Dear Kayla,

Do you ever track your blood sugar? I wonder if those of us who fatten easily take longer to bring down our blood sugar and get into fat-burning mode… (I feel the fat burning mode around 13 hrs fasted, with a walk and BS at 80 – 90. ) My husband can get into fat-burning way easier. I’m starting to realize this difference… I definitely feel best doing OMAD and I THOUGHT I had a low blood sugar moment last week but it was low iron, not low blood sugar! I went back to the iron I was using before. It helped.

Signed,

Dolly Parton

Hello Dolly,

I’ll preface this with the standard warning: I am not a medical doctor, a nutritionist, or a dietician. What follows is my own personal opinion. (Here’s an article from an actual Harvard medical doctor, if you’re so inclined.)

I do not track my blood sugar. I have been approached by several companies that sell Continuous Glucose Monitors. The typical offer is that they’ll send me a free monitor, and then I will make a video about it and encourage people to order one by using my link. If they did I would get paid a referral fee. I have turned down their offers.

The reason I have rejected them is simple. They are unnecessary. In fact, I fear that for many people, it could be downright harmful to their health. I read a book a while back called The Relaxation Response by Dr. Herbert Benson, a medical doctor at Harvard Medical School. His opinion was the vast majority of hospitalizations in this country were due to stress and worry. Thus, avoiding things that will increase anxiety is important.

I think that tracking various vitals constantly will serve to increase anxiety and damage overall health. I base this on my own experience when I monitored my blood sugar in 2012.

You see, when I was pregnant with my third son, I failed the glucose tolerance test by a single point (my fasting glucose was 90, which these days might not even be considered failing.) My postprandial numbers were fine. And yet, because of that single point, the doctor told me I had to monitor my blood sugar for the remainder of my pregnancy. It was crushing. Every meal was laden with stress and worry. I wanted to eat plenty so that my baby would have enough. I didn’t want to eat so much it made my blood sugar go too high. Every single time I went to prick my finger, I could feel my heart start to pound, and the adrenaline course through my body. It did not matter that my numbers were always fine (fasting <90 consistently, postprandial <120). The amount of anxiety I felt was tremendous.

After a few weeks, my midwife questioned why I was even tracking these numbers, but she had to go along with the doctor’s orders. After a while longer, because of the increased constant stress I was feeling, I made the decision to stop tracking. I did it because I believed it was the right thing for myself and my unborn son. I stand by that decision.

And so, when I see this new trend of non-diabetic people tracking their blood sugar, it troubles me. I happened upon a YouTube short yesterday. A perfectly healthy woman, who was quite thin and who did NOT have diabetes, or even pre-diabetes, was talking about how eating a certain food had spiked her blood sugar. She spoke of this as if it were shocking to her. She was very concerned. But I had a different take.

From the beginning of time, humans have been eating food, including foods that have a lot of carbs (honey, sugar cane, and flour have always been around.) This is not a new thing. What is new is that we now have the ability to continuously monitor our blood sugar. Yet, from then until now, our lifespans have remained the same. I don’t doubt we’ve been spiking our blood sugar from time to time throughout human history. We’ve been doing it for millennia. And we’re okay.

Just because we have the ability to track a thing, doesn’t make it a good idea. And in fact, tracking certain numbers, without having additional knowledge, can lead to poor conclusions. For example, it’s a good idea to keep your blood pressure in check. But if you check your blood pressure when you’re exercising, you know what you’ll find? Your systolic number will likely be between 160-220. That number is not good if you’re sitting and relaxing. But it’s normal when you’re exercising. Is it possible that our bodies are just processing food the way they’ve always processed them? That’s my theory.

My philosophy is that God gave us intuition. Your body tells you when something is really wrong. On the other hand, there are plenty of advertisements, news stories, and influencer YouTube videos that are designed to spike fear in you, so that you buy their product, watch their segment, or use their link.

Blood glucose monitor companies want you to buy their products, plain and simple. The cost is going to be anywhere from $100-$225 a month. Of course, if you have a medical condition, and your trusted doctor tells you that this type of device would be beneficial, and you agree, then go forth and track it. But otherwise, I say protect your peace of mind.

Lastly, I do not use the term “fat-burning mode,” because it’s not clearly defined, and I think it muddies the water. The way to lose weight is to eat fewer calories than your body is burning on a consistent basis. It doesn’t matter when or even if you exercise, what you eat, or when you time your meals. What counts, at the end of the day, is getting yourself into a caloric deficit. If you do you’ll lose weight, even if you don’t exercise at all, and even if you only eat fast food. Men have more muscle mass than women, meaning that even if you’re the same height and same weight, your husband is going to burn more calories and thus eat more food and still be in a deficit. C’est la vie.

Sincerely,

Kayla