It’s been 3 years since I realised that I was developing metabolic syndrome and its been tougher than I imagined to make changes so I wanted to share what I had learnt in case anyone manages to do it faster than me!

I think the first I noticed with getting metabolic syndrome was weight-gain in perimenopause and also post-menopausal. I started to feel fatigued, hungry when you don’t want to be and you are sleep disturbed. I’d hit 11 stone, which for a short person was a warning sign, and when I looked at BMI I was in the obese category!

That was a real wake up call to me and I walked around the house saying ‘I’m obese!’ but I also had rising blood pressure, fat around my middle and my lipoid profile going out of whack with rising triglycerides and cholesterol. I was never diagnosed with fatty liver syndrome and my liver tests were thankfully always normal but I know that some women are also experiencing fatty liver where the processes in the liver are affected leading to inflammation and changes in the liver enzymes.

I think the number one learning for me over this time was that I was developing insulin resistance. I had a normal / good HBA1C but my fasting glucose was high and my spikes in response to carbs were high – these are subtle but important changes that you can see prior to developing prediabetes.

I did find the 5 day fasting mimicking diet which was instrumental in the process of change. It taught me how to deal with hunger and also gave me a direct experience of moving into ketosis. (which is where the body deprived of its usual glucose from carbs starts burning fat for fuel producing ketones for energy)

But it was the addition of intermittent fasting in between the 5 day fasting mimicking diet, where I would stop eating at 7pm and start eating again in 7 in the morning and sometimes going from a 12-14 hour fast that really helped drive metabolic flexibility, so that the 5 day prolonged fasts have became easier.

Weight gain was still a problem in between the 5 day fasting despite all of this, so the final piece of the jigsaw was dropping carbohydrates on a day to day basis aiming for between 50-80g a day. So now I have keto bread for toast in the am and keto wraps to have a nice chicken guac wrap for lunch. I don’t have a big sweet tooth, but having the odd keto chocolate muffin made with erythritol made the move to low carb eating fairly painless.

So to summarise, it’s been a five point plan which has worked for me of exercise, intermittent fasting, 5 day prolonged fasts, dropping carbohydrates to a lightweight keto diet and mindfulness to help me stay centred at times where making changes might feel like too much.

I’ve yet to hit my target weight of 10 stone but I’m getting close. If I could book an appointment with my GP (!) I would be able to check my cholesterol and lipid profile. The key thing is I’ve reversed that incremental weight gain that felt so hard to deal with and I generally have more energy when I keep my blood sugar levels stable and prevent insulin spikes.

A few tips about the 5 day fasting mimicking diet, as I’ve struggled to find advice on the internet. Starting on a Sunday is so helpful as you then finish by a Thursday. If 5 days is too difficult consider 4 days. Using a ketone meter, I moved into a ketosis quite early on in the 5 days so would have been able to stop by day 5 had I needed to. The 2nd generation of ProLon is a lot more palatable and feel more like eating real food. And add fresh herbs! This helps you feel like you are eating real food.  The glycerol drink is important because it gives you that bit of extra energy on days 2-5. You can also dissolve those hibiscus tea bags in cold water and its a delicious cold drink. If you are going to cheat which I don’t recommend but sometimes one can get desperate, a handful of pecan nuts have some of the lowest carbs out of nuts and can sustain you (potentially without breaking ketosis but don’t tell anyone I told you!) And if you can get a friend or buddy to support you when the going gets tough, all the better.

Good luck if you are making any changes this New Year and NCIM will be launching our own metabolic fasting programme soon to support others with this new range of tools in the Integrative Medicine toolbox. Do let me know if this is something you might find useful.