If you’ve decided to try intermittent fasting, good on you. However, if you will be depriving yourself of food for sometimes days on end, you need to make sure you get your liquid intake right. You don’t want to undo all of the hard work you have done through fasting by drinking the wrong thing. Here, we will answer the question, ‘What can I drink during intermittent fasting’, as well as take you through the drinks to avoid.
If you are asking the equation, ‘what can I drink during intermittent fasting‘, I am guessing that you have already done your research on IF and the health benefits that it can bring you.
If not, we’ve done a very brief recap for you here. If you are already well aware of these, scroll on by and we will get to what you can drink during intermittent fasting.
Intermittent fasting, when done right, can be a real powerhouse when combined with the keto diet and can help you reach your keto goals quicker than you could ever imagine.
If some of the terminologies can get a bit confusing, we have a keto intermittent fasting terms guide for you, as well as a generic keto terms and keto abbreviations guide.
Please bookmark these, and print them out, however, they will best help you.
What Are The Benefits of Intermittent Fasting With Keto?
There are a number of benefits to IF we have pulled together some of the main ones for you below.
Fat Loss
As your body transitions to using fat for fuel (known as becoming fat adapted), your body will be burning through your fat supplies. This reduces the amount of fat in the body and can be measured by tracking your fat percentage.
Muscle Definition
This links in with fat loss above. The more fat you lose from around your muscles, the more you will see the definition of your muscles. This is why extended fasting is often used by bodybuilders, before a competition.
Deeper Ketosis
Ketosis is when your body uses fat for energy instead of glucose. Entering into ketosis is what everybody eating a keto diet seeks to achieve. Deeper ketosis brings with it its own list of health benefits, allowing the body to repair and regrow.
Increased Autophagy
Autophagy is a process where cells degrade themselves through lysosomes. This process helps the cell recycle damaged proteins and organelles, and rebuild.
The process of autophagy is essential for cellular homeostasis and survival.
Reducing Inflammation
Fasting helps reduce inflammation because it causes the body to release hormones such as glucagon, which reduces blood sugar levels. This leads to lower insulin levels, which decreases inflammation.
Resets Gut Microbiome
By fasting for 24 hours, or longer, our bodies begin to detoxify and cleanse themselves of toxins. When our gut microbiome is in balance, our guts will help us digest food easier, leading to less bloating and discomfort.
Mental Clarity
After your body cleanses itself of toxins, your mind has access to a cleaner bloodstream, which results in clearer thoughts, faster processing, better memory, and sharper senses as a whole.
Hormonal Balance
Extended fasting gives the body the time it needs to reset its hormonal balance. This can help with a whole host of issues such as mood, and skin condition.
Insulin and Leptin Rebalance
Improved insulin sensitivity is another side effect. As with hormones above, the ‘rest’ that extended fasting gives your body allows your body time to reset its insulin and leptin levels.
Appetite Management
Extended fasting has actually been shown to assist in reducing an individual’s appetite in the long term. This can be great for people who have been overeating for a long time and need an opportunity to reset this balance.
As you can see that are a lot of non-scale victories (NSVs) which are associated with extended fasting. The benefits of these are often far greater than any weight loss you may see.
Weigh Loss
It is unsurprising that one of the outcomes of extended fasting for a period of time will lead to weight loss. IF can show particularly good results in people who are classified as morbidly obese.
These quick wins can be motivating for people who have struggled with their weight for a long time and can prove the concept that IF works. This will encourage them to keep going with their weight loss journey in order to meet their health goals.
A study completed in 2019 concluded that people who underwent several periods of fasting over a year lost significantly more weight than those that did not.
Check out this article for more on intermittent fasting on keto, and the different types of fasting that you can do.
What Can I Drink During Intermittent Fasting?
Let’s get into the crux of this article, here we will go through our top tips on what you can drink during intermittent fasting, that will not mess with the fasting timeline.
All of the drinks that we recommend are also keto approved, so as not to spike your blood sugar levels and defeat the purpose of the fast. What’s more, all drinks consumed should have a ‘zero’ caloric value, so as to not break your fast.
Why Is What You Drink During Intermittent Fasting So Important?
We have touched on this above some drinks are full of sugars and potentially calories, these both will affect your fast negatively.
Spiking Blood Sugar
Fasting seeks to burn through our bodied glucose supply and get us into deepened ketosis quicker. For those already eating a keto diet, this process should be quicker as you will already be in ketosis. As with ketosis, you do not want to spike your blood sugar during a fast, not only will this potentially set you back on your journey, but it will also make you feel hungrier.
Feeling of Hunger
The feeling of hunger will normally subside between 24-36 hours after fasting if you keep spiking your blood sugar with drinking such as diet sodas or flavored water, you will only be torturing yourself, whilst undoing your hard work.
20% of the water we consume comes from food
Hydration
Hydration is also really important, both on a keto diet, and when fasting. Check out our guide as to how much you should be drinking on a keto diet. Surprisingly, people can often under drink when IF. People will often confuse thirst for hunger, and, as such will dismiss these feelings and not drink.
Furthermore, around 20% of our daily fluid intake comes from our food. Therefore, it is important to ensure that you are making up for this lost hydration by drinking more than you would normally.
TOP TIP: Plan to drink x amount of water per day. This should be enough water to ensure that you are hydrated for your body weight and activity levels. Plan this out through your day to make sure you are reaching your hydration goals.
So, What Can I Drink During Intermittent Fasting?
Now we understand why hydration is key during your fasting window, here is a list of what you can drink during intermittent fasting. What’s more, we’ve tried and tested all of these, so can safely say that they not going to break your fast.
Water
Water is essential, whether fasting or not. Drinking enough water is essential for the body under normal circumstances, not just when fasting, what’s more, it helps the burning of fat.
As we have discussed above, the burning off of fat stores is one of the main benefits of IF.
Do not be tempted to add cordial or such flavorings to your water. However, if you want to ‘jazz’ up your water to keep things interested, you can infuse it with mint, or cucumber.
You will know the quality of the tap water in your area, it should contain all of the minerals you need. If it is not high in minerals, for whatever reason, consider buying mineral water to drink during your fast. It will contain minerals such as calcium, and magnesium, which are important for your body to function.
You CAN drink sparkling water if you wish.
Tea [Green, Black, Oolong, White tea etc]
Make sure you are drinking your tea with no sugar, including artificial sweeteners, or milk.
Green tea has been proven to have no end of health benefits, but the one you may be interested in is that it is supposed to feel full. Get all of the help where you can.
Black Coffee
Again, as with tea, your coffee needs to be consumed back, with no milk, creamer, sugar, or artificial sweeteners added.
Studies have proven that caffeine can actually support ketone production. However, for some, coffee can be too much on an empty stomach and can lead to tightness or knotting in the stomach.
Try out coffee on an empty stomach before beginning your IF, so you know whether to incorporate it into your If or not.
Apple Cidre Vinegar [ACV]
This can be a controversial one for those fasting. One tablespoon of ACV contains around 3 calories and is not going to spike your blood sugar.
ACV on its own can be very acidic, which may aggravate an empty stomach, this should be mixed 1 part ACV to 5 parts water.
Some people find that ACV can reduce hunger cravings.
My personal view on this is that in order to get the full benefit out of your fast, if you can, you should avoid ACV if possible. Keeping your fast as clean as possible is going to give you the best results.
Electrolyte Supplements
If you want, you can add electrolyte supplements to your intermittent fast, as long as they are zero-calorie. However, to keep things as simple as possible, if you feel like you need to add electrolytes to you fast, you can do so by mixing a pinch of pink Himalayan salt into your water.
This should help boost your electrolytes to get you through your fast.
What Drinks Should I Avoid When Intermittent Fasting?
This is simple, if it is not on our list above, you should not be drinking it during your intermittent fast. For reference, you should avoid the following during a fast;
- Sodas (including diet soda)
- Fruit Juices
- Cordials
- Milk (even keto-friendly milk)
- Alcohol
- Bone Broth
- Coconut Water
- Soups
- Keto coffee
In simple terms, you should not be drinking anything which awakens your digestion. This includes, ‘diet’ sodas, anything with artificial sweeteners which will cause an insulin response or anything that contains carbs, fat, or protein.
What Should I Eat When Intermittent Fasting?
Although what you drink during your fast is really important, getting your nutrition correct prior to a fast and post is essential.
Obviously, you cannot eat during your fast, however, you should ensure that your meals prior to your fast are nutrient-rich, keto-friendly meals that hit all of your macros. Check out our guide as to what to eat when intermittent fasting for more info.
In addition to what you eat before your fast, how you break your fast is also important. The reasons for this are twofold.
Firstly, you do not want to overburden your stomach with food after it has become used to not processing food. This can lead to stomach discomfort.
Secondly, you do not want to undo all of your hard work by eating the wrong foods. Check out our guide on how to break a fast for more on this.
Please remember to consult medical advice before undertaking a fast if you are on any medication, you have any health problems or any concerns at all.
If you are ready to get started with your IF, check out our guide to getting started with intermittent fasting.
Final Thoughts: What Can I Drink During Intermittent Fasting?
If you’ve made it this far, well done! You’re clearly serious about reaping the combined health benefits from keto and intermittent fasting. When it comes to your fast, don’t ruin all of your hard work by drinking the wrong thing. Stick to water, black tea, and black coffee and you will be safe. Avoid sodas and any flavored drinks and you will be laughing.
