I have been away from it for a while (doing ADF) but yesterday I happened upon Dr. Ronda Patrick talking about how even a black cup of coffee starts your eating window.
This frustrates me because I leave my house at 7 AM to get to work (taking coffee at 6) and don’t really get home until 6 PM. So, if the window starts at 6 AM, I am going to have a lot larger eating window than I would normally – and may explain why I didn’t see results with IF a few years ago when I thought I was doing a 4 hour window – from 9 AM to 1 PM (but wasn’t really because I got up at 6 am and had a cup of black coffee.
Is this right and, what impact does it make…
Would I get the same benefits from a 8 hour feeding window as a 6 hour?
I have considered giving up coffee just to lower the window but 1 cup of coffee is good for me for many reasons.
If you’re primarily looking for weight loss then honestly your window doesn’t matter it is all about your calories in vs. out. Fasting just makes this much easier as your not eating off and on all day and a black coffee is not going to make a difference. I wouldn’t give up the coffee, if you’re not seeing the results then rethink what your eating in your window and how much. During my fasting period I still keep track of calories because it doesn’t matter if you only eat once a day if you eat 3500 calories in that window.
I don’t think you have to worry about a cup of black coffee.
If your way of eating isn’t realistic for YOU, then it’s not going to work long-term. Trying to be too perfect can derail you and IMO it’s best to take advice from “experts” with a grain of salt. Every body is different, and what works for one isn’t necessarily going to work for all!
I don’t know who Dr. Ronda Patrick is, but her opinion is not shared by other intermittent-fasting experts like Dr. Jason Fung or Gin Stephens. Black coffee is generally not considered to break your fast. It’s not even considered “dirty” fasting.
Whatever results you didn’t see with IF a few years ago, that was almost certainly caused by something other than black coffee.
Rhonda and Dr. Panda talk about most of the physical benefits to time restricted eating coming from Cercaidan Rythms. In his studies… each of your organs and cells have a work, repair cycle. And he has found that if you don’t give these things enough time to repair chronic illness results.
When you take in anything – anything – that isn’t water, your body has do so something with it. In the case of coffee – even black – different enzymes are released and your liver has to go to work processing the caffine.
This causes the rest of your body to now think it is time to wake up and begin the day… so it does.
So if you start at 6 AM your body is expecting to be going to bed at 6 PM… or before that. And expecting to get a good 12 hours to rest and repair. But, if you eat dinner at 6 or 7 and perhaps a small soda at 9 your body only gets about 8 hours to rest and repair.
So if you take this view… if you have a black coffee at 6 am.. even if you aren’t eating until 12 pm your window opens at 6 AM no matter what… and you might think you are doing a window of 4 hours (say you are doing 12-4 eating) but you really aren’t. You are doing 10 hours.