iLet Bionic Pancreas Review: My Experience with a Fully Adaptive Insulin Pump

Disclaimer: This post is a paid partnership with Beta Bionics. The content reflects my personal experience as someone living with type 1 diabetes and is intended for educational purposes only. Always consult your healthcare provider before making any changes to your diabetes management plan. 

For the past 13 years, my thoughts have been quietly consumed by diabetes management. Every meal, every snack, and every single moment turned into endless “what if” scenarios filled with constant calculating, correcting and anticipating blood sugars. 

The constant mental load was second nature, but I never fully recognized how heavy it was until this year. Diabetes burnout hit me hard and unexpectedly while new chronic illnesses took priority over my time and energy. I was reminded just how much mental energy type 1 diabetes steals from me every day and I struggled to keep up.

I knew something had to change. So when I heard about the iLet Bionic Pancreas insulin delivery system, a fully adaptive insulin pump designed to reduce the constant decision-making of diabetes, I was curious and skeptical. 

Could I really trust a pump to make every decision for me? Could it ease some of the mental load I’ve carried for over a decade? The idea of giving myself a mental break felt too good to be true, but I had to find out. 

How the iLet Bionic Pancreas Works

Before the iLet Bionic Pancreas, I was always counting (or let’s be real, guesstimating) carbs, thinking ahead about correction doses, and constantly tweaking my pump settings. Even with my previous pumps' automated features, I still felt like I was the one doing most of the work. 

The iLet completely changes that. It has three advanced algorithms that take over the nonstop calculations and decision making by learning how my body responds to insulin and automatically adjusting behind the scenes so I don’t have to. 

Here’s how they work:

No Pre-Set Basal Rates 

With the iLet, I don’t need to program any basal rates. Its algorithm figures out  my “baseline” insulin and then adjusts every 5 minutes based on my current CGM reading and trend. No tedious basal rate tests required, no waiting 3 days for an algorithm to catch up, and no tweaking settings myself.

No Manual Corrections 

The iLet handles all correction boluses automatically. I don’t even have to press a button– and honestly, I can’t even if I wanted to. It checks in every 5 minutes to determine if I need a correction bolus. If I do, it figures out the right correction on top of my basal delivery by looking at my historical glucose, my current CGM reading and trend, and any insulin-on-board, then delivers the correction dose automatically. There’s no waiting around for corrections or getting just a fraction of what I need.

No Carb Counting

For mealtimes, I just “announce” my meal as usual for me, more or less and the algorithm figures out exactly how much insulin I need. It learns from these announcements over time and adjusts automatically so I can eat without stressing over exact numbers and relax knowing it will catch anything I might have missed– something my old pumps never did.

Getting Started with the iLet Bionic Pancreas

When I first started considering the iLet, I knew there would be an adjustment period. There are no programmed basal rates, insulin sensitivity factors or carb ratios– instead, the only setting that I needed to enter was my body weight. I had read enough reviews to know it wouldn’t be perfect right away and that it would take time for the iLet to learn and adjust to my body.

But, what I didn’t expect was how emotional it would feel– how strange it would be to let something else take over the decisions I’ve spent more than a decade perfecting. From counting carbs before every meal, mental math I do without realizing it, and in the way I anticipate how my blood sugar will react to just about everything. So when handing that part of myself over to an algorithm, it felt like handing over my own intuition. I didn’t realize how personal those choices had become until I wasn’t making them anymore. 

The first few days were, without question, the hardest. When my blood sugars spiked, all I could do was watch and wait. It felt like an itch I couldn’t scratch. Every instinct in me screamed to fix it, to step in, to do something. But I couldn’t. I had to let the iLet learn.

There were moments I wanted to quit and go back to what felt safe and familiar, just to escape the discomfort of not being in control. But then I reminded myself: I had 13 years of experience learning my body, my patterns and my rhythms. Surely I could give the iLet a few days to do the same. And I’m so glad I did. 

Results (& Relief) with the iLet Bionic Pancreas 

Week by week, I started to notice small shifts– first in my numbers, then in myself. The iLet was slowly learning my rhythms, my patterns and the everyday nuances of my diabetes that I thought only I could understand. 

After my first week with the iLet Bionic Pancreas, my time in range was 76% and my average glucose was 148 mg/dL. On paper, those are fantastic numbers, but it didn’t feel that way at the time. I noticed more ups and downs than I was used to, especially stubborn post-dinner spikes, which made me question whether the iLet was really working for me. I caught myself checking my pump constantly, curious and a little anxious, almost waiting for a reason to step in. Looking back now, I see that these numbers are excellent compared to current guidelines. But in the moment, letting go of control felt uncomfortable. It took a lot of patience and trust to remind myself that this discomfort was part of the process and that the iLet was learning me just as much as I was learning it.

By week four, my time in range had climbed to 83% and my average glucose dropped to 138 mg/dL. Somewhere between weeks three and four, I finally felt like I found my rhythm. I started seeing how the iLet was adjusting on its own, flattening spikes more quickly, keeping my numbers steadier, and I didn’t feel that constant urge to step in. 

But the real difference went beyond the numbers. For the first time in a long time, diabetes didn’t dominate every thought. 

I felt it most clearly at a conference where I was speaking. Right before my session, I glanced at my iLet- 160 mg/dL and rising (thank you, anxiety). Normally, I would have spiraled: Should I correct now? What if I keep rising? What if I overcorrect and crash halfway through my talk? But this time, I just took a breath. I tucked the iLet back into my pocket and focused on what I came there to do. When I checked again an hour later, I was 90 and steady. 

That moment captured everything the iLet has given me: trust, space and the ability to focus on life beyond my blood sugar. 

My Overall Experience with the iLet Bionic Pancreas

Using the iLet Bionic Pancreas has been a transformative experience. Handing over nearly full control to an algorithm was intimidating and nerve-wracking at first. But seeing my blood sugar results reassured me that I didn’t have to micromanage every decision anymore.

While the responsibility and planning that comes with diabetes is still there, I have more mental space to focus on other areas of my life without feeling like I’m completely neglecting my blood sugars.

Using the iLet hasn’t erased diabetes– but it has changed how I live with it.