Enter your fasting glucose and fasting insulin from the same blood draw to get your HOMA-IR insulin resistance score. It runs in your browser and sends nothing anywhere.
HOMA-IR = fasting glucose (mg/dL) × fasting insulin (µIU/mL) ÷ 405. With glucose in mmol/L, divide by 22.5 instead. A higher score means your body needs more insulin to hold glucose steady. No guideline sets one cut-off; FixFirst's analyzer treats 1.8 or below as optimal and 3.0 or above as high.
No clinical guideline publishes a HOMA-IR cut-off, and studies set theirs by population, age and assay. The bands below are the ones FixFirst's analyzer applies when it reads a lab report, so this calculator and your full report agree.
| Band | HOMA-IR | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|
| Optimal | 1.8 or below | A normal amount of insulin keeps fasting glucose in range. |
| Borderline | Above 1.8 to 2.9 | Your pancreas is putting out more insulin to hold glucose steady. This often shows up years before glucose or HbA1c rise. |
| High | 3.0 to 5.0 | A pattern consistent with insulin resistance. Worth raising with your doctor alongside HbA1c. |
| Very high | Above 5.0 | Marked insulin resistance. Book an appointment and ask for HbA1c if you haven't had one recently. |
Both values are inside most labs' printed reference ranges, and the report would carry no flag.
HOMA-IR = glucose mg/dL × insulin µIU/mL ÷ 405
HOMA-IR = glucose mmol/L × insulin µIU/mL ÷ 22.5
2.81 lands in the borderline band. Neither number is flagged on its own. Multiplied together, they show a pancreas working harder than usual to hold a normal glucose.
The two constants do the same job. 405 is 22.5 × 18, the mg/dL-to-mmol/L factor for glucose rounded to 18, so both versions give the same answer within rounding. For insulin reported in pmol/L, the calculator divides by 6.945 first.
Take both tests from one draw after an overnight fast. The American Diabetes Association defines fasting as no calories for at least 8 hours. Glucose and insulin drawn on different days can't be combined.
Insulin assays differ between labs more than glucose assays do. Compare HOMA-IR over time from the same lab, and read a trend of two or three results over a single number.
The two changes with the most direct effect on insulin sensitivity are resistance training, which builds muscle that clears glucose, and cutting refined carbohydrate. Short sleep and missed training days push the score back up. A retest after about three months of consistent change shows whether it's working. Our fasting insulin guide covers when to order the test and what to ask your doctor.
En español: calculadora del índice HOMA-IR, con la misma fórmula en mg/dL o mmol/L.
References & Guidelines
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