I tracked my glucose with Oura Ring's new CGM integration. Here's how it went

Health trackers already monitor our steps, sleep, and stress. But recent medical integrations and updates are taking these devices to another level. Consider Oura’s partnership with the continuous glucose monitor (CGM) brand Dexcom. 

Just a few weeks ago, the smart ring brand announced an integration that would provide users — that is, the CGM for people 18 and up who aren’t on insulin — the ability to view their glucose data within the Oura app. This is the first partnership of its kind, and it gives us a glimpse of how health trackers will be used in the coming years.

Also: Your Oura Ring just got a major upgrade to fix common complaints – for free

As the first over-the-counter CGM, Stelo is designed for what Dexcom’s Jake Leach referred to in an interview as the “glucose-curious.” Research has begun to unlock the ways our glucose is tied to all other parts of our body’s processes, like energy, mood, sleep — you name it. With this new knowledge, people are waking up to CGM’s potential use cases for optimizing their body’s energy resources, reducing sluggishness, and consuming food that makes them feel better.

As ZDNET’s resident lab rat, I got my hands on Dexcom’s Stelo, stuck its tiny needle in my arm, and tracked my glucose through the Oura app for a few weeks. Here’s how my experience went.

What I’ve learned

Not to brag, but I eat pretty well. I try to avoid overeating simple starches and carbs — as someone with gluten intolerance, I avoid them altogether — which are the main cause of glucose spikes. When I do eat starches, I keep them to a minimum. Most of my meals consist of a salad of some sort and lean meat, and I enjoy sweets in moderation. While sweets aren’t my weakness, savory fried food like a crispy French fry dipped in thick aioli is. But in the world of glucose management, savory food is better than sweet food, so I don’t worry about it.

Also: Oura’s CEO wants its smart ring to be ‘the doctor in your pocket’

Here are some other general guidelines I learned by monitoring my glucose through Stelo and Oura. Post-meal walks — like a 10-minute walk after dinner — can help curb glucose spikes. So can adding fiber, protein, or healthy fats to a meal with a high glycemic index. Lastly, protein is king, and it can reduce hunger triggers and boost feelings of fullness.

Of course, you don’t need to stick a glucose tracker in your arm to learn this — medical articles and diet-centric TikToks alike will tell you the same information for free. But seeing is believing. When you can see on a graph just how high your blood sugar goes after a carb-heavy meal and then attribute that to your feelings of sleepiness or sluggishness, you’re more likely to change your behavior than you would if you just watched some fitness influencer with abs tell you to cut carbs and eat ground turkey.

I learned that my glucose levels, when they do increase, should resemble “gentle rolling hills” and not sharp spikes with high highs and low lows. On the days when the spikes were low or moderate, I found my focus was sharper and my energy more consistent throughout the day.

Also: The best smart rings of 2025: I tested and found an obvious winner

My glucose levels stayed within optimal levels on the app throughout the time I tracked them with Stelo. There were one or two days when they went from optimal (that is, between 0 and 60 minutes above range) to good (between 60 and 90 minutes above range).

Tracking my food

The hardest part of using any tech to track your meals or glucose is the simplest hurdle: remembering to track your food day in and day out. To reap the most knowledge out of Stelo and learn exactly how your body reacts to foods, you have to log everything you eat to analyze what caused a glucose spike. The Meals feature on Oura simplified this with its thoughtful and intelligent AI-powered functionality that can detect almost exactly what you’re eating and log it seamlessly.

It estimated the processing level, added sugars, total fats, protein and carbs in my meals. It sometimes provided fun facts about the food I was logging, like information about the calcium count in string cheese I logged one afternoon. Below is what you see when you log something in the app.

Even with this functionality, there were days when my hunger superseded my interest in documenting my meal, and I ate the food and forgot to log it in the app.

Within the Oura app, my glucose data tracked through Dexcom’s Stelo is integrated with my meal-logging data. That’s integrated with my activity tags and stress data. Everything overlays on one simple graph displaying blood sugar levels throughout the day. This is where you can begin to connect the dots. Maybe you find that after a glucose spike your stress levels increase, or after a post-dinner walk your glucose levels decrease. My favorite part about having my glucose data integrated with meal logging, activity and stress levels is that I get an all-in-one picture of my overall health and its variables.

ZDNET’s buying advice

If you’ve struggled with your diet and energy levels and want to learn more about how your body reacts to certain foods, I’d recommend using this functionality with Stelo and Oura.  Compared to the Abbott Lingo, another OTC CGM I tested earlier this year that makes you manually log your meals, the Stelo and Oura meal-logging integration simplified the meal-tracking process and made it easier and more convenient for me to review my eating habits in the context of my glucose levels. The Stelo comes with two sensors, and each sensor lasts up to 15 days. The pack costs $99.

Also: I tested an OTC glucose monitor for two weeks. Here’s how it went

In my opinion, you can learn a lot about your body’s reactions to the food you eat in a mere 15 days, and there isn’t a need to use the Stelo for months on end (unless you are fundamentally changing every aspect of your diet and want to keep track of that). The Stelo is definitely a one-time purchase that teaches you a whole lot in a short period of time.

While interesting to learn about, I don’t feel like I (or someone like me with healthy diet and exercise habits) needs to stick this on my body for 14 days. If you have a fairly healthy diet, exercise regularly, and know the basic information about eating a diet high in protein, fiber, and vegetables, the CGM will tell you mostly what you already know.

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