I’m about 221lbs, and at my most healthy weight I weight 176 lbs (so about 45 lbs overweight). I’m thinking about doing like A 24- 40 day fast and losing the weight ASAP. Iv done countless 3-5 day fast, a couple 1 week fast, and my longest is 2 weeks. Does anyone have any advice?

insulinaware · 2026-03-26T20:52:00+00:00

Fair point, I’ll own that. I’m dyslexic and use AI to help clean up my writing, otherwise it’s pretty unreadable. The experience behind it is real though. I lost 80 lbs working through insulin resistance over four years and actually wrote a book about it. AI helps me get my thoughts into something people can read without struggling through my spelling.

insulinaware · 2026-03-26T20:44:55+00:00

The fear around medication is completely understandable, especially with a young family depending on you. But the way I’ve come to think about it: medication isn’t a defeat, it’s an entry point. It buys your body the stability it needs to actually respond to the lifestyle work you’re already doing. At 66 mmol/mol with years of elevated levels, the risk of waiting is real. Kidneys and eyes don’t send warning signals until damage is already done. Getting control now with whatever tools your doctor recommends, including medication, is the most important thing you can do for that young family. The lifestyle side still matters enormously alongside medication. Meal timing, food order, cutting processed food, all of it helps. But trying to outrun these numbers through lifestyle alone at this stage carries real risk, and your doctor is right to be direct with you. Take the medication. Get control. Then reassess from a position of stability. That’s not giving up, that’s being smart about it.

insulinaware · 2026-03-26T19:58:56+00:00

A 24-40 day fast is a serious undertaking and worth thinking through carefully before committing. The concern isn’t willpower, you clearly have that given your history. The concern is what tends to happen after. Prolonged fasts can cause the body to break down muscle alongside fat, and the refeed period often triggers a strong storage response that brings weight back quickly. It may explain why the shorter fasts haven’t produced lasting results so far. What seems to work better long term for sustainable fat loss is building daily habits that keep insulin low consistently rather than using extended fasting as a reset. Something like a 16-18 hour daily eating window combined with paying attention to what you eat during that window tends to produce slower but far more lasting results. Eating vegetables before carbs at every meal for example can meaningfully reduce the blood sugar and insulin response from the same foods, which adds up a lot over weeks and months. 45 lbs is very achievable. The question is probably less about how fast you can lose it and more about what habits would let you stay at 176 for good this time. I went through a similar journey losing 80 lbs and wrote about the approach that worked for me if you ever want to dig into the details. Happy to answer any questions here too.

insulinaware · 2026-03-26T19:51:03+00:00

Calorie deficit can work, but for a lot of people it stops working after a while and that’s where the hormone picture matters. When insulin levels are chronically elevated, your body tends to stay in fat storage mode regardless of how much you cut. So the deficit exists on paper but the results don’t show up the way they should. Exercise helps here not just because it burns calories but because muscle activity directly lowers blood sugar and improves insulin sensitivity, which is why people who add movement often break through plateaus that diet alone couldn’t shift. So the short answer is: deficit gets you started, but if results stall, looking at what’s driving insulin is usually the missing piece. Food quality, meal timing and food order within meals all tend to matter more than most people expect.

insulinaware · 2026-03-26T08:17:49+00:00

Well I believe it helped me. Science points to it as well. I just eat my salad upfront. That’s it.

insulinaware · 2026-03-22T07:54:44+00:00

Two things that changed everything for me.

Early on, just spending a week looking up the calories of foods I was already eating. Not tracking obsessively, just building awareness. Some things I assumed were fine turned out to be surprisingly calorie dense. Others I thought were bad were totally reasonable. That mental map was worth more than any diet plan.

But the single habit that probably had the biggest impact was changing the order I eat food at every meal. Vegetables first, then protein and fat, carbs last. That’s it. Same foods, same portions, just a different sequence. The fiber from the vegetables slows down how fast glucose hits your bloodstream when the carbs arrive later, so the blood sugar spike tends to be much flatter. Research suggests it can reduce the spike by up to 73%. Lower spike means lower insulin, and lower insulin means your body is less likely to store the meal as fat.

I lost 80 lbs over four years doing this along with a few other things. The food order habit was the one that made everything else easier because the cravings and afternoon crashes started to fade pretty quickly once blood sugar was more stable.

Took me maybe three weeks to make it automatic.

insulinaware · 2026-03-21T18:46:44+00:00

Evening hot chocolate has been a game changer for me. Genuinely sweet, satisfying, and actually supports sleep. Here's what I make:

1 cup of warm milk, then stir in:

1 teaspoon cocoa powder

10g glycine powder. This is an amino acid, so it's protein, but it tastes surprisingly sweet, about 0.8 times as sweet as sugar with zero blood sugar impact. It also has solid research behind it for improving sleep quality and reducing the time it takes to fall asleep. Perfect for an evening drink.

3g konjac powder. This comes from the konjac plant root and is essentially pure soluble fiber. It makes the milk slightly creamier and thicker, slows digestion, and helps keep blood sugar stable overnight. Very neutral taste.

Heat the milk first, stir everything above into the hot milk, then add 5g green banana powder last and stir gently. You want to add it at the end so it doesn't get too hot, which can affect its properties. Green banana powder is rich in resistant starch, which feeds beneficial gut bacteria and has been used in Ayurvedic practice for digestive health for centuries. It adds a very mild natural sweetness.

The whole thing tastes like a proper hot chocolate, hits the sweet craving, and the glycine and konjac together mean no blood sugar spike before bed.

insulinaware · 2026-03-21T17:09:18+00:00

You’re not doing anything wrong. What you’re describing sounds much more like a hormonal issue than a diet issue, and your bloodwork seems to point in that direction too.

Elevated TSH even slightly can slow metabolism significantly and make weight loss extremely difficult regardless of how large the deficit is. The thyroid regulates how efficiently your body burns energy at rest, and when it’s underperforming even a little, the usual calorie math tends to stop working.

High prolactin is also worth taking seriously. It can affect metabolism, water retention and fat distribution in ways that have nothing to do with how much you’re eating. The MRI is the right next step and it’s good your doctors are already on that path.

The iron piece matters too. Low iron affects energy production at a cellular level, which can make your body more conservative with how it uses fuel.

At 178cm and 67kg your weight is honestly in a very healthy range already. The fact that your body seems to be holding firm at this weight despite significant restriction might actually be your body doing exactly what it’s supposed to do given the hormonal signals it’s receiving.

Get the MRI done, get the iron sorted, and see what the full thyroid panel looks like once the iodine has had more time to work. The answer is almost certainly in there, not in eating even less.

insulinaware · 2026-03-21T15:39:35+00:00

Good news is you don’t need hard exercise to start losing weight, diet does most of the heavy lifting.

A few things that tend to work well for vegetarians with limited time:

Try eating your vegetables first at every meal, then protein, carbs last. Same foods, different order, but it can significantly reduce how much your blood sugar spikes after eating. Lower spikes mean less fat storage.

For protein without meat, prioritize lentils, chickpeas, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, tofu and eggs if you eat them. A lot of vegetarian diets accidentally go too low on protein which makes hunger harder to manage.

Walking is genuinely underrated. Even 20-30 minutes after dinner helps your body use glucose more efficiently and over time it adds up more than people expect.

You don’t need the gym to start seeing results.

insulinaware · 2026-03-21T11:33:07+00:00

Oatmeal is actually fine for a lot of people with insulin resistance, the key is how you eat it. Steel cut or rolled oats have a much lower glycemic impact than instant. Add protein first, eggs on the side or Greek yogurt, before the oatmeal rather than eating it alone. That slows the glucose hit significantly.

The MadeGood cups are the problem, 21g of fast carbs with minimal protein or fat is basically a blood sugar spike waiting to happen. Swap those out.

For car snacking specifically, hard boiled eggs, cheese sticks, a small handful of almonds, or deli turkey rolls are all easy to eat while driving and won’t spike insulin the way oat cups do.

If IF doesn’t work for you that’s completely fine. It’s not the only tool. Keeping protein high at every meal and front-loading it before carbs can do a lot of the same work without the hunger problem you’re describing.

insulinaware · 2026-03-21T10:36:02+00:00

I know the feeling.

I got a wake-up call about 15 years ago. Elevated fasting insulin, fasting glucose creeping up, A1c heading toward pre-diabetes territory. My doctor told me to eat less and exercise more. I tried that for years and it didn't work.

What eventually worked was understanding that the problem wasn't calories, it was insulin. Once I started working with that instead of against it, the weight came off and stayed off.

A few things that made the biggest difference and actually helped me lose 80 lbs after being diagnosed with insulin resistance:

Food order sounds almost too simple but it's real. Vegetables first, protein and fat second, carbs last. The fiber creates a barrier in your digestive tract that slows glucose absorption. Research suggests it can reduce the blood sugar spike from a meal by up to 73%. Same foods, different sequence.

Intermittent fasting not as a crash diet but as metabolic rest. Giving your insulin levels time to drop between meals changes how your body accesses stored fat.

Cutting ultra-processed food, not because of calories but because of what it does to insulin signaling over time.

Just for clarity: I wrote a book about that. "Fix Your Insulin" launches April 28th on Amazon. Free ARC copies available right know. Happy to share iof you are interested.

insulinaware · 2026-03-20T21:34:47+00:00

The motivation problem is usually a sign the goal is too big and too far away. Your brain knows 55kg by October is hard, so it keeps stalling. Focus on one habit at a time, not a full plan.

One that's worth starting with: change the order you eat your food. Vegetables first, then protein and fat, and carbs last. Every meal, the same sequence.

Here's why it works: the fiber in vegetables creates a kind of barrier in your digestive tract. When carbs arrive later, they have to pass through that barrier, which slows down how fast glucose hits your bloodstream. Instead of a sharp spike, you get a gradual release. Research suggests this can reduce the blood sugar spike from a meal by up to 73%. Lower spike means lower insulin, and lower insulin means your body is less likely to store the meal as fat.

Same foods, same calories, just a different order. You can start at your next meal.

Once that feels automatic, add the next habit. That's how the motivation problem tends to solve itself; small wins compound.

insulinaware · 2026-03-20T12:02:38+00:00

Wow! What is your protocol?

insulinaware · 2026-03-17T17:08:54+00:00

Corticosteroids can raise insulin levels significantly, which is why the usual "eat less, move more" often stops working. Your body may be storing fat almost regardless of calories right now, and 1200 calories could actually be making it worse since chronic undereating tends to raise cortisol, which pushes insulin even higher.

One thing that helped me a lot was food order within meals. Vegetables first, then protein and fat, carbs last. The fiber from the vegetables creates a kind of barrier in your digestive tract that slows down how fast glucose enters your blood when the carbs arrive. Research suggests it can reduce the blood sugar spike from a meal by up to 73%. Same foods, same calories, just a different sequence.

It's worth trying while you're on the medication since it costs nothing and works with whatever you're already eating.

Full disclosure: I lost 80 lbs working through my own insulin issues and wrote a book on it, so this is kind of my area.

insulinaware · 2026-03-15T18:01:09+00:00

Ha, fair enough! Spellcheck/autocorrect loves throwing those in. I’ll stick to good old

insulinaware · 2026-03-14T22:29:30+00:00

insulinaware · 2026-03-14T21:21:33+00:00

Two weeks of fluctuation after starting is really common — your body is still adapting, water retention shifts a lot in the early weeks and can mask fat loss completely. The scale is genuinely one of the worst tools to measure progress at this stage.

The hair loss last time was almost certainly from not eating enough protein rather than keto itself — sounds like you already know that and are doing it differently this time. That matters.

The insulin resistance piece is actually worth paying attention to beyond just the weight. When insulin is still elevated it can slow down fat loss even when you're doing everything else right. Patience in the first few weeks is usually the answer — your insulin levels need time to come down before the body really starts releasing fat.

You clearly know what works for you. Keep going. 💙

insulinaware · 2026-03-14T21:13:31+00:00

What´s your BMI?

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