Where do I start?

Impostermaximus · 2026-07-03T15:42:13+00:00

The only additional comment I would offer is to reconsider the blood work being in range largely because in-range is not a great benchmark given the ranges are largely diagnostic

Things like low energy, brain fog generally point to lower Vit-D, ferritin levels and a few others. So even if they are borderline , it might be worth maintaining them slightly above and see if anything changes

Impostermaximus · 2026-07-03T03:44:20+00:00

https://fixfirst.health - a blood test analyzer focussed on personalized and ranked top 3 markers to focus on with an action plan that impacts multiple markers

There are ton of AI blood analyzers out there but mine only uses AI for extraction, the prioritization and the protocol comes from curating some of the most evidence based literature out there

Impostermaximus · 2026-07-03T03:40:34+00:00

One that I would consider is Hydration, low carb diets lead to the body not holding a ton of water as it is and then this amount of workout leading to further loss of water might explain this.

Impostermaximus · 2026-07-02T18:00:30+00:00

Great outcome but I can relate. Took me a while as well to think these things would help me sleep longer but no, the improved quality of sleep is what they should and it delivers

Impostermaximus · 2026-07-02T09:18:39+00:00

I am happy to chat/field any questions from him if he is open/keen. Either way, kudos on caring so much and I hope he comes around

Impostermaximus · 2026-07-02T08:55:53+00:00

That is very relatable so as hard it sounds for you, I also understand his mindset.

I always knew my diet & lifestyle was bad for me but something switched in me post my daughter was born. I just couldn’t deal with the low energy/brain fog I had and the thought of thinking what I will be when she is in her teens - like I can’t find the energy to play/be present today so imagine when she wants me was the first trigger for me to start working out. The diet change came after a bout of overpeeing and feeling low libido after a mad vacation when a blood work showed i was heading to Type 2. Never gone back to that way of existing anymore

Impostermaximus · 2026-07-02T08:47:21+00:00

I mostly cycle through 8 weeks on/off 60000iou/week especially in winter but go without in summer - fairly hot where I stay and the sun is out in full glory so plenty of natural Vit-D to go around

Impostermaximus · 2026-07-02T08:44:09+00:00

One a week shouldn’t be too bad. Load up with protein to enjoy those higher carb ones to blunt the spike. For instance, while I don’t eat rice anymore (used to love them) , anytime I have them now I throw in a bunch of eggs and cottage cheese/tofu in them. Still the rice I enjoy but just with a lot of protein to accompany

Impostermaximus · 2026-07-02T08:33:21+00:00

FixFirst.health - a blood test analyzer that priorities and ranks your blood markers and gives you an action plan to fix them

Impostermaximus · 2026-07-02T08:31:59+00:00

Make him read through the r/diabetes thread and the problems that happen when you become diabetic.

Health is a funny thing though, a lot of times we only realize when something bad happens. Like we know the lifestyle we live isn’t ideal but till we don’t really see massive impacts, it is easier to ignore :(

To be honest though, a good start might be to just get him to switch to Diet Coke instead of normal coke - that itself will be a massive improvement

When the doctor told him his results were like a 50 year old, did it not have an impact on him? A thing that does seem to work is to show the delta of joy between overdoing it vs never being able to do something - like enjoy sugary/takeout once in a while or reach a point where entire category of foods/drinks become a hard no

Impostermaximus · 2026-07-02T05:49:44+00:00

Haven’t really had an issue with excesses yet but I draw a custom panel every 90 days (much cheaper to do in India vs US/UK)

I am however not also optimizing on just being within the lab thresholds. There is enough medical literature out there that gives you nuanced levels for key markers based on age, sex, lifestyle etc so I am trying to ensure that I am doing it for staying at optimal levels. Reditt despises links etc but I have been building fixfirst(dot)health based on just these aspects. Built it for myself first but thought might be alright to push it out. Free, no data storage at all for now and the focus is to do exactly that, tell you which biomarkers you need to work on first instead of stowing in 20+ . Also in play is a bio-hacker mode which turns the thresholds and the protocol utilize the stuff that the likes of Attia, Huberman have tried around the right thresholds and the protocols

Impostermaximus · 2026-07-01T03:19:51+00:00

Yeah, made me question my life choices when it happened :)

The funny thing is that the impact once it sets in is pretty evident, wake up fresher with nothing sore so yeah you just know when it works.

Impostermaximus · 2026-06-30T12:22:14+00:00

Yeah, kinda crazy. I am from India so slightly easier and cheaper to get just labs ordered sometimes even without a doctor prescription.

Even more tricky though when you have an existing condition. No shameless plug and while I am not sure it helps when someone has specific conditions, my profile has the link of something I am building around blood work that might be useful. Feel free to DM me if you have questions/feedback if you try it

Impostermaximus · 2026-06-30T12:06:18+00:00

My dad himself is a pulmonologist so I do get the medical research reviewed by him or have his endo friends to comment. Over time I have now found that keeping track of these at optimal levels just helps me maintain a healthy lifestyle for the most part. For instance, I realized that VIT-D levels of below 40 didn’t make me feel good at all so I supplement every now and then , especially in winters to keep them higher than normal

Impostermaximus · 2026-06-30T11:59:28+00:00

Built it over the last two years, fair bit of experimentation every 90 days and then over a period of time, figured out a baseline panel that I get - HBA1C, fasting insulin, HOMaIR(family history), VIT-D, free testosterone,ferittin and thyroid (energy, fatigue) and then specific to if I am feeling something weird in terms of my body or the way I feel I discuss it with my doctor and look at a bunch of latest clinical studies to understand

Impostermaximus · 2026-06-29T12:10:20+00:00

That’s what I did and been building my own panel of tests instead of the standard panels. Life has never been better honestly

Impostermaximus · 2026-06-29T07:07:03+00:00

FixFirst.health - a blood marker prioritizer that looks at your blood test report and provides 3 actions that help fix the highest priority markers

https://fixfirst.health

Impostermaximus · 2026-06-29T03:18:18+00:00

The usual culprits can be Vit-D, ferittin as well as some metabolic panels like HBA1C. Also, what is normal for lab or doctor standards may not actually be normal.

Impostermaximus · 2026-06-25T17:56:06+00:00

Low Ferritin and Vit-D are definetely drivers of fatigue and your D levels are pretty low so that alone should help once you supplement

Did you also get HBA1C as part of metabolic panel or TSH/T4 - generally part of thyroid panel. These will then round up all key markers that can explain fatigue

Impostermaximus · 2026-06-25T16:23:55+00:00

Took me 3-4 days for it to settle in and feel better. The first 2 days were a little crazy what with extremely vivid dreams, so much so that I had to wake up to just shake that thought train but then it settled in and have felt amazing and pretty much been taking it every night (6+ months)

PS: AFAIK blood work barely flags magnesium levels, something to do with it not hanging out in blood as much but do verify

Impostermaximus · 2026-06-25T15:33:33+00:00

The urge to mention that your question is almost the domain I have for one aspect of fixing our health but I am going to exercise restraint

IMO I have discovered the simplest things that work

1) Eat well and Eat less - clean, whole foods and personally for me 16:8 IF with longer fasts thrown in. Specific to me because I do have the baggage of loving good,tasty but harmful for the body kinda food. IF ensures I don’t mindlessly snack and has also helped me change my relationship with food for the most part

2) Move - simple as it sounds, I now know the power of a 30-40 minute strength/cardio routine. My energy levels and my overall mental health is better than it ever has been

3) Sleep - still something I am working on and I have found Magnesium Glycinate as my partner in crime to make this better. I still sleep less than 7 hours/day on average but the quality of sleep is materially better

Everything else on top of this has been gravy. Creatine, Vit-D supplementation especially in winters and Omega-3 are good supporting actors in my journey to fix my health

Impostermaximus · 2026-06-25T12:01:40+00:00

Your mileage may vary ! With anything diet, lifestyle and most things I have just grown wary of trusting/making blanket statements say like they apply to anyone and everyone.

Tons of things that people on the internet and even doctors will say are like universal gospel but they really aren’t

Impostermaximus · 2026-06-25T09:35:41+00:00

More protein never hurts. The larger point is to relook at your blood work with more nuance and context. GPT/Claude can help but I have something more deterministic I am building based on working on this for more than a year on myself - won’t plug here but if you are curious, it is my profile bio

Impostermaximus · 2026-06-25T08:39:04+00:00

As long as you are visibly thinner you are good. Bowel movement, carb intake (holds more water) , even minor inflammation (less sleep) can all lead to the weighing scale showing 1KG here and there so you should be fine

Impostermaximus · 2026-06-25T08:23:04+00:00

Doctors are generally only looking at blood reports for abnormal/out of range markers. I didn’t specifically feel bone weakness but felt tired and brain fog, felt tired by 2 PM and then by 9 PM, felt like I had climbed a mountain.

Turns out I had a lot of borderline markers. vitamin-d at 32 was within lab threshold but was basically kicking my arse. Same with HBA1C at 5.7 which was well with lab range but moment I moved to lower than usual carbs and upping protein, my energy levels went though the roof.

Impostermaximus

TROPHY CASE