What can you drink during the intermittent fasting window?
Fasting is a practice that has existed for eons, and people do it for different reasons. Some people do it to practice restraint, others to reset their metabolism or detoxify.
In the realm of fitness, one of the most popular forms of fasting is intermittent fasting. Better known as IF, it is a safe way of losing weight. It focuses less on what you eat, and more on when you eat.
Your intermittent fasting window is up to you and what fits best into your lifestyle. Studies have a lot of good things to say about the wonder-working power of intermittent fasting.
However, the fact that intermittent fasting has great health benefits and a substantial impact on aging and disease, does not mean that it is easy.
Intermittent fasting does not limit what you eat but requires you to eat within a specific window. It requires high discipline, and there are times you can get so hungry that you may be driven to break the fast.
Depending on how strict your fasting is, you can take drinks that have no calories or have few, negligible calories during your intermittent fasting window.
What is ketosis?
To determine what drinks to take during the intermittent fasting window, it is best to first understand how intermittent fasting works.
Simply put, carbohydrates in our bodies are broken down into sugars which our bodies utilize as energy. When your diet is left unchecked, there usually is a surplus of sugars which the body then stores as fat.
For you to lose weight, you need to limit the supply of sugar so that the body may instead use the fat it has already stored. This is what is referred to as ketosis. During your intermittent fasting window, your body is deprived of sugar supply, thus it has to fast burn what it has until you eat next.
What can you drink during the intermittent fasting window?
Here is a list of what you can drink during the intermittent fasting window.
Water
You can take water to keep the hunger pangs at bay during intermittent fasting. Plain water has no calories.
Black tea
A cup of black tea has between 1-2 calories which are pretty negligible. Taking black tea will not break your fast but will keep your mind off the hunger that may accompany intermittent fasting. Do not add sugar, milk, or any other sweeteners if you want to keep the calorie count in your tea low. Just take it plain.
Carbonated water
If you do not appreciate the taste of plain water, carbonated can do the work just fine. Just like plain water, carbonated water does not have calories.
Apple Cider Vinegar
It is totally okay to take diluted ACV, especially for those people who do not mind the taste. A teaspoon of apple cider vinegar has a little over 2 calories but does not have carbs. Remember, carbs are the enemy because your body will focus on the incoming carbs instead of using up its fat reserve. You can add apple cider vinegar to a cup of water and take it when fasting. ACV has been found to suppress the appetite. Therefore, it can keep you in check until it is time to eat.
Green tea
Did you know that green tea is one of the healthiest drinks in the world? This tea has so many benefits including improving brain function and your body’s metabolism. You only get around 2.45 calories in one cup of green tea. Taking green tea during intermittent fasting has the double advantage of preventing you from being hungry while also loading you up with much-needed antioxidants and nutrients.
What can you not drink during intermittent fasting?
There are some drinks that look very harmless but will break your fast without you even knowing it. While you can take some of these drinks while easing into the eating window, avoid them when you are still deep in the fasting window.
Diet soda
While it is true that diet soda has little to no sugars, calories, and carbs, there are some ingredients in diet soda that may increase insulin levels in your body. The purpose of ketosis is to decrease insulin levels, thus taking diet soda beats the purpose of intermittent fasting. Diet soda may also increase the urge for sugar. During this time, you want drinks that take your mind of sugars, not those that cause you to want them. Besides, calories or not, diet soda can instigate weight gain according to this study. If you went into intermittent fasting to lose weight, you may want to give it a wide berth.
Coconut water
Coconut water in itself has so many health benefits, but leave it be during your intermittent fasting window. Just the fact that it is water does not mean that it is mainly water and just a hint of coconut. It contains carbohydrates that will inadvertently be turned into sugar and will break your fast.
[related_posts_by_tax posts_per_page="4"]
