What can I consume during fast

[mondaytosunday]

Tea without or with milk? Diet Coke? Or, as I am munching on now, raw sugar snap peas? These have negligible calories (25 in the sugar snap peas) but is it still enough to stop the fasting effect?

Fasting is not eating.

Sugar snap peas are actually high in guess what - sugar. Yes it's not refined sugar, but not compatible with keto/intermittent fasting.

Milk is not compatible with fasting.

Drink lots of water.

Your hunger will pass.

You're just used to eating all the time.

I've recently started Intermittent Fasting and have been listening to podcasts about it. One of them debated whether you could drink coffee during your fast. It wasn't conclusive, but suggested you "could" drink it without milk/cream without breaking your fast. So presumably tea with a slice of lemon would be ok. I drink water and have a couple of mugs of herbal tea (no milk or sweeteners) during the fasting period.

If you’re asking if eating counts as fasting I’m not sure you’ve understood the concept of fasting!

Don’t eat.
Drink water.

Why would you think you can eat during a fast

For some the fast day means limiting to 500 calories in the day.

On my fast days I aim for high water foods as they fill you up for longer on fewer calories. Miso soup is a good option. Grapes are an easy to snack on fruit.

Ditch the Diet Coke.

I've been intermittent fasting lately, and I drink black coffee and water. I think I read somewhere that black coffee is an appetite suppressant?

I don't eat anything as that's the whole point.

I do drink a couple of pints of squash though.

Doesn't squash have calories in it? I thought zero calories was the point.

There are arguments that the sweet taste of zero sugar things can still trigger the same responses as actual sugar (storing fat)

Diet Coke will fuck up your blood glucose levels and gut biome. Bizarrely it is less healthy than real coke in terms of ingredients.

If you are intermittent fasting to balance blood glucose and to encourage your body to become fat adaptive, ie burn stored fat for energy, the one thing you can consume is very high fat products. Bulletproof coffee is popular, or a teaspoon of full fat milk/cream in your tea. Foodstuffs like this do not bring the body out of fat adaptivity because the body is still burning fat, not laying excess calories down as fat.

It’s a change of mindset from calories in/calories out to ‘what is my body doing with the calories/food I am consuming’. As long as your body is burning or expelling unused calories, it’s all good. There are quite a few videos on YouTube explaining it better than I can.

Jesus Christ op no you can't eat or drink Diet Coke if you are fasting.

I have to fast strictly around medication and I drink water only, doc says I can have black coffee or black tea but I rarely do.

I thought you could only have water or black tea/coffee. Everything else is off the table.

Water

Herbal teas, black tea/coffee. No food whatsoever.

I ask because of the science. The idea is that fasting means that the glycogen stores in your liver are used up so you start burning fat. But I've read somewhere that if you eat/drink something that doesn't increase these glycogen levels that much then it doesn't change this. But I accept that even very low cal foods are off limits.
But can people show me the evidence against drinking diet soda? I've googled it and see nothing that suggests you shouldn't.

I thought fasting is meant to be when you stop eating overnight. I stop at about 8pm and don't eat before 6am, sometimes later. Not particularly long fasting but zero snacking.

If you really want to eat, something under 50 cals probably won't raise blood sugar - I think that's in the Fast800 book.

The reason diet soda isn't really recommended is that it's sweetened and not really compatabile with a healthy fasting lifestyle. There is emerging evidence that sweeteners are linked to cancer. Having sweetened drinks also increases likelihood of having added sugar. However if it were a choice between full sugar coke and diet coke, then diet coke is the better choice (as confirmed by one Zoe Nutrition scientist).

A better option would be a miso soup - 26 cals, has electrolytes, and some health benefits.

I also personally think some people can have a raised blood sugar response to non sugary drinks. I had this once with a Dash drink which is nothing but water and a dash of natural fruit, I had a full on sugar rush (I think the carbonation plays a part)

The problem with artifical sweeteners during fasting is that they will make you hungry. Also long term they contribute to insulin resistance and negative changes in your gut. If you are going to use one make sure it is stevia with no added erythritol as this is the only one with no identified negative health benefits so far (maybe becuase it is newer with less research than the others).