If we’re trying to manage our hunger then most people will try everything. But did you ever think about the effect that eating different combinations of food, or even the time of the day, can have? I know it can get pretty complicated to try and figure out how to know when to eat and what combinations of food to eat to help you reach your health goals.
Actually, we have technology to help with this. Before recommending anything to my clients I always try to learn and experiment myself, and I am trying an experiment right now.
Blood sugar control is one of most important factors to improve our health, prevent disease, slow down the aging process and even reverse metabolic syndromes such as type 2 diabetes. When we eat almost anything, except for pure fat, it has an effect on our blood sugar. That is completely normal, although what might not be normal is the length of time that the blood sugar levels remain high (which generally means 100 to 140 mg/dl, or 5.6 to 7.8 mmol /L) after eating.
When we eat, our blood sugar levels will increase and the pancreas will then release the hormone insulin to reduce sugar in the blood. Insulin is the fat storage hormone, so when you have excess sugar insulin will help the body to store it for later use. Of course, if you have constantly high blood glucose (sugar) then you will never have the chance to burn fat, and that becomes a big problem. And if your body has too many insulin spikes during the day then it also becomes hard to control your hunger, which in turn makes it almost impossible to lose weight.
So to study this I wanted to see how my blood sugar reacts to what I eat and what I do in real time. I was already checking it sometimes after exercise and during prolonged fasts, but a few days ago I started to experiment with continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) which allows me to see my blood sugar levels 24 hours a day. It’s really interesting to see things like how much it changes during my sleep, what effect drinking black coffee vs drinking coffee with MCT oil has, and how my high intensity workouts or a low intensity hike affects it. I started to experiment with a variety of foods too. It’s really fun to try and see. Of course, on the other hand I was little bit hesitant as I didn’t want to give up some foods which I like to eat! But even if I don’t give them up, the CGM shows me what effect they have so I can see when I should have them to have the best effect on my blood sugar.
So far I have found out that high intensity exercise spikes my blood sugar, which is understandable as it is the cortisol response. Secondly, I normally have BCAA (branch chain amino acids), which has no calories, during my fasting state and generally pre-workout. The effect of BCAA on my blood sugar is more than I thought, not too much but certainly my body still counts it as a meal.
I am using a NutriSense device, if you’d like to learn more then you can check their website at https://www.nutrisense.io/. I don’t have any financial or personal relationship with them but I can highly recommend them, their customer support and service is amazing too. My husband is actually so impressed with the information that I’m getting from the CGM, he wants to try now too 😊
I will update in a couple of weeks with detailed results which may help you as well.
