FreeStyle Libre

Precise measurement

None

Determine glycemic impact of foods in my diet.

Not painful, very easy to use.

None

Glucose measurement

+ The concept of tracking glucose values in (almost) real-time is groundbreaking and potentially super insightful in one's individual physiology.
+ The sensor is super small, and completely painless to apply most times (except for care cases where you hit a blood vessel).
+ Even the free Libre App has a decent customer experience IMHO

- Big No-Go is the fact that values are not very trustworthy and can deviate up to 20 mg/dl from true values (measured in parallel with standard capillary glucometer) - one day 20 mg/dl lower the next 20 mg/dl higher.
And in general, values tend to go up towards the end, with mean values easily 10-15 points higher than in the beginning.
- So, maybe reliable for trends and spikes, but not for exact values

- Tracking blood glucose over time with as preventive diagnostic tool - Tracking individual blood glucose response to various foods

Great Glucose sensor that has the best integration (at this point and time) with many apps.

Wished that the battery lasted longer than 15 days.

glucose levels tracking

I used the sensor twice so far. Best value-for-money option in my opinion to order the sensor directly from Abbott for roughly € 70. From all I've seen and heard you don't need the fancy subscriptions from Levels etc. - they use the same sensor. I hardly felt it even while sleeping or working out. I didn't use any additional patch to fix it and it held its position well for the 2 weeks with daily showers and some swimming.

You apply the sensor via an applicator device. This device sits inside a protective case. My first applicator wouldn't come out of the case and I had to use quite some force that eventually damaged the applicator. (I tried to apply the sensor without it -don't try, the filament will not pierce the skin unless it hits in a perfect 90 degree angle which is hard to do without the applicator). Bottomline, I called customer service and they immediately sent me a new one without issues.

The mobile app is super basic. You can tell it's made for diabetics where all analysis is done by professional doctors and nutritionists. So you get data, but zero guidance (e.g. on testing protocols).

Optimise my diet by understanding glucose spikes (how I react to certain carbs).

- The producer of FreeStyle Libre (Abbott) is a well-known supplier for diabetes management
- FreeStyle Libre 3 sensor is the hardware basis for many other apps and services
- The tracking is very accurate
- You can buy it online without recipe or doctor’s consultation
- The onboarding course is very helpful to completely understand the handling and usage
- One sensor lasts 14 days and you can easily re-buy if you like to
- Moreover it comes with an app and a decent cloud based online view (LibreView)

- They should add a patch which can cover the CGM (and improve stability). Nevertheless you can buy it seperately.
- The visual design of the corresponding app is not spectacular but certainly does the job
- There is no real guidance on what to do / eat but since I am a nutritionist it was pretty straightforward to understand the data and act accordingly to optimize my glucose

To understand how blood sugar can be tested I first wanted to start with the traditional method of finger pricking. Nevertheless after a while I wanted to switch to a far superior way of keeping track of my blood sugar. Best was to utilize a CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitoring) device. There are more and more options coming out (incl. apps and coaching) but I preferred to start with the device which is the hardware basis in many cases: FreeStyle Libre 3 sensor.