About Glucose Response (Zone Scores)

A Glucose Response (previously called zone scores) combines nearby meal logs, activities, and notes so you can understand their overall impact on your glucose.

What is a Glucose Response?

A Glucose Response groups logged food, activities, and notes that happen close together.
It gives a score from 0 to 10 based on the combined effect of those decisions.
Because decisions often stack (a snack, a nap, a workout), their combined impact can look different than each choice on its own.

How to interpret your Glucose Response score

Scores range from 1 to 10.
10 is optimal (minimal glucose response).
1 is poor (high glucose response).
In general, aim for minimal, controlled glucose responses.

Score ranges (quick guide)

10 – Outstanding: Almost no glucose response increase
8 – Good: Minimal personal glucose response
6 – Moderate: Pay attention. Testing alternate configurations may help.
5 – Poor: High glucose response. Eliminate, minimize, or test alternate configurations.

How Glucose Responses are calculated

Levels looks at two primary factors.

How much your glucose rises after a meal

Levels uses:

The maximum height of the glucose rise
The total rise, also called Area Under the Curve (AUC)

Moderate changes in blood sugar can be normal. Larger spikes, or longer periods of elevated glucose, usually earn lower scores.

How quickly your glucose rises

Metabolically healthy foods tend to create a slower, gentler rise.
Carb-rich and processed foods can cause glucose to rise more quickly.
To improve your score, aim for less steep slopes on your glucose graph.

How food quality affects your score

In addition to glucose dynamics, Levels considers food quality, including macro and micronutrient content and whether the food is highly processed or contains seed oils.

Meals high in protein, fiber, and healthy fats can blunt glucose rises and support better scores.
Meals high in carbohydrates (which drive glucose rise) can lower your score.
Highly processed foods, including those with seed oils, can decrease your score.
Foods rich in micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) can boost your score.

These factors have limited impact on the final score:

Macros can change the score by up to ±1 point.
Ingredient quality can reduce the score by up to 0.6 points.

How Levels defines a glucose spike

The Levels app labels a spike when:

Your glucose exceeds 109 mg/dL
The rise from the start of the spike to the peak is +30 mg/dL

Why didn’t I get a Glucose Response?

This is typically related to:

The log is an exercise or a note only, without a meal.
The log contains a strenuous exercise log.
- If an exercise is marked as strenuous, the entire Glucose Response won’t be calculated.
You have connection issues that cause data gaps.
- If you notice gaps in your data, see our troubleshooting articles here.

Why did the same meal score differently?

This can happen for a few reasons:

The algorithm can vary slightly because scores are rounded to the nearest whole number.
Other factors like sleep, recent activity, hormones, and more can affect glucose stability at a given meal.

Best practices for improving your Glucose Response

Glucose Response is best used for simple experiments where you change one variable at a time.

Try different meal combinations.
Add or remove activity.
Compare results across similar days.

For example, eating pizza and then napping will likely produce a different response than eating pizza and then walking.