Beyond the Scale

Dr. Darren and Alexandra Dubyak
  • 5.0 (5)
  • Health & Fitness
  • Biweekly

Tried every diet and still feel stuck? Beyond the Scale, hosted by Darren and Allie Dubyak, looks past calories and willpower to uncover what's really driving weight struggles, low energy, brain fog, and metabolic dysfunction. Through an integrative, data-first approach, the show explores hormones, gut health, genetics, and nutrition—clinical insights often missed in conventional weight-loss conversations. Each episode blends real experience with practical guidance to help you understand your body and make informed choices. No fads. No shame. Just clarity—and a smarter path to lasting wellness

  1. Oct 23

    Menopause Myths That Keep Women From Feeling Better

    Once a woman has gone 12 months without a period, she's officially in menopause, and Rebecca throws a little party for that. What surprises a lot of our patients is that the symptoms don't always get the memo. Estrogen and progesterone settle at a steady low, testosterone declines more gradually, and hot flashes, night sweats, brain fog, vaginal dryness, and body composition changes can continue for years. My own mom started menopause at 44 and still gets the occasional hot flash at 69. Rebecca and I walk through what each hormone does, from estrogen's role in temperature control, bones, and blood vessels to progesterone's calming effect on the brain. We also cover a symptom women rarely connect to hormones: joint and shoulder pain. One of my patients mentioned, almost as an afterthought, that the shoulder pain getting in the way of her workouts disappeared after we added a small amount of estrogen. Then we take on the misconceptions. Much of the fear around hormones traces back to older medications and to how the Women's Health Initiative findings were presented, and that picture has been revisited in recent years. We're also clear about the other side. Bioidentical doesn't mean risk-free, not every woman needs testosterone, and some women aren't good candidates at all, including those with a history of blood clots, stroke, or certain hormone-sensitive cancers. At our practice, we use topical and vaginal estrogen, oral progesterone, and topical testosterone, and we rely on a thorough history and regular follow-up labs. There's no automatic age cutoff, either. If you're 65 and still struggling, come in and talk to us. Hormone therapy isn't right for everyone, and this episode isn't a substitute for your own consultation. Talk with a qualified practitioner about your history before starting, stopping, or changing any hormone. - - - - - About the Guest: Rebecca Komara, MSN-FNP-C, is a nurse practitioner at BODY by AIM360 in Pittsburgh. She came to the practice the way many of our patients do, as a patient herself, and joined the clinical team in spring 2026. Rebecca is building out the bioidentical hormone replacement therapy side of the practice, working with women from perimenopause through the postmenopausal years who have been told their labs look normal and know something has changed. She starts with the whole history, diet, sleep, stress, and a full baseline panel, before anything gets prescribed. - - - - - Connect with the show and Body by AIM360: Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bodybyaim360.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bodybyaim360.com/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/bodybyaim360⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/bodybyaim360⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Book a call: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://calendly.com/bodybyaim360/drtalks - - - - - PODCAST Thank you for listening. Please subscribe and share. This podcast is produced by DrTalks.com https://drtalks.com/channel-growth/

  2. Oct 9

    Is This Perimenopause? Why Regular Periods Don’t Mean Your Hormones Are Fine

    The woman who walks into our office in her early 40s is usually not having hot flashes. She is still menstruating on schedule every month, which is the part that convinces her nothing is really wrong. Yet she is sleeping badly and snapping at her family. Rebecca Komara, MSN-FNP-C, and I go through what is happening underneath that. Estrogen and progesterone swing month to month in this window, and progesterone is usually the one that falls away first, which is why the early symptoms cluster around mood, sleep and anxiety before the cycle itself changes at all. That same imbalance sits behind the heavy periods and clots, and behind weight that settles around the midsection when nothing about your eating has changed. The piece that frustrates women most is the lab results. One draw is a snapshot of a single day in a cycle that is different every month, so it can look perfectly normal on a week you feel awful. Rebecca walks through what she checks at baseline alongside the sex hormones, including thyroid function, metabolic markers and iron, and why weight gain in this stage is so often not hormonal at all. One caution we both make: bleeding that turns suddenly heavy, or cramping and pain that are new, deserves a proper workup on its own terms. And we land in the same place we always do. When something changes, come in. Do not wait until your periods stop. - - - - - About the Guest: Rebecca Komara, MSN-FNP-C, is a nurse practitioner at BODY by AIM360 in Pittsburgh. She came to the practice the way many of our patients do, as a patient herself, and joined the clinical team in spring 2026. Rebecca is building out the bioidentical hormone replacement therapy side of the practice, with a focus on women in their late 30s and 40s who have been told their labs look normal and know something has changed. She starts with the whole history, diet, sleep, stress and a full baseline panel, before anything gets prescribed. - - - - - Connect with the show and Body by AIM360: Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bodybyaim360.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bodybyaim360.com/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/bodybyaim360⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/bodybyaim360⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Book a call: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://calendly.com/bodybyaim360/drtalks - - - - - PODCAST Thank you for listening. Please subscribe and share. This podcast is produced by DrTalks.com https://drtalks.com/channel-growth/

  3. Sep 25

    The Genetics of GLP-1s: Why Two People on the Same Dose Get Different Results

    In this episode of Beyond the Scale, Dr. Piper Gibson and I close the AIMPrint series with the subject we deliberately saved for last: what your genetics have to say about weight loss medications. We run a large weight loss practice in Pittsburgh, and we watch the same thing every week. Two patients, same medication, same dose, wildly different outcomes. Blood work alone did not explain it. This episode is about the part that does. We start at the receptor. GLP1R encodes the receptor that semaglutide binds to, so when that receptor is less functional, the medication simply has less to work with. Tirzepatide complicates it usefully, because it hits a second receptor, GIPR, tied to a separate gut hormone. Someone with strong GLP1R sensitivity and poor GIPR signaling may respond differently to one drug than the other. Dr. Gibson notes most prescribers choose based on availability and insurance, but genetics may deserve a seat at that table. GLP-1 medications enhance satiety signals, but those signals still need functional receptors to land, so a patient with a red leptin receptor and a red HTR2C may feel less full than expected even at a therapeutic dose. That's the person still hungry on the shot, and the fix is layering protein, fiber, and structured meal timing rather than chase the dose. We explore COMT and the dopamine side, where intermediate clearance may make someone a stronger responder, and where DRD2 and ANKK1 help explain people losing interest in alcohol and other compulsive behaviors, something Dr. Gibson experienced herself. We cover insulin resistance through TCF7L2 and CDKN2A layered with the mitochondrial picture, UCP and TFAM. Then we get to the part I don't hear enough practitioners discussing. GLP-1 medications do not selectively burn fat. A meaningful share of the loss is lean mass, and TRHR and IGF2 variants influence who is predisposed to catabolizing muscle in a deficit. That's why protein targets and resistance training belong in the conversation before the medication starts, and why some people look worse at their goal weight than they did heavier. We also cover who is set up for the nausea and GI misery that makes people quit inside 30 days, why FUT2 secretor status shapes your body's own GLP-1 production through the microbiome, the nutrient depletions that hit hardest long-term, including B12 and the vitamin D pathway, and what separates a 40 pound responder from an 8 pound one. Dr. Gibson's line is the one I keep repeating: prescribing without understanding these variants is like tuning an engine without knowing the car model. - - - - - About the Guest: Dr. Piper Gibson, PhD, is a functional-genetics practitioner who spends most of her clinical life with children and families navigating tics, Tourette's, ADHD, anxiety, and OCD. She helped shape the thinking behind our AIMPrint panel, and she was genuinely fired up about this one, because the pharmacogenetics of weight loss medication sits outside what she normally gets to talk about in her own practice. Her talent is translation. She takes a report full of gene names that read like code words and turns them into a plan a real person can follow. She's also refreshingly willing to use herself as the example, including what a GLP-1 did and didn't do for her personally, which makes this episode a lot more useful than the average expert interview. - - - - - Social Handles: Website: https://regenerating.healthInstagram: https://instagram.com/regeneratinghealth - - - - - Connect with the show and Body by AIM360: Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bodybyaim360.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ Podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bodybyaim360.com/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/bodybyaim360⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/bodybyaim360⁠⁠⁠⁠ Book a call: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://calendly.com/bodybyaim360/drtalks - - - - - PODCAST Thank you for listening. Please subscribe and share. This podcast is produced by DrTalks.com https://drtalks.com/channel-growth/

  4. Sep 11

    Why Diets Keep Failing You: The Genes Behind Carbs, Fat, and Fasting

    In this episode of Beyond the Scale, Dr. Piper Gibson and I take the AIMPrint panel and point it straight at the question everybody actually wants answered: why does the diet that transformed your neighbor do absolutely nothing for you? This is part three of our AIMPrint series, and where part two went gene by gene, this one puts those genes to work. We start with carb and fat tolerance, because that's where most people get burned. Certain FTO variants may point somebody toward fewer carbs, while a red ACSL5 can make it hard to metabolize fat for energy efficiently, which is how a person can go all in on keto and end up with fatigue, brain fog, and a plan they can't stick to. Then Dr. Gibson opens a real report where the high-carb response sits at 48 percent, the low-carb at 55 percent, and the fat response way down at 33 percent. The read isn't an extreme in either direction. It's moderate carbs around 40 percent, moderate fat around 30 percent, and protein higher. That person had been failing every popular diet because every popular diet pushed them to an extreme their genetics didn't support. From there we get into fasting, which I've been arguing about with colleagues for years. PPARA in the green suggests a normal ability to shift over to fat for fuel while fasting, but a gene like ACSL5 creates friction in that same system, so the honest answer is that fasting may help and it may need to be built up gradually rather than jumping into a 15 hour window on day one. Age and sex factor in too. Then we hit appetite, where HTR2C, LEP, and LEPR can each dial down fullness independently, and cravings, and finally the exercise response genes, ADRB2 and ADRB3, which shape how fat cells answer the adrenaline signal you send them during a workout. That's part of why some women over 40 can run three miles a day for seven years and still watch the scale climb. I also share two of my favorite cases: a 26 year old pro hockey player burning thousands of calories a game who could not gain a pound, and one of Dr. Gibson's teenage clients training for a Navy SEAL path whose mom went from overwhelmed to relieved the moment she saw the map instead of the guesswork. Same panel, opposite goals. As always, with faith, our fur babies, and functional health in the mix, this one is about handing you a roadmap so you can stop auditioning diets and start eating for the body you actually have. - - - - - About the Guest: Dr. Piper Gibson, PhD, is a functional-genetics practitioner whose day-to-day work is with children and the families around them, especially kids navigating tics, Tourette's, ADHD, anxiety, and OCD. She reads a very different set of genes than we do at Body by AIM 360, for very different reasons, which is exactly why these conversations get so good. What makes her rare is that she can take a page of gene names that look like code words and turn them into something a parent, or a patient, can actually use on a Tuesday. She has been teaching this material for years, she helped shape the thinking behind our AIMPrint panel, and she never once makes your DNA sound like a life sentence. - - - - - Social Handles: Website: https://regenerating.healthInstagram: https://instagram.com/regeneratinghealth - - - - - Connect with the show and Body by AIM360: Website: ⁠⁠⁠https://bodybyaim360.com⁠⁠⁠ Podcast: ⁠⁠⁠https://bodybyaim360.com/podcast⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/bodybyaim360⁠⁠⁠ Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/bodybyaim360⁠⁠⁠ Book a call: ⁠⁠⁠https://calendly.com/bodybyaim360/drtalks - - - - - PODCAST Thank you for listening. Please subscribe and share. This podcast is produced by DrTalks.com https://drtalks.com/podcast-service/

  5. Aug 21

    Are You Healthy Enough To Fulfill Your Calling?

    Kent Chevalier baptized me in October of 2018, so getting to have him on Beyond the Scale on his birthday was a gift. Kent is the chaplain for the Pittsburgh Steelers, which means he spends his weeks around men whose nutrition, training, and recovery are handled by professionals. He still tells them the same thing he tells the CEOs and business leaders he works with. Your inside game will impact your outside game one hundred percent of the time. Allie and I built Body by AIM around the other half of that sentence, the food, the hormones, the data, and the answers people were not getting anywhere else. This conversation is where the two halves meet. We get into why good leaders put themselves second and why it almost always comes from a generous place, the oxygen mask instruction every one of us has heard on a plane and almost none of us follow, and what Kent watched happen when a quarterback decided to stop coming in on his day off. Kent also explains why the average NFL career now runs about two and a half seasons, what that does to a marriage, and where the phrase on his sweatshirt came from. If you have ever wondered whether your health is quietly capping what you were put here to do, this one is for you. - - - - - About the Guest: Kent Chevalier is the chaplain of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He has spent more than thirty years in ministry, including ten years in student ministry and thirteen in adult ministry within the local church, before Coach Mike Tomlin invited him into the role he holds today. Kent and his wife Erica joined the staff of Athletes in Action in 2019 and serve the organization together. Erica is chaplain to the women of the Steelers organization while Kent serves the players, and the two of them come alongside couples and families throughout the building. They call it Team Chevalier. Kent is the author of Do It Afraid, with a foreword by Mike Tomlin, and the founder of Deflect the Glory, a generosity movement that sends every dollar of its apparel proceeds to Pittsburgh ministries rather than to Kent and Erica. He and Erica have been married for 27 years and have three adult daughters. - - - - - Social Handles: Website: https://kentchevalier.comBook: https://www.amazon.com/Do-Afraid-Kent-Chevalier/dp/1969508213 Connect with the show and Body by AIM360: Website: ⁠⁠⁠https://bodybyaim360.com⁠⁠⁠ Podcast: ⁠⁠⁠https://bodybyaim360.com/podcast⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/bodybyaim360⁠⁠⁠ Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/bodybyaim360⁠⁠⁠ Book a call: ⁠⁠⁠https://calendly.com/bodybyaim360/drtalks - - - - - PODCAST Thank you for listening. Please subscribe and share. This podcast is produced by DrTalks.com https://drtalks.com/podcast-service/

  6. Aug 7

    The Top Genes Behind Weight Loss

    In this episode of Beyond the Scale, I go deep with Dr. Piper Gibson on the part of weight loss most people never get to see: their own genetics. This is part two of our AIMPrint series, and instead of talking in generalities, we open up the panel and go gene by gene through the roughly ten that matter most for metabolism and weight. We cover the FTO "fat gene" and how certain variants may raise hunger and lower fullness. We hit MTHFR, the one everybody's heard of, which roughly 80% of people carry a variant of, so it's more overhyped than scary. Dr. Gibson walks us through COMT, the "traffic-jam gene" that clears things like dopamine and adrenaline and can amplify stress and reward eating when it runs slow. We get into PPARG and how some variants may respond better to different fats, the ADRB2 and ADRB3 adrenaline receptors that influence how efficiently exercise releases fat, and the CLOCK genes that tie fat burn to morning light and consistent sleep. Then we round it out with caffeine metabolism, the vitamin D pathway, inflammation genes, and GLP1R, the gene behind the receptor that drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy act on, which may one day help indicate who responds well. The big idea, in Dr. Gibson's words: genetics doesn't load the gun, environment pulls the trigger. Your DNA is a roadmap you can actually use. As always with faith, our fur babies, and functional health in the mix, this one's about giving you real answers so you can stop guessing and start working with your body. - - - - - About the Guest: Dr. Piper Gibson, PhD, is a functional-genetics practitioner who works with children and families navigating neurological challenges, including ADHD, anxiety, tics, Tourette's, and OCD. Through a genetic panel she calls "Designer Genes," she helps families understand the science behind their genes as an educational starting point, not a diagnosis. Her gift is making genetics feel human. She talks about genes as a blueprint or a roadmap rather than a sentence, and she keeps the whole conversation warm, plain-language, and optimistic. In this episode she brings that same lens to metabolic health and weight. Website: ⁠https://regenerating.health Instagram: ⁠https://instagram.com/regeneratinghealth⁠ - - - - - Connect with the show and Body by AIM360: Website: ⁠⁠https://bodybyaim360.com⁠⁠ Podcast: ⁠⁠https://bodybyaim360.com/podcast⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/bodybyaim360⁠⁠ Facebook: ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/bodybyaim360⁠⁠ Book a call: ⁠⁠https://calendly.com/bodybyaim360/drtalks - - - - - PODCAST Thank you for listening. Please subscribe and share. This podcast is produced by DrTalks.com https://drtalks.com/podcast-service/

  7. Jul 24

    Why Two People Eat the Same Meal and Get Opposite Results

    I get genuinely giddy talking about genetics, and this episode is a great example of why. I sat down with Dr. Piper Gibson, one of the sharpest people I know in nutrigenomics, to unpack why so many people do everything right and still feel stuck. We break down the Aimprint, our 121-SNP genetic test, and why matching your genes to your bloodwork paints a far clearer picture than either one on its own. Here is the way I frame it for my patients: your genes are the blueprint, your labs are what is happening right now, and the interpretation is what you actually do about it. Miss any one of the three and you are guessing. We also clear the air on MTHFR, the gene everyone has heard of and almost nobody understands, and why hammering a single SNP in isolation can leave you feeling worse. You do not hand your car over for one tire and let them ignore the rest of it, and your health deserves the same full look. Whether you are 20 or 70, it is never too late to use your DNA as a roadmap, because your DNA is not your destiny. - - - - - About the Guest: Dr. Piper Gibson is a board-certified Doctor of Natural Medicine and a functional genetics expert with more than eight years in nutrigenomics and personalized wellness. Her path started at home: when the conventional approach fell short for her own son, she went back to school and rebuilt everything she knew about health around genetics, and today she helps practitioners and families read DNA as a roadmap instead of a guess. She is the founder of Regenerating Health and the Tic Disorder Institute and an international best-selling author. Her message stays simple: your genes are a blueprint, not a life sentence, and with the right interpretation that blueprint can steer better decisions at any age. Website: https://regenerating.health - - - - - Connect with the show and Body by AIM360: Website: ⁠https://bodybyaim360.com⁠ Podcast: ⁠https://bodybyaim360.com/podcast⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/bodybyaim360⁠ Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/bodybyaim360⁠ Book a call: ⁠https://calendly.com/bodybyaim360/drtalks - - - - - PODCAST Thank you for listening. Please subscribe and share. This podcast is produced by DrTalks.com https://drtalks.com/podcast-service/

  8. Jul 10

    Your Medication Is Only as Safe as the Pharmacy That Made It

    This is a conversation I had wanted to record since the day we started the podcast. I sat down with Dan Powell, someone I have known and trusted for more than 15 years, to talk about something almost nobody thinks about: where your medication is actually made. Not all compounding pharmacies are the same, and that difference comes down to safety, sterility, and whether every batch is made the same way every single time. Dan breaks down what the 503A and 503B designations really mean, why the 503B standard was born out of a contamination tragedy that cost dozens of people their lives, and why fewer than 100 pharmacies in the country have cleared that bar. Then we get into the part that fires me up: how many people are buying GLP-1s and peptides online to save a few dollars, with no doctor oversight and no clue where the product came from. That is Russian roulette. My rule has always been safety over shortcuts and quality over cost, and this episode is exactly why. Your health is worth more than the discount. - - - - - Dan Powell has spent more than 15 years in the compounding pharmacy world, and he was working inside a compounding pharmacy when the 503B outsourcing-facility regulations were created, so he did not read about that turning point after the fact, he lived it. He helped steer a pharmacy through its first FDA inspection under current Good Manufacturing Practices, and he now speaks to rooms full of physicians and prescribers about what separates a high-standard pharmacy from a risky one. Dan is also a leadership coach and professional speaker who helps businesses grow and communicate with intention. On Beyond the Scale, he brings the view most patients never get: not the textbook version of pharmacy safety, but the real-world one from inside the lab. - - - - - - Connect with the show and Body by AIM360: Website: https://bodybyaim360.com Podcast: https://bodybyaim360.com/podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bodybyaim360 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bodybyaim360 Book a call: https://calendly.com/bodybyaim360/drtalks - - - - - - PODCAST Thank you for listening. Please subscribe and share. This podcast is produced by DrTalks.com⁠ https://drtalks.com/podcast-service/

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About

Tried every diet and still feel stuck? Beyond the Scale, hosted by Darren and Allie Dubyak, looks past calories and willpower to uncover what's really driving weight struggles, low energy, brain fog, and metabolic dysfunction. Through an integrative, data-first approach, the show explores hormones, gut health, genetics, and nutrition—clinical insights often missed in conventional weight-loss conversations. Each episode blends real experience with practical guidance to help you understand your body and make informed choices. No fads. No shame. Just clarity—and a smarter path to lasting wellness

Information

  • Creator
    Dr. Darren and Alexandra Dubyak
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Dr. Darren and Alexandra Dubyak
  • Show Website
    Beyond the Scale