16:8 - what's ok to drink in the mornings?

[ErrolTheDragon]

I've more or less been doing 16:8 for a while, so far not too strictly and mainly as a way of stopping the upward trend rather than reducing weight.

But now I'm thinking I should do it 'properly'. I've generally no problem not eating between dinner and lunch which is 16 or more hours - but what to drink? My norm is two large mugs of tea with a fair amount of skimmed milk first thing and then a coffee with quite a bit of whole milk mid morning. I can't drink black coffee.
I'm thinking I should defer my coffee to the start of the 'eating window', but what about the tea? I've heard varying opinions on whether bit (how much?) of milk matters or not. I'm trying green tea this morning but not keen... maybe there are nicer (milder?) teas that can be drunk milkless.

Any suggestions please?

My main motivation for trying to do 'clean fasting' at this point has less to do with weight per se than with health. I've got no apparent signs of diabetes but I have PCOS so seems likely I'll have some degree of insulin resistance.

IF should be very helpful, along with a low carb/high fat diet - often recommended for PCOS.

I think, with diabetes, you have to pretty 'far along' before you get any symptoms, so it's always good to be considering how to pre-empt it.

I drink green tea - try making with loose leaves rather than tea bags as it is a lot milder (and nicer imo)

IF should be very helpful, along with a low carb/high fat diet - often recommended for PCOS.

Yes... though my cholesterol scores aren't great so the 'high fat' may need some care. However, DH is taking this in hand - because he's prediabetic and has done the Zoe thing which was quite revealing. So he's busy doing the shopping and cooking (he's retired, I still work PT so this is fair) working out lower carb/good fat/high fibre and more veg meals - it's a great opportunity for me to piggyback and do myself some good!

Sorry - don't want to turn this into a thread about low carbing - but just to say, generally speaking (unless you have a genetic form of high cholesterol) then a low carb/high fat diet should also help with your cholesterol levels.

As it's 'my' thread and I brought up the subject I'm more than happy for the discussion to diverge!

There are varying opinions.

I listen to the Zoe podcast and they seemed to be of the opinion that a small splash of milk is unlikely to have an impact. I just go by that (and I don't want to give up my morning milky coffee!) but I suppose it depends if you're doing it for weight loss or other reasons.

If you're doing it for gut health/ giving your stomach a rest etc., then maybe you'd want to do it more strictly?

But for weight loss, the small splash of milk isn't going to make a difference.

I have an ordinary tea with milk first thing, then black coffee (sorry) until lunch time. Have done it like that for a couple of years now and it works fine for me.

I don't have sugar, although I did learn to drink black coffee by having it sweet and black then dropping the sugar.

I don't feel it makes any real difference but then I don't necessarily believe that much in the more woo claims for intermittent fasting! Cholesterol is fine and has been the same for a few years so must be doing something right.

My body is happy enough to have a milky tea but not be really hungry till lunchtime, although I was very hungry mid morning when I started doing it.

I think this is the best approach. The idea is to do something sustainable. Personally, this seems very sustainable, provided I don't have to give up my tea with a splash of milk. 3 cups every morning.

Well that's one opinion.

I'll never give up my early morning cuppa with milk! I don't eat 7pm to midday

Well, I tried green tea or chai for a while longer but I think I feel better with my usual two cups of tea with more than a 'splash' of milk, then a coffee with a decent amount of whole mid morning.

I actually did the Zoe thing with a CGM and the teas didn't do much to my blood sugar.

This thread did remind me that I like the Yorkshire biscuit tea mid afternoon though!

Thanks to all.

On some of the fasting threads on Facebook the consensus seems to be coffee or tea is ok if it doesn’t affect your bs - so I guess the same applies to milk?!

I can’t drink black coffee either. did you try hot water with no tea bag - I prefer it to black tea, but occasionally have black tea when I want some flavour. I have replaced a lot of my tea and coffee with decaf and I think that has helped with me finding hot water an ok substitute aslesd need for the caffeine, and I mostly save tea and coffee for eating periods. But yes try plain hot water!

But the big difference is that black tea/coffee doesn't have any calories, whereas if you put milk in, you're adding calories.

Yes, obviously. But if it doesn't have much effect on my blood sugar I'm not convinced it matters too much.

Now... what does make a big difference to me is having more than a cup of tea's worth of calories and then sitting on my arse so having just had my morning coffee I'd better get off MN and onto my feet for a bit!

I have no idea what you mean @ErrolTheDragon <whistles>