The quality of your diet profoundly impacts your health and well-being.
Whereas nutrient-rich foods energize the body and help cells thrive, sugary, processed foods thwart cell function, sap your energy, drive weight gain, and increase your risk for serious illness. Research links high blood sugar to eight of the top 10 leading causes of death in the US, including Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and cancer.
Other aspects of modern life compound the effects of low-quality food. Poor sleep, chronic stress, and physical inactivity all negatively impact your body’s ability to make and use energy, known as your metabolic health. Strikingly, only 7 percent of Americans are metabolically healthy; and 73.6% are overweight or obese.
The good news? Your metabolic health is largely in your control. Most people can improve their quality of life and reduce their risk for disease through lifestyle changes, such as eating differently, sleeping more, and becoming more active.
Yet, simply being told to make these changes typically doesn’t work. What does? Seeing how your choices affect aspects of health and life that matter to you.
Intuitive logging
Data over dogma: using technology to motivate change
Most people have a sense that their eating habits could be better. Yet, a history of failed fad diets and an abundance of conflicting information about nutrition can lead to inaction. Too often, yesterday’s superfoods become today’s kryptonite; and a nutrition program that worked for your best friend may not be the best plan for you. In short, it’s easy to lose motivation to eat right when you don’t know what “right” means for you.
To combat confusion and inaction, Levels gives you objective, personalized information about how your food choices affect your health. Rather than mandating a rigid diet (that may fall out of favor in a year), the app analyzes your activity and eating patterns to identify choices that may be contributing to increases in blood sugar. Based on this data, the app delivers personalized recommendations for improving glucose stability and achieving your health goals.
The app’s user-friendly logging interface lets you quickly record each meal—a critical first step to connecting how you eat to how you feel. ➡️
Stability ring and glucose graph
Why we focus on glucose stability
It’s totally normal for blood sugar levels to rise and fall throughout the day. However, when levels increase sharply (sometimes called a glucose spike), the crash that follows can cause cravings, fatigue, and irritability.
Frequent glucose spikes have also been linked to inflammation, blood vessel damage, weight gain, and other changes that predict poor long-term health. And though absolute glucose levels matter, studies show that large spikes and dips in blood sugar can damage tissues more than high but stable numbers. Based on this research, we believe that glucose stability is critical to improving metabolic health.
By providing real-time information about your blood sugar, Levels helps you connect subjective feelings to changes in glucose stability. You might, for instance, link that afternoon fatigue to plummeting blood sugar following a carb-rich lunch—a realization that can motivate you to make a different lunch choice next time.
⬅️ The app features a Stability Ring (TOP), which communicates how steady your glucose levels are throughout the day. The Glucose Graph (MIDDLE) allows you to observe how your blood sugar is changing in real time. Though no single number defines metabolic health, experts suggest keeping your levels between 72 and 110 mg/dL for most of the day.
Actionable insights
The three pillars of metabolic health
It can be empowering to realize that your metabolic health is in your control. It can also be overwhelming. Since a number of factors affect glucose stability, Levels suggests manageable steps you can take each day to improve your health across three domains: food, sleep, and exercise.
Food
Healthy eating is an essential first step on the journey to better health. However, that journey can look different depending on who you are and what you hope to achieve. For this reason, the app doesn’t prescribe a generic diet. Instead, it uses your food logs and biomarkers to generate personalized recommendations for food swaps, recipes, and other practical steps you can take to realize your goals.
When you log, the app doesn’t simply label foods “good” or “bad.” Instead, it draws from the latest science to (1) explain why foods affect you the way they do; and (2) provide personalized recommendations for better metabolic health. ➡️
Metabolic checklist
Sleep
Research shows that the quantity and quality of your sleep directly affect glucose stability. In one study, sleep-deprived participants cleared glucose out of their bloodstream 40% slower than their well-rested counterparts; and poor sleep has been linked to obesity, diabetes, and inflammation.
The Levels app seamlessly integrates your sleep data into its records, helping you observe how these patterns affect your blood sugar and your well-being.
⬅️ Quality food is critical to your health and wellness—but it’s not everything. Our metabolic checklist encourages good sleep, exercise, and other positive habits, helping you seize every opportunity to improve your health.
Zone Score
Exercise
Most people can improve their well-being by becoming more active. Even low-intensity exercise, such as walking, can help blunt post-meal blood sugar spikes. By contrast, studies link a sedentary lifestyle to inflammation, insulin resistance, and other features of poor metabolic health.
Since physical activity greatly impacts your glucose stability, the Levels app factors this information into the insights you receive, offering positive encouragement for workouts.
⬆️Each meal receives a 1-10 score based on how your body responds to it.
This reflects a combination of the food itself as well as your level of activity.
Take control of your health
From your weight and energy levels to physical performance and longevity, your metabolic health has far-reaching effects. It’s also the direct result of the choices you make each day. By putting objective, understandable data in your hands, Levels helps you confidently navigate these choices so you can feel your best and achieve your goals.
See how Levels can help you improve your health
Levels can help you optimize your metabolic health by showing how food and lifestyle impact your blood sugar. Get access to the most advanced continuous glucose monitors (CGM), along with an app that offers personalized guidance so you can build healthy, sustainable habits. Click here to learn more about Levels.
