How Intermittent Fasting With Bulletproof Coffee Works
The basic principle of intermittent fasting is this: After 12 hours of holding on to fat, the body allows it to be released. By skipping one meal, or in this case enjoying bulletproof coffee for breakfast, a longer fast of 18 hours gives the body 6 hours to usher out fat and cleanse the liver.
Our digestive system is allowed to rest, which allows the body to remove fat cells and toxins!
As Tom Cowan says in his article for the Weston A. Price Foundation, in those final six hours you are creating an anti-inflammatory, anti-insulin and glucagon-rich environment. Its probably the best anti-aging strategy you can adopt. Cowan continues by saying that caffeinated coffee does not alter the hormonal process of intermittent fasting and may even help it.
No Black Coffee Wont Break Your Fast
The key with fasting is calorie count. As long as food or drink doesnt have calories, it wont break your fast.
That means black coffee is fine to pair with intermittent fasting. Technically it has about 4 calories per cup, due to natural oils and amino acids in the coffee beans but 4 calories is not enough to impact your fasted state.
That said, many coffee additions will break your fast. Milk, cream, collagen protein, sugar, creamer anything with calories will take your body out of fasting mode.
But as long as you drink it black , a morning cup of joe wont interfere with your fasting window. In fact, it may enhance some of the benefits of fasting.
Keiths Glucose Results: Equal
My glucose started at 101 mg/dL, went up to 114 mg/dL at 30 minutes, went back to 98 mg/dL at 60 minutes, and back up to 108 mg/dL at 120 minutes.
Again we see that result kind of bobbing around a little bit.
I think my Equal results were similar to the results of regular sugar.
I was in ketosis when we did the sugar test, I dropped out of ketosis and then bounced back in at the two-hour mark.
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What Can I Put In My Coffee That Won’t Break My Fast
The general rule for what to put in your coffee is that it basically has zero calories, says Keri Gans, RD, author of The Small Change Diet. In other words try and enjoy it black.
But having your coffee black just might not be your ~thing~ and thats okay. Keatley says you can add the following to your coffee and still not break your fast:
- A sprinkle of cinnamon
- A teensy bit of cocoa
- Low-calorie sweeteners like Splenda
Unfortunately, buzzy supplements such as collagen powder or MCT oil *can’t* be added to your cup of coffee, “as one serving does provide too many calories,” Gans says. Ditto for a splash of milk or unsweetened almond milk in your coffee, she addsit contains too many calories.
Can You Drink Coffee While Fasting Will It Break Your Fast
If youre trying out intermittent fasting or fasting for a medical test, you may wonder if youll have to forgo your favorite beverage. Can you drink coffee while fasting, or will it break your fast?
Were here to answer your questions about coffee and fasting. The good news is that you can drink coffee and maintain a fast with a few caveats. Keep reading to learn what you need to know!
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Prep For Fasting Labs
Other than water, food and drinks that you consume can add to or alter components in your blood that affect your sample and your doctor’s interpretation of your health.
Blood tests that need a dietary clean slate can include individual samples to measure blood glucose, as explained by the Cleveland Clinic, cholesterol or triglyceride levels or multiple screens such as lipid or basic metabolic panels.
You might also need to fast if your doctor merges nonfasting tests such as complete blood counts and checks for enzymes, vitamin D or other nutrient levels with tests that do require fasting. Some blood work, such as glucose tolerance tests, is performed on two or more separate occasions to ensure accuracy.
The investigating laboratory may instruct you not to eat after dinner the night before and to hold off on your morning breakfast, coffee or tea until after the blood draw.
Will Bulletproof Coffee Break Your Fast
I’m not a fan of adding oil to coffee. Here’s why:
Will it break my fast if I add cream to my coffee? What if I add coconut oil to my coffee? What about Bulletproof coffee?
- 1 tbsp. of half-and-half cream: 20 calories, 1.7 g fat, 0.6 g carbs, and 0.4 g protein
- 1 tbsp. of coconut oil: 120 calories and 14 grams of fat
Even if you put a splash of cream in your coffee you will still be okay. Fasting works because it keeps your insulin levels low enough to allow fat burning to occur.
Coconut oil will not cause your insulin levels to rise. So technically, yes, you can have the coconut oil during your fast and it wont elevate your insulin levels.
If you start eating spoonfuls from the jar of coconut oil, it is unlikely you will be in caloric deficit by the time you finish your fasting and feeding period and therefore, you will not lose fat! Also, you must not forget to count this coconut oil toward your total calories and your fat macros for the day.
Quite frankly, Id rather not include coconut oil in my fast, staying as close to zero calories as possible so I can benefit from fat oxidation and then indulge during my eating window on all my permitted calories and macros! Besides, fasting has a suppressive effect on hunger, so your need to eat something is purely psychological. And once you eat something, it will stimulate your hunger! So think twice! Grab a calorie-free drink instead!
Is Bulletproof coffee good or bad? Here’s my opinion:
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Coffee For Each Type Of Fast
People fast for different purposes, and even black coffee can be harmful for fasting in some cases. Heres what you need to know about each type of fast and coffee.
- Can I drink coffee while fasting for gut rest?We have bad news: Coffee stimulates gastrin and triggers gut activity and gastrin, making it off limits for those fasting for gut health. If you cant live without it, try a delicious low acid coffee for minimal side effects.
- Can I drink coffee on the 16:8 diet?Yes, you can drink coffee on the 16:8 diet, even outside your eating window. The official protocol also allows for a splash of milk in your cup of joe.
- Can I drink coffee while fasting for longevity?If youre fasting to reduce inflammation, promote autophagy, and limit the effects of aging, its likely ok to drink black coffee . Just be sure to limit your intake!
- Can I drink coffee on the 5:2 fasting schedule?The 5:2 fasting method restricts caloric intake on 2 days of the week, rather than eliminating calories during certain hours. As long as you stay within your caloric limits, you can have coffee, even with additives.
- Can I drink coffee while fasting for metabolic health/weight loss?If youre fasting for metabolic reasons or to reduce body fat, its likely safe for you to drink small amounts of black coffee. Experts are divided on bulletproof coffee and adding cream and sugar, so if you want to play it safe, skip those options.
Keiths Ketone Results: Equal
Keith:
So for my ketones, I actually started at 0.8 mmol/L that morning.
I was super excited, and then I realized that I had to drink coffee with dextrose, maltodextrin, and aspartame in it.
*Sigh*
At 30 minutes I dropped to 0.5 mmol/L, then I dropped to 0.4 mmol/L at 60 minutes. So I was technically out of ketosis at that point.
Then 120 minutes I popped back up to 0.6 mmol/L.
So, that was kind of interesting.
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Keiths Glucose Results: Stevia
My glucose started at 94 mg/dL, it went up a little bit to 99 mg/dL at 30 minutes, it went down a little bit to 89 mg/dL at 60 minutes, and then at the 120 mark I was at 93 mg/dL.
Almost the same glucose as I started with.
Again, I did not seem to have a big glucose change with this, but it did drop me out of ketosis.
Overall, the results of our stevia test were not major numbers. They were kind of major for me, but not major in the long run.
However, if we compare that to my findings with just black coffee, the black coffee did not do anything to my ketones.
So, that is kind of a thing, but it is especially interesting when you look at black coffees effect on my glucose.
My blood glucose dropped 29 points with only black coffee and nothing else over a two-hour period.
So again, if you just look at this data, it does not seem to have done too much, right?
Becky:
However, when we compare our results from black coffee with stevia to our results from black coffee by itself, I had a better ketone response with black coffee alone.
You had a better glucose response from coffee alone.
+ Gut Microbe Metabolism
Researchers recently found that coffee consumption increases levels of health-promoting compounds in the body that are produced as gut microbes break down antioxidant plant compounds in coffee! Coffee contains polyphenols, ring-shaped compounds that absorb ultraviolet and other light and protect the body against free radicals. There are many polyphenols in nature including catechins in wine, tea, apples, grapes, blueberries etc. isoflavones found in soybeans and chlorogenic acid found in coffee.
Coffee and its polyphenols can promote the growth and metabolic activity of healthy gut microbes including Bifidobacterium and Akkermansia species.
hen overweight or obese people undergo calorie-restricted diet therapy, the effect of improving insulin resistance has been reported to be more pronounced in humans with a higher abundance of Akkermansia in the intestine. Polyphenols derived from cranberries have also been reported to increase the abundance of Akkermansia, as well as help suppress obesity, insulin resistance, and intestinal inflammation. A next-generation beneficial microbe: Akkermansia muciniphila
Coffees impact on the activity of healthy gut microbes might even be tied to its positive impacts on risk and symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinsons disease and Alzheimers disease.
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Will Coffee Ruin A Fasting Blood Test
Can you drink coffee if youre fasting before a blood test? Even if you drink it black, coffee can interfere with blood test results. Thats because it contains caffeine and soluble plant matter, which might skew your test results. Coffee is also a diuretic, which means that it will increase how much you pee.
Can You Drink Black Coffee While Fasting
Yes. You can, and should, drink black coffee while fasting. Drinking black coffee is the only way to ensure you dont break your fast, especially if you are still in your fasting window.
If youre not a fan of black coffee, you can consider flavored coffee or a few drops of liquid stevia to sweeten it.
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How Bulletproof Coffee Affects Fasting
Bulletproof coffee is blended with grass-fed butter, and often contains calorie-dense MCT oil, which the body converts to ketones. Individuals following the ketogenic diet typically use this buttery blend for an added fat boost.
However, coming in at an average of 320 calories per cup, its important to consume bulletproof coffee in moderation while fasting. And if youre fasting for autophagy or longevity, you may want to stick to black coffee consumption instead.
+ Circadian Clock Melatonin
Something all individuals practicing intermittent fasting should be aware of is that caffeine in coffee can reset our daily or circadian biological rhythms. Intermittent fasting also impacts of our circadian rhythms, usually in a positive way if we eat in tune with our daylight and active hours and fast longer overnight. But drinking coffee, especially later in the day, can delay our circadian melatonin rhythms by 40 minutes or more depending on the dose. Cyclic AMP actually plays a role here too the rising and lowering of cAMP levels helps our cells keep time, so to speak. By preventing the degradation of cAMP, caffeine lengthens the period of cellular circadian rhythms.
In other words, when exposed to caffeine our cells go through a kind of jetlag where their days get longer.
In summary, caffeine intake in the form of coffee can impact our circadian rhythms and lower our production of melatonin, the sleep hormone. Its best for this reason to confine your coffee intake to early in the day, especially if improved sleep is one of the benefits youd like to glean from your daily intermittent fasting practice.
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Testing Sweeteners In Coffee And Intermittent Fasting: #2 Sweetnlow
Keith:
Hypothesis number two:
HYPOTHESIS #2: SWEETN LOW
Coffee with SweetNLow will not knock us out of ketosis or raise our blood glucose.
Becky:
SweetNLows first ingredient, interestingly enough, is dextrose.
Dextrose is one of those hidden names for sugar.
Next on the ingredient list, we have saccharin, which is the artificial sweetener. Saccharin has kind of a checkered past.
Is Saccharin Safe To Consume?
Tab soda was the first thing that I remember it from. That was a real early American diet soda, and it had a terrible after taste. Then it kind of got on the bad list, and now it is kind of back on the good list.
Keith:
It was unfairly labeled because the studies they did were on grossly overdosed rats, and they found out it did not translate to humans later on.
So I think it is thought of as basically safe at this point.
Becky:
Still definitely not health food.
So we put a packet and a half of SweetNLow in our coffee because, according to their official website, it is the equivalent of a tablespoon of sugar.
What were our results?
Intermittent Fasting: Coffee With Sweetener
The most common sweeteners are aspartame in Diet Coke, acesulfame-K in Coke Zero, and sucralose in Splenda.
None of them provide carbohydrates, proteins, or calories. Nevertheless, studies show that they increase insulin levels significantly.
For example, sucralose increases insulin levels by around 20 percent .
While aspartame, the classic sweetener in diet soda, does not affect blood sugar, it can increase insulin levels more than regular sugar .
Moreover, the artificial sweetener acesulfame potassium in zero drinks increases insulin levels in the same fashion as glucose does .
Therefore, in addition to a variety of other side effects, these sweeteners prevent fat burning.
Hence, artificial sweeteners are no safe option during intermittent fasting.
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Does Coffee Break Intermittent Fasting
Does coffee break intermittent fasting?Black coffee does not break intermittent fasting, as long as there are no additives. Studies have found that low-calorie or zero-calorie coffee beverages do not affect IFs health benefits.
However, other types of coffee may have a detrimental effect on your fast. Heres what to know before you sip.
Does Coffee Help Trigger Autophagy Faster
Now that you know that coffee may be helpful in triggering autophagy, you may be wondering if there are other autophagy triggers that can help your body in the detoxification process. Many people find that black coffee is a delicious way to fast without feeling deprived, but for those who cant fast, some alternatives may be helpful. Some of the compounds that may help induce autophagy include:
- Green tea
- Ceylon cinnamon
- Dark chocolate
Some people like to drink what they refer to as bulletproof coffee, a concoction of coffee mixed with MCT oil and butter. This combination is rumored to help stimulate the body, help it burn fat, and feel satisfied. Not only may it help trigger autophagy, but it may also have added benefits like protection against liver disease, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, various forms of cancer, and Parkinsons Disease. With the added health bonuses like antioxidant effects, weight loss, and reduced mortality, it may seem like a no-brainer to drink a lot of coffee, but there are side effects to drinking too much coffee. Increased anxiety, insomnia, irregular heartbeat, and reduced sleep cycles can all happen with too much consumption.
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Answers To The Most Common Intermittent Fasting Questions
Welcome to the first Reader Mailbag!
Im taking a page from the playbook of one of my favorite sportswriters, Bill Simmons, and answering a boatload of your questions today.
Questions are rolling in all the time mostly through the free newsletter or and I love hearing from you. Keep them coming! I’m happy to help however I can.
My hope is that this mailbag will bring useful answers together in one place and make it easier for you to find the information you need to make the changes you want. My goal is always to make it easier for you to lose fat, gain muscle, and live healthy.
Boom. Lets get this party rolling.
As always, these are real emails from real readers.
Free Bonus:
What Else Can I Drink While I’m In A Fasted State
Obviously, you can drink wateryou can even punch it up with some fresh fruit or a squeeze of lemon for flavor as long as you arent actually eating the fruit. But Boules says you can also reach for unsweetened tea, which is zero calories without anything extra added to it.
What you cant drink, however, are things like fruit juices, green juices, or smoothies. This trips people up sometimes, because we tend to think stuff in liquid form is calorie-free, just like water. But juices and smoothies are made with food, which means they have enough calories to break your fast.
The whole idea behind the alleged health-promoting benefits is actually fasting , says Boules. consuming something caloric during fasting hours in the form of sweetened beverages, juices, or smoothies, you’re not fasting.
Remember, the whole concept of intermittent fasting relies on a prolonged, uninterrupted period of not consuming any calories .
Most people opt for a 16:8 dietfasting for 16 hours per day and eating during an 8-hour windowthough it’s not totally clear as of now if 16 hours of intermittent fasting is the magic number of fasting hours to see weight-loss results. But, that’s a reasonable rule to follow until science reveals more about IF.
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