26 Female, 5’4”, currently 161lbs, goal weight is 145-150lbs by end of May for my wedding.
Just started (although I’ve done this before a few years ago) doing 18:6
Here’s my question: is drinking coffee with creamer and collagen during my fast going to mess with my results? Creamer calories are about 40, and I’m not entirely sure how many the collagen has. I just have a hard time starting my work days without coffee😩
Depends on what you are fasting for. If you’re simply trying to lose weight then it doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. You’ll still be in a caloric deficit at the end of the day. It’s possible it may break you out of ketosis but that isn’t particularly necessary for weight loss.
If you are pursuing autophagy , yes. If it’s avoid insulin spikes, yes. If its just to place yourself at caloric defecit, not as much but those others are good enough reasons to make yourself a cold brew instead so you can avoid it if you can.
I had gestational diabetes and for me, even with a healthy BMI, the scale wouldn’t budge if my fasting was not a clean fast. Your body’s Insulin Resistance levels play a huge role in the weight loss and even non-fat milk in my coffee kept giving me insulin spikes. I saw progress after I cut out all calories. But, if you don’t have underlying issues and want weightloss and no other benefits, creamer in coffee might work out for you. So, go ahead with it if it will help your fast and if your progress is not great, since you have a deadline for your weightloss, consider cutting out creamer in a few weeks. There is a Reddit forum called r/dirtyfasting for more support on consuming calories while fasting.
I’m 57 F and travel internationally for work. I bring coffee and drink it black most of the time in my hotel room. I tend to eat a light breakfast and bigger lunch but skip dinner because my body prefers to be hungry at night. Even if I drink a glass of wine or have an occasional dessert I still drop weight and feel myself drop a pant size in about three weeks without trying so hard. I just don’t get hungry at night but my daughter and husband love eating late, and my husband is a great cook so ultimately I gain weight when I come home. Eating betwen 10-3 would be my ideal window if I was disciplined. One meal a day doesn’t work for me long term because I get obsessed with eating. Adding a small amount of whole milk to my morning coffee does not change the equation at all as long as my actual eating window is limited and I don’t go overboard on things like bread.
Yes, it is breaking your fast and for certain the collagen is a “no-go” if you are looking for the benefits of autophagy.
Drink your coffee black. You’ll get used to it. Buy quality coffee grounds, grind yourself, and make it fresh. It makes a big difference in taste.
You can do it. I’m sure you didn’t like your first taste of beer, wine, tequila, or broccoli. Train your buds to enjoy a variety of flavors.
Other commenters are correct, it’s not a huge deal breaker unless you are aiming for autophagy which is the body’s “Janitor mode”. That’s when your body looks for something to do instead of digesting food and it goes after old/dead cells and may help with preventing/minimizing loose skin while you lose weight.
I was a “Cream in my coffee until I die” kinda guy for 20+ years. I decided to fast as “clean” as possible so I started off with my usual amount of cream and then as the morning went on, I’d top off with black coffee and not add any more cream. By the end of the morning I was drinking mostly black coffee.
As the weeks went by I reduced the initial amount of cream, and within a month or so was truly enjoying black coffee!
So a little cream won’t hurt you in most cases - but remember every calorie that goes into your mouth is one less you’ll burn from body fat.
There are about 17,000 3500 calories (Thanks /u/TidalWaveform!) in a pound of body fat. 40 calories every day for a year would be about 14,000 calories so not a huge impact Edit:4 pounds. But in my case I easily forget to track everything I eat and those calories add up so much faster than I expect them to.
So switching to black coffee was easy enough (over time) that it’s much easier to track everything and my fast is cleaner. I believe I get more autophagy benefit as well.
If you do want to try for strict IF without creamer, you can try to improve your black coffee experience. Bitterness usually comes from burning the coffee grounds. If you can manually brew at 200° (±5°) or find a machine that brews at that temp, that will change everything.
Cutting added sugar out of your diet will also help you taste the natural sweetness in most foods as well.
Quick fix is adding a pinch of salt to your bitter coffee.
If it triggers insulin, that is what breaks the fast. I don’t think collagen or gelatin will trigger it as they don’t have sugar.
The low carb diet was based on the idea of avoiding insulin spikes, so you can keep eating and yet your body continues burning fat. On low carb, creamer is ok only if it is heavy cream, which has minimal sugar or protein and doesn’t spike insulin. If I’m remembering correctly.
I think it is probably fine, as long as you are losing weight. If your weight loss stops then look at how much you are using and consider a sugar free version or using less of it.