Good morning everyone. Since changing to carnivore July 22,2024 I am down like 120 pounds and feel a lot better but my fasting insulin is 16.6 February 2026 and in March 2025 it was 12.9 so it went up. I am struggling to lose the last part of my love handles and belly fat. I never cheat and I am super strict carnivore. Any suggestions and why did it go up?

Welcome to Carnivore Talk Wes.

In answer to your question, there can be many factors that could contribute to this.

Normal biological variation -

Fasting insulin is not as stable as many people think. Day-to-day fluctuations occur.

Different laboratory methods - If the tests were run by different labs or different assay methods, results can vary.

Stress or poor sleep before the blood draw can increase insulin levels.

Illness, inflammation, or infection around the time of testing can temporarily raise insulin.

Weight gain since the prior test could contribute.

Less physical activity can increase insulin resistance and insulin levels.

Certain medications, such as steroids, can raise insulin.

Long-term high protein intake can stimulate insulin secretion even when carbohydrate intake is very low. This doesn't necessarily indicate insulin resistance by itself.

The more important question is whether your glucose levels changed as well. Fasting insulin by itself is difficult to interpret. Ideally, you would want:

Fasting glucose

Fasting insulin

HbA1c

Waist circumference and weight trends

Using fasting glucose and fasting insulin together, you can calculate a measure called HOMA-IR, which gives a better picture of insulin sensitivity than insulin alone.

HOMA-IR stands for Homeostatic Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance. It’s a calculation that uses your fasting glucose and fasting insulin to estimate how resistant your body is to insulin.

The formula most commonly used in the United States is:

Less than 1.0: Excellent insulin sensitivity

1.0–1.9: Normal

2.0–2.9: Early insulin resistance may be present

3.0 or higher: Suggests significant insulin resistance

These are rough guidelines, and interpretation can vary somewhat depending on the lab and the person’s overall health.

Example

If someone has:

Fasting insulin = 16.6 μIU/mL

Fasting glucose = 95 mg/dL

Then:

HOMA-IR = (16.6 × 95) ÷ 405 = 3.9

That would suggest insulin resistance despite a normal fasting glucose.

One thing to keep in mind: people following a very low-carbohydrate or carnivore diet sometimes develop what’s called physiological insulin resistance (also called adaptive glucose sparing), which can make glucose-related measurements look different from someone eating a standard diet. That’s why it’s helpful to look at the whole picture—fasting glucose, fasting insulin, HbA1c, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, weight, and waist size—rather than a single number.

I hope this helps you.

42 minutes ago, wes said:

Good morning everyone. Since changing to carnivore July 22,2024 I am down like 120 pounds and feel a lot better but my fasting insulin is 16.6 February 2026 and in March 2025 it was 12.9 so it went up. I am struggling to lose the last part of my love handles and belly fat. I never cheat and I am super strict carnivore. Any suggestions and why did it go up?

For me it was dairy, the only dairy I now eat is organic butter, I watched in one of Dr Ken Berry's YouTube videos saying he only has to look at cheese and the pounds pile on. For me I definitely had an addiction to cheese, even after a large ribeye and feeling satiated a couple of hours later the cheese would call me from the fridge and I couldn't resist it.

The midsection weight gets harder and harder to lose as we age. The body is really good a storing fat. I am not a 'calorie counter' and hardly use the word calorie but everyone gets the gist when the word is used.

If a person needs 2500 calories and eats only 2000 there would be some weight loss. But in time the body will 'learn' not only how to survive on 2000 calories but will also learn to store some fat from that 2000.

I'm at that stage now. I went from well north of 300lbs down to 211 but recently went back to 238. (trying to hit a protein target and eating more than I actually wanted) I am carnivore but did drink quite a bit of milk while hitting the protein target. During the big weight loss milk could put the brakes on any kind of weight loss.

I am started to read about cortisol levels with the latter parts of weight loss. I'm on fall again so I will see how just strict carnivore does in re-losing the weight and hopefully it pulls from the love handles. LOL

Scott