Female age 37, dissatisfied with weight (94kg, 179cm) and pattern of restricting / weight gain.. When she came to see us, she had recently been on a juice and detox retreat which she described as hard and depriving. She felt great afterwards, but the effect were short lasting and she felt fearful and frustrated by the insight that her efforts may have been for nothing.

At her recent GP checkup, her cholesterol levels were high, and she felt overall defeated and overwhelmed. She felt her hard work to be healthy were relatively consistent and significant but she just were not getting the benefits. She was at a loss as to why she weren’t seeing results.

We carried out a thorough assessment of the client’s ‘vitals’ and her health history to get her health story and background, which helps us understand the bigger picture. Her raised cholesterol levels were important, telling us that her metabolism may not be working optimally, and we suspected high insulin, likely worsened by the many years quite severe on/off dieting. Why do we care about your insulin levels? Well because insulin at inappropriate levels block fat burning, and can even disrupt your metabolism and create more hunger. Typically this weight loves to sit around the belly.

We put this client on a glucose response monitor for two weeks, measuring her glucose day and night while she recorded her foods and life events,. This client had a tendency to skip breakfast, and go light on her lunch as her days were stressful and unpredictable.. This meant her food intake was evening heavy, and she often had a large late dinner with her partner, or dinner out. We could see however that her body did not like this, and this was causing her blood sugar (thereby her insulin) to spike significantly, - but at midnight (‘sensitivity’ to sugar is thought to be poorer in the evening), and the fact that it rose so high and so late,, was likely an indication that her body has slightly lost control of keeping sugars at bay. This would drive her insulin to be over-produced, which we could see also in her blood tests. We needed this blood sugar and insulin driven down, to make the metabolism more effective, and stop the dieting cycle.

We helped this client find a way to fit in a new routine in her life, by beginning to gradually shift her eating pattern, eating a breakfast at 10.30am, then 10am, then 9.30, which for her fitted in better with work schedule. We could then move the final meal of the day in the same way gradually earlier as her appetite begun to become stronger in the mornings. We also gave her a framework for 3 easy dietary guidelines to follow. No specific recipes or foods, as this client would not have had capacity to carry detailed instructions out.

After just 2 weeks of having earlier dinner (still with her partner, which was an important relaxing ritual for her) before 7pm 5-6 times /week, she experienced a huge shift in her energy levels and moods, in particularly in the am. Her evening cravings were subsiding, and her belly felt less ‘puffy’ and waist slimmer. She could now wear her jeans with her top tucked in, something which made her feel really good about herself. We gave her some more dietary guidelines for her to adhere too, simplifying how to make her food choices, which will set her off on a metabolism-revving path.

Side note: Fasting for this client was not right, and in fact were driving up the blood sugar imbalance in the longer run. We could still make fasting work for her, but in a more bespoke way.