I’m not usually hungry in the mornings, but I like having some coffee with heavy cream sometimes. Usually, I stop my fasting clock on Zero when I have the coffee with cream.
Recently, I read this article from them about whether or not coffee breaks a fast. And they claim that coffee + cream likely does not break a fast for metabolic health or longevity.
What’s Reddit’s verdict on coffee + cream?
Yes and no.
One one side, technically anything with calories will break your fast.
On the other side…If you are in a deeper state of fasting, then actually the cream may not break your fast.
Who can tell? No one really. What you might need to weigh up is this. Do you need the cream in your coffee? AndDoes having the cream in your coffee actually support your fasting goals?
For me personally, having some but in coffee helps me stave off hunger which allows me to fast for much longer. So I see it as a positive.
I say, you should decide yourself. No one can really tell you if the cream will break your fast.
It seems like there is a great deal of varied information about this. Three years ago when I started fasting I found information on Dr. Jason Fung’s website that said if you feel like you really need to add something to your coffee or water, to keep it below 50 calories. Plus the best option was fat, as it didn’t knock you out of ketosis or autophagy. Protein would knock you out of autophagy and sugar would knock you out of ketosis, but fat had the most minimal effect. He also mentioned that it was better to “dirty” fast than not fast at all, so if you needed to add something small in order to keep going and seeing progress, then to do so.
Since reading this, I try to mainly fast with plain water, herbal tea, and black coffee. If I feel like I need to do something in order to not cave, I’ll add a splash of lemon juice to my water and tea, or I’ll add just under 50 calories of fat to my coffee (so a touch under 1 Tbsp of heavy cream, a touch under 1/2 Tbsp of butter, or 1/3 Tbsp of coconut oil). On the times I have “dirty” fasted in this way, I have not seen lesser results than when I stictly water fasted.
I had that same exact question since I recently got interested again in the subject of fasting and coffee with heavy cream is my go to morning drink. My takeaway from reading that article is that for the goal of longevity it would be best to avoid since there is not much they list to support the claim that it has no impact.
I am starting IF and will at least initially do cream with coffee to ease myself into the process. Hoping to eliminate that from the fasting period eventually.
I would guess that IF it indeed does break a fast, it would do it for just a insignificant period of time before body goes back to “fasting stage”. If you still fear this maybe use something not so calorie dense as cream, skim-milk or low/no-fat milk maybe.
IIRC I have seen different numbers of calories thrown at which point body is not anymore in fasted stage, mostly something between 50-100kcal. During my fast I had to drink some juice couple times (because of type 1 diabetes) and my ketones level still didn’t plummed as one would expect. So at least for me, I would say pretty much anything under \~100kcal is basically good to go, but YMMW.
A black coffee with cream isn’t a bad idea if you really are craving food and going to break fast.
Overt fats will keep you in keto at least, if you do happen to break the fast due to calory count at least you have the opportunity to merge back into it very quickly