If you’re looking to better understand your metabolic health, an over-the-counter CGM device can be an excellent tool, according to the experts we spoke with.
If you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes (type 1, type 2, or gestational) or prediabetes, ask your health care provider to share the most suitable FDA-approved prescription-grade blood-glucose monitor. Prescription-grade monitors are not only more accurate, but they also include features like alarms to prevent hypoglycemia and data-sharing features that allow your doctor’s office to tap into your measurements.
Here are our picks for the best continuous glucose monitors based on experts’ recommendations, user-friendliness, and accessibility.
Freestyle Libre 3 Plus
FreeStyle Libre 3 Plus Complete Kit
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre 3 Plus is the smallest blood-sugar testing sensor on the market. About the size of two stacked pennies and weighing just over a gram, it punches above its weight, lasting for a full 15 days and sending glucose data to your phone via Bluetooth once every minute. (Some CGM devices need to be scanned with your phone in order to transmit the data, but this model sends it automatically.)
Pros: As a prescription option, the Libre is one of the most reliable CGMs available and approved for use to manage diabetes. Plus, the app allows you to share your data directly with your medical team, enabling your doctor to adjust treatment recommendations in real time.
For these reasons, it’s Dr. Berzin’s preferred CGM for patients. “At Parsley, we use them for people who are looking to lose weight or improve insulin sensitivity, and for people who have hormonal issues that are tied to blood sugar, like PCOS,” she says.
Con: The smartphone app is a little clunky on the consumer side, and you may have to use a third-party app to connect it to your smartwatch.
Dexcom G7
The Dexcom G7 is another prescription option health care providers recommend that is covered by Medicare. It’s approved for use in all types of diabetes management (type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes) and smoothly connects with multiple types of insulin pumps.
Pros: “I like the data that I get [as a health care provider],” says Christine Dennis, a certified registered nurse practitioner specializing in maternal-fetal medicine and diabetes in pregnancy. “It’s an interactive report, so I can kind of slide my cursor over the line and I can see exactly what their blood sugar is moment to moment.”
On the consumer side, the G7 connects directly to your Apple Watch, and the app offers predictive analytics that give you a projected A1C and can also alert you to low blood sugar 20 minutes before you’re hypoglycemic.
Con: The G7 sensor has a shorter battery lifespan (10.5 days).
Lingo
For people who don’t need a prescription, the Lingo (also made by Abbott) is a great consumer-friendly FDA-approved option that’s built on the Libre sensor technology. “I recommend it for people who want to know about their bodies. You don’t have to wear it all the time, just episodically,” says Anne Peters, MD, director of the University of Southern California’s Clinical Diabetes Program. A single two-week sensor costs $49.
