Levels (CGM Service)

What it is

Levels is a US subscription service (~$200–400/year + sensor cost) that pairs an FDA-cleared CGM (Stelo, Libre) with a smartphone app designed for non-diabetic users. The app provides per-meal glucose response visualisation, scoring, and personalised food experimentation.

What works

• Real-time feedback on how specific meals affect glucose for an individual — useful for n=1 learning.
• May help motivate behaviour change.
• Catches occasional findings (post-meal spikes consistent with insulin resistance, food intolerances) that warrant clinical follow-up.

Where to be sceptical

• Most healthy non-diabetic adults have glucose excursions within physiological norms; treating every spike as pathological causes unnecessary worry and odd food choices.
• “Wellness CGM” long-term hard-endpoint outcomes (lower HbA1c, less weight, fewer cardiovascular events) are unestablished.
• Cost can be significant for limited information beyond what HbA1c already provides.

Reasonable use cases

• Pre-diabetic adults wanting concrete feedback to motivate change.
• Short-term experimentation (2–4 weeks) to learn personal responses.
• Coaching adjunct in T2D remission protocols.

Less reasonable: indefinite CGM use in metabolically healthy adults as a lifestyle accessory.

Related entries

Continuous glucose monitoring, HbA1c, Type 2 diabetes.