Science of Low Insulin Lifestyle: Your PCOS Diet Plan

What Is a Low Insulin Lifestyle?

A better way to eat, move, and live—so your body can finally work the way it’s meant to.

Most diets focus on calories, carbs, macros, or points. But a Low Insulin Lifestyle is different. It focuses on the one thing that actually controls whether your body stores or burns fat: insulin.

Every time you eat, your body releases insulin. But some foods and habits cause insulin to spike more than others. When insulin stays high, your body stays in fat-storage mode, your hormones get out of balance, and everything feels harder—weight loss, energy, sleep, cycles, mood.

That’s where a Low Insulin Lifestyle comes in.

“I spent years thinking I just needed more willpower. But I didn’t have a willpower problem, I had an insulin problem. Once I started focusing on lowering insulin, everything changed. This lifestyle gave me back my energy, my confidence, and most importantly, my peace.”

— Ali Chappell, PhD, MS, RD | Founder of Lilli Health

Learn About a Low Insulin Lifestyle

Overview

A Low Insulin Lifestyle focuses on one key goal: keeping insulin levels low and steady throughout the day.

When insulin stays elevated, your body stores fat, hormones get out of balance, and cravings take over. But when insulin is kept in check, your body can finally work the way it’s supposed to.

This lifestyle isn’t about cutting all carbs, counting calories, or doing extreme diets. It’s about understanding what causes insulin to spike, and learning how to eat, move, and live in a way that supports better metabolic health.

Through simple, targeted changes, you can improve weight, energy, mood, fertility, and more by addressing insulin at the root.

Some foods trigger big insulin spikes, while others have a gentler effect. Here’s a simplified breakdown:

High Insulin Response: non-fermented dairy (like milk and whey protein powder), starches (like bread, oats, and pasta), and sugar
Medium Insulin Response: protein, fruit, fermented dairy (like yogurt and aged cheese)
Low Insulin Response: non-starchy vegetables, nuts, seeds, healthy fats and oils

By learning how to build meals that keep insulin low, and space them in a way that allows insulin to drop, you can reduce insulin resistance, balance hormones, and feel better in your body.

Starches

Even though starches don’t taste sweet, your body digests them into glucose, which leads to a rise in insulin. For people with insulin resistance or already-elevated insulin levels, that spike can be a real problem. It keeps the body in fat-storage mode, worsening inflammation, and throwing hormones further out of balance.

This includes foods like:

Bread, pasta, rice, crackers
Oats, quinoa, couscous, brown rice, and barley
Potatoes, sweet potatoes, and other starchy vegetables
Granola, cereal, and even “clean” grain bowls

Not everyone reacts the same way to starch, but if your insulin is already high, the last thing you want to eat is a food that causes even more insulin secretion.

More Starch = More Glucose = More Insulin

These foods can make it much harder to lose weight, regulate menstrual cycles, reduce cravings, or improve energy levels. And while many people focus on cutting sugar, the truth is: most people aren’t overeating sugar, they’re overeating starch.

In the Lilli App, we help you recognize where starch might be getting in your way and guide you toward simple, sustainable changes that lower insulin and support real results.

Sugar

Everyone knows sugar isn’t great for you, but most people don’t realize that it’s not just about calories or blood sugar. It’s about insulin.

When you consume sugar, your blood sugar levels rise, and your body responds by releasing insulin to help bring them back down. If this happens occasionally, your body can handle it. But if it’s happening multiple times a day, every day, insulin stays high. And that’s when the problems begin.

High insulin means your body stores fat, not burns it. It disrupts hormones, increases cravings, drives inflammation, and worsens symptoms of PCOS, weight gain, fatigue, and mood swings.

Sugar doesn’t just mean desserts and soda, it also includes:

Juice and flavored yogurts
Agave, honey, maple syrup, and coconut sugar
“Natural” sweeteners like brown rice syrup added to bars, protein powders, and snacks
Even dried fruits in large amounts

You don’t have to eliminate every source of sugar forever, but if your insulin is already high, reducing sugar is essential.

In the Lilli App, you’ll learn how to spot sneaky sources of sugar and make swaps that help lower insulin without giving up every sweet thing.

Dairy

Dairy: Helps a Body Grow

Milk isn’t just a source of carbs or fat, it’s a growth hormone delivery system. Dairy contains naturally occurring insulin and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), both of which are designed to stimulate rapid growth in newborn mammals. And they don’t just affect calves, they affect humans too.

In addition to the insulin and IGF-1 present inside the milk, dairy proteins, especially whey and casein, are extremely insulinogenic, meaning they cause a sharp spike in insulin even without raising blood sugar levels. This is why foods like milk, protein shakes, and non-fermented dairy can spike insulin significantly, even if they’re low in sugar.

However, not all dairy is the same:

Non-fermented dairy like milk, whey protein powder, and casein protein powder cause the highest insulin and IGF-1 spikes
Fermented dairy, like full-fat Greek yogurt and aged cheeses tend to have a much lower impact

This is because the fermentation process alters the structure of dairy proteins, reducing their ability to spike insulin and IGF-1, making fermented dairy a better option for many individuals seeking to lower their insulin levels.

If you’re working to lower insulin, it’s essential to rethink how often, what type, and how much dairy you’re consuming, especially in the form of milk and whey-based products.

Inside the Lilli App, you’ll learn how to identify high-insulin dairy products, how to read labels, and which types of dairy may be better tolerated as your insulin levels come down.

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