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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.
Each episode digs into:
Why “eat less / move more” often fails women in midlife
Hidden hormonal blockers + how to balance them
The guts of your metabolism — how it changes, how to support it
Strategies that feel like you — sustainable, not rigid
Real stories, expert interviews, science you can use
If you’re ready to stop fighting your body and start living with more clarity, energy, and confidence — this is your space.
Resources / Links:
🎧 All episodes: https://www.theelevatedwomanproject.com/podcast
👉 Free Metabolic Reset Cheat Sheet: https://theelevatedwomanproject.com/episode-1-92625
👉 Book Your Roadmap Session Here: https://l.bttr.to/sXiAW
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Welcome to the Elevated Woman's Podcast, your guide to optimal health and confidence. I'm Dr. Ade Akindipe, family nurse practitioner and women's health coach. I help women in midlife reset their bodies and reclaim their confidence. So this is the place where real talk meets real solutions. No quick fixes, no fluff, just the tools, strategies and stories you need to break free from stubborn weight gain.
balancing your hormones and stepping into your healthiest self yet. Whether you're navigating perimenopause, menopause, or simply just tired of feeling like your body's working against you, then you're in the right place. Let's get into it.
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Okay, so this episode we're gonna talk about some of the most frustrating things that women go through when they're eating clean, hitting all the workouts, and somehow that scale isn't budging. Now you know how I feel about the scale and the numbers and not getting fixated on it? Well, what I'm talking about right now is that frustrating feeling when you are cutting back on calories, you are exercising,
but you're still not seeing any change. Okay? Sis, I see you. I've been you, so I know what you're talking about. So the truth is it's not that you're lazy, it's that it's not because you don't want it bad enough. Because some women will say, you know, I've been told it's because I don't want it bad enough. You know what? And sometimes it's not true. It's because your body is trying to protect you. I talked about it in an episode before this where I said, a lot of the times we women are just doing all the things, working out so hard.
pushing ourselves so hard into stress that our body is trying to do what it's supposed to do naturally is protect us. And what no one ever taught you is how to work with your hormones instead of fighting against them. Okay, so this episode is your permission slip to drop that shame and start getting strategic. Okay, when I had my changes happening,
I talked about this in episode one. If you haven't listened to it, go listen to it. I was struggling through the pandemic, having all these symptoms happening. And while I was going through all these changes and working towards improving it and thriving, I had those struggles and I was trying to push against it. says, well, no, I can't accept this. I can't accept these aging signs. But listen, the reality is it's going to happen whether you like it or not. You're going to age and it's not a bad thing.
Let's change that narrative that aging is a decline. Yes, there are changes that are happening naturally. It's how you adapt to those changes that helps you thrive. You don't have to accept that I'm aging. So that means I'm just going to go sit down and become more sedentary. my joints ache. So I'm just, I just can't do that anymore. Now I understand if you have some injuries. I mean, there's some real problems that happen. Okay. I'm not saying don't be safe and not.
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take care of yourself, but it doesn't mean that you have to accept just the things that come with it sometimes that could slow you down. You have to adapt to how your body is changing. I really hope that makes sense. We're gonna dive a little bit deeper into it in this episode. So the first thing we need to talk about is the four biggest culprits, the hormones that cause problems and they quietly sabotage fat loss. Estrogen.
I cannot talk about this enough because I think women need to really understand what these changes are doing to us and how we can work with it, not against it. Estrogen receptors are all over our bodies, okay? When you decline in your estrogen during perimenopause and you completely lose this in menopause, you may make a little bit of estrogen, maybe a different variation of it after menopause, but
Generally, you are making less, much less, okay, as you get closer to menopause. So it makes it easier for you to store fat. So enough fat tends to shift into the belly area. I'm not talking about the ones you find on your arms or in your thighs. I'm talking about the one at the belly. Women will say, just noticed that my pants don't fit like they used to. It's because estrogen decline,
And you know, correlates with increase in what we call visceral fat. And it's just fat around the organs of your belly. So the more fat you have there, it's dangerous fat. It's the fat that makes you at risk for heart disease, high blood pressure, high blood sugar. So we want to avoid that. The second hormone is cortisol. That's your stress hormone. So when you're chronically stressed, running away from the tiger all day, every day,
It means you will accumulate more stubborn belly fat. If you're not sleeping, you're having all these sugar cravings, and that's another thing that happens too, is you lose your estrogen, those sugar cravings continue. You can't burn fat if your body thinks it's in danger, right? So that's the other one. Thyroid. Now this is one that unfortunately gets missed. When you go to your doctor's office and they check your thyroid stimulating hormone, or TSH, they stop there because it's within the normal range.
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Often we miss autoimmune issues like Hashimoto's disease. This is your body's thermostat. It's basically helping you with your metabolism. So when it's under functioning, of course it's harder to lose weight. So you are hitting the gym, you're doing everything, you're exhausted because your thyroid isn't functioning very well. Even when your labs say you're normal, your thyroid, excuse me, can still be under functioning, slowing down your metabolism, your mood.
and your energy. Insulin. This one is sneaky. So as you age, we often become more insulin resistant, which pushes your body into fat storage mode, even when you're eating clean. So when the scale isn't budging, it doesn't mean you're broken. It just means that your body's protecting you. So our job is to realign those signals so your body feels safe enough.
to let go so it can start to let go of the fact that it's accumulating because it's trying to protect you. So this inline phase is part of the elevated woman's method that I used to coach my clients. It's where we stop punishing ourselves and start partnering with your body. Okay? Instead of starving, you are sinking. So here's what that looks like. You need to eat in a rhythm with your natural energy curve, not skipping meals just randomly. A lot of times women will say, I've tried intermittent fasting.
And I'll say, tell me what that looks like. Well, I'll fast for 12 hours or 16 hours and I'll eat for, I will have a eating window. And I say, well, what are you eating during your eating window? And they'll tell me what they're eating. Oftentimes what I find is that women are starving themselves. What does good fasting look like for a woman in perimenopause? It means you are actually looking at your rhythm. What does that mean? What is happening?
during the time when you're fasting, are you very, very busy? If you are busy, you have a busy season, that's probably not the best time to start doing intermittent fasting, okay? Your body, again, is high stress, so it's producing cortisol, your stress hormone. Your body is not going to lose fat because it thinks you are running away from a tiger, okay? So you can't be doing intermittent fasting and trying to save the world, it won't work. So I tell women,
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wait until it's time. And sometimes I'll even ask, you know, is this a really good time for you to work on weight loss right now? I mean, there's never a good time, but if you are going to do it right now, understand that you're going to have to make some shifts happen, right? If you are doing all the things, I've said it before, can you delegate? What can you take off of your plate so you can take care of yourself so that you are not feeling like you are running away from a tiger? And then doing it the right way. So if you're going to...
Do intermittent fasting, for example. I think it's a great way to lose weight. But what are you eating within that window and how long are you going? Maybe you don't need to fast for 12 hours or 16 hours. What about starting smaller? Smaller amount of time period. But when you do eat, you're focusing on getting in that protein into your diet. Protein is metabolism for women that are navigating hormonal changes. So if your diet is still not
healthy, meaning high in proteins and healthy fats and good carbohydrates, then your body is not being fed with the right nutrients. So you're essentially starving yourself and it's hard to lose that belly fat. So prioritizing protein to stabilize your blood sugar, aiming for at least 30 grams at each meal. So if you're going to do intermittent fasting,
One thing you can do is do what's called a protein sparing modified fast where you're focusing more on protein and you know, lean proteins, fibers, you know, these are great because your body takes its time to break it down for energy. So it keeps you fuller for much longer periods versus eating those sugary, starchy processed foods where you eat them and then hours later, a couple hours later, you're hungry again. So eating...
healthy and if you need more information about what kinds of foods they're going to be in the show notes for you to start to try and see that works for you. The other thing is strength training to protect your muscles and increase insulin sensitivity. Research shows that when you start to, especially women that are navigating hormonal changes, peri-mental pause, mental pause, strength training becomes even more important. So you don't
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have to start overnight, you can start with baby body weight exercises and as you start to get stronger, you start to pick up more heavier weights and the heavier weights will help build and maintain muscle because unfortunately we lose muscle, it's not fair. But we lose muscle as we start to lose estrogen and testosterone and progesterone, we start to lose lean muscle mass. And when you start to lose lean muscle mass, it makes it even harder.
to lose weight when I look at a body composition for a woman sometimes, you know, even if they're 140, 150 pounds, that's why the weight is not all there is. You can have a woman who weighs 140, 150 pounds, but she's 50 % body fat. Now, if you have a woman that weighs 140 pounds, she's 50 % body fat, and you have another woman that's 140 pounds, and she's 30 % body fat, who's healthier?
the one with the less body fat, right? So the number on the scale is just the tip of the iceberg. That's not the full picture. So as you lose estrogen, as you lose testosterone, you need to work on building muscle. So aiming for strength training instead of hitting the gym and doing cardio all the time, it's good to incorporate more. Even yoga is great. I think it's a great way to strengthen your muscles. Some of those, you start to do those advanced yoga classes, it gets real.
You're using all kinds of muscles in your body. So I think doing those things, and it's also great for liver and cortisol. I love doing my morning yoga or even evening yoga before I go to bed. Building stress rituals like walks. I love walking. Sometimes after, especially now, I'm doing this more often now. I mentioned that I'm in a challenge with a few of my friends and it's been amazing just realizing what's possible if you make the time. So when I'm having a stressful day at work,
knowing and I'm looking forward to it now those walks because it gives me time to think. I get outdoors, it's fresh air, I'm able to think better. When I get back, I'm back in business. Deep breathing exercises. There's apps these days you can use to do that. Sit down, take a few minutes of deep inhale and exhale, box breathing, journaling. Journaling is one of my favorite things to allow you to just get what's in your head on paper.
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It actually allows you to feel lighter. You're not going to bed with all of these thoughts. If you don't have time to write it down, you can speak it out into a phone notes app. always say, open up, use the technology that's available to you and speak it out, get it off your chest, or talk to somebody about your problems, somebody you can trust, or just learning to say no more often. That's been the biggest thing for me. I think I was somebody that felt like I needed to say yes to every opportunity and do all the things.
But I got good at saying absolutely not. No, not today. It's okay. You're to hurt some people's feelings. Some people are going to be upset, but you need to take care of you, right? Prioritizing sleep like it's medicine, like your life depended on it. I'm getting good at that too, because you know, it's like 11 o'clock and you know what? I'm going to be real with you. It's hard, especially when you have...
you know, younger kids or even older kids, teens that have sports activities and they're staying up so late, you feel like you need to stay up late too. So it is tough, but whatever you can do to shut down, especially if you really have no choice, because I've got teens right now and sometimes at 10 o'clock, 10.30, I'm just hitting the bed. But if you can start to create routines that gets your mind thinking about resting.
much earlier in the day that helps so that when you finally do shut down you are shutting down you're not shutting down at 11 pm by the time you hit the bed your eyes should be heavy your body should be limp getting ready for bed so if you need to take supplements if you need to meditate whatever you need to do so that you're at least getting six to eight hours of rest ideally seven to nine but let's be realistic it's really difficult these days
But when you do sleep for those six to eight hours, it should be restful sleep. And there's lots of different things we can do. If lifestyle isn't working, if that's not enough, it might be hormonal, of course, seek medical care. Hormone replacement can be amazing, amazing for women to help them sleep. Most times it's just a matter of starting micronized progesterone, which women do lose as they...
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hit mental pause. So getting on micronized progesterone, maybe a few hundred milligrams a night could help. Again, this is all individual. You need to talk to your own provider about that. And then mindset. This is also where I want you to stop chasing perfection. this isn't, know, all of this doesn't happen in a week or month. That's why when women come in, they say, they want to shed 50 pounds in three months. I'm like, I'm probably not the right provider for you or the right coach for you because
You have to be realistic, okay? So crash diets, two-hour workouts, that's no longer gonna work for you. You are gonna burn out and you're gonna hit a brick wall. So it's in those small, consistent shifts, adding 10 more grams of protein. If you're somebody that just hates meat, finding what will work for you, you don't have to have meat. There are a lot of grape plant-based proteins that you can eat that will give you enough nutrition.
So starting small, if you're someone that likes to eat out a lot, you're not a good cook, go to those restaurants and sometimes I'll go through the menu with them and say, what's the healthiest thing that you can take on this menu? Is it reducing the portion size so that you're not eating as much as you used to? Is it going to bed 30 minutes earlier than you used to? Is it lifting weights twice a week?
or using body weight, right? Saying no to one thing or someone that drains you. These micro-winds compound on each other and they create momentum for you. Your body needs to finally let go of what it's been clinging to. Again, I tell people resistance is like a human being. It's so real. And our body just kind of gets really uncomfortable with those changes. But with time, your body starts to say, that's not so bad. I can do this, right?
So if you are feeling stuck on the scale despite everything, know this, you're not broken. You're simply out of alignment and alignment is something we can rebuild with time. And this is what I do to help my clients do inside the elevated women's method. We realign your hormones, rewire your habits and get your body working for you again, right? So if you're ready to stop,
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spinning the wheels and start seeing results. You can go ahead and apply for a VIP coaching. The link is in the show notes. And if this episode hits home, share with another woman who needs to hear that she's not crazy. She's probably just hormonal and that's fixable. We can fix that. So again, there's always a lot of resources for you to start to work on those micro winds that compound on each other, taking each day as it comes. Okay? You got this.
Stay elevated. Thank you for tuning in to the elevated woman's podcast if today's episode resonates with you don't keep it to yourself Share it with a friend who needs this conversation, too And if you're ready to stop guessing and start thriving head over to our website It's listed in the show notes to learn more about our elevated woman's coaching program That's where we take these conversations deeper and create a more personalized plan for your hormones
your weight, energy, and more. Check out our show notes. I've linked free tools and cheat sheets to help you get started right away. For more daily tips and inspiration, come hang out with me on Instagram at The Elevated Woman Coach. And don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel, Thriving Over 40 with Dr. Akim DiPey. Until next time, stay elevated.