If you’re eating well, exercising, and still not losing weight — or even gaining — your metabolism might need support. These questions highlight possible links to hormones, thyroid health, or inflammation.
Do you:
- Struggle to lose weight despite healthy eating?
- Gain weight mainly around the middle?
- Experience intense carb/sugar cravings?
2+ Yes could be due to insulin resistance, hormone imbalance, or chronic stress.
| Test | Provider | Reasoning | Citation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comprehensive Thyroid Profile | Nutripath | Thyroid dysfunction can slow metabolism. In the presence of normal levels, with persisting symptoms, more comprehensive tests may be able to identify the problem including autoimmune Hashimoto’s disease. | Gaitonde DY et al. 2012 |
| DUTCH Complete | Precision Analytical Inc. | Hormones help control metabolism, appetite, and fat storage. When they’re out of balance, your body can hold onto weight more easily and make losing it harder. | Hormonal Imbalance, Cleveland Clinic |
| GI-MAP + Zonulin | Nutripath | The composition of the gut microbiome, the trillions of bacteria residing in the digestive tract, can influence weight management and metabolic processes. | Geng et al., 2022 |
Disclaimer: These are specialised functional tests to identify root causes of your symptom(s). Functional testing should be considered as a complement to conventional medical evaluations from your healthcare provider. We recommend pursuing these specialised assessments after standard medical tests have been done to rule out common conditions, or when conventional testing indicates normal results despite your persistent symptoms.
Conventional tests may include these (not exhaustive), depending on your other symptom(s):
| Test | Reasoning |
|---|---|
| Thyroid Function Test | Test includes Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH), T4, T3 levels. This assess the function of the thyroid gland which can affect weight gain in underactive thyroid function. Occasionally, although more rarely, overeating due to increased appetite caused by Hyperactive thyroid. In the presence of normal levels, with persisting symptoms, more detailed tests (as above) can be done |
| Full Blood Count (FBC) or Complete Blood Count (CBC) | Assess general basic nutritional health. Nutritional deficiencies may impact on our metabolism. |
| Iron profile- inc. ferritin | Measures Iron stores in the body- Low ferritin indicates iron deficiency anaemia. High levels is less specific and can be caused by infection, inflammation, autoimune, cancer, liver damage. |
| Vitamin B12, folate | Assess vitamin levels crucial for energy production |
| Vitamin D | No direct correlation with weight gain been found. However, as it can impact our mood and general well being, it’s been assumed that it can influence overeating (from low mood), lack of exercise (from low mood and fatigue). There is hypothesis to suggest that Vitamin D play a role in fat storage and metabolism. |
| HbA1c | Measures average blood sugar level over the immediate 3 months prior- helpful to diagnose diabetes. |
| Lipid Profile | Assess cardiovascular risk, which is associated with increase weight. A standard lipid profile measures total amount of different types of fats (lipids) in the blood. However, it doesn’t assess the quality of those fats- which is more important for measure of heart health and risk of stroke or heart attack. |