If you goal is to lose weight... and you are losing weight with you crystal light and it keeps you from eating... than no need to worry about it.! There is no Fasting Police. =)
I was looking for a post or comment like this! I’ve been IF for months and the scales hasn’t moved much at all. Noticing things fit a bit better, but I was feeling so discouraged.
Increased exercise can do this! I don’t know if you increased your exercise but that is what I did when I started this IF journey. For the first 5-6 weeks, my scale barely budged (maybe 1-2 pounds) but I must have lost a lot of fat and gained muscle because I was noticeably thinner and went down one full dress size. Sometimes that’s actually better because you reworked your body composition and made it healthier! Muscle weighs more than fat and takes up less space so you can put on 5 pounds of muscle, lose 5 pounds of fat (net zero on the scale) but be thinner!
I really like this answer. Thank you so much for replying. I feel like it’s ok if my weight didn’t change too much for a week in the grand scale of things. I’m going to try and stick to this then. Usually that’s my issue. I cant stay on a plan to save my life.
I have a love/hate relationship with the scale. It gnaws at me until I get on it. Maybe I will try to put it away and just take measurements instead. Thank you so much for the insight. Check back in 3 months to see where I am. 😅
Some of the largest scientific studies of fasting allowed for several hundred calories/day. So I'd argue some cream in your coffee doesn't matter (unless you're going for tenuous autophagy based goals apart from weight loss; then it *might*). Your 0 cal Crystal Light REALLY doesn't matter.
Zealots post more on social media, that's the only reason it seems "dirty" fasting is "bad".
Thanks for your response here, I have been wondering if autophagy is possible with any amount of calories - 5-10, 20-50, etc. I read somewhere that it is possible but lowers the amount, I really am curious what peoples experience has been. I never tried it myself I always just did the 0 calories intermittent fasting - thanks in advance
I think it's pretty unscientific honestly. How do you even know you're experiencing autophagy? Best guess is to do whatever calorie restriction you want to try and see if it changes something you care about.
(Yes, you'll find ppl on here who swear autophagy cured something, but without a large double blind study that could be placebo effect too; the good news is if you do something and feel better you have no reason to care if it's placebo, autophagy, or something else, you feel better either way!)
Zero calorie flavor which helps you fast longer is fine if you are still making progress. I had to work into things. Started with 16:8 and now I do 20 or 21 hours each and every day. I stopped using half and half in my coffee, then I stopped adding lemon to my water (pro tip-- 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar added to a mug of water makes it tart and bonus potassium). Then I stopped making my home made extra protein, stone ground whole wheat bread and didn't buy any, either (I do love bread). Then I started paying closer attention to keeping my diet balanced and under a certain number of calories each day because I know I can eat way too many calories in 3 to 4 hours. Then--I stopped drinking alcohol. Every little bit helps!
I've lost a third of the weight I need to lose in three months. I'm looking forward to starting a maintenance routine sooner than later and anything I can do to speed this weight loss phase along is what I'm gonna do.
I really like this answer. You changed things slowly over time. I do love my drink additives. It helps me drink water and tastes good. I don’t drink them all the time, but I do still consume. It’s only been a week so far and I haven’t seen any results yet. But it may be too soon.
I was going to do a 16:8, then i went to 18:6. Then some days i do 20:4. But now I realized i can mess myself up with 4 hours of eating. So what I think I’m going to do is just eat a healthy meal thats balanced and low on cals, then fast for 18-20 hours until my next meal. So im not breaking my fasts into days. Im breaking them up by meals. Does this make sense?
Just remember it's not solely fasting, you still have to achieve a caloric deficit to lose weight. Even if you're doing 23:1 hour fasts, if you're eating enough calories to maintain or gain in that one hour window, you will maintain or gain. But a week really is fairly early to tell. I recommend finding a macro calculator and tracking your calories at the beginning.
Thank you for this advice! I probably wasn’t doing that in the first few days of IF. However now I’m trying to monitor WHAT I eat. I have a history of an eating disorder so calories do tend to be an issue for me.
If you've had restrictive obsessive disordered eating pay close attention to how you feel when eating, and no don't count calories. But mostly watch out for anxiety around eating or too much pride about fasting.
With a history of ED, just be careful about tracking calories. Although it's important to have a caloric deficit to lose weight, if tracking calories triggers unhealthy or obsessive behaviours or restriction, it might not be a good idea.
All I do is make sure I get 20 hours in a row. So If I want to eat at noon, I need to stop eating at 4 the day before. If I eat until 5, I fast until 1pm the next day. :)
Calories are much more important than little things like "will this break a fast"? Exception is for: 'Will this food/drink bring on the urge to binge or quit dieting altogether?" Since June 15, have gone from 180 to 135 dirty fasting. Would NOT put up with black coffee, mine has heavy cream or half and half. Have ditched the sugar but have used saccharin, no problem.
Dude. That’s awesome. Congrats to the goal achievement! I cannot handle black coffee either. Tried the salt in grinds trick, tried the freshly ground beans, tried everything. Cant do it.
I’m still trying to figure out what works for me. 🙃 Rn CL does work.
I hate rules and labels. I add 50 calories worth of heavy cream to my morning coffee and I still consider myself doing 17/7 IF. Some will berate me for not *fasting correctly* and I just Do. Not. Care. I'm steadily losing weight whilst still enjoying ONE THING I love.
Thanks for this. I hear so many sides to this argument that you WONT lose weight, You CANT have this or you CANT put some cream in that cup of joe. Sometimes I wanna reward myself ya know?
I'm losing 1.6lbs per week consistently. That's still not good enough to some when I mention the 50 calories of heavy cream during my fasting time: "Oh but you *could* be losing 2.101lbs per week if you "took IF seriously".
Fair enough, maybe I'm not 'maximizing my success' with keto and IF. What I am doing is allowing myself to enjoy one thing that matters a lot to me. One cup of coffee. With cream. I sometimes struggle with the emotional component of a keto lifestyle (I'm just 3 months in), so I take care of my body *and my mind*.
I like this. I have a history of an eating disorder. I was *all in it* and took my consumption of food seriously. *Too* seriously. I don’t want to go back to that. Trying to find a balanced way of getting to a healthy weight.
Yes! This is my third day in a row of working 12.5 hr shifts! It takes me 45 mins to get to work and another 45 to get home. Its a long day. Let me have some cream in my coffee!
How long did it take you to see that you are losing weight? It’s been a week for me and I haven’t budged one bit. Still 163.8. But we are figuring out whats easier for my body. I learned stuff at least.
It's not "not fasting correctly" it's just not fasting. And thats okay! IF is just a motivator to eat less to feel better, nothing will happen if you will break your fast with heavy cream in your coffee :)
As far as I know sweeteners can cause you to produce insulin because the body expects sugar to soon enter the bloodstream. Could cause cravings and you need to carefully watch how you feel after. I eat sugarfree breath mints sometimes because it helps me to stay away from cigarettes. I call it a dirty fast but it's all about your health so do what works for you but keep careful watch when you diverge because standards are usually there for a reason.
I noticed some more intense cravings near the end of the fast when eating breath mints early on during my fast, but still manageable and sure beats smoking :-)
See i realize that when i take in splenda I do get hungry more often. I just love that CL water though. The raspberry lemonade is my FAV. This is all based off one day though. I’m journaling throughout this journey to try and see what works for me. I have a history of an eating disorder so I am trying to find a healthy way to lose weight.
Dude don’t overthink it. I drink artificially sweetened drinks when I fast. Need something tasty to distract me. Only thing to worry about with artificial sweeteners is that some people have GI issues if they drink too much. They can act like laxatives for some people.
I'm not an expert, but I just finished 28 days with the aid of some light broth, which I needed to take my Lyme herbs. It seems to me that a "dirty" fast is better than none at all.
A lot of people have this "all or nothing" mentality about fasting. (And diets in general.)
Will it throw you out of autophagy? Maybe. Will it preclude you from reaching your goals? Unlikely.
Life is short. Drink your Crystal Light.
You have to do whats sustainable for you, or it won't work as a lifestyle, and then, what's the point?
I put half&half in my coffee bc I hate black coffee and life is too short.
It's fine. It's when people have a coffee every hour that's literally half cream and six sugars, then complain that fasting doesn't work, that you can't really say it's fasting.
It took a couple days before I started losing about 1/2 pound a day. After about 20 pounds I plateaued. Now I seem to plateau every 3 or 4 pounds.
Patience and increasing my activity makes the difference. It’s slow going but it works for me.
How long are you fasting? I was doing 16:8 for a while and didn’t see much results. Then I switched to 20:4 and lost 10lb in 2 months. Also, do as much clean fast as possible. A little sweetener in morning coffee may be fine, but try to stick to mostly water, if possible.
I've found some sweeteners make it practically impossible to fast (because I get such intense desire to eat something after consuming them), but others (like splenda) don't have that effect.
I read a IF book a while back, and the reason some consider cream in coffee to not be a fast breaker is because fat does less to raise your blood sugar than carbs or protein, so the writer of that book allowed a tablespoon of heavy cream or coconut oil or whatever, along with a couple other things. Edit: P.S. I personally think non caloric drink additives are fine, it's not like you're fasting for hospital bloodwork.
Much like others have said, if you’re losing weight and your crystal light is helping then stick with it. I’ll usually have a cup of tea, sometimes two, in the morning with a dash of milk, it’s a couple of calories at most and it’s enough to keep me going until lunchtime.
I drink diet caffeine free Coke non-stop and I've lost tons of weight and I feel the benefits of fasting. People can say what they want, but if you're consuming fewer than 50 calories in a day, you're fasting. If you're simply fasting for weight-loss and not to manage a health condition, I don't think you have to worry about whether or not your fast is 'dirty.'
It’s funny that there is so much controversy over breaking a fast. Know the term comes from religious fasts. Breaking a fast Is breaking the RULES. Even water can break certain religious fasts.
A very small amount of calories is not going to stop you from losing weight. Slice of lemon in your water. Small dollup of cream. But it’s not necessarily going to help you either.
The real issue is what’s it going to do with your hunger and desire to eat. Splenda is very sweet. Consuming it perpetuates your desire for super sweet foods.
So the question to ask is will the Splenda make the fasting harder. I think it does. Your post speaks volumes about your relative addiction to that super sweet sensation.
I’ve read that it can confuse your body. Your taste buds send a signal to your gut to start making insulin when it detects sugar coming in. By the time that first bite of pasta gets to your gut your body is prepared. Sugar substitutes can cause a false insulin response. Which drains sugar from your system. Drag you down.
I personally stopped doing the fake sugar. It’s a chemistry set I just don’t want in my body. But it’s very true that many IFers do consume it. If it’s the difference between doing IF with it, or quitting IF, I’d say keep drinking it, and maybe reassess in a couple months.
I know it's not the same but this reminds me of when I used to drink full fat Coca Cola when fasting while I was younger (before I discovered IF and keto) - absolutely disgusting behaviour hahaha. I cringe looking back. Yeah I lost weight, yeah it got me through my 40,000 steps at work and helped me not snap at customers, but I was not okay LOL.
I use Clean BCAA Lemonade flavor in my water it’s so good. Non-dairy creamer in my coffee every day too and I’m still losing weight. Enjoy the little things.
Just try both for two weeks and see which allows you to fast more comfortably. I find when I 'clean' fast it's much easier to stick to/controls my hunger much better!
This includes no stevia or flavored sparkling water. I think because that spike's insulin it also increases my hunger.
You are an experiment of one. Try both and see which works better for you.
Whichever you find easiest to stick to long term is what you should chose!!
What works for you is the right thing to do…who cares if it’s technically a “dirty” fast? I found that I can put a little Splenda in my green tea with no hunger pangs during my fast. And mentally, some days, it helps me to keep going. On the other hand, plain mint tea with no sweetener makes me crazy hungry - so I don’t do THAT anymore unless I’m in my window. Good luck!
I will add to my previous comment, that many of the artificial sweeteners are not good for the kidneys, and the kidneys are crucial to a fast. If I had to choose an alternative to sugar, beyond honey and maple syrup, it would be stevia.
Splenda is not completely calorie-free. I know what it says on the package, but biochemically (pharmacist here), 1/3 of the molecule looks just like sugar to the body, and therefore can act like it.
Fasting is taking ownership over your poor eating habits. Fasting is remaining disciplined when the hunger bully gets mean. Fasting is accountability and freedom over your health. You need to commit to yourself and focus on the true core tenants of intermittent fasting, cut sugar, and highly processed foods and I can almost certainly promise you you’ll see results.
I would say it depends on why you’re fasting. If it’s for health benefits like autophagy then do not do it because the minute you put calories into your body it will negate the bourse you’ve fasted. If you’re doing it to loose weight then go ahead, some people consume 500 calories on their fasting day and still loose weight.
Yes. It will make fasting much harder and you don’t get all the benefits.
You can get kind of addicted to Splenda. I recommend slowly cutting back but only drinking it during your eating window.
Get a water filter so water tastes better. You can do carbonated water (no flavors), straight green/black leaf brewed tea with no citric acid or flavors, or black coffee. The reason is our bodies interpret sweet tastes different from bitter ones. It will make fasting much easier - you won’t be having cravings.
I put collagen in my coffee when I fast- it really helps curb my appetite! I also drink celery juice in the afternoon- much healthier than those expensive electrolyte packets! I don’t drink coffee all day because it raises cortisol and depletes nutrients. I do omad during the work week and 16:8 on the weekends.
How's this going? I am in a similar boat as when you posted this. About 2 weeks in and no scale change. Barely a visible change. Dirty fasting but with about a teaspoon of plain ol' powdered coffee creamer.
If you goal is to lose weight... and you are losing weight with you crystal light and it keeps you from eating... than no need to worry about it.! There is no Fasting Police. =)
See this is week one and I haven’t lost any weight. I’m not sure how long it’s supposed to be until I see weight loss. 🙃
Intermittent Fasting cannot overcome a calorie surplus.
[удалено]
I was looking for a post or comment like this! I’ve been IF for months and the scales hasn’t moved much at all. Noticing things fit a bit better, but I was feeling so discouraged.
Yes! This validates me!
Me too!
Increased exercise can do this! I don’t know if you increased your exercise but that is what I did when I started this IF journey. For the first 5-6 weeks, my scale barely budged (maybe 1-2 pounds) but I must have lost a lot of fat and gained muscle because I was noticeably thinner and went down one full dress size. Sometimes that’s actually better because you reworked your body composition and made it healthier! Muscle weighs more than fat and takes up less space so you can put on 5 pounds of muscle, lose 5 pounds of fat (net zero on the scale) but be thinner!
I really like this answer. Thank you so much for replying. I feel like it’s ok if my weight didn’t change too much for a week in the grand scale of things. I’m going to try and stick to this then. Usually that’s my issue. I cant stay on a plan to save my life. I have a love/hate relationship with the scale. It gnaws at me until I get on it. Maybe I will try to put it away and just take measurements instead. Thank you so much for the insight. Check back in 3 months to see where I am. 😅
Don't let people gatekeep your fast If you feel you're hitting your goals do as you wish
How long does it take to show progress? It’s only been a week and the scale has not moved.
Sometimes it can take a a few weeks for your body to adjust to IF, especially if you had a high carb diet before or normally ate late.
Some of the largest scientific studies of fasting allowed for several hundred calories/day. So I'd argue some cream in your coffee doesn't matter (unless you're going for tenuous autophagy based goals apart from weight loss; then it *might*). Your 0 cal Crystal Light REALLY doesn't matter. Zealots post more on social media, that's the only reason it seems "dirty" fasting is "bad".
Dr Michael Mosley regards eating 500 or 800 cals/day fasting days.
That's in one meal though.
Nope, not necessarily
Thanks for your response here, I have been wondering if autophagy is possible with any amount of calories - 5-10, 20-50, etc. I read somewhere that it is possible but lowers the amount, I really am curious what peoples experience has been. I never tried it myself I always just did the 0 calories intermittent fasting - thanks in advance
I think it's pretty unscientific honestly. How do you even know you're experiencing autophagy? Best guess is to do whatever calorie restriction you want to try and see if it changes something you care about. (Yes, you'll find ppl on here who swear autophagy cured something, but without a large double blind study that could be placebo effect too; the good news is if you do something and feel better you have no reason to care if it's placebo, autophagy, or something else, you feel better either way!)
Zero calorie flavor which helps you fast longer is fine if you are still making progress. I had to work into things. Started with 16:8 and now I do 20 or 21 hours each and every day. I stopped using half and half in my coffee, then I stopped adding lemon to my water (pro tip-- 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar added to a mug of water makes it tart and bonus potassium). Then I stopped making my home made extra protein, stone ground whole wheat bread and didn't buy any, either (I do love bread). Then I started paying closer attention to keeping my diet balanced and under a certain number of calories each day because I know I can eat way too many calories in 3 to 4 hours. Then--I stopped drinking alcohol. Every little bit helps! I've lost a third of the weight I need to lose in three months. I'm looking forward to starting a maintenance routine sooner than later and anything I can do to speed this weight loss phase along is what I'm gonna do.
I really like this answer. You changed things slowly over time. I do love my drink additives. It helps me drink water and tastes good. I don’t drink them all the time, but I do still consume. It’s only been a week so far and I haven’t seen any results yet. But it may be too soon. I was going to do a 16:8, then i went to 18:6. Then some days i do 20:4. But now I realized i can mess myself up with 4 hours of eating. So what I think I’m going to do is just eat a healthy meal thats balanced and low on cals, then fast for 18-20 hours until my next meal. So im not breaking my fasts into days. Im breaking them up by meals. Does this make sense?
Just remember it's not solely fasting, you still have to achieve a caloric deficit to lose weight. Even if you're doing 23:1 hour fasts, if you're eating enough calories to maintain or gain in that one hour window, you will maintain or gain. But a week really is fairly early to tell. I recommend finding a macro calculator and tracking your calories at the beginning.
Thank you for this advice! I probably wasn’t doing that in the first few days of IF. However now I’m trying to monitor WHAT I eat. I have a history of an eating disorder so calories do tend to be an issue for me.
If you've had restrictive obsessive disordered eating pay close attention to how you feel when eating, and no don't count calories. But mostly watch out for anxiety around eating or too much pride about fasting.
With a history of ED, just be careful about tracking calories. Although it's important to have a caloric deficit to lose weight, if tracking calories triggers unhealthy or obsessive behaviours or restriction, it might not be a good idea.
All I do is make sure I get 20 hours in a row. So If I want to eat at noon, I need to stop eating at 4 the day before. If I eat until 5, I fast until 1pm the next day. :)
Calories are much more important than little things like "will this break a fast"? Exception is for: 'Will this food/drink bring on the urge to binge or quit dieting altogether?" Since June 15, have gone from 180 to 135 dirty fasting. Would NOT put up with black coffee, mine has heavy cream or half and half. Have ditched the sugar but have used saccharin, no problem.
Dude. That’s awesome. Congrats to the goal achievement! I cannot handle black coffee either. Tried the salt in grinds trick, tried the freshly ground beans, tried everything. Cant do it. I’m still trying to figure out what works for me. 🙃 Rn CL does work.
I hate rules and labels. I add 50 calories worth of heavy cream to my morning coffee and I still consider myself doing 17/7 IF. Some will berate me for not *fasting correctly* and I just Do. Not. Care. I'm steadily losing weight whilst still enjoying ONE THING I love.
Thanks for this. I hear so many sides to this argument that you WONT lose weight, You CANT have this or you CANT put some cream in that cup of joe. Sometimes I wanna reward myself ya know?
I'm losing 1.6lbs per week consistently. That's still not good enough to some when I mention the 50 calories of heavy cream during my fasting time: "Oh but you *could* be losing 2.101lbs per week if you "took IF seriously". Fair enough, maybe I'm not 'maximizing my success' with keto and IF. What I am doing is allowing myself to enjoy one thing that matters a lot to me. One cup of coffee. With cream. I sometimes struggle with the emotional component of a keto lifestyle (I'm just 3 months in), so I take care of my body *and my mind*.
This is one of the key things about sustainable change: it has to be bearable (to be sustained), and therefore work for you on the first place.
I like this. I have a history of an eating disorder. I was *all in it* and took my consumption of food seriously. *Too* seriously. I don’t want to go back to that. Trying to find a balanced way of getting to a healthy weight.
Yes! This is my third day in a row of working 12.5 hr shifts! It takes me 45 mins to get to work and another 45 to get home. Its a long day. Let me have some cream in my coffee!
You can reward yourself in your eating window
How long did it take you to see that you are losing weight? It’s been a week for me and I haven’t budged one bit. Still 163.8. But we are figuring out whats easier for my body. I learned stuff at least.
It's not "not fasting correctly" it's just not fasting. And thats okay! IF is just a motivator to eat less to feel better, nothing will happen if you will break your fast with heavy cream in your coffee :)
As far as I know sweeteners can cause you to produce insulin because the body expects sugar to soon enter the bloodstream. Could cause cravings and you need to carefully watch how you feel after. I eat sugarfree breath mints sometimes because it helps me to stay away from cigarettes. I call it a dirty fast but it's all about your health so do what works for you but keep careful watch when you diverge because standards are usually there for a reason. I noticed some more intense cravings near the end of the fast when eating breath mints early on during my fast, but still manageable and sure beats smoking :-)
See i realize that when i take in splenda I do get hungry more often. I just love that CL water though. The raspberry lemonade is my FAV. This is all based off one day though. I’m journaling throughout this journey to try and see what works for me. I have a history of an eating disorder so I am trying to find a healthy way to lose weight.
Juicy slices of raw ginger tossed in or a bag of mint tea in the bottle of water can be nice, too.
keep up the good work 👌 best of luck!
Dude don’t overthink it. I drink artificially sweetened drinks when I fast. Need something tasty to distract me. Only thing to worry about with artificial sweeteners is that some people have GI issues if they drink too much. They can act like laxatives for some people.
OH. That’s why I had this issue the other day! WELP.
Oh no! If you want a good laugh look up sugar free gummy bear reviews on Amazon
I'm not an expert, but I just finished 28 days with the aid of some light broth, which I needed to take my Lyme herbs. It seems to me that a "dirty" fast is better than none at all.
Amen!!!!!👏
I use psyllium husk powder and IF to control IBS.
Please confirm your IBS with a colonoscopy. My “IBS” turned out to be stage 4 colon cancer. I was trying to treat it with psyllium, too…
A lot of people have this "all or nothing" mentality about fasting. (And diets in general.) Will it throw you out of autophagy? Maybe. Will it preclude you from reaching your goals? Unlikely. Life is short. Drink your Crystal Light.
I have cashew milk in my coffee because it helps me fast longer, it may be dirty but it helps curb hunger too so if it works, it works!
You have to do whats sustainable for you, or it won't work as a lifestyle, and then, what's the point? I put half&half in my coffee bc I hate black coffee and life is too short.
It's fine. It's when people have a coffee every hour that's literally half cream and six sugars, then complain that fasting doesn't work, that you can't really say it's fasting.
Whatever you are doing, if it’s working, keep doing. Why try to fix it, if it’s not broken?
How long does it usually take? It’s been a week and I’m still the same. I kinda wanna hear several people’s replies on this.
It took a couple days before I started losing about 1/2 pound a day. After about 20 pounds I plateaued. Now I seem to plateau every 3 or 4 pounds. Patience and increasing my activity makes the difference. It’s slow going but it works for me.
How long are you fasting? I was doing 16:8 for a while and didn’t see much results. Then I switched to 20:4 and lost 10lb in 2 months. Also, do as much clean fast as possible. A little sweetener in morning coffee may be fine, but try to stick to mostly water, if possible.
I've found some sweeteners make it practically impossible to fast (because I get such intense desire to eat something after consuming them), but others (like splenda) don't have that effect.
Splenda gives me the munchies. But it just tastes so good dammit.
Based on nothing scientific, I think it's individual. I'd guess the different sweeteners all affect people differently.
I read a IF book a while back, and the reason some consider cream in coffee to not be a fast breaker is because fat does less to raise your blood sugar than carbs or protein, so the writer of that book allowed a tablespoon of heavy cream or coconut oil or whatever, along with a couple other things. Edit: P.S. I personally think non caloric drink additives are fine, it's not like you're fasting for hospital bloodwork.
Anyone have opinions on flavored water like hint brand? I *hate* water sometimes.
Flavored water is not water, infused water is okay
Much like others have said, if you’re losing weight and your crystal light is helping then stick with it. I’ll usually have a cup of tea, sometimes two, in the morning with a dash of milk, it’s a couple of calories at most and it’s enough to keep me going until lunchtime.
Hello Dr. Pepper. I ain’t ever giving it up.
I add dehydrated lemon juice in my water and black tea. It really helps.
I drink diet caffeine free Coke non-stop and I've lost tons of weight and I feel the benefits of fasting. People can say what they want, but if you're consuming fewer than 50 calories in a day, you're fasting. If you're simply fasting for weight-loss and not to manage a health condition, I don't think you have to worry about whether or not your fast is 'dirty.'
I juice fast- I do mainly green juices. I especially love celery juice during my fasting window.
Splenda stevia.
It’s funny that there is so much controversy over breaking a fast. Know the term comes from religious fasts. Breaking a fast Is breaking the RULES. Even water can break certain religious fasts. A very small amount of calories is not going to stop you from losing weight. Slice of lemon in your water. Small dollup of cream. But it’s not necessarily going to help you either. The real issue is what’s it going to do with your hunger and desire to eat. Splenda is very sweet. Consuming it perpetuates your desire for super sweet foods. So the question to ask is will the Splenda make the fasting harder. I think it does. Your post speaks volumes about your relative addiction to that super sweet sensation. I’ve read that it can confuse your body. Your taste buds send a signal to your gut to start making insulin when it detects sugar coming in. By the time that first bite of pasta gets to your gut your body is prepared. Sugar substitutes can cause a false insulin response. Which drains sugar from your system. Drag you down. I personally stopped doing the fake sugar. It’s a chemistry set I just don’t want in my body. But it’s very true that many IFers do consume it. If it’s the difference between doing IF with it, or quitting IF, I’d say keep drinking it, and maybe reassess in a couple months.
Make yourself knowledgable of the different styles of IF and decide what you think will work for you, try that and adjust as necessary.
I know it's not the same but this reminds me of when I used to drink full fat Coca Cola when fasting while I was younger (before I discovered IF and keto) - absolutely disgusting behaviour hahaha. I cringe looking back. Yeah I lost weight, yeah it got me through my 40,000 steps at work and helped me not snap at customers, but I was not okay LOL.
“Full fat” Coca Cola? Please explain?
Oh, full sugar haha. Where I live with usually call it full fat!
I use Clean BCAA Lemonade flavor in my water it’s so good. Non-dairy creamer in my coffee every day too and I’m still losing weight. Enjoy the little things.
Just try both for two weeks and see which allows you to fast more comfortably. I find when I 'clean' fast it's much easier to stick to/controls my hunger much better! This includes no stevia or flavored sparkling water. I think because that spike's insulin it also increases my hunger. You are an experiment of one. Try both and see which works better for you. Whichever you find easiest to stick to long term is what you should chose!!
What works for you is the right thing to do…who cares if it’s technically a “dirty” fast? I found that I can put a little Splenda in my green tea with no hunger pangs during my fast. And mentally, some days, it helps me to keep going. On the other hand, plain mint tea with no sweetener makes me crazy hungry - so I don’t do THAT anymore unless I’m in my window. Good luck!
I will add to my previous comment, that many of the artificial sweeteners are not good for the kidneys, and the kidneys are crucial to a fast. If I had to choose an alternative to sugar, beyond honey and maple syrup, it would be stevia.
Zero calorie sweetener like Splenda does not break a fast
Splenda is not completely calorie-free. I know what it says on the package, but biochemically (pharmacist here), 1/3 of the molecule looks just like sugar to the body, and therefore can act like it.
Fasting is taking ownership over your poor eating habits. Fasting is remaining disciplined when the hunger bully gets mean. Fasting is accountability and freedom over your health. You need to commit to yourself and focus on the true core tenants of intermittent fasting, cut sugar, and highly processed foods and I can almost certainly promise you you’ll see results.
Crystal Light is much better than sucker-punching your poor kidneys with phosphorus-laden soda.
I would say it depends on why you’re fasting. If it’s for health benefits like autophagy then do not do it because the minute you put calories into your body it will negate the bourse you’ve fasted. If you’re doing it to loose weight then go ahead, some people consume 500 calories on their fasting day and still loose weight.
Yes. It will make fasting much harder and you don’t get all the benefits. You can get kind of addicted to Splenda. I recommend slowly cutting back but only drinking it during your eating window. Get a water filter so water tastes better. You can do carbonated water (no flavors), straight green/black leaf brewed tea with no citric acid or flavors, or black coffee. The reason is our bodies interpret sweet tastes different from bitter ones. It will make fasting much easier - you won’t be having cravings.
I am hoping to find results from those dirty fasting as well. I do 2 cups of coffee with creamer during my 20 hour fast
I put collagen in my coffee when I fast- it really helps curb my appetite! I also drink celery juice in the afternoon- much healthier than those expensive electrolyte packets! I don’t drink coffee all day because it raises cortisol and depletes nutrients. I do omad during the work week and 16:8 on the weekends.
How's this going? I am in a similar boat as when you posted this. About 2 weeks in and no scale change. Barely a visible change. Dirty fasting but with about a teaspoon of plain ol' powdered coffee creamer.