The Study
Impact of Continuous Glucose Monitoring Versus Blood Glucose Monitoring to Support a Carbohydrate-Restricted Nutrition Intervention in People with Type 2 Diabetes
This study is like testing two different ways to track your food intake while on a strict diet — one uses a fancy app, the other uses a simple notebook. Both groups lost weight and felt better, and the fancy app didn’t help any more than the notebook. So we can’t say the app is better — we can only say both ways worked about the same.
Analysis score
Maximum 90 for a randomized controlled trial.
Where the score came from
People with type 2 diabetes ate very few carbs and got help from doctors remotely. Some used a continuous glucose monitor (like a wearable sensor), others used finger pricks to check blood sugar.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 564 / 100
Quality score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. The gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes — losing 7–8% of body weight and dropping HbA1c by 1.5% is clinically meaningful and reduces diabetes complications risk, even without expensive tech.
- 2Both groups lowered their blood sugar (HbA1c dropped 1.5–1.6%), lost 7–8% of body weight, cut carbs from 225g to 70g/day, and needed fewer diabetes meds — with no difference between the two monitoring methods.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics
Year
2024
Authors
H. Willis, S. Asche, Amy L. McKenzie, Rebecca N Adams, C. Roberts, Brittanie M. Volk, Shannon Krizka, Shaminie J. Athinarayanan, Alison R. Zoller, R. Bergenstal
Related Content
Claims (4)
In adults with type 2 diabetes, following a medically supervised very-low-carbohydrate diet for three months is associated with an average drop of 1.5–1.6% in HbA1c levels and a 7–8% reduction in body weight, whether or not glucose is tracked using continuous monitoring or fingerstick tests.
Adults with type 2 diabetes who follow a very-low-carbohydrate diet tend to reduce their diabetes medications significantly over three months, no matter how they track their blood sugar levels.
For adults with type 2 diabetes on a medically supervised very-low-carbohydrate diet with remote care, using continuous glucose monitoring does not lead to better outcomes in time spent in normal blood glucose range, HbA1c levels, or weight loss compared to standard blood glucose monitoring over three months.
In adults with type 2 diabetes, switching to a very-low-carbohydrate diet lowers daily carbohydrate consumption from about 220–230 grams to 65–80 grams within three months, even without tracking food intake or calories.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.