Getting Your Metabolic Health Baseline

By Lee Aase • September 8, 2021

You may be exploring HELPcare because you already are concerned about your weight or other health issues.

The Health, Energy & Longevity Plan (The HELP) gives you the information you need to make changes that can greatly enrich your experience of life.

And through HELP Community and HELP Coach you can find support for making those changes.

Before you start, however, it's good to get baseline metabolic health readings. This can give you the impetus for change and will enable you to gauge your progress along the way, which can increase long-term motivation.

Three of the measures of metabolic syndrome come from blood tests.

Here's what to look for:

Blood sugar - Most people get a fasting glucose measurement as part of a basic or comprehensive metabolic panel as part of a regular check-up. If your fasting glucose is higher than 100 mg/dL, that's a sign you may have a high blood sugar concern. That 100 reading is a somewhat arbitrary cut point; if your result is 98 mg/dL, for example, that doesn't mean you're safe. If you're near that level you may benefit from a Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), which estimates your average blood sugar levels over the last three months. HbA1c >5.7% is considered prediabetes, although as you will learn in Metabolic Syndrome 201, Dr. Strobel considers this an arbitrary cutoff as well.

Triglycerides and HDL-Cholesterol - These are measured in a standard lipid panel. Triglycerides should be <150 mg/dL, and HDL-C should be >40 mg/dL for men or >50 mg/dL for women. Dr. Strobel discusses both in depth in the third lesson of Metabolic Syndrome 201.

The fourth measurement to get is your Blood Pressure. You can get a home device (I use Qardio) to check it and track it regularly. If you don't wish to spend about $100 for this, you can take advantage of the units freely available in many pharmacies or just get the readings at your medical appointments. Having systolic blood pressure (the top number) >130 mmHg or diastolic pressure > 85 mmHg is a marker of metabolic syndrome.

The final criterion for metabolic syndrome is Abdominal Obesity, and you may be surprised to learn that a cloth measuring tape is likely a more useful tool to gauge this than is your bathroom scale.

The tape tells you whether your fat is stored in your abdomen (where it is most dangerous and unhealthy) or is distributed under your skin throughout your body.

Measure your waist at your belly button (for men) or at the narrowest point beneath your rib cage (for women). Then measure your hips at their widest point. See my demonstration in the photos.

For men the goal is to have waist circumference <40", and for women <35". Another good check is to calculate your waist/hip ratio. In my case in these pictures that ratio is 36"/42.5" or 0.85.

For men a healthy waist/hip ratio is <0.9, while for women the target is <0.8.

Waist/height ratio can give another perspective, and in this case the goals are <0.53 for men or <0.45 for women. Mine is currently 36"/78" or 0.46.

All of these are better gauges of metabolic health than the Body Mass Index (BMI). An extremely muscular individual could have a BMI >25 (overweight) or even >30 (obese). Waist circumference and related ratios identify unhealthy fat accumulation.

Once you have calculated whether you might have a problem with too much abdominal fat using the tape measure and these ratios, the bathroom scale becomes a great tool for tracking your progress, and for most people BMI can be a useful shorthand tool.

So, to review, if you have any three of the following, that's enough to formally diagnose metabolic syndrome:

  1. Fasting glucose > 100 mg/dL
  2. Triglycerides > 150 mg/dL
  3. HDL-Cholesterol <40 mg/dL (men) or <50 mg/dL (women)
  4. Systolic Blood Pressure > 130 mmHg or Diastolic Blood Pressure > 85 mmHg
  5. Waist circumference > 40 inches (men) or > 35 inches (women).

Even if you meet only one of the above criteria, it's a sign of metabolic ill health.

If you aren't able to get the Fasting Glucose, Triglycerides and HDL-Cholesterol readings from your medical record, we can help you get testing done at minimal cost.

HELPcare provides free learning modules and peer support through our online community. Metabolic health coaching is available through HELPcare Coach, helping people to reclaim their health and even reverse disease through lifestyle changes. This is included at no extra charge with HELPcare Clinic membership!

Lee Aase

Lee Aase is the founder of HELPcare LLC, which provides comprehensive membership, marketing and management services for provider-owned HELPcare Clinics, as well as metabolic health education and coaching for people interested in restoring health and reversing disease through lifestyle changes. Lee and his wife Lisa live in Austin, MN and have six married children and 18 grandchildren.
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