Intermittent fasting (IF) has many health benefits. One of them is weight loss.
When combined with a ketogenic or low-carb diet, IF helps regulate blood sugar and fight hunger. It also helps your body enter a state of ketosis faster, which accelerates fat burning and weight loss.
However, during intermittent fasting, any caloric food and drink can interrupt and interrupt your fast.
In this article, we are going to discuss what interrupts or breaks your fast and what can you drink during your IF.
What Can Break The Fast
Your body alternates between fasting and eating every day. Therefore, the hours of sleep you get every night are actually fasting hours.
After eating, your stomach and intestines start the work of digesting and absorbing food. During this process, your blood sugar level rises, and your pancreas secretes insulin to control blood sugar.
When you keep eating, insulin is continuously released in large quantities. Over time, the cells will become resistant to insulin.
This is similar to how some bacteria are resistant to antibiotics.
If you suffer from insulin resistance (or “hyperinsulinemia”), your blood sugar will remain at a high level. This can eventually lead to diabetes and obesity.
The purpose of fasting is to improve insulin sensitivity.
If you don’t eat, there is no digestible food in your body, so the pancreas no longer secretes insulin. Thus, your body and brain will be rested.
Therefore, any diet that increases your blood sugar will also stimulate insulin, thereby breaking the fast.
Along with any type of food, the following beverages contain sugar, so you can’t drink them during fasting.
- soda
- coconut juice
- apricot milk
- milk
- juice
- coffee with sugar and creamer
- carbonated drinks (even diet soda)
- alcoholic beverages
- milkshake
Related:
Why Am I not Losing Weight With Intermittent Fasting
What Is The Best Intermittent Fasting Diet Plan For Weight Loss
How Does Intermittent Fasting Burn Fat
What To Drink During Intermittent Fasting
Many friends ask me, if fasting means not eating or drinking. Is that right?
Yes: You while fasting, you can’t eat any food.
No: You can drink certain beverages that will actually help you stick to fasting more easily.
Which beverages can you drink freely without raising blood sugar?
1. Water
Water is always the healthiest beverage.
During fasting, drinking plenty of water will reduce your feeling of hunger and help calm your croaking belly.
You can add a few drops of lemon juice to the water to enhance the flavor, or add a pinch of sea salt to replenish electrolytes.
Himalayan sea salt is a popular choice because it contains more minerals and trace elements. Of course, you can just use ordinary table salt.
Drinking salt water can replenish electrolytes in the body, increase energy and reduce dizziness and headaches that may occur during fasting.
However, drinking too much water can increase urination and cause electrolyte loss in the body. This can be harmful to your health.
2. Apple cider vinegar
You read it right, it is apple cider vinegar.
Although you cannot eat apples during fasting, the vinegar that is fermented from an apple can help you with fasting and losing weight.
- Apple cider vinegar (ACV) is free of calories and allowed while fasting. In fact, it actually helps to lower blood sugar levels and improve digestion when following Intermittent Fasting.
- The acetic acid in apple cider vinegar can promote the absorption of minerals in the body, which is especially important during fasting.
- Apple cider vinegar polyphenols act as prebiotics and can increase the number of healthy bacteria like Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, in your stomach.
- Drinking a glass of diluted apple cider vinegar water can help you reduce hunger and extend fasting time.
3. Black coffee
Black coffee is also free of calories, so you can drink it safely during fasting.
Its advantage is that black coffee can promote the body to produce more ketones and accelerate fat burning. [*]
Additionally, black coffee has also been proven to improve insulin sensitivity for a long time. This means that it can stabilize blood sugar.
However, not everyone can stand the bitterness of black coffee. If you are one of those people, you can add some cinnamon powder to adjust the taste. Avoid adding sugar and creamer though. Those extras will break your fast.
In addition, some people are allergic to caffeine. They may experience heart or stomach discomfort when drinking black coffee while fasting. In this case, you can choose decaf black coffee, or try the following beverage.
Related:
Why Bulletproof Coffee Doesn’t Work For Weight Loss
4. Green tea
Green tea is one of intermittent fasting’s safe drinks. You can feel free to drink plain, unsweetened tea during your fasting window.
Vitamin C, vitamin B1 and caffeine found in green tea can help digest and burn fat. It also contains catechol, which can promote metabolism and reduce the accumulation of fat cells.
In addition, other benefits of green tea include promoting intestinal health, increasing the number of probiotics, helping eliminate fat, detoxification and enhancing the weight loss effect of your intermittent fasting.
Summary:
Intermittent fasting is a very effective way to lose weight. It can trigger autophagy, which is great for improving overall health.
It should be pointed out that any calorie-containing food or drink can break your fast and have a negative effect on weight loss.
However, there are certain beverages you can drink during intermittent fastings such as water, black coffee, plain green tea or apple cider vinegar.
Always listen to your body when practicing intermittent fasting. Adjust your eating windows according to your best time, so that your body will adapt gradually.
I hope this article helps you better understand what drinks will help you to perform intermittent fasting correctly to achieve the most ideal weight loss results.
