Dr. Tabatha Barber, an OBGYN and functional medicine physician, says fasting fails for many women over 40 because they skip meals without addressing toxin load in fat, emotional dependence on food, dietary composition, and stress. She recommends metabolic flexibility, managing cortisol, and integrating faith through her "Fast to Faith" program.
If you've been fasting but not seeing results, chances are you're making this one huge mistake. Most people think fasting is just about skipping meals. But one common mistake is ruining their progress. Let's fix that today. By the way, I'm Dr. Tabitha, your Christian physician. I'm a triple board certified OBGYN, functional medicine, menopause expert, all the things women's health. I am here to debunk myths and help you see the truth about your body and its ability to heal and thrive at midlife. Let's get into it. Why am I struggling to lose weight even though I'm fasting? I keep hearing that from women who find me. They've been doing fasting with somebody else, they hit a plateau or they're even starting to regain some of the weight they are so frustrated. And here's the deal. There's a right way to fast and a wrong way to fast. The right way to fast is to focus on your food. Focus on what you're eating, when you're eating. That is key to actually helping your body shift and feel safe enough to release that extra weight that it's carrying around. So often our body holds on to extra weight because it's a protective mechanism. There's a couple things going on. Fat cells are actually a great place for us to store toxins. And in this day and age, we are bombarded with toxins 24 7. Our great grandmothers did not have thousands of chemicals and plastics in the environment and fragrances and all of these things that their body had to combat. So, so that is a big reason why we're struggling. Over 40 as women, we're getting so many exposures. And so our body, once these toxins get in, they store in our fat cells to protect our brain and our kidneys and our liver and our vital organs. But we don't like it. We don't want those fat cells metabolically active and getting bigger. But that's what happens. We're storing those toxins in there. And so I encourage you, try to clean up your environment. Start taking a look at how you might be exposed to toxins. Are you using nonstick pans? If they have a scratch in them, those chemicals are being released into your body. Are you drinking from plastic? Are you heating food in plastic bags? All of those chemicals go into your fat cells and make them plump and big and juicy. Exactly what you don't want. I have a detox guide. We can get into this. I have so many resources for you in the fast of faith. App, you need to know why you're struggling to lose weight when you're f. All right, let's dive into some of the biggest mistakes that people make when fasting. It's not nourishing their soul. When you fast without the faith piece, it's probably your next failed diet. Here's the truth. When you are fasting alone of your own free will, out of your own strength, it is hard. It's not fun. It doesn't feel good. But when you invite God into that conversation, into that journey of like, lord, give me the strength and to get past this hunger craving that I'm having right now, help distract me. Help me get through it, you will make progress. And on the other side of that physical struggle is freedom. Freedom from food, emotional freedom, and strength from the Holy Spirit. So I would encourage you. Fasting of your own fruition is going to set you up for disaster and failure. Please invite God into this journey. Are you feeling like fasting is such an uphill battle or any food plan that you're trying to lose weight on and feel good on? Like, what is missing? There's something missing that you just don't have the freedom to feel good and have joy around your life. And what it is, you're attached to food. You're using food to fill something emotionally. This is how we're trained as little girls. We're trained to stuff our feelings, eat our feelings, eat when we're stressed, e, eat when we're bored, eat when we're out with friends and having an amazing time. Like, let's have another cocktail and another food. Is this go to quick feeling relief that we get, and God is calling us higher. God is saying there's more to your soul than feeding these emotional needs with food. And this might be absolutely foreign to you. You might be like, what are you talking about? I've never heard this, but the truth is, is food can be a temptation. Food can be something that we should say no to sometimes, especially if it's not nourishing faith foods given to us from God. If it is, all the Franken foods in the boxes and bags at the grocery store, all in the middle aisles, the kind of food that lasts for two years on the shelves. Those are pleasure foods. Those are foods trying to just distract you from your bigger purpose in life. Those foods keep you stuck emotionally and physically. Physically. And so it's time to wake up, break up with those foods, and your soul will all of a sudden say, hey, I need some nourishment. And when you start Looking to scripture for that. The living, nourishing word of God that will feed your soul, that will fill your body and help you feel satisfied. This is the foundation of my Fast to Faith program. We go to God first. First thing in the morning, we do five minutes of meditation on a scripture and that will set you up for success for the rest of because you know you don't have to make choices for what you're going to eat and what you're going to do by yourself. You say, God help me with this. And I promise you he will answer your prayers. He will be there. He will guide you. He will redirect you. He will give you opportunities to shift and become the better version that you know that you're longing to be. But here's the surprising part. In addition to the spiritual side of fasting, fasting the wrong way can actually make you gain weight. Let's talk about why fasting incorrectly can lead to extreme cortisol production and hormone imbalances. That is what I continue to see as women find me and find my Fast to Faith program. They say I'm afraid to fast or I can't do it. It's not working for me. Here's the deal. There's a wrong way to fast and a right way to fast. If you could just tweak a few things, you won't spike your cortisol, you won't drive inflammation and weight gain. You will actually let your body know that it's safe to do its innate processes and release that excess weight. But you got to start with a few key things. We can use carbohydrates, which are a bunch of sugars connected together that we eat in the form of fruits, vegetables, grains or fats. Fats will burn ketones. It's a cleaner fuel. It fits, feels better, you have more brain clarity, longer energy, you feel full longer. All the good things your body should have metabolic flexibility. It should be able to go from sugar burner to fat burner. I personally I like to be in fat burning mode most of the time, right? The only time I'm really eating carbohydrates and sugar burning is when I'm pumping up my workouts or I'm feeling depleted cuz I really did a lot of strength training and I know my muscles are depleted so I love to be in fat burning mode and the best way to do that is to eat more fat. I know it goes against everything we were told in the 90s, but fat doesn't make you fat. Sugar makes you fat. So embrace the fat. Start eating the fat along with clean, healthy, lean proteins that God gave us. That is how your body will really thrive. So back to the cortisol really quickly. You want to have a good cortisol pattern and we can actually test that. We test that in my virtual medical practice. You need cortisol to live. Live cortisol gets you out of bed in the morning and it helps you function through the day. But too much all day long, all this excess cortisol that will drive the weight gain, that will drive the inflammation, that will drive the fatigue and all of that will mess with your sex hormones, it will mess with your thyroid, it will mess with your gut. So the quickest way to lose weight is to get control of your stress. Now that you know how to avoid this mistake, let's take it a step further. Further. In the next video, I'll break down how fasting like Jesus can have profound effects on your body. Click here to watch it now.
