Your metabolism is more than blood sugar. This panel measures insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), fasting insulin and glucose, HbA1c, uric acid, and a full Comprehensive Metabolic Panel covering electrolytes, kidney, and liver function. If you're struggling with weight despite doing "everything right," these markers explain why. Atlas AI identifies your metabolic phenotype and recommends targeted interventions.
The Metabolic + Insulin panel is a fasting blood test that looks at how your body handles glucose and how your kidneys, liver and electrolytes are working. It measures fasting insulin, fasting glucose, HOMA-IR, HbA1c and uric acid alongside a comprehensive metabolic panel. It suits adults who want an early read on metabolic health.
This page is educational and not medical advice.
It measures two linked groups of markers in a single fasting blood draw, one focused on glucose handling and insulin signalling, the other on kidney function, liver enzymes, electrolytes and proteins.
| Group | Markers | What they show |
|---|---|---|
| Insulin & Glucose | Fasting Insulin, Fasting Glucose, HOMA-IR, HbA1c, Uric Acid | How much glucose is circulating after an overnight fast, how much insulin your body is releasing to keep it there, a combined index of the two, a longer-term average of blood sugar, and a marker that often shifts alongside metabolic changes |
| Comprehensive Metabolic Panel | Sodium, Potassium, Chloride, CO2 (Bicarbonate), BUN, Creatinine, eGFR, Calcium, Total Protein, Albumin, Alkaline Phosphatase, AST, ALT, Bilirubin (Total) | Fluid and electrolyte balance, acid-base status, kidney filtration, liver enzyme activity, and circulating proteins and calcium |
Each result arrives with the laboratory's own reference range printed beside it. Those typical lab reference ranges vary by laboratory, age and sex, so the range on your report is the one that applies to your sample.
Because each marker is hard to interpret alone, and together they explain one another. Fasting Glucose tells you what your blood sugar looks like after an overnight fast, but it says nothing about the effort required to hold it there. Fasting Insulin shows that effort. HOMA-IR combines the two into a single index, and research suggests index-based estimates of this kind track reasonably well with the clamp techniques used in research settings while being far simpler to run 1. Reviews of how insulin secretion and sensitivity are assessed in people describe the same trade-off between precision and practicality 2.
Hemoglobin A1C reflects average glucose over roughly the past three months, so it smooths out whatever happened in the days before your draw. Uric Acid is included because it is associated with the wider cluster of changes described as the insulin resistance syndrome, including blood pressure and lipid shifts 3.
The comprehensive metabolic panel adds context. Sodium, Potassium, Chloride and CO2 (Bicarbonate) describe fluid balance and acid-base status. BUN, Creatinine and eGFR describe kidney filtration, which matters here because research suggests insulin resistance is common in people with chronic kidney disease 4. Liver enzymes and the protein markers round out the picture of how the organs involved in fuel handling are doing.
People who want an objective look at metabolic health rather than a guess from the scale. That includes adults with a family history of type 2 diabetes, people carrying extra weight around the midsection, anyone whose energy dips hard after meals, and people who simply want a baseline before changing how they eat or train.
It is also commonly requested by people tracking conditions that are associated with insulin resistance. Research in polycystic ovary syndrome, for example, has examined how dietary patterns relate to insulin resistance markers 5, and a large meta-analysis reported associations between depression and altered metabolic parameters 6. Those are associations rather than causes, and no blood panel settles the question on its own.
If you are already working on nutrition, sleep or training, a baseline gives your next retest something to compare against. Studies indicate that structured exercise is associated with improved insulin resistance markers in people with type 2 diabetes 7, which is one reason people like to see the numbers before and after a training block. Nobody needs this test. It is one way to replace assumption with data.
You order the panel online and a lab requisition is emailed to you, usually within a day. You take it to a Quest or partner lab location, and those are available nationwide, for a standard venous blood draw. The draw itself takes a few minutes.
Fast for 12 hours before the appointment, because fasting insulin, fasting glucose and HOMA-IR are only interpretable on a fasted sample. Water is fine during the fast and is encouraged.
Results come back in 5 to 7 business days. Atlas, FitScript's AI health advisor, then reads every marker against optimal ranges and against your other results rather than reporting each number in isolation. Add-on panels can be run from the same sample, so a second trip is not needed if you decide to test more at the time of ordering. A licensed clinician remains the person who interprets your results in the context of your history and decides on any next step.
Fast for 12 hours, drink water, and book a morning appointment if you can. Fasting markers are most comparable when the draw happens at a similar time of day each round, so repeating the same slot makes your retests easier to read.
A few practical points. Heavy alcohol or an unusually intense workout the night before can shift liver enzymes and glucose handling, so an ordinary day before testing gives a more representative sample. Dehydration can nudge electrolyte and kidney markers, which is another argument for water.
Supplements matter more than most people expect. High-dose biotin, often sold for hair and nails, can interfere with some immunoassay-based tests and skew results in either direction, so many laboratories ask that it be paused for a period before a draw. Ask the laboratory or your clinician how long before you stop anything.
Keep taking any prescribed medication as directed unless your own clinician tells you otherwise. Do not pause a prescription to make a lab result look better. Note what you take and when, because that context helps whoever reads the report.
Start with the observation, then the possible meaning, then the conversation. A standard reference range describes where most results in a reference population fall, so it is a statistical boundary rather than a health target. An optimal range is narrower and reflects where a marker sits in people who appear metabolically well. A result can land inside the standard range and still be suboptimal, which is exactly the gap this panel is built to surface.
Fasting insulin is the clearest example. It can drift upward for years while fasting glucose holds steady, because more insulin is being released to achieve the same result. Reviews of insulin resistance assessment note that indices such as HOMA-IR have real limits as diagnostic tools and are better regarded as screening and research measures than as fixed cut-offs 8.
One draw is a snapshot. Illness, poor sleep, a hard training session or a stressful week can all nudge markers. A pattern across two or three rounds tells you far more than a single value. Many people retest after a meaningful block of change, and HbA1c in particular is worth spacing out since it reflects roughly three months of average glucose. A result that sits well outside the standard range is worth discussing with a clinician promptly, and no abnormal result should be ignored.
It cannot diagnose anything, and it is not meant to. Blood markers describe what is circulating on one morning. They do not identify a cause, and no single value establishes a condition.
The panel also does not include a lipid profile, so the triglyceride and HDL relationship that research has examined as a surrogate marker for insulin resistance is not covered here 9. It does not include thyroid markers, sex hormones, inflammatory markers or a complete blood count. It cannot show liver fat, body composition, visceral fat or arterial plaque, all of which need imaging or other assessments.
It also cannot tell you what to do next. That judgement belongs to a clinician who knows your history, your medications and your symptoms. If a treatment is ever considered, including any hormone treatment a clinician may consider, a licensed provider evaluates whether it is appropriate for you.
This panel is the metabolic core. The Extended Metabolic panel covers a broader set of markers for people who want more context around the same system in one sitting. The GLP-1 Monitoring panel is built for people being followed by a clinician during weight-related care, where research on medications in that class has described effects on body weight and insulin resistance measures 10, and where a licensed provider decides whether any such medication is appropriate.
Membership takes a different shape again, with 150+ biomarkers tested per year across systems rather than a single panel at a single moment. Which one fits depends on what you want to know and how often you want to look. Add-on panels run from the same sample, so combining them at the point of ordering avoids a second draw.
The Metabolic + Insulin panel costs $99. It is HSA/FSA eligible, so it can usually be paid for with those funds.
That price covers the requisition, the draw at a Quest or partner lab location, the laboratory analysis of every marker listed above, and Atlas reading each result against optimal ranges rather than the lab's broad reference ranges alone.
Discuss your results and any treatment decision with a clinician or licensed provider who knows your full history.
HOMA-IR measures insulin resistance, how hard your pancreas works to keep blood sugar normal. It rises years before glucose or HbA1c become abnormal, making it one of the earliest warning signs of metabolic dysfunction. Under 1.0 is optimal; over 2.0 indicates significant insulin resistance.
The CMP covers electrolytes (sodium, potassium, chloride, CO2), kidney function (BUN, creatinine, eGFR), and liver enzymes (AST, ALT, ALP, bilirubin, albumin, total protein). Paired with insulin and HbA1c, it gives a full picture of how your metabolism, kidneys, and liver are handling your current diet and lifestyle, the organs that process everything you eat.
Normal blood sugar can hide significant insulin resistance. Your body may be producing 3-5x the normal insulin to keep glucose in range. By the time glucose rises, insulin resistance has been building for years. This panel catches the problem at the root.
A fasting insulin test measures how much insulin is circulating after an overnight fast. It shows the effort your body is making to hold blood sugar steady, which glucose alone does not reveal. Insulin often shifts before glucose does, so it can surface changes earlier. A clinician interprets the result in context.
A metabolic blood panel covers electrolytes, kidney markers, liver enzymes and proteins. Here that means sodium, potassium, chloride, CO2 (bicarbonate), BUN, creatinine, eGFR, calcium, total protein, albumin, alkaline phosphatase, AST, ALT and total bilirubin, run alongside fasting insulin, fasting glucose, HOMA-IR, HbA1c and uric acid.
Testing usually combines fasting insulin and fasting glucose, which are then calculated into the HOMA-IR index, with HbA1c added for a longer-term view of blood sugar. These indices are practical screening measures rather than fixed diagnostic cut-offs, so a clinician reads them alongside your history and symptoms.
Yes, a 12-hour fast is required before this draw. Fasting insulin, fasting glucose and the HOMA-IR index are only interpretable on a fasted sample, and food in the hours beforehand will change them. Water is fine and encouraged during the fast, and a morning appointment makes the fast easier.
Results are returned in 5 to 7 business days after your draw. Atlas then reads every marker against optimal ranges rather than the laboratory's broad reference ranges alone, and places each value in context with your other results. A licensed clinician interprets what those findings mean for you personally.
Yes. A standard reference range describes where most results in a reference population fall, so it is a statistical boundary rather than a health target. A value can sit inside that range and still be suboptimal. A result well outside the range is worth discussing with a clinician promptly.
Keep taking prescribed medication as directed unless your own clinician advises otherwise. High-dose biotin can interfere with some immunoassay-based tests, so ask the laboratory or your clinician whether and when to pause it. Note what you take and when, since that context helps whoever reads your report.
One draw is a snapshot, so patterns across repeat tests carry more meaning than a single value. Many people retest after a meaningful block of dietary or training change. HbA1c is worth spacing out because it reflects roughly three months of average glucose. Your clinician can advise on timing.