[spoiler title=’Click for video transcript’ style=’default’ collapse_link=’true’] when you’re intermittent fasting are you allowed to have coffee I love coffee I love coffee so much that my husband and I started a coffee review channel on YouTube and when I look back over my journey of losing 80 pounds with intermittent fasting I can tell you coffee was super important to my success especially in the early days some of the questions I get asked most often have to do with coffee and intermittent fasting so in today’s video I’m gonna talk about the things that I’ve experienced and just how I do coffee with intermittent fasting first though I want to talk about this whole idea of something being allowed or not and you know the thing is different people are gonna have different opinions on this topic I’ve seen on you know different articles people are saying the only way you can do coffee while you’re intermittent fasting is to drink it black in your fasting window and I’m just a lot more laid-back than that for me what’s important is that whatever you’re gonna do with it you’re gonna be able to stick with it for the long haul and here’s the thing I don’t like black coffee I like my coffee with half-and-half and so that’s how I’ve done it this entire time in fact back in 2015 I had cream and sugar in my coffee it was like a tablespoon of sugar and I when I first started intermittent fasting I kept the sugar in there I kind of made a deal with myself I said okay I’m gonna allow myself that sugar but I’m gonna be super consistent with actually not eating during the fasting window and I ran it as an experiment just to see you know how do I feel am i able to still lose weight even though I do have the sugar in my coffee what I found was I was able to stick with it you know I was able to when I got hungry you know and I just couldn’t you know stand the thoughts of just not eating any longer if I had that coffee even though I had sugar and half-and-half in it it was just enough to just take the edge off okay I was able to just not eat and continue on until my eating window opened up but as I went along I started to think you know I would really like to get rid of the sugar because for one I thought you know probably make it easier to stick with the fasting because I had read you know sugar tends to kind of create more hunger so I thought I’d like to do that plus I knew that if I could train myself to like unsweetened drinks I could have a lot more variety in my fasting window I could have things like you know Lacroix or unsweetened tea and so it’d just give me more variety which then would make intermittent fasting seem even easier so eventually I cut out all the sugar and I just have it with half and half now how much half-and-half well I drink in about twelve ounces of coffee there’s about two to three tablespoons of half-and-half which is you know probably about 60 calories worth but again I don’t care you know I’ve done it this way the entire time I’ve never gotten rid of half and half in my coffee and I don’t plan to either people are asking me you know can I put stevia in my coffee and here’s the thing I don’t know I I have done some research and it appears to me like artificial sweeteners are okay but here’s my experience with artificial sweeteners they make me hungry so if I have something that’s artificially sweetened I just feel really hungry and so then that makes you know fasting harder to stick with and so I don’t do artificial sweeteners but I encourage everybody no matter what kind of combination you’re looking at I say even you know put sugar in it that if that’s the thing that’s gonna get you through the fasting window at first like it did for me do it you know try it out as an experiment record your results see how it works and then tweak if necessary again I am laid back in my approach you’re gonna have you know if you go and Google this you’re gonna see a lot of different opinions and some which are very strong but I try to steer clear of dogma I just say whatever works for you whatever you can see yourself sticking with in the long term and that’s what’s worked for me I’m curious to know do you put anything in your coffee do you just drink it black have you experimented with different ways do you take artificial sweeteners cuz that’s something a lot of people ask I would love to know if some of you out there use artificial sweeteners but you’re still having plenty of success with intermittent fasting okay thank you for watching be sure to LIKE comment and subscribe down below [/spoiler]
Video Recap
- During my entire weight loss journey of losing 80 pounds with intermittent fasting, I have always allowed myself coffee in my fasting window, generally 3 times every day.
- In 2015, I used 1 tablespoon of sugar in my coffee, but I did eventually get rid of the sugar in my fasting window. (Note: I do not limit carbs in my eating window, however.)
- I have always put about 2-3 tablespoons of half and half in my 12 oz coffee and continue that to this day.
- Artificial sweeteners are probably fine, but I don’t like them because they make me feel hungry, which then makes fasting difficult
- Different people are going to have different opinions about whether or not you are “allowed” to have anything other than black coffee, but my philosophy is to experiment for yourself and see what your results are. Remember: there is no intermittent fasting police. (: