How I Lost 15kg: Learning about Insulin Resistance and Inflammation

I thought I was doing everything right.

It was 2024 and I was living in Singapore, and by every reasonable metric I was looking after myself. I was working out every single day. I was getting my steps in. I was eating high protein, avoiding obvious junk, trying to make good choices. I had a baseline understanding of nutrition. I was not someone who was unaware of their health. I thought about it constantly.

So when it happened, I could not make sense of it... I woke up one day and none of my clothes fit.

Not in the gradual, creeping way where you notice things getting a little snug over time. I mean I put on something I had worn four months earlier and it would not close. I stood in front of the mirror and then I went and found pictures of myself from four months before and I looked at them side by side with my reflection.

The difference was undeniable.

My face was swollen. My body had changed in ways I could not explain. I had put on a significant amount of weight while living what I genuinely believed was a healthy lifestyle.

I locked myself in the bathroom and sat on the floor and cried for an hour. I felt completely defeated. I had been doing the work. I had been showing up every single day. And my body had seemingly decided to do the opposite of what it should have done in response to all of that effort.

That was the moment I understood something was wrong at a level my current knowledge could not explain.

The Part That Made It Worse

What made the weight gain so much harder to process was everything else that was happening at the same time.

My acne was the worst it had ever been. Not the occasional breakout. Persistent, painful, the kind that does not respond to topical treatments because it is not a skin problem, it is an internal one.

My hair was falling out. Again. That same frightening pattern I had experienced before, strands coming away in the shower, thinning at the temples, the quiet dread of wondering where it was going to stop.

And I was exhausted. Not the normal tired that comes from a busy life. A deeper, heavier fatigue that did not lift even after rest.

I tried exercising more. If working out every day was not working, surely working out harder and longer would. It did not. The weight did not move. My body felt increasingly like something I was fighting against rather than living in.

I felt hopeless in a way I had not felt before.

The Podcasts That Opened Everything Up

The shift started not in a gym or a doctor's office but through my headphones.

I started listening to podcasts obsessively. Anything I could find about women's health, hormones, metabolism, and nutrition. And what emerged from hours of listening was a picture that had not been part of my understanding before.

I had been thinking about health primarily through the lens of exercise and general calorie awareness. What I had been completely missing was the hormonal and metabolic dimension, specifically insulin resistance.

The more I listened, the more I recognised myself in the descriptions. Stubborn weight that would not shift despite exercise. Weight gain concentrated around the belly and face. Acne. Hair loss. Fatigue. Irregular periods. These were not separate, unrelated problems. They were a constellation of symptoms pointing at the same underlying mechanism.

Insulin resistance is a state in which your cells stop responding efficiently to insulin, the hormone responsible for moving glucose from the bloodstream into cells for energy. When cells become resistant, the body produces more and more insulin to compensate. Chronically elevated insulin drives fat storage, particularly visceral and facial fat. It drives androgen production, which causes acne and hair loss. It disrupts the hormonal signalling that regulates the menstrual cycle.

I had been living with PCOS and insulin resistance without fully understanding what that meant for how my body processed food. I understood protein and calories. I did not understand insulin load. Those are not the same thing. The connection between PCOS, insulin resistance, and systemic inflammation is something I have written about in depth here.

Reading Every Label Like a Maniac

Once I understood insulin resistance, everything I knew about nutrition needed recalibrating.

I became obsessive about labels. Not in a disordered way but in a genuinely investigative way. I wanted to understand what was actually in the food I was eating and how it was affecting my blood sugar and insulin response. I found hidden sugars in places I had never thought to look. Sauces. Protein bars I had considered healthy. Flavoured yoghurts. Drinks that marketed themselves as natural. Things I had been consuming regularly for years without a second thought were quietly spiking my insulin throughout the day.

I restructured my eating around three principles.

First, protein from whole food sources first. Not protein powders as the primary source but eggs, fish, meat, legumes. Real food that came with fibre and micronutrients alongside the protein. I was already eating high protein but I had not been precise enough about the quality and source.

Second, good fats deliberately included. Avocado, olive oil, nuts, oily fish. Fats that supported hormonal production and helped slow glucose absorption rather than the cheap processed fats that had been hiding in things I thought were healthy.

Third, fibre at every meal. Vegetables, legumes, seeds. Not as an afterthought but as a deliberate tool for blunting glucose response and feeding the gut bacteria that regulate so much of what happens downstream hormonally and metabolically.

I reduced refined carbohydrates significantly. Not eliminated, but reduced and timed more carefully. I stopped eating carbohydrates in isolation and always paired them with protein, fat, or fibre to slow absorption.

I added psyllium husk to my morning routine, which became one of the most impactful single changes for both blood sugar management and gut motility.

What Started Happening

The weight started coming off.

Not immediately. Not dramatically in the first week. But steadily, consistently, month after month, in a way that felt completely different from anything I had tried before. Because I was not fighting my body. I was finally working with its actual biology.

The acne started clearing. First reducing in frequency, then in severity. My skin began to look like my skin again rather than something I did not recognise.

And then something happened that genuinely shocked me.

I started going to the toilet every single day.

That might sound like a strange thing to highlight, but if you have lived with chronic constipation you will understand exactly why I am including it. I had suffered from constipation my entire life. I had accepted it as just how my body worked. When my gut health improved to the point where I was regular every day, it was one of the most tangible signs that something fundamental had shifted. The gut microbiome changes that drive constipation are directly connected to the same inflammatory and metabolic dysregulation I was addressing. Fixing one fixed the other. The relationship between gut health, the microbiome, and systemic inflammation is something I explore fully here.

Cutting Cow Dairy and the Period That Changed Everything

The next significant shift came when I learned more specifically about cow dairy and inflammation.

The research on A1 beta-casein, the dominant protein in conventional cow dairy, showed me something I had not considered. A1 casein releases a peptide called BCM-7 during digestion. In sensitive individuals, and particularly in women with PCOS and insulin resistance, BCM-7 triggers gut inflammation and a systemic inflammatory response that compounds everything else already happening. I had been adding this inflammatory input into my body every single day without realising it.

I cut it out.

I switched to goat dairy, which is naturally A2 and does not produce BCM-7. I started using goat whey protein as my daily protein supplement, specifically because of the A2 structure but also because goat whey contains naturally occurring prebiotic oligosaccharides that actively support gut microbiome diversity rather than disrupting it.

And then the most extraordinary thing happened.

My period, which had been irregular since I was thirteen years old, became regular.

I am twenty-seven. I had spent fourteen years with a body that could not find a consistent hormonal rhythm. Doctors had told me this was just my PCOS. I had accepted it as a permanent feature of my life.

Within months of cutting cow dairy and addressing the underlying inflammation driving my insulin resistance, my cycle regulated. For the first time in my adult life.

The stubborn belly fat that had remained even as I lost weight elsewhere finally began to shift. The visceral, hormonal fat that is directly driven by chronically elevated insulin started to disappear as my insulin environment finally normalised. The science behind why A2 protein makes this difference is explained in detail here.

The Supplement Stack That Supported Everything

Food was the foundation. But I was also deliberate about what I added in supplement form.

Berberine was significant during the period when I was actively working to optimise my insulin sensitivity. It activates AMPK, the same pathway that metformin works on, improving glucose uptake in muscle and liver tissue and reducing the hepatic glucose production that keeps fasting insulin elevated.

Omega-3 fatty acids daily for their anti-inflammatory effect. Magnesium for insulin receptor signalling and sleep quality. NAC for glutathione production and oxidative stress, which is consistently elevated in women with PCOS and insulin resistance. Vitamin D3 with K2, given how common deficiency is in the UK and how directly vitamin D influences insulin secretion and immune regulation.

And goat whey protein daily, not just as a protein source but as a consistent gut health input. Every serving providing 24g of complete A2 protein alongside prebiotic oligosaccharides that feed the beneficial bacteria driving so much of my metabolic recovery. My full supplement stack and how each piece works together is here.

15kg Later and a Body I Finally Love

In total I lost 15kg. But the number is almost the least interesting part of what happened.

What I gained was a body I understand. A body I am no longer fighting. A body that moves with me rather than against me.

The acne is gone. My hair stopped falling out. My gut works every single day. My cycle is regular. My energy is consistent. The facial swelling has completely resolved. The belly fat has gone. And I have maintained this without restriction, without exhausting myself with exercise I am not recovering from, without suffering.

I exercise because I love it and because it makes me feel strong, not because I am desperately trying to compensate for what I am eating.

I eat whole foods, high quality protein, good fats, and plenty of fibre because I understand exactly what those inputs do for my hormones, my gut, and my metabolism. Not because someone told me to.

The difference between where I was and where I am now is not willpower. I had plenty of willpower in Singapore. I was working out every single day. I was trying.

The difference was understanding. Specifically, understanding insulin resistance, inflammatory dietary inputs, and what my body actually needed rather than what conventional health messaging had told me it needed.

Why This Led to Kultra

This experience sits at the heart of why I built Kultra.

When I discovered that goat whey was structurally different from cow whey, not just anecdotally but in ways that are clearly documented in the research on A2 casein, BCM-7, and gut inflammatory response, I looked for a product I could actually use daily. Flavoured. Affordable. Three ingredients I trusted completely.

Nothing in the UK market met that bar. So I created it.

For the women who are doing everything right and still not getting results. For the women who have been told their PCOS or their irregular periods or their stubborn belly fat are just how their body works. For the women who have been fighting their bodies for years and have not yet found the piece of the picture they are missing. The full story of why I built Kultra is here.

Understanding changes everything.

For me, it changed my body, my health, and ultimately my life.

And I genuinely believe it can do the same for you.

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