Freestyle Libre2 CGM Sensor Trial

[finsit]

Hi everyone. I got this Freestyle Libre trial for 14 days. Since the diagnosis of my diabetes in Dec 2020, when my a1c was 78 mmol/L (9.3%), I have been experimenting with low-carb, high-intensity training, running, fasting and time restricted eating. My a1c is completely normal range since March 2021. So this is the right time to do some experiments to see spikes and how different foods affect my BG. I have started the trial today and will be posting my findings here.

Do you have any suggestions, any experiments worth doing that will help me getting best of this 14 days trial?

Thanks.

 

[Trevor vP]

Hi everyone. I got this Freestyle Libre trial for 14 days. Since the diagnosis of my diabetes in Dec 2020, when my a1c was 78 mmol/L (9.3%), I have been experimenting with low-carb, high-intensity training, running, fasting and time restricted eating. My a1c is completely normal range since March 2021. So this is the right time to do some experiments to see spikes and how different foods affect my BG. I have started the trial today and will be posting my findings here.

Do you have any suggestions, any experiments worth doing that will help me getting best of this 14 days trial?

Thanks.

Try high Protein meals, if you eat large amount of meat do you get a 4/5 hour later spike for no Carb Food reason ( I read some interesting information lately that if you generating insulin's you should not get the Protein spike. I did not really understand the "why", because as a type 1 if I do not split Bolus for high Protein meals I get a late spike)

I think you have all the things on your list that I tried while I did my trial, It can teach you so much.

Please let us know what your learn about yourself

 

[Mr_Pot]

Hi everyone. I got this Freestyle Libre trial for 14 days. Since the diagnosis of my diabetes in Dec 2020, when my a1c was 78 mmol/L (9.3%), I have been experimenting with low-carb, high-intensity training, running, fasting and time restricted eating. My a1c is completely normal range since March 2021. So this is the right time to do some experiments to see spikes and how different foods affect my BG. I have started the trial today and will be posting my findings here.

Do you have any suggestions, any experiments worth doing that will help me getting best of this 14 days trial?

Thanks.

The most useful thing I discovered when I had a Libré trial was that I can't handle carbs at breakfast that are no problem in the evening. Maybe you are the same?

 

[StewM]

The most useful thing I discovered when I had a Libré trial was that I can't handle carbs at breakfast that are no problem in the evening. Maybe you are the same?

Yeah, this was a big one for me too. We all have natural variability in what we can handle throughout the day. One way I experimented to isolate this was having Breakfast for Lunch, Lunch for Dinner, and Dinner for Breakfast, for example, and compared the results with my normal.

Also, another big one is trying meals you get poor readings from and isolating precisely what is happening when you get those poor readings. When's the spiking hitting, how long does it last, etc?

 

[finsit]

Try high Protein meals, if you eat large amount of meat do you get a 4/5 hour later spike for no Carb Food reason ( I read some interesting information lately that if you generating insulin's you should not get the Protein spike. I did not really understand the "why", because as a type 1 if I do not split Bolus for high Protein meals I get a late spike)

I think you have all the things on your list that I tried while I did my trial, It can teach you so much.

Please let us know what your learn about yourself

Good point, I shall definitely try high protein meals and see few hours later BG. My sensor is still optimising i guess as they say it takes 24 hrs. Its at least 1 mmol more than my finger readings so far.

 

[finsit]

The most useful thing I discovered when I had a Libré trial was that I can't handle carbs at breakfast that are no problem in the evening. Maybe you are the same?

Yes, will try carb timing as well with carb load.

 

[In Response]

My advice is not about what experiments to run but to understand the limitations of the Libre
- many people find it is inaccurate for the first couple of days so insert it 48 hours before activating to give your body time to acclimatise the alien object in your arm.
- if you lie on it you may experience "compression lows". This is most likely at night.
- make sure your arm is dry and non greasy when you attach the sensor otherwise it may fall off.
- the Libre is less accurate when high or low but if you are just looking for trends that is less likely to be a problem

 

[Ronancastled]

One I did was have a curry one day with rice & naan.
Then repeat the exact same carby meal the next day followed by a brisk 30 min walk.
The levelling effect of exercise was a real eye opener.

I found scanning every few minutes chasing spikes wasn't a good idea, it will try to interpolate where your BG is going based on the last official reading & the trajectory at that point.
You'll end up with a rash of odd readings completely off the final graph.
Eat your meal, scan 2:15mins later then check the Libre View online portal
https://www.libreview.com/glucosereports
There you get the more detailed graph which shows your spike.

Great tool, have fun

 

[Daibell]

Use it to help get your Basal balanced as you can see trends particularly overnight.

 

[Jaylee]

The most useful thing I discovered when I had a Libré trial was that I can't handle carbs at breakfast that are no problem in the evening. Maybe you are the same?

I don't do breakfast. However. After waking with decent BGs I'd see a (on average.) 3Mmol rise from a liver dump (foot on the floor.") during my morning whirlwind prep for work. Lol, I needed to correct for that. (After double checking with my meter..)

An eye opener..

 

[StuS]

I did a libre 2 trial early September for a couple of weeks and wow what a massive change this has made to me … controlling my diabetes over the years has been troublesome and I’m not adverse to an HBA1c of over 90!! But having libre 2 is just a complete game changer for me.

after the initial trial I decided to self fund as I have been told in the past I wouldn't qualify for a sensor … I’ve now been self funding since late September and had a meeting with my diabetic team on Thursday and they are as impressed as I am and have agreed to fund me going forwards which is brilliant news … my estimated HBA1c is now 51!! Obviously the proof will be in the pudding once my next bloods are done in a week or 2 but if that’s anywhere near the effect I would seriously recommend this to anyone.

 

[finsit]

I did a libre 2 trial early September for a couple of weeks and wow what a massive change this has made to me … controlling my diabetes over the years has been troublesome and I’m not adverse to an HBA1c of over 90!! But having libre 2 is just a complete game changer for me.

after the initial trial I decided to self fund as I have been told in the past I wouldn't qualify for a sensor … I’ve now been self funding since late September and had a meeting with my diabetic team on Thursday and they are as impressed as I am and have agreed to fund me going forwards which is brilliant news … my estimated HBA1c is now 51!! Obviously the proof will be in the pudding once my next bloods are done in a week or 2 but if that’s anywhere near the effect I would seriously recommend this to anyone.

Great story. Can you please share your stats on CGM, any interesting findings? Particularly can you and anyone else on this forum who used CGM, i am interested to know the precise timing of Dawn phenomenon or the morning liver dump/sugar rise before the body gets ready for the day and before eating anything.

 

[Lakeslover]

My morning rise usually starts somewhere between 5 am and 7am. It varies day by day. This morning at 6.30 I was 4.1, now at 9.08am my blood sugar is 6.5. I expect that will be the peak.

But today is a good day, it will often go as high as 8 or even 10 if I had too many carbs the day before even if they were lunchtime. Perhaps something for you to test…..the effect of carbs the day before on your morning peak.

 

[finsit]

So I had a some bread and lentils, i mean carbs just to see how my BGs react. So it was about 30 gms of carbs at 10 am this morning. Please see the graph below. Regardless of my sensitivity to carbs and the fact that Libre2 is still showing a bit higher readings as compared to my finger pricks, I see it took me 2 hours to peak and 2 hours to come back to the level where i started. What do you think of my insulin strength?

 

[StewM]

So I had a some bread and lentils, i mean carbs just to see how my BGs react. So it was about 30 gms of carbs at 10 am this morning. Please see the graph below. Regardless of my sensitivity to carbs and the fact that Libre2 is still showing a bit higher readings as compared to my finger pricks, I see it took me 2 hours to peak and 2 hours to come back to the level where i started. What do you think of my insulin strength?

View attachment 51956

Think it's safe to assume a non-Diabetic wouldn't spike as high and would come back to normal range faster. Here's a Libre profile for a non-Diabetic eating whatever they like.

So it's clear you're sitting reasonably normal until the food comes into your system. You also seem to have a normal case of Dawn Phenomenom (which the person above didn't experience, but many non-Diabetics do) which hadn't quite ended when you ate the carbs. This may have affected your response to the Carbs.

As a long-time Type 1 Diabetic, I can say, with a reasonable degree of accuracy, I would spike about 7.2 mmol/l above my starting point (assuming I took no Bolus) and I wouldn't return to normal without Bolus.

So that gives you an idea of where you sit between normal and highly abnormal.

 

[finsit]

Think it's safe to assume a non-Diabetic wouldn't spike as high and would come back to normal range faster. Here's a Libre profile for a non-Diabetic eating whatever they like.

So it's clear you're sitting reasonably normal until the food comes into your system. You also seem to have a normal case of Dawn Phenomenom (which the person above didn't experience, but many non-Diabetics do) which hadn't quite ended when you ate the carbs. This may have affected your response to the Carbs.

As a long-time Type 1 Diabetic, I can say, with a reasonable degree of accuracy, I would spike about 7.2 mmol/l above my starting point (assuming I took no Bolus) and I wouldn't return to normal without Bolus.

So that gives you an idea of where you sit between normal and highly abnormal.

Thank you for useful input. Much appreciated. I am on low-carb normally and do not eat more than 30-50 carbs a day and those again from vegetables, yogurt etc and not from grains or sugars. I normally don't cross 6.7 that is my target. However, i read that if you are extremely low carb you would probably fail an OGT test because a little carb will spike you higher because your body becomes too sensitive to carbs. They suggest a person should start eating about 150 carbs a day three day prior. I am not certain if that is the case here too, maybe? Should i eat extra carbs few days, i may see less spike or early return? In any case, i am not going to try those because there is no point, high carbohydrates and high insulin surge is not healthy anyway. I am trying different things and will see how it goes in the next 12 days

 

[finsit]

So today in the morning i ate Quaker oats pack with milk and some nuts 10 am. Carbs about 40 gms. The graph is below, peak is quicker and fall is quick too than yesterday. Because yesterday bread and lentil had fats with it (butter etc). The little peak you see in the end is 40 minutes strength training where you will see a sharp little rise and then fell back to below 5. Target range set in the image below is 4.5 - 6.7

 

[StewM]

So today in the morning i ate Quaker oats pack with milk and some nuts 10 am. Carbs about 40 gms. The graph is below, peak is quicker and fall is quick too than yesterday. Because yesterday bread and lentil had fats with it (butter etc). The little peak you see in the end is 40 minutes strength training where you will see a sharp little rise and then fell back to below 5. Target range set in the image below is 4.5 - 6.7

View attachment 51962

The thing to be careful with the Libre is that spike could be an illusion, as physical activity reduces the accuracy of the sensor.

 

[finsit]

Also someone asked me to check high protein meal. So in the above graph, the SAT dinner 6-9 peak is high protein meal (mixed grill) with salad. I believe not less than 100 gm of protein (about 400-500 gm of actual meat/chicken). However, i did eat about 12 fries with it as well