This is an example — fictional client, not a real person. Made-up answers, results and plan.
Sample plan
What the written plan looks like
The same fictional client as the sample report: 46, two years of bloating and afternoon fatigue. This is a first-phase plan in four parts: food, lifestyle, movement and supplements. Supplement doses are greyed out on purpose: they are set for each person after testing, never from a sample page.
01 · Food
The plate
From the Metabolic Nature reading (Adaptive, a middle position) and body weight. For this sample we gave the client a weight of 68 kg and an estimated 2,000 kcal a day; the amounts below come from the nutrition integration tool with those figures.
ProteinAbout 95 g a day (1.4 g per kg), spread over three meals
CarbohydrateStarting at 40% of energy, inside a 30–50% band
Starch per mealAbout 170 g cooked rice, or 300 g potato, or 75 g oats (dry)
Fat and vegAbout 1 tbsp oil a meal; vegetables fill half the plate
In plain words
Three meals, each built around a protein: eggs, fish, chicken, lean meat, tofu or Greek yoghurt.
Half the plate vegetables, a palm-sized portion of starch, and olive oil, nuts or seeds for fat.
Nothing is cut out before testing. Instead, a two-week food and symptom record shows which meals the bloating follows.
How sure is this? The Metabolic Nature plate is a starting point, not a test result; no controlled trial has tested matching diet to these positions. At 40% the carbohydrate sits below the UK population average SACN recommends, about 50% of energy, for people at a healthy weight (SACN 2015, S.16, p.4). SACN also found total carbohydrate itself was neither harmful nor beneficial for heart and metabolic, bowel or dental health (S.8, p.2); the 40% here is a plan for one person, not a guideline. The plan says so, and the food record and retest check it. The protein range of 1.2–1.6 g per kg is a common target above the 0.75 g per kg UK reference intake.
02 · Lifestyle
Sleep, stress and the day around meals
Sleep first
The same wake time every day, weekends included, with a 7–9 hour window in bed.
Screens off 30 minutes before bed.
Evidence: consensus that adults need 7 hours or more (Watson 2015); the routine is practice
Five minutes of slow breathing, twice a day
Morning and evening, before meals if possible.
The BOLT breath-hold score is tracked at each check-in.
Evidence: mixed, small trials
Meals sitting down, then a short walk
Eat slowly at a table rather than on the go.
A 10-minute walk after the largest meal.
Evidence: short walks lower after-meal blood sugar in one-day lab trials (Buffey 2022); an effect on bloating is untested
03 · Movement
The session: twice a week, about 25 minutes
Seven exercises, done in order, with a minute’s rest between sets. No high-intensity training until the DUTCH result is back, because the report flagged a high-output stress pattern as a hypothesis to test. Strength training is well supported for muscle, bone and blood sugar; the choice of these particular exercises is Stephen’s practice.
Horse stance
2 × 6 each side, 10-second hold
Hands under shoulders, knees under hips
Reach one arm and the opposite leg out long, level with the floor
Keep the back still: no rocking or twisting
Plank
2–3 × 20–40 seconds
Elbows under shoulders, forearms on the floor
Ribs down, squeeze the glutes, body in one line
Breathe throughout; stop when the hips sag
Squat
3 × 8–12
Feet about shoulder width, toes turned out a little
Sit down between the heels, knees in line with the toes
Chest up, heels down; stand up by pushing the floor away
Split squat
2–3 × 8 each leg
Long stride, back heel up
Lower the back knee straight down towards the floor
Front heel stays down; torso tall
Prone cobra
2 × 30–60 seconds
Lie face down, arms by your sides
Lift the chest a little and turn the thumbs out
Shoulder blades back and down, chin tucked, eyes to the floor
Hip flexor stretch
2 × 30 seconds each side
Half-kneeling, back knee on a cushion
Tuck the pelvis under and squeeze the glute of the back leg
Ease forward until you feel the stretch at the front of the hip; no arching
Waiter’s bow
2 × 10
Stand tall, knees soft
Push the hips back and let the chest come forward with the spine straight
Stop when the back starts to round; stand up by driving the hips forward
Illustrations are simple line drawings of the positions, made for this page. Photos of the exercises will replace them.
04 · Supplements
How a supplement plan is set out
Every item has a reason, a length of time, an evidence grade and a point at which it stops. The dose column is greyed out: doses are set for each person after testing and checked against their medication.
What
Why
For how long
Evidence
When to stop
Dose
Vitamin D3
Blood level 52 nmol/L (21 ng/mL): just above the 50 nmol/L (20 ng/mL) that the US Institute of Medicine judged enough for bone health in at least 97.5% of people (Ross 2011), and below Stephen’s working band of 75–125 nmol/L (30–50 ng/mL), which is a clinical target, not a guideline. The UK’s cut-off is lower: SACN treats 25 nmol/L (10 ng/mL) as a “population protective level” for bone and muscle health, and says it is not a diagnostic threshold (SACN 2016, S.30, S.24).
Until the retest at 24 weeks
Raises the blood level: strong. Symptoms: at this level, trials don’t show vitamin D improving mood, and fatigue hasn’t been tested in people like this. Graded weak or none (Demay 2024; Okereke 2020).
At retest, if the level is inside the band; or straight away if calcium comes back raised. The multivitamin’s vitamin D counts towards the total.
Set for you after testing
Vitamin D (UK population guidance, for comparison)
This is what the UK advises for everyone aged 4 and over, whatever their blood level. It is not a dose set for this client.
All year round, as a precaution (SACN 2016, S.41)
Official population guidance: 10 µg (400 IU) a day keeps 97.5% of people at or above 25 nmol/L (10 ng/mL) when there is little sun (SACN 2016, S.38). Evidence on non-bone outcomes was judged insufficient to set an intake (S.21).
Not applicable: the client’s own dose replaces this.
10 µg (400 IU) a day (UK reference intake)
Magnesium glycinate
Sleep is shorter than the client would like, and stress scores are low.
An 8-week trial
Mixed: three small trials in older adults found people fell asleep about 17 minutes sooner; very low-quality evidence (Mah 2021).
After 8 weeks if sleep hasn’t changed, or sooner if it loosens the bowels.
Set for you after testing
Digestive support
Bloating after larger or richer meals.
Not started yet: decided by the GI-MAP result
Depends on what the test shows. A low pancreatic elastase result goes to the GP first: prescribed enzyme replacement is a medical treatment.
—
Set for you after testing
Not on the list: iron. Ferritin of 18 µg/L (= ng/mL) is below the NICE CKS threshold of 30 µg/L for iron deficiency, so it goes to the GP first to find the cause. An iron supplement without that would treat the number and miss the reason.
Sources
Mah J, Pitre T. Oral magnesium supplementation for insomnia in older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Complement Med Ther 2021;21:125. PMID 33865376, doi:10.1186/s12906-021-03297-z
Buffey AJ et al. The acute effects of interrupting prolonged sitting time with standing and light-intensity walking on biomarkers of cardiometabolic health: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Med 2022;52:1765–87. PMID 35147898, doi:10.1007/s40279-022-01649-4
Watson NF et al. Recommended amount of sleep for a healthy adult: a joint consensus statement of the AASM and SRS. Sleep 2015;38:843–4. PMID 26039963, doi:10.5665/sleep.4716
Ross AC et al. The 2011 report on dietary reference intakes for calcium and vitamin D from the Institute of Medicine: what clinicians need to know. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2011;96:53–8. PMID 21118827, doi:10.1210/jc.2010-2704
Demay MB et al. Vitamin D for the prevention of disease: an Endocrine Society clinical practice guideline. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2024;109:1907–47. PMID 38828931, doi:10.1210/clinem/dgae290
Okereke OI et al. Effect of long-term vitamin D3 supplementation vs placebo on risk of depression or clinically relevant depressive symptoms and on change in mood scores (VITAL-DEP). JAMA 2020;324:471–80. PMID 32749491, doi:10.1001/jama.2020.10224
Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition. Carbohydrates and Health. London: TSO; 2015. Summary paragraphs S.8 and S.16 (p.4).
Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition. Vitamin D and Health. 2016. Summary paragraphs S.21, S.24, S.30, S.38, S.41. PDF
NICE Clinical Knowledge Summaries. Anaemia — iron deficiency.
Where a plan like this comes from
The plan follows the Health Status Report and, where it is worth doing, testing. It starts with the Initial Consultation. The £145 is credited against a programme if you go ahead within 60 days, not against single tests.