Hi everyone. I’ve been doing IF 16:8 for a few days now, and feel great. However I do miss having my mid-morning cup of tea with a splash of Half & Half and a tiny bit of honey. I was wondering: is it mega important to be 100% strict for the body to do its thing? If I add a tiny bit of honey to my tea, would it ruin my fasting? I’m very excited, and all the before and after pictures I’ve seen on this sub are incredibly motivating! Thanks in advance!!
The intermittent fasting approach is about managing your insulin levels. When you eat, your body produces the insulin hormone which it uses to store energy as fat. In intermittent fasting, you seek to lower your insulin levels by eating fewer meals, fewer times a day so that your body can go into fat burning mode.
Both sugar and carbs give you a very high insulin spike, so something like honey will definitely break your fast, but it will also likely make you hungry.
You can have a look at some artificial sweeteners but I think it is mostly the consensus that they are either not very good for you or they break a fast.
If you can’t stand black coffee, perhaps try tea instead to give you the caffeine kick you require? Green tea is very good, just no milk or sugar!
It’s called a dirty fast (consuming less than 50-100 calories during a fast) and yes, it can be detrimental to your fast, especially with honey and half and half.
The key benefit of fasting is it lowers your insulin levels which causes your body to break down fat instead of glucose for energy. There are more disadvantages than advantages to dirty fasting but the “right” way to do it is to use ingredients that have more fat and next to no carbs, like cream, MCT oil, or bone broth. Honey is your enemy here - it’s basically just pure sugar.
Without going in to overwhelming detail, carbs are what cause insulation production. If you can dirty fast without causing a major increase in your insulin levels, it’s less detrimental. I personally wouldn’t recommend it still, but you can if it’s what’s going to help you maintain a fast.
At the end of the day, if you burn more calories than you consume, you’re going to lose weight. But you’re just not going to do it at nearly the same rate as others who clean fast.
I loved my honey, cream, coffee. I’m now on black coffee. Its ok.. you get used to it because healthy and fit feels better than coffee,honey and cream taste. Thats what I always ask myself… “Does that taste better than skinny feels?” Good luck! You Got This!
I also struggled with this when I started IF. I missed my morning cup of tea which I would typically have 2 tsp of sugar and a dash of milk. I can’t stand black tea or coffee so they weren’t an option for me.
I looked into what you can/can’t drink but in the end I just stuck to plain water as I don’t want to break the fast accidentally and waste my time.
It does get easier as time goes by and I may still have my cup of tea during my eating window but only every now and then.