Les Mills TONE is a total body workout blending cardio, strength, and core work. It’s designed to sculpt, challenge, and strengthen your muscles. Learn about the workout in this review and use my link to try it out for 30 days free, plus all of the amazing workouts on the Les Mills + platform.
Hey hey! How’s the morning treating ya? I hope you’re having a great one so far. I’m LOVING these early morning walks with the pups. The weather has been beautiful and it’s the perfect way to start the day. The rest of the day is filled with conference calls and working on some behind-the-scenes stuff (fitness plans are going to be 50% off for my birthday next week!), and I’m excited to catch a Les Mills TONE workout later today. This is a newer workout format for me, so I thought I’d share a review here!! It’s really the WHOLE package and the Les Mills quality I love so dearly – I think you’ll like it, too. 😉
Les Mills TONE Review
What is Les Mills TONE?
From the website:
LES MILLS TONE combines blocks of strength, cardio and core training into one complete and convenient workout, which includes a mix of exercises to work the whole body and elevate the heart rate. The multi-peak workout helps burn calories and build fitness and strength while improving energy levels, flexibility, balance, agility and core strength. You will finish feeling empowered and on track for all-around functional fitness.
This workout combines so many elements into a single workout. You’ll get strength, cardio, core, and functional training all in one session. I feel like it challenges me without being *too much* (for the days I don’t want to do intervals or a ton of impact) and I feel centered afterwards, like I’ve just taken a yoga class.
Here is how the class is structured:
The class includes a warm-up, cardio, cardio/strength, strength, strength/core, core, and a cool down. Just like many of the Les Mills workout, each track has a specific focus and repeats the same core movements with room for modification or progression. It has elements of Les Mills classes I already love: the explosive cardio elements of BODYATTACK, the strength focus of GRIT STRENGTH and BODYPUMP, the mind-body connection of BODYCOMBAT, the mobility and core aspects of CORE, and the high-energy intervals of GRIT.
Here are some of the moves you can expect in a TONE class:
Cardio: side lunges, skaters, knee lift tap back combo, burpee, burpee to spider jump, jumping jack, tuck jump, lateral plyo jumps, bear crawl, surfer burpee, mountain climbers
Strength: reverse lunges, pulsing lunges, rear delt raise, calf raise, squats, plate curl, plate press, rear leg extension
Core: static squat with diagonal reach, wood chop, halo, hip bridge, 3-legged dog, crunch variations, leg extension pulse, single-leg bridge
Les Mills TONE in Action
Check out this super short sizzler to get a taste of what it looks like:
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
Is Les Mills TONE good?
You guys, it’s SO good, but I can say that for pretty much all of the Les Mills workouts. The instructors and movements and phenomenal, and I love that the music always matches the movements. Movement is such a motivating factor, and I love that Les Mills really harnesses this power and create choreography and playlists that are inspiring. This workout is the full package: you get strength, cardio, mobility work, functional training, and core, all in one.
How many calories do you burn in Les Mills TONE?
I’ve found that I typically burn between 200 and 300 in a 30-minute class, depending on the cardio drills and how hard I’m working. I feel like for strength workouts, calorie burn is not a huge indication of a great workout. When you’re strength training, you’re positively impacting your metabolism (muscle is hungrier than fat and needs more fuel to maintain) and protecting your joints and bones. These things can’t be measured with an Apple Watch, ya know? 😉
Is TONE coming to Les Mills on demand?
TONE is already available on LMOD! They’ve rebranded to Les Mills+ but it’s the same platform we all love. If you’ve been wanting to try out the Les Mills workouts, use my link for 30 day free trial. It’s the perfect way to try something new as we head into the holidays, and you can do the workouts anywhere. It’s very convenient for quick home workouts or a travel option.
So, tell me friends: are you a fan of Les Mills? Does your gym offer it? I keep praying we’ll add it to our gym – I miss teaching BODYPUMP.
Any workouts or workout trends you’d like me to review?
Sharing holiday gift ideas for the kids this year! We tend to stick to the purchasing strategy of: “ Something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read.”
Hi friends! Happy Monday! I hope you had a wonderful Halloween weekend! The kids had the BEST time trick-or-treating with the fam, and I officially feel like I’m in the holiday spirit. It’s an onslaught of fun festivities from now until January and I’m SO READY FOR IT.
I’m really excited for today’s gift guide because kiddos really bring the magic to Christmastime. I’m basically like Buddy the Elf and thought that nothing could possibly make the season more enjoyable… and then we had kids. They just magnify all of the magic of the holidays. I’m sharing the kids’ gift guide early this year because of supply chain and shipping issues. We’re getting our holiday shopping done early, so I wanted to put some ideas out there if you’re doing the same thing.
When we holiday shop for the kiddos, we keep things on the simpler side. They get their Santa gifts and stocking stuffers, and then from us, we stick to the “something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read.” This checks all of the main boxes and keeps things from getting too bananas with gifts from my parents and their other relatives. [Another hack: any gifts that aren’t opened in the first couple of days are stocked away in the playroom. I bring them out on a rainy day or when the kids say they’re looking for something to do.]
Today, I’m sharing some of the things on their personal wish lists, along with tried and true favorites if you’re shopping for kids their ages (5 and almost 9) this holiday season!! I’d love to hear your kids’ gift requests in the comments and any ideas you have!
– The Boxcar Children (this makes a fun read-aloud)
What’s on the kiddos’ wish list this year? Any previous gifts that were a home run?
xo
Gina
Shop this post:
*Note: none of my gift guides are sponsored, and companies are not able to purchase spots on my gift guides. These are all items I curated myself and genuinely think they’d make awesome gifts for someone you love. Affiliate links are included, which don’t affect purchase price but enable me to earn a small kickback. Thank you so much for purchasing through these links and supporting our family. <3
Hi friends! Happy Friday and Happy Halloweekend 🙂 What do you have going on? I’m so excited for this weekend. The girls have a costume parade at their school, we’re carving pumpkins and have Trunk or Treat on Saturday, I’m teaching a barre class and a live Fit Team workout, and Sunday night, we’re taking the crew trick-or-treating with my dad and stepmom. I hope you have a fun weekend ahead, too!
We had Trunk or Treat at the squadron last weekend, so it was fun to walk around and see all of the different trunks (some were so elaborate! My favorite was the one offering margaritas to the adults) and the kids spent the evening living their best sugar-buzzed lives. Liv wore her dead bride costume and P wore a giraffe costume we’ve had for years. Her real costume this year is a sparkly witch – it’s the first year their costumes have ventured more on the scary side than cute side.
Necessary picture with the squadron bar warthog:
Stay tuned for a pic of the guinea pigs in their costumes on Instagram stories, and of course, Maisey and Caro.They’ve become the cutest little friends. As the mornings have gotten colder, I’ve found the two snuggled up together on the couch. Pretty adorable.
Some pics from the Pilot’s bday celebration:
We had the fam over and some friends for dinner and drinks later Sunday night after P’s party.
The appetizer spread:
(Shrimp cocktail, Mexican pastries, artichoke dip and crackers, chips and salsa)
Plus these cute mini taco salad bites! (I based this off a few I found on Pinterest and just used baked wonton wrappers in muffin tins, seasoned ground beef, guacamole, salsa, chopped red onions, olives, and cilantro)
We had “cowboy dinner”: grilled tri tip (Madre makes the best), baked beans, biscuits, salad, tortillas
It’s time for the weekly Friday Faves party! This is where I share some of my favorite finds from the week and around the web. I always love to hear about your faves, too, so please shout out something you’re loving in the comments section below!
Fashion + beauty:
New Beautycounter holiday sets! BC released three new holiday sets this week and you can get free shipping on orders over $50 from now until Sunday. New clients can use the code CLEANFORALL20 for 20% off.
Good Scents Bath Oil Trio – love this for a holiday gift idea. Three different scents: Invigorate (Rosemary, eucalyptus, and peppermint), Clarify (Ginger, cedarwood, and coriander) and De-Stress (Chamomile, eucalyptus, and patchouli). These are formulated with avocado and jojoba seed oils.
Countertime Deluxe Mini Set – If you have been thinking about purchasing this line, this set is a great way to try out the line before committing to the full size! This set is suppose to last for more than a month (some of these will last far longer that that) so it’s the perfect time to take this line for a test drive. The set includes: Countertime Lipid Defense Cleansing Oil, Countertime Mineral Boost Hydrating Essence, Countertime Tripeptide Radiance Serum, Countertime Antioxidant Soft Cream and Countertime Tetrapeptide Supreme Cream (my FAVE nighttime moisturizer).
Clean Sweet Hyaluronic Balm Duo: I love this balm duo as we head into winter aka chapped lips season. Apply as needed throughout day to hydrate and soften lips. It has a unique contour shape and can be used on lips or cheeks for a dewy glow. It comes in two shades: Nada (translucent) and Pinch (a warm, rosy pink)
– Locks in moisture to keep lips conditioned and hydrated, helping them to look more plump
– Infused with lip-loving ingredients for advanced nourishment that leaves lips soft and supple without greasiness.
– Optimized shape forms to contours of lips, swiping on easily. It reminds me of our Clean Deo but half the size.
– Can be applied to cheeks in a pinch for a dewy glow
– Smooths and softens lips with mango seed and murmur seed butter, jojoba, and avocado oil. These oils are known to mimic the skin’s natural lipids to help retain moisture, leaving lips soft and supple.
The perfect black pants. I wear these with button-up tops when I want to look more put-together (I had a meeting the other day and wore leopard slides and a silk button-up), or with a sweater and cute earrings.
Today, we’re answering both of them (and much more).
Walking is a great form of exercise and something we often recommend to folks starting our coaching program.Some have hadgreat success walking, including Megan, who has a daily practice to maintain her weight loss journey.
How Many Calories Does Walking Burn? (Calorie Calculator)
In true Nerd Fitness fashion, we scienced the crap out of this, and even created a handy calculator for you – simply put your stats in the calculator here:
A few things to remember about the above equation:
There’s a difference between gross calories (total calories) expended and net calories (additional calories) expended! Your body burns most of its calories every day JUST by existing.
Gross calories: calories burned while walking PLUS the calories burned just existing
Net calories: ADDITIONAL calories you burned thanks to exercise.
Also, our calculation is an ESTIMATE. You’re a unique snowflake, and no box or formula can capture your awesomeness/uniqueness. This equation below is JUST a starting point!
Also, if you don’t feel like playing with our calculator (boo), here’s something you should know:
On average, a mile burns about 100 calories when walking.
ANY exercise pales in comparison to a much more important part of the weight loss equation: nutrition.
If you’ve come this far, and you want to learn more about why walking is so amazing, continue reading.
And you’re damn right, I’ll show you exactly how to walk to Mordor too.
What Are The Benefits of Walking?
We are designed to walk. It’s in our DNA, and it’s a huge part of our emergence as the dominant species on this planet (along with opposable thumbs, big brains, and Nintendo).
Let’s get the basic stuff out of the way:
Every day, it’s recommended by the CDC that we walk around five miles, or 10,000 steps.[1]
Hence the reason why your Fitbit – which I’ll get to shortly – has that 10k step goal as its default number.
Unfortunately, we Americans tend to average HALF that: 2.5 miles or 5,000 steps. And I’d imagine that people who work outdoors or have more physically active jobs drag that average wayyyy up.
Which leaves us desk jockeys, who don’t walk nearly enough.
We use our feet to get us from the front door, to our car, to our desk, to our car, to our front door, to our couch… where we put them up while watching four hours of TV before going to bed.
Not walking enough can be a big factor in the creep-up of weight gain over the years.
You might have questions like:
Can I walk more to lose weight?
Is walking REALLY good for me?
Do I need to do more intense exercise?
Long story short: You should walk more and it can help you lose weight and behealthier.
Short story long, here’s why walking is important:
#1) Walking burns calories without exhausting you.If you walk the recommended mileage each day (5 miles instead of just 2.5), it can lead to a tremendous amount of weight loss over time.You’ll burn an extra 100 calories walking just ONE more mile each day than normal: When that’s multiplied out, it’s an extra 700 calories burned per week, which results in approximately a pound of fat lost every five weeks, or 10 pounds in a year. You can scale up your distances to get your desired results!
#2) Walking doesn’t add to training stress. If you are strength training regularly, adding in more weight training or running can lead to burnout, breakdowns, and injuries. If you are trying to look like a super-hero, extra cardio sessions (or long distance cardio sessions) might kill your gains. But you can just walk. You can walk great distances, provided you’ve built up your body’s physical ability, and not get tired or sore – walking (especially outside while soaking in some sunlight) can make you feel better, not worse.
#3) Walking is low impact. Unlike running, which can wreak havoc on people’s joints if they run improperly or are severely overweight, walking doesn’t have those impact issues. If you go for a walk and your feet or joints hurt, you’re doing it wrong – read the next section!
#4) Walking can burn fat. Because walking is low impact and low intensity, your body doesn’t need to pull much glycogen and glucose stores to fuel itself, which happens when you strength train or push yourself into “aerobic training” with higher intensity cardio. Proponents of intermittent fasting suggest walking in a fasted state in the morning before eating anything in order to help burn extra fat. It’s a little controversial, so this will have to be something you attempt and measure for yourself.
#5) Walking relieves stress. Seriously! Put on your favorite playlist, and go for a pleasant walk around your neighborhood or through the woods as the sun is going down. It’s a recipe to forget the worries of your day.
Bonus points if you can get someone to follow you with a boombox:
#6) Walking improves mental health (especially in older hobbits). Walking can improve mental health, increase brain size, improve memory, and is correlated with improved, longer lifespans.[2]
How Walking Can Change Your Life
If you are severely overweight and can’t run or strength train, walk on.
If you are building muscle and bulking up, walk on.
If you are trying to lose weight, walk on.
If you struggle with following a routine, or have failed in the past with weight loss, walk on.
Why? I’m a HUGE fan of small habit change and tiny victories – walking is the PERFECT habit builder. If you’re brand new and starting out, go for a walk TODAY and begin your journey to Mordor.
This afternoon, go for a five-minute walk. Tomorrow morning before work, before breakfast, as SOON as you wake up, put on your shoes, and go outside for a five-minute walk. No snoozing, no lying in bed, no checking email or Twitter. Put on your headphones, pick your favorite song, go outside, and start walking.
Here’s why:
Walking for just five minutes a day is the start of a new habit.Every morning for a few weeks, you’ll have to force yourself to walk. Initially, it will take effort and willpower to walk instead of snoozing. However, with each passing day of success, you’ll need to use less effort and willpower to get out the door. After all, it’s only five minutes, right? Once it’s something you do automatically without thinking, you can add on to it by increasing your walk time.
Walking briskly outdoors in the fresh morning air can be a great caffeine-free wake up call! If you make walking the FIRST thing you do in the morning, especially if you’re doing it before anybody else is awake, there will be zero distractions and no reason to say “sorry, I didn’t have time.” Of course, we like caffeine too (in moderation).
Walking will give you a chance to gather your thoughts and clear your head before the day begins. We’re constantly distracted at home: TV, iPads, smartphones, etc. Walking is so primal – no gadgets, just walking. Many people cite walking as the impetus for their creative or intelligent breakthroughs.
Walking and successfully building a habit will give you a habit blueprint to follow for anything else you’d like to accomplish: “Hey, I was able to make walking a habit, what else can I tackle in the same way?” Slow and steady wins. One foot in front of the other, my friend.
How to Walk Properly
“Uhhh, Steve, I know how to walk. I do it every day!”
Welp, if you’re starting from only walking from your car to the office, we need to make sure you’re walking the right way for when you push that mileage up.
Let’s start with your feet, provided you’re not gonna glue hair to your feet and go barefoot to become a hobbit.
I recommend walking in shoes that have a wide toe box and minimal drop (height at the heel vs height at the toes), as we discuss in our monster post on healthy feet and footwear:
You might not be used to walking with minimal cushioning under your heels, so walk slowly and land softly. Walking on softer surfaces to start isn’t a bad idea either.
We were designed before the invention of big clunky shoes… thus, we should be able to walk without big clunky shoes.[3] If you are interested in going barefoot as a runner, get started by walking short distances first. Your feet will toughen up (though they probably won’t grow hair quite like Frodo and Sam), your joints and muscles around your feet and ankles will strengthen, and your knees will deal with less stress.
When going for a lazy stroll, focus on landing softly, which is much easier when you don’t have thick soled shoes to cushion your stride: land softly with your heel barely touching before rolling onto the middle (ball) of your foot, and then push off. You might need to take shorter strides than you’re used to if you were a big heel striker with a long stride.
If you’re aiming to walk quickly and up the intensity, shorten your stride and aim to land in the middle of your foot while pumping your arms. This is more easily done when walking uphill (which is also a great way to burn extra calories).
Is Walking Enough for Weight Loss?
Can walking help you lose weight?
You’re darn right it can!
The above photos are from Don, one of our coaching clients. Don credits his daily walking practice with helping him lose 85 pounds!
He’s not our only example here:
Megan, who I mentioned earlier, is another client who walks daily to maintain herweight loss.
Case closed?
Of course not!
Both Don and Megan also made adjustments to their nutrition to reach their amazing results.
One of the Rules of the Nerd Fitness Rebellion is that we know “you can’t outrun your fork.” No amount of exercise can counter a bad diet, as your nutrition will be responsible for 90% (not an exaggeration) of your success or failure.
Here’s an example:
Let’s say you go for a 5-mile walk, which takes you 90+ minutes.
If you then consume a 20 oz Gatorade and a small bag of Fritos (a typical snack for many here in America), you will have already undone all of the calories burned while walking.
Depending on your nutrition and love/hatred for exercise, this is either great news or bad news!
The BAD news: you can’t eat very badly in mass quantities and then expect to lose weight with a bit of exercise every week, even if it’s strenuous.
The GOOD news: Even if you dislike exercise, you can avoid exercise and still lose weight! Instead, put ALL of your focus instead on fixing your nutrition, and then go for a walk every once in awhile.
Oh, and if you want to see if a Nerd Fitness Coach can build you a program to lose weight while doing movements you enjoy (like walking), click on the button below:
The Best Practices for Walking (Tips and Tricks)
#1) Focus on posture! Head up! Shoulders back! Walk with a confident stroll – practice this one in the morning if you’re not used to walking like this. It’s also a great way to appear instantly more confident; we nerds and hobbits need all the confidence we can get! Look around at your surroundings with your head up, arms swinging in rhythm.
You can also do some well placed neck swings and jacket removals:
#2) Walk uphill to burn more fat. If you are walking on a treadmill, set it to an incline to increase the intensity and thus increase the amount of fat burned. Just don’t be that person who sets the incline way up, then holds onto both sides and leans their body back to be perpendicular with the incline. Keep good posture, lean forward into the incline, shorten your stride, and pump your legs.
#3) Hiking is a great way to practice walking, enjoy the scenery, and play Lord of the Rings in the woods with plastic swords and capes. Not that you should do that (you totally should). Here’s a beginner’s guide to hiking!
#4) When walking downhill, especially while barefoot (or wearing minimalist shoes), keep that stride short and be careful on how you are walking. Make sure your knee is bent when you land and absorb the impact rather than jamming the impact through your heel, knee, leg, hips, and lower back.
#5) Consider going for fasted walks in the morning. When you wake up first thing in the morning, your body has burned through most of the carb-fueled energy stores during the night. Which means when you go for a walk first thing in the morning, your body is more likely to have to pull from the only fuel source available to it: fat! This is the entire philosophy behind things like Intermittent Fasting or really low-carb diets like the Ketogenic diet.
#6) Get yourself a sturdy walking stick, if only so you can use it to battle imaginary ogres, goblins, cavetrolls, etc. It can also make you feel far more adventurous than if you’re just walking, and help you get up hills and land softly when going back down.
#7)Try Temptation Bundling. Load up an audiobook or your favorite podcast, and tell yourself that you can ONLY listen to the book or podcast while walking.
Is a Fitbit Helpful for Walking? (Which Fitness Tracker Is Best for Me?)
If you’re somebody who has been interested – or is getting interested – in walking, you’re probably familiar with step-tracking devices:
Personally, I’m a huge fan of fitness wearables, but not for the reasons you’d think.
For starters, you’re wearing a constant reminder that you are prioritizing movement, which can only be positive. You can even trigger it to remind you to get up and move every hour.
It can also allow you to see how many steps you normally take, and thus allow you to prioritize moving MORE.
Although Fitbit has a history of being sued for the inaccurate heart-monitor portion of its devices, I’m less concerned about heart rates and 100% accuracy of step distance, and instead think in terms of personal improvement.
Just like with tracking your bodyfat percentage or your weight, “that which gets measured gets improved,” and that carries over to your total steps. The fact that you’re tracking it means you’re going to be more aware of it, which means you’re going to be more likely to be able to improve it.
And that’s why, in a weird way, I’m not very concerned about the total accuracy of these devices. Even if your scale is off by 5 pounds, or your body fat caliper is inaccurate by 1%, as long as you use the same device and measure in the same way under the same conditions, you can track trends and paint the picture of your health and whether or not it’s improving!
And that’s what these fitness trackers should be used for: a reminder and a trend tracker!
What you SHOULDN’T do: take your fitness tracker as gospel, and use that to calculate down to the calorie and macro how much food exactly you can consume.
What you SHOULD do: track your trend over time, and see if you can improve your average. Use the technology to aid your fitness quest. Use the community portion of the band to compare your stats against friends and get some positive friendly peer pressure to get you off your ass.
Okay, if nerdy fitness technology isn’t nerdy enough for you, let’s go full-nerd.
How to Actually Walk to Mordor
Did you know it’s 1779 miles between Hobbiton to Mount Doom? [4]. We can actually determine how far Sam and Frodo walked, and then set out on the journey ourselves! It’s one thing to go for a stroll around your neighborhood. It’s another to know that, “If I take one more step, it’ll be the farthest away from home I’ve ever been.”
So let’s take a look at how far we need to walk first:
458 miles: Go from Hobbiton to Rivendell.
462 miles: Set out with the Fellowship from Rivendell, through Moria, to Lothlorien.
389 miles: From Lothlorien, down the Anduin, to Rauros Falls.
470 miles: Follow Frodo and Sam on the quest from Rauros to Mt. Doom.
535 miles: From Minas Tirith to Isengard
693 miles: From Isengard to Rivendell.
397 miles: From Rivendell to Bag End.
467 miles: (bonus!) Follow Frodo to the Grey Havens and return home with Sam.
Following this path, you need to walk a total of 1779 miles to get from Hobbiton to Mt. Doom. Then it’s time to destroy the ring and get carried to Minas Tirith by the Great Eagles.
Then you’ll walk 1625 miles back to Bag End (and an additional 467 miles if you’re interested in doing a round trip to the Grey Havens).
Obviously, you don’t need to move at the same speed as the hobbits (18 miles on the first day is no joke! Damn, those hobbits covered some ground!), but it’s still fun to track your walks and your total miles to see where you’d be on your journey.
However, like Frodo and Sam, it starts with the first step.
I’ve created a Google Doc that you can copy for yourself to track your distances to follow Frodo and Sam on your journey to destroy the One Ring.
Here’s how to do it:
Open the document, and then click on “file,” “save a copy,” and then you can edit your own copy of the document.
Track your distances with a pedometer, Fitbit, your iPhone or Android phone.
Input your distances and work towards completing each section of the journey over months. As you input your distances, it will automatically let you know when you reach each destination so you can get you started on the next one. 5 miles a day on average will have you destroying the Ring within one year.
Oh, and if you’re curious, according to my rough gorilla math, Frodo burned at least an additional 61,0000+ calories (100,000+ gross calories) by walking “there and back again” – you’re welcome[5].
What’s that?
You want some help getting out the door?
You got it – but only cause you asked nicely.
Here are three ways to level up alongside Nerd Fitness.
#1) OurOnline Coaching Program: a coaching program for busy people to help them make better food choices, stay accountable, and get healthier, permanently.
You can schedule a free call with our team so we can get to know you and see if our coaching program is right for you. Just click on the image below for more details:
#2) If you want an exact roadmap on how to get in shape, check out NF Journey.Our fun habit-building app helps you exercise more frequently, eat healthier, and level up your life (literally).
We even have fun missions that will help you walk more, all while you earn XP! Righteous.
Try your free trial right here:
#3) Join the Rebellion!We need good people like you in our community, the Nerd Fitness Rebellion.
Sign up in the box below to enlist and get ourRebel Starter Kit, which includes all of our “work out at home” guides, the Nerd Fitness Diet Cheat Sheet, and much more!
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Alright, your turn:
What questions do you have about walking?
How have you incorporated it into your daily routine?
You’re probably wondering about the math on this one. I followed this thread down a rabbit hole and estimated a hobbit at 3.5 feet tall would weigh 60 pounds. I then put that into the calculator to determine calories walked. Again – this is just an estimation, and probably could be even more accurate if we had the topography of middle earth to determine elevation climbed too! Feel free to get me more accurate numbers in the comments and I’ll update this!
For the past week and a half, I tried out Nutrisense and wore a CGM to monitor my glucoses levels. Sharing a recap of my experience here! I was gifted the Nutrisense membership for 1 month to try, and this post is not sponsored. My code to try it out is GINA50 for $50 off <— not affiliate, just wanted to share a discount with you all.
Hi friends! How’s the week going? Thank you so much for all of the beautiful birthday wishes for P! We had a great day celebrating and capped it off with the requested hibachi dinner. I hope you’re having a wonderful week, too!
For today’s post, I wanted to share a recap of my experience using Nutrisense. I’ve been curious about this company for a while, especially after doing my Inside Tracker bloodwork earlier this year. My fasting glucose levels were a little on the high side, and I was concerned that it may be a deeper problem. I waited it out, and after my good friend Mia posted about using Nutrisense to monitor her blood glucose levels, I knew I wanted to give it a try. I reached out to the company and was excited when they offered me a month to try it out and see how I liked it.
I received the product and was SO nervous to put it on (hi, I’m a giant needle phobe) and waited and waited until Mia said that she’d walk me through the whole process and attach hers at the same time. You can watch the video here and witness the moment I almost started having a panic attack on live video. (She was like, “See, you can see the needle right there” and I turned white.) I really wanted the data, so I took a deep breath and went for it. I’m really glad I did, because having the ability to see my body’s response to different foods was extremely valuable.
(I’m smiling but panicking. Turns out, attaching the CGM was NOTHING like I imagined it would be. It was painless and super easy.)
Why I tried Nutrisense (and What I Learned)
What is Nutrisense and how does it work?
Nutrisense is a program that offers expert guidance in alignment with a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM). The CGM tracks your blood glucose at 15-minute intervals throughout the day, so you’re able to see how sleep patterns, diet, exercise, stress, and nutrition impact your blood glucose levels. Continuously elevated glucose can cause inflammation and damage in the body, so it can be helpful to see how your body responds to the factors above, particularly how it recovers. For example, if your blood glucose spikes after a carb-heavy or sugary meal, does it stay elevated? Or does it recover within 2 hours? How high is the spike??
When you sign up for Nutrisense, your CGM is delivered to you, along with details on how to attach it. (You can watch me do this here!) You’ll attach the CGM and protective patch, download the app, and scan your CGM to start tracking the data. It usually takes about an hour after adding it for your phone to recognize it and start scanning. (You just click “scan” on the app and hold your phone up the the CGM where the camera is located.)
Within the app, you’re initially paired with a Registered Dietitian who can help you interpret the data, make recommendations, and run experiments.
The service starts at $350 for month, and the cost goes down depending on the time commitment. (With a 12-month commitment, it’s $199/month.)
The CGM that Nutrisense uses is the Freestyle Libre and they expire in 14 days. (You app will let you know when your sensor is expiring.)
What type of data do you receive and how do you interpret the data?
Your blood glucose is charted 24/7 and you can see how high gets and how long it takes to stabilize. It can be interesting to see spikes throughout the night how different patterns affect your blood glucose.
I got this from my RD, who messaged me frequently and was always available to answer questions: (this was after a smoothie that caused a higher spike than I expected)
To help provide more context, I want to walk you through what I’m looking at as I assess a glucose response so let’s check out your breakfast on 10/11 as an example (chocolate, smoothie, almond milk):
Peak (^ on your meal card). First, we want to look at the peak glucose value and aim to avoid repeated exposure above 140. Your peak glucose value was 114, which is well below the threshold and a normal peak!
Exposure (squiggly line on meal card). Second, we also want a small area under the curve (AUC). So a quick glucose spike to 150 but a return to pre-meal glucose values within 1 hour of eating is a small area under the curve, but a slow glucose climb to 130 and staying elevated for 4 hours would be a much larger area under the curve. We want glucose to return to pre-meal values within 2-3 hours after eating. You can help monitor your AUC by assessing your meal card AUC values and by checking your standard deviation in the analytics. Your AUC was 42.9- I would say optimally I’m looking for <30, but <50 is still okay!
Stability (triangle on meal card). We also want to avoid major “shifts” in glucose. So it may be possible that after a meal you only went to 130 (which is good!), but your pre-meal value was 70, so that would be quite a big swing. You can monitor this by assessing your delta values, as we always want to strive for a delta <30. Your delta was 33, which is great!!
Recovery (2h score on meal card). Finally, we want glucose to return to pre-meal values within 2-3 hours after eating. Your response was 23, which tells me you were 23 points from baseline value at the 2 hour mark.
What I learned using a Nutrisense CGM:
– Some buffers to prevent a blood sugar spike, especially when you’re having higher-carb meals: take a walk before or after your meal, have some type of protein first, moderate carb intake, and meal timing. Since your insulin sensitivity is better during the day and wanes towards the evening, you may tolerate foods better if consumed in the afternoon instead of late at night. This is absolutely the case for wine with me – if I have it late-afternoon, it doesn’t affect my sleep.
– Whole foods-based carbs do not have a significant effect on me, especially when they’re paired with protein. (Berries, apples, bananas, and oranges didn’t cause a spike, even when I ate them by themselves.) Oatmeal, paleo pancakes, Siete tortillas, and starchy veggies were the same. Refined carbs, on the other hand, did cause a spike. We went to a party at a friend’s house and I had more sweets and refined carbs than usual (plus champagne) and my blood glucose was elevated all night and the following day. It was interesting to see how one meal can affect your insulin sensitivity for the following day.
– Wine spikes my blood sugar, tequila does not. (An important lesson haha.) Both recover fine if I have one glass, but two glasses led to increased levels the following day. This experiment verified the fact that I don’t do well with a ton of alcohol, and it’s been a good reminder to minimize it. (Right now I’m at one or maybe two drinks per week.)
– Also, my body loves tacos, beans, and rice. 🙂 I had my usual Wednesday night Mexican meal with the family and no huge spike.
– Peace of mind. A large percentage of our population is not metabolically flexible, which can impact how we handle stress, injuries, and recover from illness. I was concerned that my last blood test showed a higher fasting glucose, but this was able to verify that it isn’t the case for me normally (my blood test was an outlier) and a good indicator of my metabolic health. That was my main concern going into this and it was a welcomed sigh of relief.
Pros:
– The RD support was invaluable. I loved having the ability to ask questions, and she did an excellent job about teaching me how to see my patterns, assess my response, and ideal target ranges.
– The app is very well-designed, easy to navigate and use. I liked using the app and found that even as a newbie, I figured it out fairly easily.
Cons:
– I ate a little strangely when I first put it on. It’s like I was afraid to eat anything that would spike it, and eventually I had to tell myself to get over it and eat normally after a couple of days. The data wasn’t going to help me if I only ate protein and vegetables for 14 days. So I had margaritas, tacos, desserts, all of the things I normally eat, so it would provide a true picture. If you have a history with disordered eating, I wouldn’t recommend using this.
– It was uncomfortable and I ended up taking it off a few days early. (I think it was more the adhesive than the actual sensor.) I recognize the privilege I have to be able to say, “I don’t want to wear this anymore” and remove it, when I have friends out there who depend upon a CGM for survival. Just wanted to put a little note here that I see you. <3 I didn’t sleep well at all for the 11 days I had it attached – it was super light sleep because I was subconsciously worried about rolling onto it and sleeping on it during the night. Also, I was a little shocked by the catheter when the Pilot removed it for me – it’s a teeny plastic tube, but it was longer than I expected lol.
All in all, it was a really valuable experience and I enjoyed having access to all of the data + learning from my Nutrisense RD.
Am I going to attach the second sensor? I think I’ll definitely do it eventually but am taking a break for a couple of weeks. I want to run some more experiments with meal timing and eating certain foods by themselves + in conjunction with other foods.
Any questions about Nutrisense? Is this something you think you would do? If you decide to try it out, you can use the code GINA50 for $50 off 🙂
