I monitored my blood sugar and the kilos disappeared

Ten years ago, regular gym visits were enough to lose weight. A year ago, I discovered—that no longer works. Exercising did improve my well-being, but my weight remained unchanged. I knew that I mostly ate healthily, so I didn’t understand if age really had such an impact.

Kristjan Rabi PHOTO: MARIS SAVIK | ROCK FM

I discovered the glucose monitor through acquaintances. I was advised to wear the device for four weeks while eating and living as usual. Measuring blood sugar levels showed me how different foods affected me and which ones I should exclude from my diet. The scientific approach provided concrete cause-effect-results, which sparked my curiosity and excitement.

The beginning was easy. In fact, everything else was too

Installing the Aidex CGM device on my stomach was convenient; I hardly felt anything. I feared that the monitor might interfere with workouts or other leisure activities, but nothing like that happened. I could even go to the sauna. I was rather lazy about self-tracking, as I didn’t bother to weigh foods, I just noted what I ate and drank. I was told that for my goal—to find out what works and what doesn’t—that was enough.

The surprises started from the very first days. For years while working at the radio, I had eaten whole grain sandwiches—cheese, thin chicken fillet ham, plus lots of greens. And what a shock when the monitor showed a significant spike in blood sugar every morning after that. Numbers through the roof, like after gas station pastries! One day I ate an orange and was startled by an unfamiliar sound—an alarm, blood sugar too high. This happened with many foods I thought were healthy. There were also positive surprises—beer and wine did not cause significant blood sugar spikes for me.

Alongside the different numbers and readings, I also gained interesting insights about how I felt. For example, a classic situation—I come from the radio, hungry. A big juicy meat pie goes quickly into the empty stomach. Then a couple of hours of laptop work on the couch, followed by walking the dog. Outside, a familiar feeling suddenly creeps in. I am not hungry, but I could devour a chocolate bar—although normally I don’t even eat grandma’s cakes. Out of curiosity, I opened the app and oh wow, the pie had spiked my blood sugar (a bunch of empty calories), and then physical activity brought my sugar below my average. The result was an uncontrollable craving for sweets. Without the CGM, I never would have connected those dots.

Quite a lot happened in four weeks

While wearing the glucose monitor, I didn’t make major changes to my diet. I wanted to try as many foods as possible within those four weeks to gather the most interesting and useful information for myself—what works and what doesn’t. Along the way, it was already useful, as I learned when and what I should eat to have more energy for training.

After the four-week test period, once my results were analyzed and feedback given, I wore the device for another 14 days. This time it was to exclude all unsuitable foods and eat only what didn’t spike my insulin levels. The result was slightly astonishing—the app showed a beautiful steady line instead of the usual rollercoaster ups and downs. One morning, however, I saw a strange reading that made me contact my support person. During sleep, my blood sugar had gone into the red. I anxiously asked what it meant. The answer was that there was no reason to worry—the body hadn’t received sugars and was now drawing energy from where it had been stored for years—the waistline!

My family doctor was also pleased with my results and lifestyle changes. Several blood test values that had been in the red had moved into the green, and those still in the red had gone down. I was advised to continue with the new diet and active lifestyle. For fairness, the doctor compared the results with those from two years ago.

In conclusion, I learned a lot of new and useful things about myself—what I can eat and what I should avoid. The most important was finally getting the answer to why I couldn’t manage to lose weight on my own. With what I thought was a healthy and suitable breakfast (whole grain sandwiches, porridge, etc.), I had raised my insulin level right in the morning, essentially taking away my body’s ability to burn fat for the rest of the day. As soon as the menu was adjusted, changes started happening, and to date, I have lost 7 kg. I could lose more, but I am still too hedonistic to aim for faster results.

At least now I know exactly what to do if I want to lose weight faster, or how to keep it more or less stable. Since several friends also wanted to use the device, sharing information with each other was very useful. I confirmed that people are indeed very different—what works for one body may not work at all for another.

I definitely recommend everyone to try how Aidex’s CGM works, especially people struggling with excess weight.