Chances are that if you’re practicing intermittent fasting then you’re likely also one of the countless coffee drinkers in the world.
Of course, the question which led me to write this post which that I’ve had to stop counting:
“Can I drink coffee while fasting?”
Answer: ASBOLUTELY!
But, there are some caveats with this that will not only benefit your health but definitely level up your fat-burning game. And if you’re fasting at least in part for weight loss alongside longevity and health then these are 4 tips that you must start now!
1. FAST From COFFEE
No that wasn’t a typo. Please don’t drink it first thing in the morning! Make sure to wait for at least 1 hour after waking up, 2 hours is even better.
This is going to provide you with a multitude of benefits towards your fat loss goals.
“But I can’t wake up without drinking coffee! “
Yep, I get that. I used to be in the same boat & if this sounds like you then you’re going to want to listen closely.
First thing in the morning our cortisol levels are typically the highest, which helps us to naturally wake up. But, Adding caffeine to the mix so soon can increase cortisol further creating extra stress on the body.
This can negatively affect your body’s hormone cycles and increase your caffeine tolerance by lowering your sensitivity to it.
Impacting your metabolism, immunity, sleep quality, and muscle mass. Making it harder to shed those unwanted pounds.
Waiting for this extra time will also give you another advantage..
2. Fasting With Coffee Extends Your Fasting Window
Aside from burning more fat, the longer you can stretch your fasting window the more fasting benefits you’ll experience. This works through the appetite suppressing effect that caffeine has on most people.
But there is one caveat with this …
You’re going to want to keep your coffee black – at least mostly.
Now hear me out for a minute. To understand the importance of this you need to know a bit about insulin.
Without going too deep here: the benefits of intermittent fasting come into play when insulin isn’t being triggered.
Think of it as a light switch. During the fasting period, your insulin switch is off. Once you take in calories this flips on your insulin switch on, in order to store that energy as glycogen or fat.
And It isn’t just sugary sweeteners that trigger insulin. Protein and fat added to coffee can also flip that switch.
Now If you prefer adding any butter, milk, cream, or milk alternatives then it’s best to at least understand how much you are adding to your coffee.
Please Measure this! At least a few times to stay under 30 calories or so. Eventually, you’ll be able to “eye-out” these measurements.
Can’t Drink Coffee on an Empty Stomach?
I understand that the strategies I’ve been telling you about are all pointing in the direction of having coffee during a fasted state. This used to be impossible for me as I’m super sensitive to caffeine’s side effects. Until of course, I started using L theanine in my coffee while fasting.
Check out this article here if you want to know more about this anxiety management focus powder.
3. Using Coffee Before Working out
Caffeine has this amazing effect that greatly benefits our workouts. It helps to mobilize body fat out of your stores while simultaneously telling your body NOT to use its glycogen stores.
Why is this amazing for fat burning? Well typically, our bodies resist tapping into our fat stores as much as possible until our glycogen is depleted.
Remember the insulin switch I was telling you about? Well, when you consume calories the insulin switch flips on helping to create and store glycogen. Then, once we reach our storage limit any excess calories are stored as fat.
So with caffeine in the mix, our glycogen is spared and fat is mobilized into the bloodstream to burn up more effectively during exercise. This can make it easier to adapt to fasted workouts if you plan on trying that out in the future.
4. Cut off Your Caffeine intake in the Early Afternoon
Caffeine has a half-life of roughly 6 hours. This means that within 6 hours after drinking it, it’s still going to be present in your body for another 6 hours. So even though you may not feel it and think it’s ok to have another cup at 6 pm this negatively impacts your sleep cycle and hormones.
Improper sleep has repeatedly been shown in many studies to increase the risk of weight gain and obesity. This is largely in part because of its effects on energy levels, metabolism, appetite, and so on.
Do your best to stick to a certain cut off time in the early afternoon to help avoid this.
Ideally, noon is best, but this may be difficult for some of you to do so quickly. If this is the case then slowly scale it back an hour each week.
Making changes in our lives no matter how small they are helps build our strength with self-discipline. As we witness these changes create additional benefits to our lives it always ends up being worth the trade-off. Our confidence levels rise along side raising the bar of what we believe is possible for us.
Add this video to one of your fasting playlists for when the time comes that you want to revisit these tips!
Happy Fasting!