people using a glucose monitor to lose weight:

• Ninety percent of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) users felt that its use contributed to a healthier lifestyle.
• Forty-seven percent of CGM users reported being more likely to go for a walk or do physical activity if they saw a rise in their blood glucose.
• Eighty-seven percent of CGM users felt that they modified their food choices based on CGM use.

If you'd like support to balance your blood sugar to lose weight, please click here to register for the Balance Your Blood Sugar Program. You'll learn our proven, 3-step process to balance blood sugar, increase energy, reduce sugar cravings and balance weight.