A Moment with Dr. Stillman
We help tired, foggy, inflamed people reclaim their health.
Weight loss is often part of this, but not always.
Today’s story is about someone who came to us specifically for weight loss, and who has lost 23 pounds in only three months.
No starvation diets. No 5 AM bootcamps. No crazy medications that make you want to vomit or feel like you need a sedative (like GLP-1’s or amphetamines). Just our usual standard process, plus weight training with our dear friend, Jim Laird.
When we met, she was:
Waking up every 45 minutes at night
Napping or wanting to
Watching her weight creep up to 183 pounds at 5’1”
Looking at fasting glucose of 139 and an A1C of 7.0 (prediabetic)
Carrying a positive ANA, an autoimmune marker at 1:160
Sitting in “metabolic resistance” with a Reverse T3 of 29
She felt old, stuck, and a little scared of where this was going. In her words:
“I just didn’t have any motivation. I just felt like I was always sluggish.”
When I hear this, I get excited, because I know I can help 95/100 people who tell me this. I just finished checking our numbers in our practice for the last six months - the average improvement in energy was north of 60%.
Here’s a screenshot of the spreadsheet where we actually track this, if you’re curious what this looks like “behind the scenes.” Obviously, I have omitted any personally identifying information here.
Bear in mind, these are statistics for the first six weeks to six months in the practice, so we’re just getting started here.
Where She Started
Day to day, it looked like this:
Sluggish mornings and very low motivation
Needing a lot of sleep but still not feeling rested
Waking “constantly…every 45 minutes” at night
Extra weight that would not move, no matter how much she trained
Elevated blood sugar, inflammation, thyroid resistance, and positive autoimmune markers
Based on the labs, “Headed toward diabetes and long-term autoimmune trouble,” would have been accurate.
Here was her first hair tissue mineral analysis:
She is low in minerals - across the board.
Her heavy metal levels were negligible, which, as I discuss in The End of Autoimmunity, doesn’t mean she doesn’t have them, it means that her body can’t eliminate them.
What We Did Differently
Here’s what we did:
Started a ketogenic diet (this is not standard, but it made sense for her).
Increased hydration - she went from about 20 ounces of water per day to 80 ounces.
Added our Detox Smoothie (read about that here).
Recommended she work with Jim Laird concurrently.
Started our vitamin C protocol (read more about that here).
Up next - MSM and iodine.
We haven’t even started bioidentical hormones yet.
Over time, her own goal shifted. She told me:
“Now if you ask me, I would say I want my labs to be good… That’s the report card to me.”
Where She Is Now
Roughly three months later, her life and labs look very different.
On paper:
Weight: 23 pounds down
Fasting glucose: 139 → 100
A1C: 7.0 → 5.7 (from diabetic range to normal)
Reverse T3: 29 → 20 (out of metabolic resistance)
ANA: positive 1:160 → negative (autoimmune marker no longer active)
Cardiac CRP: 6.78 → 5.2 (still elevated, but moving in the right direction)
Her hair minerals show us her body is slowly recovering from years of repair deficit:
Her minerals are in much better balance in the second panel. Why? She’s on the right minerals in her diet. This is just the beginning. These shifts might seem subtle to the untrained eye, but this is exactly the kind of progression we see in patients who make major progress.
In her words:
“My sleep is much improved.” She now wakes once around 2:30–3:30 am to use the bathroom and “falls right back to sleep.”
“I don’t ever feel tired. I never feel like I need a nap.”
“I feel stronger… I definitely see, like, muscle definition.”
Her clothes tell the story too:
“This morning before our appointment, I just dropped off five trash bags full of my personal clothes that I can no longer wear since meeting with you.”
We don’t specialize in weight loss, but we sure do know how to make it happen.
Things to Think About
A few lessons from her case:
Sluggishness, weight gain, and broken sleep are often signs of metabolic resistance, not moral failure. Minerals, vitamins, and hydration are foundational to optimal metabolism.
“I just want my labs to be good” is being smart about your health, by practicing prevention.
The scale lies when you’re building muscle and losing fat, because paradoxically you can gain weight and lose dress sizes. Five bags of clothes out of the closet beats 23 pounds lost. Throw away your scale, focus on your body composition.
Autoimmune markers can change with the right diet and lifestyle interventions.
P.S. If you’re tired, foggy, and inflamed, and you’re ready for root-cause medical care, book an evaluation with a member of our team.
During the evaluation, we’ll:
Review your history and current symptoms
What you’ve tried, what’s worked, and what hasn’t
Get you clarity on where to go next, whether that’s becoming a member of our practice or a referral to a trusted partner of ours
For a limited time, we’re also including a copy of my new book, The End of Autoimmunity, so you can learn more about our process. (Valid only for those who join their scheduled call).
Book your evaluation today. If you’re tired, foggy, and inflamed, we’d love to help you reclaim your health.
For more on this, read my book, available now, you can purchase it here.
Until next time, be well,
Dr. Stillman
Educational content only. Not medical advice. See full disclaimers.