Hi, I’m Dr. Handy Lloyd.
I’m a physician and the founder of Wellness By Design, MD in Chicago. I’m known as The Metabolic Translator—I help adults understand what their body is communicating through symptoms, data, and patterns, and then sequence care accordingly.
I work primarily with adults in midlife whose bodies have changed over time—whether from pregnancy, illness, stress, injury, burnout, or metabolic shifts—and who are frustrated that generic advice no longer works. They’re often doing many of the “right” things, yet still struggling with weight changes, low energy, brain fog, inflammation, or a sense that their body no longer responds the way it used to.
When I talk about metabolic dysfunction, I’m referring to the body struggling to efficiently turn food into steady, usable energy. Over time, this can show up as fatigue, stubborn belly weight, blood sugar instability, inflammatory symptoms, and lab markers quietly drifting in the wrong direction.
In midlife, shifting hormones—such as estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone—often amplify this pattern, changing where fat is stored, how blood sugar is handled, and how much energy the body can access day to day. What’s often framed as “unavoidable aging” is more accurately a sequencing problem, not a personal failure.
Left unaddressed, this metabolic–hormonal mismatch increases the risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, fatty liver, cognitive decline, and other chronic conditions. The good news is that these patterns are measurable and modifiable.
At Wellness By Design, MD, we don’t estimate metabolism—we measure it. Instead of relying on formulas or assumptions, I directly assess how the body uses oxygen, burns fuel, and produces energy in real time. That data allows me to translate symptoms into actionable insight and design a personalized, evidence-based strategy that fits each individual’s physiology.
If something isn’t responding, it’s not willpower or inevitable decline.
It’s a sequencing problem—and my role is to help translate what the body is saying and determine what comes next.
This work is personal. And it is powerful.
Wellness By Design, MD is not about doing more—it is about doing what is right, at the right time, for your body.
This is more than treatment.
This is more than optimization.
This is a recalibration.