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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 (00:01.76)
If you've ever done everything right, you've dieted, you've cut carbs, you've upped your steps, and you still feel tired, inflamed, and stuck with the same midsection, this conversation is for you. So today, we're going to talk about why metabolic health is the new weight loss. We're going to unpack what metabolic health actually means, the markers we look at beyond the scale,
how your body really uses energy and why midlife and menopause change the rules of the game. By the end of this episode, my goal is that you stop asking, what do I weigh? And start asking, how well is my metabolism working for me? So take a deep breath, get comfortable and let's dive in. Okay, so let's start with how most of us were trained to think about health, okay?
So for many decades, the message was very simple. Smaller is better. If the number goes down on the scale, you're winning. If it goes up, then you're failing. But in my clinic and in the conversations with women all over the world, I see a very different story. And I see women who reached their goal weight and still they're waking up exhausted. They're fighting brain fog and mood swings.
they have labs that might show creeping up blood sugars, rising cholesterol levels, or borderline blood pressure. On the other side, I also see women whose weight hasn't changed dramatically, but their blood sugar, their blood pressure, cholesterol, and energy are completely different than they were, and they feel like different people in their own bodies. And so clearly, the scale is not telling us the whole truth, right?
In the last couple of years, we've seen this shift happening. More people are talking about metabolic health. And if you follow the news and social media, you'll see that this is becoming a thing. Women are starting to get more sense that there's more to just the weight on the scale. It's how well your body processes and uses energy, how stable your blood sugar is, how your heart...
Ade Akindipe, DNP (02:30.274)
and your blood sugar, your blood vessels are doing, how much inflammation you're carrying. And we've talked about this in other episodes where you store fat matters and how much muscle you have matters, right? And several organizations and health writers are now defining metabolic health with a specific, a more specific set of criteria like fasting blood sugar, blood pressure, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, your waist circumference.
So if all five are in an optimal range without medication, you're considered metabolically healthy. That's a pretty high bar, and most adults don't meet this goal. So here's the reframe I want you to hold today. Weight is one noisy data point. I mean, weight on the scale, just looking at your number on the scale. The other thing is metabolic health.
is the bigger picture of how your body is actually functioning and aging right now. So when we focus on weight, we often end up chasing quick fixes, you know, the detoxes, you know, the water fasts, all these things that will work quickly because we want to see the weight go down right now. And sometimes what that does is it worsens our metabolic health, know, crash diets, extreme restrictions, overtraining.
weight cycling. So we have this yo-yo dieting kind of culture. So when we focus on metabolic health, the conversation becomes, how can I improve how my body handles energy? How can I protect my brain, my heart, my hormones, and my future self? That's a very different question, and that leads to very different choices. Okay.
So let's get a little bit more specific because I want you to be able to walk into a clinic or look at your labs and say, this is what I'm looking for. There are five classic markers that define metabolic health. The first one is fasting blood sugar. So ideally, you want your fasting blood sugar in a healthy range. And commonly, that usually is under 100. So you haven't had anything to eat maybe after midnight.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (04:53.454)
it's under 100 and in a truly optimal zone, often closer to the low to mid 90s or below, depending on the lab and the person. Okay. The second one is blood pressure. A healthy target is often under 120 over 80 without medication. Higher than that, especially over time, puts a lot of strain on the heart and blood vessels. Third one is triglycerides.
A healthy target, so let's go back. Triglycerides, where are they? So this is something that you might find on your cholesterol panel. So if there's no triglycerides there, make sure that's being checked. These are the fats in the bloodstream. Lower is usually better, okay? Commonly under 150. And often we like to see them even lower than that because the higher the triglycerides,
that tells me you're starting to probably develop fatty liver disease. HDL cholesterol, that's another one we check. That's the good cholesterol that helps carry cholesterol away from your arteries. In women, we typically want this number about above 50. The other one is your waist circumference or abdominal fat. So this is something you don't have to get a body composition to do. You can measure your waist circumference at home. So this is not about
clothing size, okay, this is more about visceral fat, how much fat is wrapped around your organs, your livers, your intestines. In women, we often use a waistline under about 35 inches as a rough estimate, though your body frame and your ethnicity also matter, okay? So that's why I like to do a body composition in the clinic because that can give us a little bit more of a rougher estimate and it takes all of your other...
ethnicity, your age, and things like that into consideration. So if all of these five are in a healthy range without medication, then we can consider you metabolically healthy. Now, here's the part many women are never told. You can have a normal BMI, even a thin body, and still have unhealthy metabolic markers.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (07:19.69)
Sometimes that's called normal weight obesity or metabolically unhealthy normal weight. So you can be 130 pounds but have all of those markers, know, those triglycerides, the HDL, all those other markers, even a fasting blood sugar that's elevated but still be within a normal weight. Okay. You can also live in a larger body and gradually move into a healthy metabolic profile by improving your blood sugar,
your blood pressure, your cholesterol, and reduce belly fat, even if the scale is slow to move. One of those five core markers, we have what I call our early warning signs. So these are the ones that I check. Not every doctor checks this, not every provider checks this, but I like to check fasting insulin or what we call HOMA-IR. This is to catch insulin resistance before your sugar already starts to climb up.
So if you go to your doctor and they just check your A1C, your A1C, your hemoglobin A1C checks to see how controlled your blood sugars have been over the last three months. And sometimes your body still compensates very well. Your pancreas spits out insulin and brings on your blood sugar so you don't catch it. Liver enzymes like your ALT and your AST, that can tell me whether you might be developing fatty liver.
High sensitivity C reactive protein or HSCRP, that's an inflammatory marker to tell me if you are starting to be more inflamed. Actual measurements of your visceral fat and your muscle mass. So if you've never had a DEXA scan or a body composition test done, I highly recommend getting that done. Okay, this gives us an even richer picture of how your metabolism is functioning.
So when I say metabolic health is the new weight loss, this is exactly what I mean. Instead of obsessing over that number on the scale, we look at a cluster of markers that tells us how efficiently and safely your body is handling energy, okay? And how that will impact your future risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, dementia, and a lot more, okay? And that picture is deeply modifiable.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (09:46.925)
I'm going to skip that part. Okay. So now that we've defined metabolic health, let's zoom in on how your body uses energy. When you eat, especially carbs, your digestive system breaks that food down into glucose or sugar. Sugar enters your bloodstream. Okay. Your blood sugar goes up. That's normal. And your pancreas responds by releasing insulin.
Think of insulin as a key. It goes to your cells, especially muscle cells, liver cells, and fat cells. And it says, we have fuel. Okay, let's bring it inside. If your muscles and your liver cells are open and responsive, they take the sugar in. They use some of it for energy right away, okay, and store the rest for energy and not store it as glycogen. That's your short-term energy reserve.
If those cells are already full, so your storage is full, or they've become resistant because of chronic overnutrition, you're eating too much, you know, there's a lot of inflammation, you're not sleeping, there's stress or hormone changes, they don't open the door as easily. So your body then has two options. It can pump out more insulin because it's trying to force the sugar inside the cells, or it can convert that extra sugar into fat.
And that's usually called triglycerides. And that's stored and stored in fat tissue, especially around the abdominal area, your stomach area, or the liver. So over time, this pattern, high insulin, your cells not listening anymore, fat storage, that leads to insulin resistance. So now let's talk about fuel. So fat is a more long-term, slow burn energy. We talk about...
how your body stores glycogen. That is just temporary storage because you're going to use it, that's more short term. Fat is more long term. So between meals or during lower intensity activity, your body can break down your stored fat into fatty acids, send them to the cells and convert them into energy, which we call ATP, your body's energy currency. But here's the catch though. When insulin is always high,
Ade Akindipe, DNP (12:14.156)
Your body gets the message, we are in storage mode, not burning mode. High insulin suppresses fat breakdown, which is why we have to make sure we're checking your insulin levels. So you can end up stuck in a state where you have plenty of stored energy on your body, but your cells aren't being allowed to access it efficiently to use it.
That's why when women tell me, feel like I'm carrying my energy around my hips and belly, but I'm exhausted all the time. It makes sense, right? So now add midlife hormonal changes on top of that. Estrogen, okay, that starts to decline during perimenopause, that's supposed to help you maintain insulin sensitivity so that the cells can open the door and take in sugar. Estrogen is supposed
is supposed to healthy fat distribution, but now it's shifting from your hips and your thighs to your stomach. Estrogen is supposed to help preserve muscle mass and vascular function, and you're losing that with perimenopause. So as estrogen starts to fluctuate and then decline, several things become evident, right? So your insulin starts to go up, you're becoming more insulin resistant, you're storing more belly fat, you're losing more muscle.
So that compounds on everything. So this is why so many women in their 40s and 50s and 60s feel like their metabolism suddenly broke. In reality, the rules have changed. No one has told them this, but, and their usual strategies just stop working. So understanding this physiology is not about blaming your hormones, it's about respecting your biology. So when you know what's happening, you can stop fighting your body and start working with it. Okay, I want to pause here and turn this from
theory into a little coaching moment for you all. Okay, ready? All right. If it's safe to do so, what I want you to do is place one hand on your heart, one on your belly, and just notice, how does my body feel right now? Forget the scale for a minute, okay? Ask yourself these questions. How is my energy from morning to night on an average day?
Ade Akindipe, DNP (14:40.376)
How often do I crash after a meal or mid-afternoon? What are my cravings like for sugar, for carbs, for salt? How is my sleep? Falling asleep, staying asleep, waking up refreshed? How clear or foggy does my mind feel by midday? Where do I tend to store weight? Is it around my center or more evenly? These are metabolic clues.
Women in 2026 are increasingly saying this, know, and this is from, you know, their assessment. They want more energy, more stable energy. They want the brain fog to lift. I want my clothes to fit more comfortably. I want to stay active with my family. I want to avoid diabetes and heart disease. That is metabolic health. So what are some gentle, realistic levers you can...
that can start to support your metabolism, especially in midlife. So here are four I use with my clients. The first one is building your meals, your nutrition, your fuel around protein and fiber. Why is this so important? Instead of starting with, what do I need to cut? You know, I need to go on this fast. I want you to start with, where is my protein? Where is my fiber?
Protein is what keeps you fuller. Protein is what supports your muscles and blunts sugar spikes. What you want to do is keep your blood sugars from spiking all the time and staying high because if it does, it spikes your insulin. And we talked about how insulin is what drives fat storage. Fiber also slows your digestion.
It stabilizes your blood sugar and feeds your gut bacteria with the correct types of food nutrients. Number two, prioritize strength training. We talked about muscle, how it's like a metabolically active organ, right? The more you have on you, the easier it is for your body to clear sugar from your bloodstream. So it improves insulin sensitivity.
Ade Akindipe, DNP (17:03.692)
It allows yourselves to open the door for storage. So focusing on two to three sessions per week, and you don't have to overhaul your life and start heavy lifting, but just starting simple techniques using your body weights, sitting in a chair, pushing down to kind of work on your muscles, doing squats if this is something that you can do.
weight, you know, you know, walks, you know, or maybe walking on a very not so easy terrain where you're putting some kind of resistance or maybe walking uphill. These are different ways you can start to shift things so that your body realizes that, hey, you need to start using the energy that you have, right? And then you need to also protect your sleep.
One bad night of sleep can make your body more insulin resistant the next day. Yeah, absolutely. So sleep is not optional. That might mean a consistent bedtime routine, winding down, managing caffeine, stopping your caffeine intake earlier in the day, and screens, getting support if you need it, whether that's hormone replacement, whether that's supplements, whatever you need to do, as long as it's not something that's gonna actually...
cause too many side effects. I'm not really a fan of those Benadryls and all those antihistamines. Those can actually cause more dryness and actually make you feel more foggy in the morning. things that become more natural, more cortisol reducing herbs are my favorite go-to. Magnesium is also a really good one. That could help with sleep. And then you need to address stress.
Elevated stress hormones like cortisol push your body towards more abdominal fat, more sugar cravings the next day. So definitely working on ways to reduce your stress levels, breath walk, I'm sorry, breath work, walking, stretching, journaling, prayer, practicing mindfulness can all help reduce your stress level. And if you're someone that loves data like I do,
Ade Akindipe, DNP (19:17.806)
So, pairing these lifestyle shifts with labs can be powerful. So, looking at those labs, getting them done more frequently to see a trend, checking a body composition, maybe once a month, every other month, every three months, whatever you prefer, so you can see your progress and not just relying on that scale in your bathroom every day. Okay. Okay. Let's pull this all together in simple language. We talked about metabolic health.
Metabolic health is defined by a cluster of markers, fasting blood sugar, blood pressure, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, waist circumference, plus early warning things like your A1C, fasting insulin, liver enzymes, and inflammation. For women navigating menopausal transition, this is a major metabolic turning point for you. So declining estrogen...
increases the risk of insulin resistance. So your daily choice is really a matter. So if you've been listening and thinking, this is me, I've been chasing the scale and no one has really talked to me about my metabolism, then I want you to know you do not have to figure this out alone. At our clinic, I offer a personalized wellness assessment designed specifically for women like you in midlife who are ready to look beyond the scale and get a clear
compassionate picture of your metabolic health. So in that assessment, we look at your symptoms, your story, your hormones, your labs, your lifestyle, your body composition, and your goals. So then we create a plan that really fits your life. Not a fantasy life, but the one that, where you have five hours a day for self care, know, something like that. But we try to make sure that it's realistic for you. So if that sounds like what you've been searching for,
Go ahead and book a personalized wellness assessment. The link is in the show notes. And if this episode resonates with you, make sure you follow or subscribe to the Elevated Woman's podcast so you don't miss out on the rest of the metabolic series that we have, okay? If you have a friend, sister, coworker who keeps saying, I'm doing everything right, please share this episode with her, okay? I'm Dr. Akhindeep and this has been the Elevated Woman's podcast. I'll see you in the next episode. Stay elevated.