Book 2 — Track Your Heart Health

The Metabolic Toolkit

The premise

Knowledge without measurement is just opinion.

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Your GP sees you for ten minutes once a year. In between, your blood pressure rises and falls with sleep and stress. Your glucose spikes after lunch and crashes by 4pm. Your weight fluctuates daily. Your waist creeps up by a centimetre every six months without anyone noticing. None of this appears on the annual blood test.

Book 2 hands you the equipment and the methods to measure your own cardiometabolic health between clinic visits. It is short, practical, and designed to be opened repeatedly rather than read once.

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What you will measure

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The book covers six core measurements, each chosen because it (a) matters clinically, (b) can be taken at home, and (c) can be tracked over time.

WhatWhy it matters

What you need

Waist circumference - Best single proxy for visceral fatA flexible tape measure

Waist-to-height ratio - Adjusts waist for body size; threshold ≥0.5 signals metabolic riskTape measure + a calculator

Body composition - Tracks muscle vs fat — the metric your bathroom scale missesSmart scales with bioimpedance

Blood pressure - The single most modifiable cardiovascular risk factor -Validated home BP monitor (wrist or arm)

Glucose response - Reveals your individual carbohydrate sensitivity in real time - Continuous glucose monitor (CGM)

Activity, sleep, food intake - Connects the dots between behaviour and result A diary, an app, or both

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Every item on this list is recommended on the companion Metabolic Toolkit page, with direct links to order through Amazon. Disclosures apply — see below.

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What you will learn to do

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• Take measurements that actually mean something (most people measure their waist incorrectly)

• Recognise the patterns in your data that signal early metabolic risk — before any clinic test would

• Run an N-of-1 trial on yourself: change one variable, hold the others constant, measure the result, iterate

• Discover your glucotype — whether you spike to bread, rice, fruit, late meals, alcohol, or stress

• Interpret your Current Glucose Profile (CGP™) — the framework Dr Leatham developed for reading CGM data in non-diabetic patients

• Know which numbers to take to your GP, and which to act on yourself

Who this book is for

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Anyone over 35 who wants to know what their numbers are doing between annual check-ups ✓ Patients of Dr Leatham's clinic who want a reference between consultations ✓ Anyone whose family history suggests early action is warranted ✓ Clinicians (GPs, nurses, dietitians) who want a working understanding of home metabolic tracking ✓ The data-curious — anyone who has bought a CGM and wondered what to do with the result

It is not for people who want a single dramatic intervention. It is for people who want to understand themselves.

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What this book is not

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• Not a diet book

• Not a fitness manual

• Not a list of supplements

• Not a long read — most readers finish it in 90 minutes

• Not a substitute for medical advice

It is the measurement layer that should sit underneath every other decision about your health.

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Stay informed

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The VAT-TRAP series is being prepared for publication.

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[Browse the Metabolic Toolkit →] • [Read about Book 3 — The Great Escape →] • [Disclosures]

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