When I started the keto woe back in January 2018 I was amazed, as many are, at how quickly you can drop excesss body weight. The first blood work I had done after 2 months in (February 2018) showed a fasted insulin level of 12.6 mciu/ml. It was no surprise that I had to actually request this test and that my gp didn’t seem to be bothered by this number. Well, I was, and I went to work on solidifying this woe and continuing health gains. Fast forward 14 month to April 2019, down 53 lbs ,and my most recent test results. My fasting insulin has dropped from 12.6 to 9.9. A decent drop no doubt but certainly not in what I would consider the healthy zone. My point in this is that there are rapid visual benefits and then there are metabolic improvements that are made behind the scenes that just take time and consistency. I’m hoping to get that insulin level down below 5-6 someday. However, I’m aware that at 47 yrs old there may be damage done that is irreversible. Maybe I can only get so much healthier. I guess I’ll see in another year. On a side note, my hdl went from 35 to 67 and my triglycerides went from 95 to 65. I was very happy with these numbers.
Lowering fasting insulin in not a quick process
Have you read The Diabetes Code by Dr Fung? I’m also T2D, his fasting protocols are changing my life. I’m off my metformin.
I’m type 2 diabetic diagnosed in the 90’s…I have to make sure I don’t eat too much protein. For me, I found it pushes my insulin up. Was looking the best I ever had, working out regularly, weight perfect on a high protein low fat diet and discovered my insulin was through the roof whilst my BGL was excellent, normal range. Same for me as OP…had to repeatedly push for insulin levels (including on my original diabetes diagnosing tests, thank God for Atkins info!) and changed GPs repeatedly. GP was happy to stop with the BGL, I wasn’t…current endocrinologist is very supportive and tells me to carry on, I am her only patient who has reversed type 2!
I am trying to nail down the sources of my high inflammatory markers now. I think we just have to keep forging our own way and eventually the regular doctors will catch up. I believe there is a 15 year gap betwen research filtering through to clinical practice.
I too am very grateful to Dr Fung. I got onto his external program after the high protein debacle. I’m in Oz.
Frank at 47 you are youthful! I am 69 and if I can do it, you can. It is a matter of prioritising. If reducing insulin levels is your #1 priority, you will make it happen when you totally avoid all those things you know push it up. I have taken my motivation from watching my mother have her leg amputated above the knee at 94yo. I will not have the same trajectory.
I’m not trying to rain on your parade here, really, but fasting insulin tests can vary by +/- 6 for normal people and +/- 8 for people with type 2 diabetes. I wish there was a better, easier way to show a trend in insulin, but until then I use my GKI (glucose-ketone index) as a proxy. For example, if you were seeing 110 glucose with 1.0 ketones at first, but now you see 90 glucose with the same ketone reading, you can be reasonably sure you;re going the right direction.
I had no idea that a fasted insulin level could vary by that much. Is this true even with the same amount of fasting prior to the test?
I have never measured my ketone or blood glucose at home so I guess doing any sort of bgk ratio is a no go. I’m confident that my metabolism is headed in the right direction.
Yes. The source for this is in a study where they measured such things in a controlled environment and the readings were taken under the same conditions. I am not a statistics nerd, but I have it on good authority that this range is true.
The repeatability coefficient for fasting insulin was 7.9 µU/mL for all participant sets with the exception of the Control subset, where it was 5.9 µU/mL. Across the analysis subsets, the repeatability coefficient was approximately 90% of the Grand mean of the participants’ fasting insulin.
https://insulinresistance.org/index.php/jir/article/view/27/68
P.S.
Also, there’s more to it than just insulin, there’s the insulin to glucagon ratio. But that gets very complicated and harder to get tested etc.
Thank you for the info. I was hoping that fasted insulin was a more static number. Just another example of why many variables need to be looked at to judge health trends.
This was my understanding as well, and I am assuming that this is why drs don’t bother with an insulin test as it is so variable, and therefore doesn’t tell us much unless we do a number of them over a period of time to see a trend, and that sounds difficult and expensive.
[sarcasm mode on] Of course, this is different from cholesterol levels, which as we know are just fixed, and don’t move at all, or at least very slowly, so drs can make firm conclusions from these fixed cholesterol levels [sarcasm mode off]. [Dave Feldman: “
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I’d rather more doctors do fasting insulin during a routine physical. At least if it’s way high or increasing it would give an early warning before glucose or A1C becomes elevated.
Did Dr Kraft’s assays focus on measuring insulin levels? I don’t remember the details, but I think that’s what he used to predict T2D risk in people? If insulin was high then that meant IR, which eventually turns into T2D?
I am also assuming that insulin tests are expensive because they are not a mass industry and are not requested often (like the massive industry of cholesterol tests are). There is a massive benefit in economies of scale in these tests.
Yes, but the most telling early warning marker was the glucose tolerance tests Crofts analyzed from Dr. Kraft’s data. The only time doctors order that test is during pregnancy to make sure the mother doesn’t have gestational diabetes.
There’s also the McAuley IR Index, which is a calculation described in the Break Nutrition podcast. (Caution: science geeks at work)
https://www.breaknutrition.com/episode-34-metabolic-syndrome-series-chapter-1/