Intermittent fasting is an approach to dieting that alternates between periods of eating and fasting. It involves consuming food within a specific time window, typically 16-24 hours. To facilitate intermittent fasting in your life, you could use a free fasting app by Lasta to track meals and suggest meal plans that will fit best into your lifestyle.
There are various approaches to intermittent fasting, but they all start with deciding on regular eating and fasting windows of time. You may, for instance, try eating only for eight hours each day and fasting for the other sixteen. Or you could decide to only eat one meal each day for two days per week. There are numerous variations of intermittent fasting plans.
For example, eating your meals between 12 pm to 8 pm, then exercising free fasting for the rest of the day. This method can help manage blood sugar levels, boost metabolism, and better control hunger cues.
By extending the time until your body has burnt through the calories from your most recent meal and starts burning fat, intermittent fasting works.
Weight loss and improved mental clarity are other benefits associated with intermittent fasting.
What are the Benefits of Intermittent Fasting & How Can Beverages Help You Reach Your Goals?
Intermittent fasting has become a popular dietary approach as it provides numerous health benefits, including improved weight loss and better management of blood sugar levels. While this style of eating can help jump-start your metabolism and more:
- Changes how hormones, cells, and genes work.
- Can lower insulin resistance, which lowers your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
- Can aid in weight loss and visceral fat reduction.
- Can lower the body’s oxidative stress and inflammation.
- Possibly preventing cancer.
- Has positive effects on the brain.
- May lengthen your life expectancy and make you live longer.
It’s important to plan nutritious beverages that will keep you energized and satisfied to reach your goals.
Incorporating certain beverages into your fasting meals can provide essential electrolytes needed for sustained energy, nourish you with vitamins and minerals, and help slow digestion by providing long-lasting satiety.
For energy, your body converts food into sugar or glucose. When there is a prolonged absence of food and glucose, your body instead breaks down fat to produce another energy source called ketones.
This is referred to as the metabolic switch, and studies indicate that switching between eating and fasting or using glucose and ketones alternately for energy may be advantageous.
Water or unsweetened tea can also be great additions to your meals as they are low in calories and won’t spike blood sugar levels like sugary drinks.
By selecting the right type of beverage to drink during intermittent fasting, one is sure to meet their desired results while promoting overall health and well-being.
What you Should Avoid While Fasting?
While fasting can be an incredibly rewarding experience and offer numerous benefits, a few things should be avoided to ensure you’re experiencing the most out of your fast.
Eating too many large meals when breaking your fast can lead to digestional discomfort. It is best to break your fast with smaller portions throughout the day while avoiding foods high in sugar or processed carbohydrates, as these can affect your blood sugar levels.
Additionally, it is important to stay hydrated during a fast but avoid beverages high in calories, such as juice or sugary drinks and instead stick to pure water or unsweetened teas. Doing so will give you a successful, nourishing experience from your fast.
Drinks that fizz
You should avoid diet and ordinary carbonated beverages when using intermittent fasting. However, remember that nutritionists advise against consuming unhealthy sugary alcoholic beverages even if you are not on a diet.
They have no nutritional value and are stuffed full of sugar and sweeteners. Carbonated beverages can increase both food cravings and the body’s capacity to accumulate fat.
Juices
Juices will affect your blood sugar similarly to other sweet foods because they include natural sugars and have a high caloric value.
Coconut Milk
While coconut water is advantageous when eating, it is not the ideal beverage to have when fasting. Consuming coconut water will end your fast because it includes simple carbs.
Milk
Milk is a hotly contested drink, but it all depends on how much you consume. In fact, if you’ve only recently begun fasting, a touch of milk might even aid you with hunger pangs.
Calories, natural sugars, and carbs can be found in dairy products. Milk will still cause an insulin response even though its protein and fat can decrease the rise in blood sugar levels.
Alcohol
Most dietitians advise against using alcohol at all, but if you do, try to consume it just when you are eating. Since alcoholic beverages include many calories, they will end your fast.
Additionally, they cause you to lose water and raise your blood sugar. When alcohol is consumed on an empty stomach, its effects are significantly amplified. Additionally, drinking alcohol will increase your appetite, hunger, and desires.
3 Best Drinks to Have During Your Fast
Water
Whether you engage in intermittent fasting or not, drinking water is necessary. Proper hydration contributes in weight loss and metabolic stimulation. You must, however, be mindful of the water you consume.
There is some processed and demineralized bottled water. You risk acquiring a mineral shortage if you drink demineralized or distilled bottled water, particularly in magnesium. Headaches may develop from this. Additionally, try to avoid distilled water and pick brands that don’t reverse the osmosis of their water.
Unlike regular bottled water, mineral water is not treated. Natural minerals like calcium and magnesium are present. Mineral water outperforms bottled water in terms of both immediate and long-term health advantages.
Lemon Water
If you don’t enjoy the taste of plain water, try flavoring it with lemon or lime. These citrus fruits have few calories and few carbs. Lemon water is a healthy alternative to ordinary tasteless water and boosts your metabolism like plain water.
Simply flavor your water with a few fruit wedges or a squeeze of lemon or lime. As long as the water is naturally flavored and has no calories, you can do it with carbonated water or a seltzer.
Green Tea
You could wish to switch to tea instead of coffee since it is a natural, calorie-free beverage with less caffeine than coffee. Ensure you sip plain tea using tea flakes, bags, or leaves.
Avoid including sweets because they will cause you to break your fast, such as sugar, milk, honey, or artificial sweeteners. The same is true for bottled iced tea; it is preferable to choose an unsweetened beverage as it typically contains a lot of sugar.
Unoxidized tea leaves are used to make green tea, which has potent catechins that can aid in calorie burning.
What Are Some Healthy Drink Alternatives that Won’t Break Your Fast?
Fasting can be a healthy practice. However, it’s important to ensure you stay hydrated.
- Unsweetened herbal teas like peppermint tea, rooibos, or chamomile have many health benefits and can provide some variety.
- Given that coffee is one of the most favored beverages in the world, this is understandable. It’s unclear whether or not it breaks a fast. On the one hand, black coffee offers just five calories per cup and very little protein and fat, which are known to help people break their fast and set their biological clocks in motion.
- Bone broth, vegetable juice or electrolyte beverages are also options for healthy drinks that won’t break your fast.
Whatever drink alternative you choose should be calorie-free and contain no added sugars or artificial sweeteners.
Conclusion: Follow These Tips to Safely Drink During Your Fast and Achieve Maximum Benefits!
If you’re participating in an intermittent fast, you may wonder how to drink safely during the fasting period.
The key is avoiding non-caloric beverages that can break the fast and hinder ketosis. Alcoholic beverages should be avoided altogether as alcohol negatively affects your body’s natural processes.
If you do decide to indulge, stick with drinks like herbal teas that are free of sugar and don’t have excessive calories. Also, stay hydrated with plenty of calorie-free water, which helps keep your metabolic rate high while keeping true to the fast.
By following these tips, you can reap the maximum benefits of your intermittent fast while maintaining safe drinking habits.