Breaking the Fast

Hey everyone. If I drink coffee in the morning with a small amount of stevia, cream, and beef collagen, does this break my fast? The cream is  full fat and is not very much. 

If drinking this does break the fast, is it the cream? I heard consuming fats does not break it, but wanted to get other opinions. Let me know!!!

From what I understand, anything except water breaks your fast, including all non-water beverages. 

Consuming fats does break the fast, because a fast is just that: no food, no calories. So yeah, just water. Why do you want to fast though? Eating your fats in the morning breaks the fast but it's not necessarily a problem.

So even drinking black coffee would be breaking the fast? When I say fast, I mean using an intermittent fasting approach. I am intrigued by the idea of allowing your body to have some rest with digestion, and I normally don't eat breakfast anyways due to my schedule. I drink coffee in the morning with what I listed above, and don't eat actual food till about 11am. I was curious if this would be considered an intermittent fasting approach, or am I just taking in a small amount of calories in the morning, but not actually getting the benefits of intermittent fasting.

Think of consuming anything except water as starting the stopwatch, Wesley. The second you sip that black coffee, your eating window begins. 

I believe your fast is over once anything with calories is involved. Black coffee has minimal calories but all the other stuff does. If you are into the ketogenic diet, you might still be in ketosis if you take out the stevia. Only way to know that is to test your ketone levels. 

First: you have time to make coffee and not breakfast? sounds to me like your lazy and you found a diet to fit it. 

To the question: Coffee mobilizes energy stores so while it is "calorie free" it can take you out of your fast. On that note: what fast? Just because you don't eat for a period of time (assuming 10-18 hours) does not mean energy partitioning changes. 

The beef, cream and stevia to a small extent will take you out of a fast. 

A fast is just burning muscle and fat for energy(no, not just fat) so anytime you give the body a substitute it will take it. 

I don't really like to eat right when I wake up. I am a teacher, so if I don't eat right when I wake up, then I have to wait a few hours till my next opportunity. I am just trying to find the best morning routine that is not eating a big breakfast.

Thank you for the great knowledge Jeff. 

Hi Wesley, many people who fast don t consider drinking black coffe as breaking the fast because it has a very low amount of calories. In my opinion drinking or not black coffe during the fasting hours just depend on why are you exactly doing the fast, I mean what are your main reasons to do it. If as for the most of the people they are just getting leaner, or bulking without adding too much fat, then certainly drinking coffe won t be a problem, actually it might help you and you won t feel hungry. But if you are just doing it to get the best health related result of giving full rest to the digestive system, then certainly it s better not to drink the coffe and of course anything else.

I am also a teacher and i follow a time restriction feeding, my first meal is at 2.30 pm and normally I don t drink anything before. I ve lost a lot of fat without loosing any muscle. So far I ve just used to cut it, but i don t know if it will be possible for me eating even maintenance caloric in just 8 hours, so whenever I decide it is enough probably I will add another meal at 11.30 pm, but definetely no breakfast. Breakfast is gone of my life! And very happy about it! Also fasted training has resulted something wonderful! I feel plenty of energy and I can work way much harder.

Dr. Satchin Panda has been doing interesting research on our bodies various circadian clocks. He has found that consuming anything except water resets peripheral circadian clocks, including those in the gut, and can affect the master clock. His research mainly pertains to time restricted feeding and he has discovered there are many potential health benefits to be enjoyed by confining all non-water consumption to an 8-12 hour. One of these benefits is improved sleep quality.

Mycircadianclock.org is his website and is worth checking out.

I ll check it! thanks!

Breakfast is out of the question for me as well. The least important meal of the day... I have been only drinking water with a tbsp on apple cider vinegar and some Himalayan sea salt until I hit the 12 hour mark, where I eat my first meal of protein, fat, and veggies. It has been making me feel pretty good thus far, but too early to tell. I have no problem with my body fat levels, so that is not the reason I am doing this. I just want my digestive system to have time to rest, and want to ensure I have high energy levels throughout the day.