This Week’s Breakfasts on My CGM
Most mornings, I eat breakfasts built around protein, fat, and a natural carbohydrate source. Eggs, meat, cheese, avocado, sweet potatoes — meals that keep me full and help support more stable blood sugar.
But this past week, I reviewed several breakfasts from my continuous glucose monitor (CGM), and one meal stood out dramatically from the rest.
This wasn’t a planned experiment. I wasn’t trying to create the “perfect” comparison. In fact, the highest spike happened during a restaurant breakfast later in the day when my blood sugar was already starting from a higher baseline. But even taking that into account, the difference was hard to ignore.
The takeaway wasn’t that pancakes are “bad” or that you should never eat out. It was something much more practical: Awareness matters.
My Breakfast CGM Results
Here’s a comparison of several breakfasts from the past week and how my blood sugar responded.
| Breakfast | Starting Blood Sugar | Peak Blood Sugar | Total Rise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Egg, mashed potato, avocado | 93 mg/dL | 112 mg/dL | +19 mg/dL |
| Eggs, bacon, almond flour muffin | 89 mg/dL | 120 mg/dL | +31 mg/dL |
| Egg whites, cheese, sweet potato | 80 mg/dL | 109 mg/dL | +29 mg/dL |
| Brat, eggs, kale, cheese | 80 mg/dL | 94 mg/dL | +14 mg/dL |
| Pancakes, syrup, and bacon from a restaurant | 115 mg/dL | 176 mg/dL | +61 mg/dL |
Visual Comparison of the Blood Sugar Changes
The pancake breakfast caused nearly double the rise of my next highest breakfast.
But it wasn’t just the peak that stood out.
Looking at the CGM snapshots shown below, the pancake and syrup breakfast also kept my blood sugar elevated for close to four hours. The other breakfasts generally rose and returned closer to baseline within about two hours or less. That difference is significant.
My Blood Sugar CGM Snapshots for Each Breakfast
Why This Happens
Meals built around protein, fat, and fiber tend to slow digestion and help blunt rapid blood sugar spikes.
Meals centered around refined carbohydrates — especially something like pancakes and syrup — can deliver a large amount of fast-digesting carbs quickly. It can also be easy to accidentally over consume them.
A stack of pancakes with syrup can contain far more carbohydrates than most people realize, especially when eaten without enough protein alongside them.
Meanwhile, breakfasts like eggs, cheese, avocado, sweet potatoes, and meat provide a much different balance of nutrients that can help create a steadier response.
If you want more ideas for what balanced blood sugar breakfasts can actually look like, I share more examples in: What Balanced Blood Sugar Breakfasts Actually Look Like and I Eat This Every Morning
The Goal Isn’t Perfection
This post is not about fear around food. It’s not about saying you should never eat pancakes or never enjoy breakfast out at a restaurant. I absolutely still will.
But now that I’ve seen how my blood sugar personally responds to a meal like this, I can make more intentional choices.
For me, that means:
- Saving meals like pancakes and syrup for special occasions
- Paying more attention to portion sizes
- Adding more protein next time, like a side of eggs
- Understanding that this type of meal may leave me feeling hungrier or craving more sugar afterward
That awareness helps me make decisions instead of just reacting to cravings.
And honestly, that’s one of the biggest benefits of using a CGM.
Cravings vs. Intentional Choices
Interestingly, the foods that spike my blood sugar the most are often the foods I crave when I’m tired or overly hungry. That’s why I think it’s important to have strategies in place for everyday meals that actually keep me satisfied and energized.
If you struggle with sugar cravings too, I talk more about that in my post: What to Eat When You’re Craving Sugar. Balanced meals consistently help me stay more stable, both with energy and cravings.
What I’m Testing Next
Next up, I want to compare a homemade higher-protein, blood sugar friendly pancake recipe against traditional pancakes on my CGM. Because I still love pancakes.
I just want to figure out how to enjoy them in a way that works better for my blood sugar.