Jim and I had a great time recording our webinar, "Weight Loss Secrets," this past Saturday. The replay is above and you can book your spot in our new Weight Loss Secrets here. The offer is only available until Wednesday at midnight, and we're only letting 20 people into the medical program, which is separate from the course and coaching program (details are in the webinar replay). Again, book the course and coaching program here.
In the webinar, I shared some before and after lab results of patients of mine who had impressive weight loss working with me. Then I realized that a lot of you would like to know what labs to draw that help you understand how to lose weight. Here are my answers.
1. Minerals. I covered this in the webinar, but minerals like zinc, copper, magnesium, and more are vital for metabolism. I start with the first three.
2. Hormones and vitamin D. Hormones control so much of your metabolism. Patients who are struggling to lose weight are almost always dealing with hormonal imbalances of some kind. Low testosterone. High estrogen. Low progesterone. Low DHEA. Those are the typical findings. Once you know where hormones are, you can balance them properly. Failure to balance hormones properly is a leading cause of failure to lose weight.
3. Iron studies. Ferritin, total iron-binding capacity, iron, and percent iron saturation. What most people don't realize about iron is that in excess it wrecks your metabolism, leading to weight gain, elevated blood glucose levels, and more. I wrote about this in my book and in this blog post. One of the common patterns I see, particularly among men, is high iron levels along with increased body fat, decreased muscle mass, and low testosterone. I find high iron and low testosterone in men all the time.
4. IGF-1 and uric acid. These two labs tell me about your stress levels, protein load, hydration, and kidney function. IGF-1 generally depends upon two things - stress level and protein load. It's related to growth hormone and the more stress you're under and the less protein you eat, the lower your IGF-1 level tends to be. Uric acid is another great adjunct for weight loss and it tells me two things. First, are you eating enough purines? Purines are nucleic acids that come from the proteins that make you build and maintain muscle. They also help you cope with stress, making them one of the most important foods you could eat. What are they? Meat, fish, shellfish, and legumes. If uric acid is too high, it's an indication of faulty metabolism due to kidney problems. We can often drop the uric acid quite dramatically with the right combination of supplements and lifestyle changes.
5. Urine organic acids. The level of different organic acids in your urine can show us a lot about your metabolism. People struggling with weight loss typically have B-vitamin deficiencies that are part of their problem. Taking a B-multi vitamin often doesn't provide the right dose and balance of B's that targeted supplementation does. Some of the organic acid testing markers also measure fatty acid metabolism directly, and can give us clues as to whether carnitine or certain amino acids might be helpful as well.
We're offering a medical program including these lab tests to participants in our weight loss course and coaching program. Find out more by watching the video above, and enroll in our weight loss course and coaching here. It's a $6,000 value that's on sale for Memorial Day weekend for only $996. We have a limited number of openings in this program, with just 20 openings available in the medical program that is available to people who book the course and coaching program. We probably won’t run this program again for six months and we don’t want you to miss out.
We have limited availability, so I encourage you to book as soon as you can.
Until next time, be well,
Dr. Stillman
The Most Important Labs to Draw for Weight Loss