Using a CGM when living with prediabetes: What to know

If you’ve just received a prediabetes diagnosis, you may now be wondering how to approach the different lifestyle changes that can help bring your glucose (blood sugar) levels back into a normal range.

Continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) are tools that measure your glucose, many of which provide real-time data, allowing you to see how your glucose changes in response to different foods, activities, stress, and more.

CGMs are a well-established part of diabetes care. With some now available without the need for a prescription, they may offer a way to support people with prediabetes by helping increase awareness of one’s glucose patterns. But what exactly might that look like?

How can a CGM help with prediabetes?

Wearing a CGM allows you to see the impact your everyday choices can have on your glucose. Everything from the foods you eat to physical activity, sleep, stress, and more.

Gaining insight into which habits tend to trigger larger or more frequent glucose spikes – and which support steadier glucose – can help many people make healthierchoices around food and physical activities.

What does the research say?

Emerging research is building evidence that CGMs can do more than track glucose – they may actually support people in making better choices.

One randomized study found that people with prediabetes who received real-time CGM feedback alongside personalized nutrition coaching showed greater improvements in glucose patterns than just nutrition coaching alone, highlighting the added value seeing your glucose in real-time can have.⁵

Another study found that pairing a smartphone app with CGM use helped people at risk of type 2 diabetes reduce their carbohydrate intake, lose weight, and spend more time in a healthy glucose range.⁶

While CGM research is still emerging, these early findings point to the potential value of real-time glucose feedback in motivating lifestyle changes.

Supporting healthier habits

Let’s take a closer look at some of the ways CGMs can support healthier habits:

• Food choices: They can help make the impact of different foods on glucose more visible, which may support choosing meals that lead to steadier glucose and, in some studies, improvements in diet quality and body composition.⁷

• Hunger cues: They may help align glucose feedback with internal hunger and fullness cues, supporting eating in response to physical hunger rather than habit.⁸

• Understanding your personal glucose responses: They allow you to see the real-time impact of different food choices, physical activity, meal timing, stress, and sleep on your glucose levels.

• Motivation: By making glucose responses more visible and immediate, they may help some people feel more motivated to move and experiment with new health habits.⁹

• Spotting patterns: They provide you with glucose data 24/7, making it easier to spot patterns and trends you might otherwise miss.

Together, each of the factors may help support you in adopting habits that are associated with steadier glucose levels and more time spent within a healthy range.

Importantly, CGM-based research has shown that people who naturally spend less time with glucose above the healthy range (70-140 milligrams per deciliter, or mg/dL) tend to have a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes over the next 5 years.¹⁰

How does a CGM work?

CGMs work by measuring the glucose levels in your interstitial fluid—the thin layer of fluid surrounding your body’s cells.

Using an applicator, you insert a tiny sensor under your skin to measure the glucose. This sensor connects to a transmitter and sends the glucose data wirelessly to a receiver or an app on your smartphone.

CGMs continuously measure glucose, giving real‑time feedback that makes it easier to see how everyday habits like meals, movement, stress, and sleep can affect glucose levels.

Lingo is one such CGM that is available without a prescription. Once applied, it should remain in place for up to 14 days. If it falls off or stops working before then, we’ll replace it for free.

Learn more about wearing a Lingo CGM.

Practical ways to use CGM data if you have prediabetes

Here are some practical ways you can use CGM data to better understand and support healthier daily habits:

• Meal planning: See how different foods and meals affect your glucose, and experiment with meal choices that support steadier glucose throughout the day.

• Timing exercise: Use your glucose trends to explore when physical activity may be most helpful for you – such as noticing how movement after meals influences your glucose response.¹¹

• Sleep and stress awareness: Pay attention to how sleep quality and stressful moments show up in your glucose patterns and consider adjusting routines or trying stress-management strategies to support steadier glucose.

If you’re using a CGM, here are some small, actionable ways to get started:

• Breakfast Check: See how quickly your go-to breakfast affects your glucose after eating.

• Stress Check: Pay attention to what happens to your glucose during stressful moments, like a big meeting or presentation, and how it changes once the stress passes.

• Post-meal Movement: Try a short 10-minute walk after a meal and compare how your glucose response versus days you don’t move afterward. Research suggeststhat when CGMs are used alongside approaches like nutrition therapy, physical activity, or weight management, they may enhance the impact of those strategies compared to using lifestyle changes alone.^5,6

It’s all about gaining extra insights to help inform the choices you make about your health. The more you understand how your body responds, the more context you’llhave when deciding which changes may work best for you.

Tips that may help reverse prediabetes

Here are some practical steps that can support metabolic health and help shift glucose patterns in a healthier direction:

Reduce the carbohydrate load of your diet by cutting back on sources of refined carbs (e.g. white bread and pasta) and added sugar – which are more likely to drive larger glucose spikes

• Prioritize protein to help reduce the size of glucose spikes,¹² support you in feeling fuller,¹³ and maintaining muscle mass.¹⁴

• Build meals around fiber-rich vegetables to increase satiety and support steadier glucose after eating.¹⁵

• Include healthy fats in your meals, as these provide energy without spiking your glucose.

• Move regularly, aiming for 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity each week, such as brisk walking or biking.

• Strength train 2-3 times a week to build muscle, which plays a key role in your body’s ability to use glucose.¹⁶

• Break up long periods of sitting by standing up or moving every 30-60 minutes.

Learn more about reversing prediabetes here.

A final note from Lingo

Prediabetes can be serious, but if you've just received a diagnosis, it can also be an opportunity for change.

Much like a low battery warning nudges you to plug in your phone, learning that you have prediabetes can be a signal to take action and move blood sugar toward a healthier range.

Eating a more glucose-friendly diet and prioritizing weight management are important pieces of the puzzle, and when it comes to developing habits that support these aims, CGMs can play a role.

Lingo is a CGM designed to help you build healthier habits, measuring your glucose response to food, exercise, and other lifestyle factors, then streaming the data directly to your phone, 24/7.

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