In my experience, most CGMs in the US are covered under durable medical and/or pharmacy benefits. There are cash options, for the Dexcom G6 at least, and from what I understand Costco is a low-price leader in that. I still the sensors are $100-150/per and the transmitters double that. I don't know anything about the non-T1D market for CGMs.

Nutrisense advertises on a podcase I listen to.

https://www.nutrisense.io/

In the us it’s Dexcom, Lily (sypersapiens) and Medtronic. All three are on similar pricing schedules. If your wife regularly uses one and you have no objections it’s easy to spoof a warranty call for an extra one, but that’s hardly a long term solution.

You could also try eversense, which is slightly cheaper but requires cutting.

...and the Freestyle (Abbot) but again, I don't know if there is a non-T1D use for it.

Thanks everybody! Yeah, that's what I'm looking for - how to get one for a non-medical user like myself for endurance training and racing. My wife's is covered by insurance, but me getting one would be prohibitively expensive here in the US.

I'll check out that one somebody said was advertised in a podcast to see if they are available here. But please feel free to keep posting advice if you think of any.

I just asked my doctor to write me one. I explained that I wanted to monitor my blood sugar response to diet and exercise. She wrote me one and also for 4 months worth of sensors. I had to pay out of pocket for the setup which was $110 for the reader and $85 for the sensors monthly. I got the Freestyle Libre 2.
I found using it was not as accurate as via checking finger prick, I know that it’s a different measurement but for me the difference ranged from 8-22 mg/dl per me doing a dual reading. During exercise I never bottomed out below 80 mg/dl and never went over 135 mg/dl.
Conclusion for me was nothing usable or “wow” moments.
If you do go with a CGM, make sure you get the covers so you can swim with it, the first sensor lasted 2 swims.

Typically I see the G6 may give a false low but never a false high. Plus or minus 10% is probably a decent range for finger prick vs CGM. Maybe more close to a meal.

Out of curiosity what is the goal of someone with a functioning pancreas to use a CGM? Was it just research and inquisitiveness or is there something else you’re trying to accomplish?

For me pure inquisitiveness. When I was building for a couple 150mi Gravel Races it sparked my curiosity after hearing Team Ineos was using them. One thing I did conclude when I thought I was bonking during a training session, my blood glucose levels were well within normal ranges making me wonder if it was more mental fatigue.

Is there a way you could just scam a freestyle libre off the mrs lol

Cool, thanks. FWIW in the T1D world a common alert for low is at 60-70 and urgent low at 50. 80 to 120 is great!

they are doing a pretty good marketing. that's the key to success much more than producing a reliable and fair product
you produce a device which has unknown accuracy and doubtful usefulness, you pay professional individuals and teams to use it and advertise it, and that's it.

supersapiens costs are incredible thinking an AG pays for it to get out what? numbers without knowing how to use it and probably even wrong.

do we have references measuring the accuracy of these devices? and more importantly, when do you have to measure and in what conditions?

i see it more like having a powermeter on the bike, without knowing anything about it but feeling better because you heard that it can boost your performance...

I’ve been using them for 6 or 7 months now (the supersapiens sensor), I too had to get them imported as they weren’t available here either.

I’ve stopped now - short answer. Doesn’t make any sense or really help.

For a T1 diabetic I’m sure the medical grade GCM patches are a real insight for general health and are really really useful, but I just can’t see how it helps any AG athletic like me.

Okay, eat something, level goes up. Don’t. Level goes down. I was hoping to use them to not bonk as posted above, but the issue for me was that excursion/stress would have a bigger impact on the read then glucose intake. I did a Duathlon and the reading was >160 pretty much the whole race so how does that help with fuelling…

The other thing is the sensors are wildly flaky, okay Abbot will replace FoC if one is reading low, but that doesn’t help, at 65€ a go as I don’t have a draw of spares, and then the question is. Is that one low, or the others too high etc.

It’s fantastic tech, but I found it better to spend the money on better nutrition and train the gut for 80g+ of carbs an hour - that has lead me to feeling amazing over long hours of training and not bonking.

My 2c

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Regards, Richard

Exactly - Having been around them for so long and seeing my wife's struggle with them, I both know how to use them and also how flaky they can be. So it's 50/50 curiosity/utility. I tend to overfuel and then get sick when doing super long rides or races (5 to 20 hours), so having a blood sugar reading that I'm fine could be really helpful. But I also know to take it with a grain of salt (sugar. ha.)

There is a podcast with Kris Freeman who is a T1 athlete (former 4X American Olympian for Nordic Skiing and 16X National Champion for Skiing) who has transitioned to triathlon for retirement. Its called the TriDoc Podcast, search it for the interview with him. He just finished St George 19th in Mens 40-44.

He goes into detail about how CGMs work and discusses whether they are useful for non diabetics. They are a slightly lagging indicator and the net is people should just snack more frequently and fuel their workouts more consistently, but there is no major benefit for a non diabetic to use one that you couldnt figure out by practicing different fueling strategies for your workouts.