The Real Reason You Can’t Lose Weight: How Insulin Drives Stubborn Fat in Your 40s
Why Insulin Is the Missing Piece No One Talks About
If you’re doing “everything right” — eating clean, counting calories, exercising — and still not losing weight, you’re not crazy, and you’re not failing.
You’re likely dealing with chronically high insulin, a hormonal state that makes fat loss feel impossible.
Most women in their late 30s, 40s and 50s silently struggle with insulin without knowing it. And here’s the truth:
👉 If insulin stays high, your body literally cannot burn fat.
No amount of calorie cutting will change that.
This is why so many women feel stuck, frustrated, and confused — especially around perimenopause.
For more on this, check out my article on Weight Loss in Perimenopause.
What Insulin Actually Does Inside Your Body
Insulin is a storage hormone. Candi calls it the fat-storing hormone.
Every time you eat carbs or sugar (and even some “healthy” foods), your blood sugar quickly and significantly rises. When you eat meat, fish, eggs and certain vegetables your blood sugar rises more slowly and not as high.
Your pancreas releases insulin to move that sugar from your blood into your cell for immediate energy. If there is more sugar (glucose) in your blood than your cells need, the excess insulin goes into storage. Our body has an emergency supply of sugar storage (glycogen stores) but anything more will be stored as fat. When you eat the foods approved by Primal Bod, you produce just the right amount of insulin.
One of insulin’s major jobs is to tell your body:
“Store energy. Do NOT burn fat right now.”
Candi calls fat the ‘diamond of the body’.
Your body will do anything to keep its fat as it’s a great backup for your body to have for any emergencies where you won’t be able to have access to food. The problem is, that this does not happen anymore in today’s world where food is ALWAYS available.
When insulin is high:
Fat burning shuts off
Hunger increases
Energy crashes
Cravings go up
Your body stores more fat — especially around the belly
This is normal physiology, but modern life keeps insulin high all day long.
For a deeper dive into how metabolism works and why Primal Bod is designed this way, see my Primal Bod Hub.
Why High Insulin Makes Weight Loss So Hard
1. You’re eating too often (even healthy snacks count)
Every snack or small meal triggers an insulin rise.
If you’re eating 5–7 times a day → insulin never gets a break.
2. Your cells become insulin resistant
Over time, your body stops responding to insulin properly.
This forces your pancreas to pump out even more insulin.
Result?
You’re stuck storing fat whether you want to or not.
3. Perimenopause magnifies the problem
Changes in estrogen and progesterone make your cells more insulin resistant.
So even the same foods and habits you had 5 years ago suddenly cause weight gain.
Learn more about the hidden reasons you are not losing weight in perimenopause.
The Hidden Problem: Insulin Resistance
Most women walking around today have some degree of insulin resistance — but it isn’t diagnosed until they’re prediabetic.
Before that, the symptoms simply look like:
You gain weight easily
Weight sticks around your stomach
You crash at 3 pm
You need coffee or sugar to function
You feel inflamed or puffy
You’re tired despite eating
You can’t go long without food
You gain weight even in a calorie deficit
Sound familiar?
This isn’t a willpower problem. It’s hormonal.
We are made believe that it’s our sex hormones like estrogen, progesterone and testosterone decreasing, but that’s the wrong focus.
Once you target insulin, everything else falls into place. Insulin is a major hormone disruptor as well as cortisol. When you master these two hormones, the other ones normalize quickly.
Insulin blocks fat burning the same way a locked door blocks you from leaving a room. Insulin doesn’t allow your fat to leave.
So, if you want to get rid of fat, you need to master insulin and learn what to do in order to keep insulin from locking down your fat.
And this is called ketosis. Ketosis is the state of your body where it burns your fat by lowering insulin, basically freeing your fat cells.
Foods That Spike Insulin (Even “Healthy” Ones)
Most people think insulin spikes only come from sugar.
But the reality is much broader.
Here are the biggest insulin-raisers:
Cereals, oats, granola
Bread, wraps, crackers
Fruit juice and smoothies
Sushi
Rice, pasta, noodles
Bananas, grapes, apples
Yogurt
Protein bars and “healthy” snacks
Most plant-based milks
Wine
“Healthy” treat recipes made with dates, honey or maple syrup
If you start your day with these, insulin stays high until the evening.
Even on the carnivore diet, women often hit a plateau. It’s because they are eating a diet too high in fat and often undereat protein. There are many women in the Primal Bod community who came from following the carnivore diet and finally feel better on eating what and how Candi recommends. For guidance on the difference between those two diets, see my comparison of Primal Bod Diet vs Carnivore.
Calorie counting doesn’t work because it’s not about how much you eat, it’s about what your hormones are doing in your body after you eat.
How to Lower Insulin Naturally (The Primal Bod Method)
This is exactly what Primal Bod fixes — by lowering insulin consistently so the body can start burning fat again. It’s not about low insulin but about finding your goldilocks. The program teaches you exactly what, how much and when to eat for optimal insulin production. Additionally, there is a whole lifestyle you’ll get familiar with that will support you with natural fat burning leaving you feeling amazing. After 2 years in the program, I feel like I am becoming younger and younger. Another side-effect of healthy insulin levels.
Here’s how the program works:
Lower insulin through strategic food choices
You eat foods that keep insulin low and stable.
This shifts your body from fat-storing mode → fat-burning mode.
2. Reduce eating frequency
You stop grazing and snacking.
This gives insulin space to come down.
3. Remove inflammatory foods
Inflammation also raises insulin.
You remove the biggest triggers — in a structured, doable way.
4. Support your metabolism so it stops fighting you
Women often undereat or overtrain.
Primal Bod balances the metabolism so fat loss becomes natural again.
You’ll go from a slow metabolism to a high-functioning one which will make you feel young again.
5. Reset your hunger and cravings
When insulin stabilises:
Cravings disappear
Hunger calms down
Energy returns
The brain stops counting calories all day
When you get your insulin in line and fire up our metabolism, you can lose weight quickly which I outline in my A Faster Way To Weight Loss article — it teaches the first steps to stabilising insulin and metabolism.
What Happens When You Lower Insulin
Once insulin comes down, your body can finally access stored fat.
You’ll notice:
Steady, satisfying energy
Fewer cravings
A flatter stomach
Clothes fitting again
Weight coming off without struggle
Better sleep
Mood stability
Clearer skin
Balanced hormones
Less inflammation
For many women, this is the exact moment they realise:
“It was never me. It was my insulin.”
Read about my results on Primal Bod program.
How Primal Bod Makes Weight Loss Simple
Primal Bod gives you a done-for-you framework that:
Removes the foods that spike insulin
Rebalances your hunger hormones
Gives your metabolism room to heal
Makes fat loss intuitive
Doesn’t require calorie counting, restriction, or intense workouts
✨ Want to experience the first week for free? Download the Sneak Peek into Week 1 of Primal Bod here:
Download Free PDF
Final Thoughts
When you understand insulin, your body, and your hormones:
You stop blaming yourself
You stop struggling with dieting
You finally start losing fat naturally
You regain energy, confidence, and control
This is the exact approach that Primal Bod teaches — working with your hormones, not against them.
Do you have questions? Let’s chat. I’ve been on the Primal Bod lifestyle since February 2024 and still part of the Primal Bod community: