Dr. Tabatha Barber explains how intermittent fasting works for women over 40, covering autophagy, hormonal shifts in ghrelin and leptin, and ketosis. She debunks myths about muscle loss and metabolic damage, then walks through her Fast to Faith program, a four-phase 40-day plan that pairs Biblical fasting with a 2-10-20-30 meal composition method.
Intermittent fasting is not just another health trend. It's a practice rooted in both science and scripture. What if I told you that fasting isn't just about weight loss, but about renewing your body and soul the way God designed? If you've ever wondered why fasting works so well for both weight loss and spiritual renewal, today I'm breaking it all down and showing you how to start. By the way, I'm Dr. Tabitha, your Christian physician. I'm the creator of Fast to Faith, a, a program, a podcast, a coaching academy, a supplement line. All things fasting in Biblical Scripture. So let's get into it. So many women are struggling with weight, fatigue and cravings. I see this every day in my medical practice. I can't lose the weight. It keeps coming on. I'm so tired. I don't want to do anything after work. I'm reaching for food. I don't even know why I eat it sometimes. If you felt that way. I know I have. I was addicted to sugar. I was addicted to junk food, but it was because I was tired and I was stuck. I was stuck in this vicious cycle. And the biggest reason for that is stress, being too busy, not prioritizing your health, and having gut issues. All those things lead to gut dysbiosis. Gut dysbiosis is when you have the wrong bacteria living in your gut and they are running the show. They are sending cravings to your brain, telling you to grab for more sugar, more carbohydrates, more ultra processed foods. We have to cut that off at the knees. That vicious cycle is keeping you stuck. Let's talk about what will happen to our bodies when we fast and how to get started on that. Some really cool things happen inside of our body when we start fasting. The coolest thing is our gut takes a break, our pancreas rests. And when that happens, all those resources that we're going to go to, digesting food and absorbing food, they get to go to other parts of the body and start to heal and regenerate things that are broken or creating disease. That process is called autophagy. So fasting is your body's own way of naturally cleaning house and healing your body. It's not just for vanity. It's not to lose weight. It's to actually heal. There's definitely some myths out there surrounding fasting. One of them is that I'm going to starve to death. I'm going to be so hungry if I fast. The opposite is actually true. You actually stop being hungry. Why is that? Because ghrelin, which is your main hunger hormone, stops being produced so often. Ghrelin is a pulsatile hormone. It will shoot up, you will feel hungry, and 20 or 30 minutes later, it will go away and you'll feel better. You will no longer be hungry. And when you are not constantly filling your stomach with food and producing insulin to regulate your blood sugar and handle all that intake of food, your leptin level improves. Leptin is your appetite suppressant. It manages your hunger as well and your weight and your desire to keep eating. It's really important for you to realize that that's just a lie. Your body actually has innate wisdom to stop feeling hungered when you stop eating. The other major myth about fasting is that you're going to lose muscle. And that couldn't be further from the truth if you do it the right way. Fast is burning your own fat for fuel. When you get into a fasted state, you get into ketosis. You're burning your fat cells and all the fat that you have stored in your liver and around your organs. It's not until you get into an extreme fasting situation of 14 to 21 days where you really are tapping into your muscle and breaking down protein. So please don't be afraid of fasting. It is not going to lead to muscle wasting. Another myth which really freaks women out is if I f fast, I'm going to lose weight initially and then it's going to come all back and mess up my metabolism. Okay, that is partly true. And it's because you're doing fasting wrong. I would argue that women need to carb cycle. When you go through time periods of fasting, you need to feast. After that, you want to remind your thyroid that you're not starving it to death. And that will keep your metabolism happy. So it could be that you're just fasting the wrong way. We need to fast like a girl. Let's figure out how to do that. Here's the most interesting part. Fasting isn't just about physical health. It has powerful spiritual purpose too. But before I get into that, if you're ready to start fasting the right way, I've put together a simple step by step guide for you. Click the link in the description to get started today. When Jesus was giving his sermon on the Mount speech, he said, when you fast, do this. He didn't say if you fast, he said when you fast. So it was an expectation that you have fasted fasting as part of your lifestyle. Fasting is the Quickest way to open the lines of communication to God. When Jesus needed to get closer to God and have discussions with him, he went off by himself and he fasted. When we get rid of our fleshly desires and we take control over our bodies, that is when we can hear from God. So we stop feeding our flesh and we start to feed our soul. I would argue that that is why fasting is just throughout the Bible. Anytime someone wanted to talk to God, they fasted. Now if you're thinking that sounds great, but how do I actually start? Let's break it down step by step. Here's the deal. My Fast to Faith 40 Day Awakening program has four phases. The first phase is breaking up with sugar. It is essential to quit snacking all throughout the day. You want to focus on three meals that make you feel full and satisfied and actually nourish you. So I have a method. It's called the 2, 10, 20, 30 method. It is how you create your meal. You use two dashes of sea salt, at least 10 grams of carbohydrates, 20 grams of protein and 30 grams of fat. If you eat that meal three times a day, you will be able to break up with sugar and snacks because you will feel full, you will feel satisfied. You also have to add in scripture. You have to invite God into this conversation and ask him for strength to get you through this, to renew your mind, to change your beliefs about yourself and your body. We are called in Romans 12:2 to do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be renewed by the transformation of our mind. So if you want to transform your body, you have to first transform your mind and God will help you do that. So if you do that while you're eating the 2102030 method, you will start to shift. You'll get into full fat burning mode and you'll start burning fat for fuel. That is the quickest way to really start to shed that extra weight that you've been carrying around. And sometimes it's not just about the macros. We as women especially, we carry all kinds of stuff. We carry all these burdens of everybody else's problems. Our children, our partners, our friends, our co workers. That mental weight that you are carrying is showing up up physically. Hand it over to God, release that weight. You will lose way more than physical weight and you will feel amazing. I promise you. Making fasting a sustainable lifestyle was the game changer for my program. That was what I needed in my life and my patients kept telling me they needed. So here's the deal. You have to get back in tune with your intuition. You have to learn to listen to your body again and understand what it likes, what it doesn't like, what it needs and what it doesn't need. That is key. Fast to faith will teach you to hear from your body again. That is the thing I hear more than anything from women is I know what my body needs now. I know how to eat to maintain my weight and keep my energy up. I know what you're looking for. That's what all women are looking for. We just want to be able to go out to eat, to live our life and not count all these macros. And so we have to get back in tune with our body. Now that you know how to fast, let's talk about the foods that fuel your body best. Click here to watch my next video on eating for energy, weight loss and longevity.
