Intermittent Fasting (IF)
leahborst88
Posts: 1 Member
I've seen a few articles about this recently, eating over an 8 hour period and fasting for 16 hours.
I want to give this a try but....I have fallen in love with having breakfast every morning. But if I eat a hearty breakfast shortly after waking, by the end of my day, I am fasting and will go to bed hangry!
My question is, If I adjust my breakfast to a simple cup of coffee and wait till around 10 am to eat... can I add creamer to my coffee?
Since the creamer has calories, will it count as food intake and throw off the benefits of a 16 hour fast?
I want to give this a try but....I have fallen in love with having breakfast every morning. But if I eat a hearty breakfast shortly after waking, by the end of my day, I am fasting and will go to bed hangry!
My question is, If I adjust my breakfast to a simple cup of coffee and wait till around 10 am to eat... can I add creamer to my coffee?
Since the creamer has calories, will it count as food intake and throw off the benefits of a 16 hour fast?
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Replies
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IF doesn’t magically shed pounds, it’s just a tool to assist you in eating less. If you’re eating meals throughout the day you’re more likely to take in more calories than if you have two smaller meals or even one giant meal during one half of your day. Feel free to have the creamer, make sure to count those as part of your macros, but don’t consider it as breaking your fast.4
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You will get many different responses and they will probably all be right in a way. I ran across this video recently that deals with this question. https://youtube.com/watch?v=iAv-1UHHjeg The purest will say anything but water will break a fast but if you use heavy whipping cream you should be okay. But if you do multiple cups all bets are off. I have been playing around with skipping my big breakfast on the weekends and it not too difficult for me. I am on a keto or LCHF WOE and from what I have read the fat adaption of this WOE makes fasting a little less stressful from a hunger standpoint. I am hoping to work up to a 24 hour fast next followed by a 36 hour after that. That way I can get all of the magic out of it.13
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Nope if your fasting you can’t have anything but water
This is really a matter of individual choice. There are plenty of people who consider themselves to be doing IF who are having coffee in the morning. If OP finds it works better for them, there's no reason why they shouldn't do it.5 -
Your preferred style of eating may mean IF is not a great fit for you. IF doesn't do anything special for fat loss other than help you control calorie intake. If it doesn't suite you, no need to do it.6
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The main reason to skip breakfast is because you aren't hungry in the morning or eating tends to trigger your appetite. Seems like those are the people for whom that form of "IF" (if we want to be fancy) works best.
So the question would be whether coffee with creamer triggers the appetite. My guess is that it would not, although I personally dislike creamer and like my coffee black.
If you enjoy breakfast and don't mind skipping dinner, you also might want to consider whether you were eating enough to satisfy you at breakfast and lunch (or hungry later due to low calories). But if it doesn't work, it doesn't work.5 -
I have done the 16:8 fasting and you are allowed water, black coffee or tea, or have been told by many you can have water with organic apple cider vinegar and a little lemon juice and cinnamon. Its really not that bad of a drink either and helps keep you full. I started to try and do this again but find even with coffee or the vinegar drink by 10:30 im starvingggg and usually cave and eat around then or 11 but when i did it before, the fasting plus watching what i ate and drinking apple cider vinegar before bed (flushed me out it seemed) and in the a.m, I dropped a few lbs each week quicker than any other method i have tried. Nothing wrong with trying it!13
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leahborst88 wrote: »I've seen a few articles about this recently, eating over an 8 hour period and fasting for 16 hours.
I want to give this a try but....I have fallen in love with having breakfast every morning. But if I eat a hearty breakfast shortly after waking, by the end of my day, I am fasting and will go to bed hangry!
My question is, If I adjust my breakfast to a simple cup of coffee and wait till around 10 am to eat... can I add creamer to my coffee?
Since the creamer has calories, will it count as food intake and throw off the benefits of a 16 hour fast?
There are no benefits to a 16 hour fast, other than if restricting your calorie consumption to a specific time of the day helps you reduce your over-all daily intake.
A coffee with creamer for breakfast is irrelevant providing the total of your daily intake allows you to remain the calorie deficit required to lose weight.10 -
You will get many different responses and they will probably all be right in a way. I ran across this video recently that deals with this question. https://youtube.com/watch?v=iAv-1UHHjeg The purest will say anything but water will break a fast but if you use heavy whipping cream you should be okay. But if you do multiple cups all bets are off. I have been playing around with skipping my big breakfast on the weekends and it not too difficult for me. I am on a keto or LCHF WOE and from what I have read the fat adaption of this WOE makes fasting a little less stressful from a hunger standpoint. I am hoping to work up to a 24 hour fast next followed by a 36 hour after that. That way I can get all of the magic out of it.
What 'magic' would that be?
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KristaMac88 wrote: »I have done the 16:8 fasting and you are allowed water, black coffee or tea, or have been told by many you can have water with organic apple cider vinegar and a little lemon juice and cinnamon. Its really not that bad of a drink either and helps keep you full. I started to try and do this again but find even with coffee or the vinegar drink by 10:30 im starvingggg and usually cave and eat around then or 11 but when i did it before, the fasting plus watching what i ate and drinking apple cider vinegar before bed (flushed me out it seemed) and in the a.m, I dropped a few lbs each week quicker than any other method i have tried. Nothing wrong with trying it!
If you dropped weight during this time, it's only because you were also eating less than your body burned in a day. The ACV, lemon, cinnamon - in and of itself - had absolutely nothing to do with it unless it prevented you from wanting to eat.
For me, drinking ACV kills my will to live, let alone eat.
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leahborst88 wrote: »I've seen a few articles about this recently, eating over an 8 hour period and fasting for 16 hours.
I want to give this a try but....I have fallen in love with having breakfast every morning. But if I eat a hearty breakfast shortly after waking, by the end of my day, I am fasting and will go to bed hangry!
My question is, If I adjust my breakfast to a simple cup of coffee and wait till around 10 am to eat... can I add creamer to my coffee?
Since the creamer has calories, will it count as food intake and throw off the benefits of a 16 hour fast?
If you're having trouble with going to bed hungry, you might take a less restrictive approach and consider eating smaller portions of what you usually eat at each meal so that you have enough calories in the evening to feel comfortable. That way you still have breakfast to look forward to each morning (I can relate
) while still managing your hunger at the end of the day. 2 -
snickerscharlie wrote: »You will get many different responses and they will probably all be right in a way. I ran across this video recently that deals with this question. https://youtube.com/watch?v=iAv-1UHHjeg The purest will say anything but water will break a fast but if you use heavy whipping cream you should be okay. But if you do multiple cups all bets are off. I have been playing around with skipping my big breakfast on the weekends and it not too difficult for me. I am on a keto or LCHF WOE and from what I have read the fat adaption of this WOE makes fasting a little less stressful from a hunger standpoint. I am hoping to work up to a 24 hour fast next followed by a 36 hour after that. That way I can get all of the magic out of it.
What 'magic' would that be?
I thought that every post whether it is pro IF or against IF required the word magic be used at least once.6 -
leahborst88 wrote: »I've seen a few articles about this recently, eating over an 8 hour period and fasting for 16 hours.
I want to give this a try but....I have fallen in love with having breakfast every morning. But if I eat a hearty breakfast shortly after waking, by the end of my day, I am fasting and will go to bed hangry!
My question is, If I adjust my breakfast to a simple cup of coffee and wait till around 10 am to eat... can I add creamer to my coffee?
Since the creamer has calories, will it count as food intake and throw off the benefits of a 16 hour fast?
The major benefit of IF is that it may help control your appetite. So there's no harm in trying it out! Try it first drinking your coffee, and see how it goes. Give it a few days, and if it's making it easier for you to hit your calorie goal, you've got it. If you are too hungry in the AM, try skipping the creamer for a few days, and see if that works.
If neither controls your appetite, and you are uncomfortably hungry in the morning, IF might not be a great idea for you. I was eating between 12-8ish for almost 2 years, basically because I simply wasn't hungry in the morning. Then one day I just started being super hungry every morning, no idea why! So I spread my meals back out and have been eating like that ever since. Didn't see any change in my calorie needs, just different hunger patterns. Good luck!2 -
KristaMac88 wrote: »I have done the 16:8 fasting and you are allowed water, black coffee or tea, or have been told by many you can have water with organic apple cider vinegar and a little lemon juice and cinnamon. Its really not that bad of a drink either and helps keep you full. I started to try and do this again but find even with coffee or the vinegar drink by 10:30 im starvingggg and usually cave and eat around then or 11 but when i did it before, the fasting plus watching what i ate and drinking apple cider vinegar before bed (flushed me out it seemed) and in the a.m, I dropped a few lbs each week quicker than any other method i have tried. Nothing wrong with trying it!
I don't understand "you are allowed."
Who makes these rules that determine what you are and are not allowed to do?6 -
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snickerscharlie wrote: »
Well said Snickers. And actually in a religious context (Ramadan for example) you aren’t even allowed water! So if the PP wants to get all technical and say if you are fasting you can only have water then even he is wrong!
But back on topic, I’m with the majority: intermittent fasting isn’t magical, there are no benefits unless it helps you stay in your calorie goal and what time you use creamer is irrelevant.
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This is a pretty darn good study about intermittent fasting. It takes a little time to carefully study.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5064803/
I’ve been diligently practicing IF for about 75 consecutive days. Have done so in the past. My average feeding window is about 3 hours. I try to be done eating by 5:00 pm.
It’s all about picking foods wisely to be satisfied. I’m eating a lot of avocados, very satisfied and not hungry late at night.2
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