A clinical approach to fat loss

Why diets stop working.

If you've tried everything and the weight won't shift, the problem isn't willpower — it's an unidentified physiological pattern that dieting doesn't address. There are five of them. This is how we find yours.

Find My Pattern — Free → How it works
900+
Clinical data points analysed
37
Years clinical experience
200+
Validated metabolic patterns
The problem with conventional weight loss

Calories in, calories out is not the whole story.

Every standard weight loss programme assumes the same problem: you're eating too much and moving too little. But if that were true, the same approach would work for everyone. It doesn't.

Functional medicine has identified five distinct physiological patterns that block fat loss regardless of how carefully you eat. When these patterns are active, your body is biochemically instructed to store fat — and dieting makes several of them worse.

The solution isn't trying harder. It's identifying which pattern you're dealing with — and targeting it specifically.

The five fat loss resistance patterns

Every case of stubborn weight has a cause. Usually one of these.

01
Insulin Resistance
Chronic elevated insulin switches off fat-burning at the cellular level. Diet alone cannot override this hormonal signal.
02
HPA Axis Dysregulation
Elevated cortisol from chronic stress drives visceral fat storage and breaks down muscle — reducing metabolic rate further.
03
Thyroid Insufficiency
Even "normal" thyroid function at the lower end of range reduces basal metabolic rate by 15–20%. Invisible on standard testing.
04
Gut Microbiome Disruption
Dysbiotic gut bacteria extract more calories from identical food, drive inflammation, and impair appetite regulation via GLP-1.
05
Systemic Inflammation
Inflammatory cytokines block insulin receptors, suppress fat release, and disrupt leptin — the hormone that signals satiety.
Take the Free Pattern Finder →

18 questions · 3 minutes · Identifies your dominant pattern

The Detective Health approach

Clinical pattern analysis. Not another diet plan.

The Detective Health platform uses a structured clinical analysis system built on 37 years of functional medicine practice. It doesn't guess — it analyses your data across 900+ clinical data points and identifies specific patterns from a library of 200+ validated metabolic signatures.

This is clinically-directed AI analysis — artificial intelligence trained on the clinical logic of functional diagnostic nutrition, not a generic wellness algorithm. The protocols it generates are built on the same framework used in clinical practice for nearly four decades.

Built with AI. Not built on AI. The clinical logic is mine. The platform operationalises it at a scale that wasn't previously possible.

01
Weight Loss Pattern Finder
Identifies your dominant resistance pattern from 18 clinical screening questions. Free, 3 minutes, gives you an immediate clinical answer — not a vague category.
02
Metabolic Nature Classification
40-question assessment identifying which of six distinct metabolic types you are, determining your optimal nutritional framework.
03
Weight Loss Engine
Full multi-system analysis incorporating blood chemistry, hormonal data, gut findings, and lifestyle variables into a targeted protocol.
04
Health Status Report
A comprehensive clinical overview of your health across all seven body systems, compiled before your consultation.
05
Drug–Nutrient Analysis
If you're on medication, the platform identifies exactly which nutrients are being depleted and what to replace them with.
Your journey

What actually happens

01
Take the Pattern Finder
18 questions identify your dominant fat loss resistance pattern. Free, takes 3 minutes, gives you an immediate clinical answer — not a vague category.
Free · 3 minutes
02
Complete Your Intake
12 clinical intake forms covering your full health picture — symptoms, lifestyle, history, medications, and movement. Submitted securely before your session.
Online · 3–4 hours total
03
Receive Your Health Status Report
Stephen reviews everything and compiles your Health Status Report — a clinical overview across all systems identifying your priority patterns and testing pathway.
Before your consultation
04
Your Consultation
One hour with Stephen. Your Health Status Report reviewed together, test results interpreted, and your personalised weight loss protocol designed around your specific pattern.
£145 · 1 hour
Ready to find out?

The Detective Health Weight Loss Consultation

£145
Detective Health Consultation — Everything included
  • Free Weight Loss Pattern Finder (your starting point)
  • Full clinical intake — 12 forms, 900+ data points
  • Health Status Report compiled before your session
  • One-hour consultation with Stephen Duncan FDN-P MSc
  • Fat Loss Resistance Pattern analysis with clinical explanation
  • Personalised testing pathway based on your pattern
  • Metabolic Nature classification and nutritional framework
  • Written summary and next steps after your session
Book Your Consultation →

Secure booking via Practice Better · Cancel or reschedule 48+ hours in advance

Stephen
Duncan
FDN-P · MSc · Edinburgh
37 years clinical experience
Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner
Metabolic Typing Advanced Practitioner
Co-founder, Omnos Health
(integrated with Regenerus Labs)

"Weight is almost never a simple energy equation problem. In 37 years of clinical practice, I have yet to see a case of genuine treatment-resistant weight gain that didn't have a clear, identifiable physiological cause."

I started my clinical career before functional medicine had a name for what I was observing — that the same diet would produce dramatically different results in different people, and that the difference was almost always something measurable in the biochemistry.

Over nearly four decades, I've trained with some of the leading figures in the field — Bill Wolcott's Metabolic Typing, Reed Davis's Functional Diagnostic Nutrition framework, Bryan Walsh's biochemistry model. I've seen how Mounjaro and Ozempic work and why — they mimic GLP-1, the gut hormone that regulates insulin and appetite. But they don't address why GLP-1 was dysregulated in the first place.

The Detective Health platform represents 37 years of clinical pattern recognition, translated into a systematic process that identifies the cause — not just the symptom. Test, don't guess. That's the only approach that produces lasting results.

Start here

Find your pattern. Then fix it.

Take the free 3-minute Pattern Finder. Then book your consultation and get a clinical answer to why weight loss has been so difficult for you specifically.

Take the Pattern Finder — Free → Book Consultation — £145