The purpose of this study is to delineate the effectiveness of a short-term faith-based lifestyle intervention approach (SLIA) that reduced risk factors contributing to gut dysbiosis, metabolic syndrome (MetS), and obesity in a high-risk U.S. ethnic population. According to rigorously reviewed public health literature, the concept of "double jeopardy" describes a high-risk population (often applied to African Americans) based on two characteristics; ethnicity and age. This two-week residential medically supervised intervention approach incorporated a natural environment with spiritual motivation, plant-based nutrition, customized physical activity, cognitive awareness strategies (CBT) and health education. Methods: The demographic population included twenty-one aged and middle-aged participants of African-American or Afro-Caribbean/Other descent, considered as "high-risk" for cardiometabolic morbidity and mortality enrolled in the short-term (12-day) Lifestyle Retreat for two weeks. Based on the stratified analysis, 59.5% and 40.5% were of African-American and Afro-Caribbean/Other Afro-descent, respectively, with a mean age of 59.23 ± 11.24 years. As an addendum to the traditional assessments, a fecal stool analysis was added to determine pre-and post- gut microbiota profiles. Results: Post intervention results revealed that the Paired t-test, Kolmogorov-Smirnova/ Shapiro-Wilkinson test for normality and the Wilcoxon ranked sum test indicated positive outcomes in terms of metabolic and anthropometric measures. Concomitant favorable results were also observed with fecal analysis showing an increase in Akkermansia genera simultaneously with decreases observed in Prevotella species. Conclusion: This research suggests that a short-term faith-based intervention approach is not only effective in reducing cardiovascular risks associated with metabolic syndrome, but confirms the current evidence that gut microbiota modulation may contribute to risk reductions associated with morbidity and mortality in this high-risk population.