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For high-performing women who are exhausted by weight gain, hormonal chaos, and vanishing energy — this is your reset. I’m Dr. Ade Akindipe, a DNP, obesity + hormone specialist, and health coach.
On this show, we demystify metabolism, gut health, hormone balance, longevity, and the root-cause mindset behind lasting transformation.
If you’re ready to stop fighting your body and start living with more clarity, energy, and confidence — this is your space.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (00:00.0)
Today we're talking to a very specific woman. So on paper, your weight looks fine. Maybe your doctor has told you you're not overweight, everything looks good. But inside, you're tired. Your waistline is changing. Your cravings are intense. Your labs are borderline. And you're wondering, is something wrong with my metabolism?
Ade Akindipe, DNP (00:29.966)
even if the scale looks normal. So we now know there is a whole group of people who are normal weight, but metabolically unhealthy. And if you listened to the last episode, where we talk about Metabolic health is the new weight loss, then you'll understand a little bit more. When women carry more hidden fat around the organs, have higher blood sugar and triglycerides,
Ade Akindipe, DNP (00:58.858)
and are at higher risk of diabetes or heart disease and even certain cancers, even though their BMI looks perfectly fine. Okay? So in this episode, I'm going to walk you through five research-backed signs that your metabolism may be struggling, even if your weight hasn't changed much. And I'll give you clear examples, a quick science recap.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (01:25.462)
and some coaching on what to do if you recognize yourself in these two or more of these signs. Okay, so let's get into it. So let's start with one that I see a lot in the clinic. Your belly is growing even if your weight is not. So when you step on the scale and it hasn't moved much, maybe by a couple of pounds, but your jeans are feeling tighter at the waist, you start unbuttoning your pants when you sit down to bend over and tie your shoes.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (01:54.734)
or your dresses that used to skim your midsection now cling to it. So here's a story of a client, we'll call her Lisa. Lisa is in her late 40s, know, busy professional, and her BMI was technically in the normal range. And her doctor told her, you know, you're fine, just keep doing what you're doing. So she came to us and she said, you know, I've just noticed that my waistline is changing and I haven't really changed anything in my diet, but my stomach feels hard.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (02:23.694)
and round in a way that it just never did before. It feels puffy. And that's the word women use a lot, is puffy. I feel swollen. I feel bloated. And when we measure her waist circumference and check her body composition, her waist circumference had been creeping up several inches over a few years. And even though her overall weight hadn't changed, it was mostly steady. Her labs were now showing a little bit of change. Her triglycerides were a little bit higher.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (02:53.678)
Her blood sugar was borderline fasting blood sugar. And sometimes we, know, providers might look at your fasting blood sugar and see maybe 110. That's what they're considered elevated. I tend to little bit more, be more conservative. And when I start to see fasting blood sugars at 90, you know, I start to think maybe there's the alarm bells going off or maybe your A1C is kind of borderline.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (03:23.342)
That's enough to tell me something's going on. Even visceral fat on a body composition, that's the one around the organs that starts to creep up. That's why I highly encourage women to consider getting a Dexa scan, and that can give you a bit more information about fat around the organs in the belly. This pattern is the classic sign of metabolic trouble. So you can think of it this way. The scale is measuring how much tissue you carry.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (03:50.947)
Your waist is giving you clues about where you carry it, and that's what matters most. You know, the extra fat deep in the abdomen is strongly linked to insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, heart disease, certain cancers, even in people with normal BMI. So if you're noticing your midsection is expanding, your waist measurement is creeping up, then, you know, that's a metabolic sign. Sign number two, energy crashes and constant
Ade Akindipe, DNP (04:20.846)
So on paper, your labs look fine, but you're dragging yourself out of bed in the morning. You caffeinate your way through the morning. You hold it together until lunch, and then around two or three, you hit a wall. You feel heavy. You're foggy. You're shaky or irritable. You want sugar. You want caffeine or both. You get a second wind at nighttime and then have trouble falling asleep. Sound familiar?
Ade Akindipe, DNP (04:48.098)
This is another thing that I see a lot in clinic. Let me introduce you to another client of mine. Early 40s, very petite, had been roughly the same weight since college. Her friends joke that she can eat anything. You ever heard friends have friends like that where they can eat anything but their weight doesn't change? Yep. So she came to me because she was exhausted. That was the sign, fatigue, and thought she might have thyroid problems. So we looked at her thyroid labs. Her thyroid labs were actually okay.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (05:17.998)
But when we dug deeper, we saw a pattern. Again, afternoon crashes, intense need for something sweet after meals, feeling shaky or off, if she went too long without food. So her fasting glucose was still in the normal range, but her fasting insulin was elevated and her A1C was inching up. It wasn't quite abnormal yet. So in other words,
Ade Akindipe, DNP (05:45.795)
her body was really working hard to keep her blood sugars under control by pumping out more insulin. That combination, okay, is a classic early sign of insulin resistance. So if your day is marked by just feeling very tired, post meal crashes, feeling like you can't function without caffeine or sugar, your metabolism is talking to you long before you get a diagnosis. Okay, number three.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (06:14.102)
Strong sugar and carb cravings. We kind of touched a little bit about that. Cravings are more than moral failing. Like, yo, I just, I can't keep my mouth closed. I feel like I need it. No, let's look a little bit more. When your metabolism is struggling, especially with insulin resistance developing, your body gets used to riding a blood sugar roller coaster. So after a carb heavy meal, downwind insulin spikes, and then back up again as you reach for more quick energy.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (06:43.37)
know, another patient, you know, came in early 50s, you know, by BMI standards, she's not really considered that overweight. But she just, like clockwork, she wants to eat something sweet, especially after dinner. I'm not hungry, I just need it. If I don't have it, I feel very agitated. So by mid-afternoon, she also felt a dip in her energy levels.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (07:09.312)
So, you know, she starts to kind of like go to the vending machine and start looking for sugars and sweets. So when we talked through what her days look like, and then we looked at her labs, again, we see the pattern. Lots of refined carbs and low protein at meals. And so she would have all these blood sugar swings. And then, of course, early signs of insulin resistance. Her body was getting used to quick hits of sugar to compensate for inefficient energy handling.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (07:38.369)
So in the research, intense sugar and refined carbs, when you start to crave them, that's considered an early, often ignored sign of metabolic dysfunction. So if you can't stop at one cookie, you feel like you need something sweet to relax or keep going, or find that your eating feels driven and urgent,
Ade Akindipe, DNP (08:06.378)
rather than calm and satisfying, that's a metabolic signal. Okay, let's keep going. Sign number four, brain fog and poor sleep. Okay, we don't often connect brain fog and sleep issues with metabolism, but they are so linked. Metabolic dysfunction and insulin resistance affect blood flow, inflammation, and how the brain uses sugar.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (08:33.122)
So poor sleep makes your body more insulin resistant the very next day, and insulin resistance makes restorative sleep harder. So it's a two-way street. Another example, I had a patient, you know, works full-time, weight has been stable, but it's the complaints that really made it make sense. She says, I can't think like I used to. I read the same paragraph three times and it just doesn't stick.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (09:02.252)
I wake up at 3 a.m. and my brain turns on. I'm exhausted, but I'm wired. And if you look at her primary labs, they look fine, but when you look closer, fasting glucose and triglycerides were slowly creeping up when you look at the trends. Her blood pressure was now hovering a little bit higher, so she carried more weight around her belly. Those are all signs of metabolic decline.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (09:30.863)
So once we started supporting her blood sugar stability, adding more protein, adding more fiber, strength training, cutting the late night eating, cutting the caffeine, getting a little bit more of a better routine in her sleep, then she started to gradually notice that lifting. So if you're noticing that, the brain fog, difficulty focusing, that's one big one for women. Feeling wired but tired.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (09:57.891)
your brain might be feeling the effects of metabolism that's under stress. sign number five, your labs are borderline or quietly trending in the wrong direction. So sometimes you might go to your provider, your provider might say, let's just continue to monitor it. And not that there's anything wrong with that, but what does monitoring mean? And then during that monitoring phase, what are you tracking, right?
Ade Akindipe, DNP (10:27.022)
So here's what I mean. Imagine if your labs, last few years of labs, everything looked like this, for example. Your fasting glucose used to be 82. Now they're 95. Now they're 98. We're watching it. What's the next step? A1C used to be five. Now it's 5.6. Blood pressure used to be 110 over 70. Now it's 128 over 82.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (10:53.678)
Triglycerides used to be really nice and normal, now they're 160. Each one on its own might not trigger an alarm, but together they paint a picture of metabolic risk. Research on metabolically unhealthy normal weight shows that people who look fine by just the BMI alone, but have clusters of abnormal markers,
Ade Akindipe, DNP (11:17.792)
know, higher blood sugar, triglycerides, low HDL, blood pressure or waist circumference are at significantly higher risk for diabetes, heart disease, and even cancers. So, you know, again, when doctors or providers tell you everything looks okay but just a little high, you know, these labs have been whispering for years. So I just want you to hear that these are opportunities. When you're hearing, we'll keep an eye on it,
Ade Akindipe, DNP (11:47.649)
It's high for your age, but nothing to worry about. That's your metabolism asking for attention right now before we get to serious disease. Okay. So let's recap what the science is telling us in plain English. You can have normal weight and still be metabolically unhealthy with higher visceral fat, insulin resistance, abnormal cholesterol, elevated blood pressure. That's been linked to chronic conditions. Okay.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (12:17.518)
Early warning signs often show up physically as weight gain or waist gain, if you want to call it that. More bloating, more feeling full around the midsection, energy crashes, cravings, brain fog, poor sleep, quietly shifting labs long before you get a diagnosis.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (12:42.838)
And for midlife women, hormonal changes in perimenopause and menopause makes your body more prone to insulin resistance and belly fat, which is why you may notice these signs or worsening of it when you start getting into the 40s and 50s and beyond. So the good news though is metabolic health is modifiable. You can absolutely change this trajectory with proper fueling, nutrition, strength training, sleep.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (13:10.794)
stress work and smart use of your lab. So if you recognize yourself in two or more of these signs, your body is not betraying you. It's communicating with you. So now let's talk about what to do if you're thinking, wow, this is definitely me in more than one category. First of all, no shame. Your body isn't trying to ruin your life. It's adapting to the signals it's been giving. Okay. So here's how I coach.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (13:40.695)
my own clients to respond. Instead of saying, I'm such a mess, try, you know, interesting. My cravings and fatigue might be telling me something about my metabolism, and that's exactly it. Curiosity opens the door to change. know, ask for the right labs, ask for copies, keep copies, watch the trends yourself, and be proactive. At your next visit,
Ade Akindipe, DNP (14:09.132)
You might ask your provider about fasting glucose, fasting A1C, fasting insulin, a cholesterol panel that checks your triglycerides and your HDL, your blood pressure, your waist circumference. Sometimes more detailed testing if it is needed, request it. Keep your results in one place so you can see the trends, not just individual snapshots.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (14:38.926)
Okay, pick one or two lifestyles to start with. Don't try to overhaul everything at once. It's just not sustainable. Start with things like adding 20 to 30 grams of protein to your first meal of the day to stabilize your blood sugar. If you are not sure where to start, even doing meal replacements, that input more protein into your diet is a good place to start. strength training twice a week to protect and build muscle.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (15:08.596)
Set a consistent bedtime routine and wind down routine to protect your sleep. Swap one sugary snack for a higher protein, higher fiber option. Small consistent changes move metabolic markers more than perfect short-lived sprints. And then consider working with a coach like myself who understands women's midlife metabolism because your hormones, your stress, life can life.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (15:38.509)
You you deserve someone who will look beyond just normal labs or your BMI. Okay, if today's episode felt like I was directly talking to you, if you recognize your belly, your cravings, your afternoon crash, I want to invite you to take the next step. Okay? I offer a personalized metabolic wellness assessment. It's called that for a reason. We want to see how well you are. We look at the full picture. We don't just put you on a scale.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (16:08.152)
You get a body composition done. You get a vitality gap assessment done. We review your symptoms, your story, your lab markers, and then we identify which of these five signs are showing up for you. And then we build a systematic step-by-step plan to support your metabolism and not just your weight. So if you're ready for that kind of clarity and support, use the link in the show notes and book your personalized wellness assessment with me.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (16:37.238)
If this also resonated with you, make sure you follow or subscribe to the Elevated Woman's podcast so you don't miss the rest of the series we have going on. And then you can also join me on YouTube or on social media as well. I'm Dr. Akindipe and I'll see you in the next episode. Stay elevated.