· Max Lowery · 11 min read
Is Intermittent Fasting Safe for Women Over 40? Hormonal & Metabolic Insights
Is intermittent fasting safe for women over 40? Learn how hormonal changes, emotional eating, and metabolic inflexibility impact results—and discover safer, more effective strategies for sustainable weight loss during perimenopause and beyond.
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In 2017, I published one of the first books on intermittent fasting in the UK, introducing the world to my unique approach: The 2 Meal Day. At the time, I was convinced intermittent fasting was the answer to effortless weight loss, improved focus, and metabolic health.
Personally, it changed my life, simplifying my eating habits and helping me maintain a lean physique without the mental stress of calorie counting or food tracking. You can learn more about this method and my philosophy at 2mealday.com.
Since then, I’ve coached over 1,000 women through their weight loss journeys and discovered a critical truth: what works for one person doesn’t always work for another. Particularly for women over 40, the game changes entirely. Hormonal shifts, lifestyle stress, and a history of dieting can make conventional fasting not only ineffective but sometimes harmful.
Intermittent fasting is often seen as a miracle solution for weight loss.
But for women over 40, it’s rarely that simple.
Yes, it can create a calorie deficit and promote fat loss — but if done incorrectly, it may backfire. After working with hundreds of women navigating perimenopause and menopause, I’ve learned a key truth:
Sustainable weight loss must be based on your hormones, emotional triggers, and a strategy that works with your body — not against it.
Sustainable weight management must be rooted in physiological understanding, emotional awareness, and practical, personalised strategies.
This article unpacks the science and real-world insights behind intermittent fasting for women over 40. You’ll discover when it helps, when it hurts, and how to adapt it, if at all, to support lasting fat loss and better health.
What Is Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent fasting isn’t a diet—it’s an ancient practice that cycles between periods of eating and not eating. It’s been used for millennia by many cultures and religions, not only for spiritual reasons but also to promote health and longevity. Protocols like 16:8, 5:2, alternate-day fasting, and my own 2 Meal Day method are modern adaptations of this time-tested approach.
What makes intermittent fasting so effective is its simplicity. By narrowing your eating window, you naturally reduce meal frequency and, in many cases, overall calorie intake.
This helps establish a calorie deficit, which is the foundation of all successful fat loss. But fasting is more than just a method for weight management.
Here’s why I personally love intermittent fasting and why it resonated so deeply with me early on:
● Simplicity and freedom: No need to count calories or obsess over macros. Fewer meals mean fewer decisions.
● Improved mental clarity: Without constant digestion, many people report sharper focus and more consistent energy.
● Enhanced metabolic flexibility: Fasting trains your body to shift from using glucose to burning stored fat for energy.
● Reduced cravings and emotional reactivity to food: With fewer eating occasions, it becomes easier to distinguish true hunger from emotional urges.
These benefits made fasting feel less like a diet and more like a sustainable lifestyle. And for many people, especially those who are metabolically flexible, it can feel effortless.
However, just because intermittent fasting works doesn’t mean it works the same for everyone. As we’ll explore, women over 40 often need a more nuanced approach that supports hormonal balance and emotional well-being.
The Hormonal Shift After 40: Why Fasting Gets Complicated
Once women enter their 40s, everything changes—especially hormonally. Estrogen and progesterone begin to decline, triggering a cascade of metabolic changes:
● Reduced insulin sensitivity: This makes it harder to process carbohydrates, leading to elevated insulin levels and increased belly fat.
● Elevated cortisol: Chronic stress raises cortisol, which spikes cravings, disrupts sleep, and promotes fat storage.
● Lowered metabolic flexibility: Your body struggles to switch between burning carbs and fat.
These changes don’t just impact how your body stores fat—they also affect your mood, energy levels, and sleep quality. For instance, one client of mine, Sarah, 47, found that skipping breakfast left her feeling anxious and distracted by mid-morning. Her energy and focus improved dramatically when she added a high-protein breakfast and removed snacks.
Another client, Lisa, 52, initially lost weight on a 16:8 fast but hit a plateau. She also experienced disrupted sleep and intense evening cravings. By reducing the fasting window, focusing on nutrient-dense meals, and managing stress through walking and journaling, she reignited her fat loss without the mental battle.
Layering intermittent fasting over these challenges, especially aggressive fasting, can increase stress on the body, leading to fatigue, cravings, and emotional instability. In many cases, it becomes another stressor rather than a solution.
Hormonal changes make the body more sensitive to dietary stress, which is why menopause weight loss often requires a different approach than traditional fasting or dieting method. What worked in your 20s—cutting calories drastically, skipping meals, or training fasted—can now trigger fat retention, mood swings, and binge-eating cycles. Women over 40 need a compassionate, flexible approach that aligns with their physiology, not fights it.
Emotional Eating and Weight Gain in Women Over 40
Intermittent fasting may help control when you eat, but it doesn’t address why you eat. This is the real reason so many women fail to see lasting results from fasting alone—it only treats the symptom, not the cause. Emotional eating, stress responses, and ingrained habits are the underlying issues driving most weight gain.
Many of my clients have already tried fasting, keto, calorie counting — and more.
They’re disciplined. Motivated. Doing everything "right."
But they’re still not losing weight.
Why? Because they eat when they’re stressed, overwhelmed, or emotionally drained.
After a tough day, they don’t crave a salad—they reach for crisps, chocolate, or wine. Fasting doesn’t stop these patterns.
If your weight gain is rooted in using food as a coping mechanism, simply restricting your eating window can make things worse. It adds more rules and stress to an already fragile relationship with food. One client told me, “I felt amazing for two weeks, then I had one off day and completely lost control. It turned into a binge and I didn’t eat properly for days.”
This is the danger of relying on fasting as the only tool—it reinforces the all-or-nothing mindset. If you break your fast "wrong," you feel like you failed. This guilt spiral fuels more emotional eating and sabotage.
The truth is, sustainable fat loss requires healing your relationship with food, learning to manage stress, and understanding your emotional triggers. Only then can intermittent fasting become a supportive strategy, rather than a stressful one.
Most women over 40 don’t struggle with food because of a lack of knowledge. They know what to eat. The problem is why they eat—stress, emotional overwhelm, loneliness, or habit. This is emotional eating, and fasting doesn’t fix it.
Max explains, "Fasting won't stop you from eating half a bag of crisps just because you feel like you broke your fast."
Additionally, many women are metabolically inflexible—stuck in sugar-burning mode, unable to access stored fat efficiently. This makes sustaining a calorie deficit almost impossible.
Metabolic Flexibility: Why It Matters for Women Over 40
Before diving into actionable strategies, it’s essential to understand a critical concept: metabolic flexibility. This refers to your body’s ability to seamlessly switch between different fuel sources - carbohydrates, stored glycogen, and fat, depending on your needs. When you're metabolically flexible, you can go longer without food, feel fewer cravings, and experience more stable energy levels.
Many women over 40 are stuck in sugar-burning mode.
Their bodies rely too heavily on carbs for energy.
This leads to constant hunger, energy crashes, and trouble maintaining a calorie deficit.
Fat loss becomes a battle — not because of willpower, but because of physiology. This inflexibility can make fat loss feel like a constant struggle.
If you feel irritable when you skip a meal, crash mid-afternoon without a snack, or experience intense carb cravings, you're probably metabolically inflexible. This isn’t a failure of willpower—it’s a physiological issue that must be addressed before strategies like intermittent fasting can work effectively.
Being metabolically inflexible doesn't just make weight loss harder—it has broader long-term health consequences. It often goes hand-in-hand with insulin resistance, a condition where the body’s cells become less responsive to insulin, increasing the risk of type 2 diabetes.
It also contributes to chronic fatigue, mood swings, and even cardiovascular issues. Over time, the inability to effectively burn fat can lead to persistent weight gain, especially around the midsection, and a heightened risk of metabolic syndrome.
Improving metabolic flexibility helps your body become more efficient at burning fat, both during fasting periods and in everyday life. So below I am sharing the three habits that will improve metabolic flexibility without the need to fast.
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Three Foundational Habits to Improve Metabolic Flexibility Without Fasting for Women Over 40
Instead of jumping into fasting, I recommend three powerful habits to reset your metabolism and relationship with food. These habits are simple, sustainable, and highly effective at restoring metabolic flexibility, without the stress of skipping meals.
1. Eat Three Satisfying Meals Daily
Why it works: Regular meals help stabilise your blood sugar, reduce the frequency of hunger spikes, and build trust between your body and your brain. This consistency supports hormonal balance, especially critical during perimenopause and menopause.
Implementation tips:
Space your meals roughly 4–6 hours apart.
Each meal should include a source of protein (eggs, chicken, lentils), fiber (vegetables, whole grains), and healthy fats (olive oil, avocado).
Avoid grazing or nibbling in between.
Eat until you’re truly satisfied, not stuffed.
2. Stop Snacking
Why it works: Snacking keeps insulin elevated and prevents your body from switching into fat-burning mode. Cutting snacks allows your metabolism to reset between meals. Most people underestimate how many calories they consume from snacks. A biscuit here, a handful of nuts there—it adds up. On average, you could be consuming an extra 500 calories a day just from snacks. Eliminating these can be one of the easiest ways to create a sustainable calorie deficit.
Implementation tips:
Start by eliminating one snack per day and gradually removing others.
Replace snacking triggers with alternatives: go for a walk, drink herbal tea, or practice deep breathing.
If hunger persists, reevaluate your meals—are they big enough? Are you including enough protein and fiber?
Track your mood and cravings to identify emotional snacking patterns.
3. Walk 7,000–15,000 Steps a Day
Why it works: Walking helps regulate blood sugar, manage cortisol levels, and gently boosts your calorie burn without increasing hunger. It’s also an excellent stress management tool.
Implementation tips:
Break it into manageable chunks: 10 minutes after each meal, a 20-minute evening walk, and parking farther away from the supermarket or your office.
Use a step tracker to stay consistent and monitor progress.
Pair walks with enjoyable activities—podcasts, calls with friends, or nature routes.
If you're sedentary, start with 5,000 steps and gradually increase.
These habits enhance metabolic flexibility, helping your body switch from sugar to fat for energy, essential for sustainable weight loss. Unlike restrictive diets, these practices support long-term success without triggering stress or overwhelm.
Is Fasting Ever the Right Tool?
Yes—but only after you've built a foundation of nourishing meals, stress management, and metabolic health. Intermittent fasting can then become a supportive strategy rather than a primary solution.
Fasting can be a powerful catalyst for fat loss and improved energy when implemented from a place of balance. For example, many of my clients who previously struggled with blood sugar crashes and cravings began to thrive on a gentle version of intermittent fasting, like delaying breakfast by an hour or two—only after stabilising their eating patterns and addressing emotional eating.
Fasting works best when your body is ready for it. That means:
● You’re metabolically flexible—able to go several hours without hunger or energy dips.
● You’re emotionally stable around food—no binge-restrict cycles.
● You’ve built consistency with meals and movement—no extreme dieting or training.
In these cases, fasting can help fine-tune your results. It simplifies eating, supports fat burning, and enhances mindfulness. But if fasting feels like a punishment, if you're constantly thinking about food, or if it’s making you more tired, anxious, or obsessed, then it’s not the right tool right now.
Instead of forcing your body into fasting, build the resilience and flexibility that allow it to become effortless later. Think of fasting as an advanced tool, not a starting point.
Fasting should not feel like punishment. It should feel empowering. If it doesn’t, it’s time to reassess.
Final Thoughts: Nourish, Don’t Deprive
Fasting is just a tool. For women over 40, true transformation comes from a comprehensive strategy that supports your hormones, addresses emotional eating, and builds metabolic flexibility. This means eating real, nourishing meals, walking regularly, and removing unnecessary stressors like constant snacking or rigid food rules.
You don’t need to suffer through another restrictive diet. You don’t need to rely on willpower alone. You need a plan that works with your body, not against it.
If you're tired of starting over every Monday, if you’re fed up with the guilt, the shame, the frustration—know this: the problem isn’t you. The problem is the outdated, one-size-fits-all strategies you’ve been told to follow.
You don’t have to figure this out alone.
If you’re tired of starting over every Monday and ready to feel in control of your body again, here are three ways to take your next step—starting today.
