It took me 15 years to get diagnosed with insulin resistance

I started exercising regularly. Started tracking calories. I was in deficit, eating 1,000 - 1,200 calories a day, exercising every day, and the best result I got was that I stopped gaining weight. Not losing. Just stopped gaining. And I was starving.

The math wasn't mathing.

The bloods were always "fine"

Every time I went to the doctor, the results came back normal. Glucose: fine. Thyroid: fine. Everything: fine. Except me.

What nobody checked for years was fasting insulin. Nobody mentioned HOMA-IR. The standard blood panel looks for diabetes, not for the condition that precedes it by a decade.

Insulin resistance doesn't show up on a basic blood test. You have to know to ask for the right one. Most doctors don't tell you to ask.

What finally helped

I wrote a long email to my doctor. Explained everything. Attached screenshots of my exercise charts and calorie tracking from my phone. She sent me to check glucose. Normal. Then she sent me to a nutritionist. She told me to eat less. How could I eat any less than 1,000 calories, while exercising daily?

Eventually I saw an endocrinologist. The second one I tried. He ran HOMA-IR, androgen hormones, and thyroid. Sat me down and explained I had PCOS and insulin resistance.

I couldn't believe it. It explained everything. The acne on my jawline. The darker skin I'd been ignoring. The weight that wouldn't move. The cravings. The irregular cycles. The afternoon crash that hit like a wall every single day.

He prescribed metformin. It helped a lot.

Then life happened

I stopped metformin when I got pregnant. Stopped breastfeeding recently. The IR flared back almost immediately - breastfeeding masks it, and weaning removes that buffer.

Now I'm post-baby, post-breastfeeding, hormones raging, doing everything right and still feeling awful. I should really get my labs done. I probably need metformin again.

Instead I've been procrastinating and building an app. Which is very on-brand for someone with ADHD.

The weight is the symptom - not the cause, not the failure. The symptom.

Every piece of advice I got - eat less, move more, try intuitive eating - was built for a body where insulin works properly. Mine doesn't. The advice wasn't wrong exactly. It just wasn't for me.

If you've been doing everything right and nothing is working, it might not be your effort. It might be your insulin.

Ask for fasting insulin. Ask for HOMA-IR. Push until someone runs those two tests. It took me approximately 15 years and two endocrinologists.

Resista. is being built for exactly this. resista.app