Four Questions I Ask When Looking at My Dexcom Clarity Reports (And Why)

*Disclaimer: All content and information in this blog is for informational and educational purposes only. Always consult your health care provider before making any adjustments to your exercise routine or diabetes management.

If you’re only looking at your blood sugar reports when you’re with your endocrinologist, there’s a good chance you’re missing on a huge opportunity to breakdown patterns, trends, and behaviors that are hurting your all around blood sugars.

I used to think that my data was for my doctors use only, and that I didn’t have the knowledge, or authority, to use it for my decision making.

Inside this blog post, I’m going to break down which blood sugar reports I use, the questions I ask, and how I use the information I get from them.

Let’s start with the important question – what reports do you use?

I’m a Dexcom user, so I use the Dexcom Clarity app. However, there are other great apps out there as well:

• Glooko for almost all meters
• LibreView for the Freestyle Libre
• CareLink for Medtronic
  

These reports can give you a lot of information, which may feel overwhelming at first. To avoid information overload, I always zone in my view to:

• The patterns the app identifies for me
• Time in Range: The percentage of time my blood sugars have stayed in my target range. My goal is always 70% or higher.
• Standard Deviation: How far I fluctuate from my average blood sugar. My goal is about 40 mg/dl 
• Average Blood Sugar: I place this one last on purpose, because in reality it gives us the smallest amount of information.
  

Now for the reports themselves. When it comes to Dexcom Clarity, there are a lot of reports you can download. My personal favorite is the Hourly Statistics report. This breaks down my time in range on an hour by hour basis, so I can see what parts of my day require the most attention.

(Notice how I don’t say “what parts of my day I’m doing the worst”? We don’t use the data as a report card here, it’s just information!)

Question #1: What patterns can I identify?

The easiest answer to this question is – the most obvious. The Dexcom Clarity app has the feature to pick out your patterns, but sometimes it doesn’t have enough frequency to pick up on one. So what next?

This is where I look at where I see the most yellow (highs) or red (lows) on my Hourly Statistics report. Choose ONE time frame that’s the easiest to tackle.

Question #2: What is happening right before this timeframe?

As you can see in my report, I have a trend of highs from 10 pm – 1 am. So instead of asking what’s happening DURING that three hour window, I’m asking what’s happening right BEFORE that window?

Here’s why: when it comes down to it, it’s usually the blood sugar decisions or behaviors we’re making an hour or two before a trend that contribute to the trend.

Question #3: Is this BASELINE or is this BEHAVIORAL?

It’s not enough to know where a trend is, but the WHY behind it. So we break it down into two categories:

• Baseline: Our basal rates, carb ratios and correction factors that contribute to trends by either being too low or too high.
• Behavioral: Actions we have direct ownership over – whether it’s over correcting our lows, forgetting to bolus or cutting down our bolus in fear of going low, these are all behavioral.

This question is important to ask because it puts us in direct ownership and control over the trend, and what comes next. 

Question #4: How can I remove variability?

Removing the variability allows us to take a root-cause approach. If we remove the snack before bed, do we still see a high overnight? 

If yes, maybe it’s time to take a look at our basal rates.

If no, maybe it’s time to look at our dosing decisions for the snack. 

The goal is never to remove the variability completely – it’s to understand what needs to work differently to allow it work FOR our blood sugars. 

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So here’s your homework: download your blood sugar reports and join us for our free upcoming webinar “Conquering the Decision Making Spiral” on December 12th. You can save your spot HERE!