Burn Belly Fat Smarter Panel For Women
This blood test panel bundles key hormone, thyroid, glucose/insulin, lipid, liver, and inflammation markers to guide belly-fat strategy for women.
This panel bundles multiple biomarker tests in one order—your report explains how results fit together.
Belly fat in midlife is rarely “just calories.” In perimenopause and menopause, the same scale number can hide a different story: shifting estrogen and progesterone patterns, sleep disruption, higher stress signaling, and subtle insulin resistance can all push fat storage toward the abdomen.
This lab panel is designed to give you a multi-marker snapshot—hormones, thyroid, glucose/insulin signals, lipids, liver enzymes, and inflammation—so you can stop guessing and start matching your plan to what your body is actually doing.
Do I need this panel?
You may benefit from this lab panel if your waistline is changing despite “doing the right things,” especially if it’s paired with hot flashes, sleep loss, brain fog, lower exercise recovery, or a weight plateau that started in your late 30s, 40s, or 50s.
This panel is also useful if you are considering hormone therapy (or already on it) and want metabolic context alongside sex-hormone markers. Belly-fat changes can track with insulin signaling, thyroid function, and inflammation—not just estrogen.
You might also want this panel if you have a family history of type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, fatty liver disease, or early heart disease, or if your prior labs were “normal” but you still don’t feel like yourself.
Your results are educational and are best used to support clinician-directed care and a personalized plan, not self-diagnosis. The value of a panel is the pattern across results—what’s moving together, what’s compensating, and what deserves follow-up.
This panel includes multiple standard blood tests; reference ranges can vary by lab, timing in your cycle (if applicable), and whether you are using hormone therapy or other medications.
Lab testing
Order labs to measure Burn Belly Fat Smarter Panel
Women
from $399 at Quest Diagnostics
About 1 week
Schedule online — results typically within a week
Clear next steps
Guidance included, with follow-up care available
HSA / FSA
Eligible for pre-tax health spending accounts
Get this panel with Vitals Vault
Vitals Vault makes it straightforward to order a multi-biomarker lab panel when you want a clearer explanation for belly-fat changes and midlife symptoms. Instead of chasing one number, you get a coordinated set of markers that can be interpreted together.
After your blood draw, you can use PocketMD to review your results in plain language and connect the dots across hormones, thyroid, glucose/insulin signals, lipids, liver markers, and inflammation. That pattern is often what tells you whether your next step is sleep and stress support, nutrition adjustments, resistance training emphasis, medication review, or a deeper insulin-focused workup.
This panel also works well for trending. If you change your routine, start or adjust HRT, or address insulin resistance, repeating the same panel helps you see whether the underlying drivers are improving—not just whether the scale moved.
- One order, one draw: multiple markers interpreted as a pattern
- Designed for perimenopause/menopause context and body-composition goals
- PocketMD support to help you understand multi-marker results and next steps
- Useful for retesting to track response to lifestyle or therapy changes
Key benefits of the Burn Belly Fat Smarter Panel For Women
- Separates “hormone shift” signals from insulin-driven fat storage patterns using multiple complementary markers.
- Adds thyroid context so low energy and weight plateaus are not misattributed to willpower alone.
- Clarifies whether cardiometabolic risk is rising (lipids, inflammation) even when weight changes are modest.
- Flags liver stress patterns that can travel with visceral fat and higher triglycerides.
- Helps you and your clinician evaluate whether HRT timing/dose or route could be influencing symptoms and body composition.
- Creates a baseline you can trend after changes in sleep, training, nutrition, or medications.
- Reduces “conflicting advice” by showing which levers are most likely to matter for you right now.
What is the Burn Belly Fat Smarter Panel For Women panel?
The Burn Belly Fat Smarter Panel For Women is a bundled lab panel that measures multiple blood markers linked to abdominal (visceral) fat gain in midlife. It is not a single test. It is a coordinated set of hormone, thyroid, glucose/insulin, lipid, liver, and inflammation markers that help explain why your body may be storing fat differently—and which strategies are most likely to work.
In perimenopause and menopause, estrogen and progesterone patterns change, sleep is often disrupted, and stress signaling can rise. At the same time, muscle mass can decline if resistance training and protein intake are not prioritized. These shifts can make your body more insulin resistant, increase triglycerides, and promote fat storage around the abdomen even if your total weight is stable.
This panel is designed to capture that “systems view.” For example, a normal fasting glucose can still coexist with higher fasting insulin. A “normal” TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone) can still coexist with a thyroid pattern that helps explain fatigue and cold intolerance. Sex-hormone levels can look different depending on cycle timing, menopause stage, or whether you use oral vs transdermal estrogen.
Because it is a panel, the most useful interpretation comes from the relationships between markers—such as insulin markers alongside triglycerides and HDL, thyroid markers alongside symptoms and lipids, and inflammation markers alongside waist changes and recovery.
What do my panel results mean?
Low-pattern results (signals that can align with under-fueling, low hormone signaling, or low thyroid output)
In this panel, “low” is usually about a pattern rather than one number. Examples include lower estradiol and progesterone consistent with late perimenopause/menopause (especially with symptoms), low-normal free thyroid hormones with a higher TSH, or very low triglycerides with low fasting insulin in someone who is under-eating or overtraining. You may also see low ferritin or low-normal hemoglobin/hematocrit if iron status is part of your broader workup (fatigue can make training and recovery harder). If you are on HRT, “low” sex-hormone values can reflect timing, dose, absorption, or lab timing relative to application. The next step is usually to match the pattern to symptoms, menstrual status, and medications rather than reacting to a single out-of-context result.
Optimal-pattern results (signals that your plan is working and risk is trending in the right direction)
An “optimal” panel pattern typically shows steady glucose control (A1c and fasting glucose in a healthy range), low-to-moderate fasting insulin, favorable triglycerides and HDL, and low inflammation (such as a low hs-CRP) alongside stable liver enzymes. Thyroid markers tend to be consistent with good energy and temperature tolerance, and sex-hormone results make sense for your life stage and any therapy you use. If your waist is still not moving with an otherwise strong pattern, the interpretation often shifts toward practical levers—sleep duration/quality, protein and fiber targets, resistance training progression, alcohol intake, and medication side effects—rather than “more cardio” or more restriction.
High-pattern results (signals that often track with visceral fat, insulin resistance, inflammation, or therapy effects)
A “high” pattern across this panel commonly includes higher fasting insulin and/or A1c, higher triglycerides, lower HDL, and sometimes elevated liver enzymes—signals that can cluster with insulin resistance and visceral fat. Inflammation markers may be higher, especially if sleep is poor, stress is high, or there is an underlying inflammatory condition. Thyroid patterns can also contribute: a higher TSH with lower free T4 (thyroxine) can align with fatigue and weight gain, while overtreatment can push markers the other way. Sex-hormone results can be “high” due to supplementation (for example, testosterone therapy) or due to lower SHBG (sex hormone–binding globulin), which can increase free-androgen signaling and sometimes worsen acne, hair changes, or central fat gain in susceptible people. High results are not a diagnosis by themselves, but they are a strong prompt to review lifestyle, medications, and follow-up testing with a clinician.
Factors that influence your panel results
Timing and context matter for a multi-marker panel. If you still cycle, estradiol and progesterone vary across the month; a single draw can look “low” or “high” depending on cycle day. Menopause stage, oral vs transdermal estrogen, and progesterone formulation can all change measured levels and binding proteins. Fasting status affects glucose, insulin, and triglycerides; recent alcohol intake can raise triglycerides and liver enzymes; and acute illness or hard training can temporarily raise inflammation markers. Sleep loss and chronic stress can shift cortisol patterns and worsen insulin signaling. Common medications and supplements—thyroid hormone, statins, metformin/GLP-1 medications, steroids, biotin, and hormone therapies—can change results and how they should be interpreted. The most useful approach is to interpret your results as a connected pattern, then retest after a targeted change to confirm the direction of improvement.
What’s included in this panel
- % Saturation
- Adiponectin
- Cortisol, A.M.
- Creatine Kinase, Total
- Dhea Sulfate
- Estrogens, Total, Ia
- Ferritin
- Glucose
- Hemoglobin A1C
- Hs Crp
- Insulin
- Iron Binding Capacity
- Iron, Total
- Leptin
- Magnesium
- Progesterone
- T3, Free
- T4, Free
- Testosterone, Free
- Testosterone, Total, Ms
- Tsh
- Vitamin B12
- Vitamin D,25-Oh,Total,Ia
- Zinc
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Frequently Asked Questions
Do you need to fast for this panel?
Fasting is usually recommended because the panel includes glucose/insulin markers and triglycerides. A typical approach is 8–12 hours of fasting with water allowed. If you cannot fast, you can still test, but interpretation of insulin and triglycerides may be less clear—note the fasting duration when you review results.
How do you interpret belly-fat labs when you are in perimenopause vs menopause?
Perimenopause can produce wide hormone swings, so a single estradiol or progesterone value may reflect timing more than “status.” Menopause is often characterized by consistently higher FSH/LH with lower estradiol and progesterone. The metabolic side (insulin markers, lipids, inflammation, liver enzymes) is interpreted similarly in both stages, but symptoms, cycle timing, and any hormone therapy are essential context.
If my labs are “normal,” why might I still be gaining belly fat?
“Normal” ranges are broad and do not always reflect your personal baseline. You can also have early insulin resistance with fasting glucose still in range, or a lipid pattern (higher triglycerides, lower HDL, higher ApoB) that signals visceral-fat risk before weight changes are dramatic. Sleep loss, stress, alcohol, and reduced muscle mass can shift body composition without creating a single abnormal lab flag.
Is this panel useful if you are on HRT?
Yes. HRT can change sex-hormone measurements and binding proteins, and it can also influence lipids and inflammation depending on formulation and route. This panel helps you see hormone levels in the context of metabolic markers so you can discuss dose, timing, and symptom alignment with your clinician.
What’s the difference between this panel and ordering individual tests separately?
Ordering tests separately can miss the pattern that explains why belly fat is changing. This panel is designed to bundle complementary markers—sex hormones, thyroid, insulin signaling, lipids, liver, and inflammation—so interpretation is more coherent and trending over time is easier.
How often should you retest this panel?
Many people retest in about 8–12 weeks after a meaningful change (sleep plan, nutrition/training shift, medication/HRT adjustment) to see directionality. If you are starting or changing hormone therapy or metabolic medications, your clinician may recommend a different schedule based on symptoms and goals.
What if the panel suggests insulin resistance?
A common insulin-resistance pattern includes higher fasting insulin, higher A1c, higher triglycerides, lower HDL, and sometimes elevated liver enzymes. If that pattern shows up, it is often worth a focused follow-up plan and, when appropriate, additional insulin-focused testing. PocketMD can help you summarize the pattern and questions to bring to your clinician.