I am wanting to try intermittent fasting, and I think that I will only allow myself water in the mornings.
I take a lunch at 12pm and then dinner at 5:30pm.
Anyway, I heard somewhere that even a coffee will sabotage intermittent fasting because it invokes your digestive system, albeit in a minor way, but it still fires it up (and therefore does not allow it to go into full repair mode.)
Is this correct?
(I suppose there’s really allowable except water)
This idea seems to have come from a Rhonda Patrick podcast - where she simple restated what she learned from Satchin Panda’s book on Time Restricted Feeding.
But, Satchin Panda essentially retracted the coffee and tea starting the clock comments in his turn as guest on the STEM-Talk podcast Episode 79 around minute 24. He was assuming most people have cream and sugar and the hormones are nutrient sensing (not black coffee sensing). He gave some other health related reasons to avoid black coffee first thing in the morning (acid reflux) but did indicate black coffee does not start the clock.
Based on his explanation I think he went overboard against coffee generally and should have excluded nutrientless black coffee in his book. But, I understand his point, once word gets around that black coffee does not start the clock, it gets turned in a splash of dairy, a teaspoon of sugar and maybe even upgraded to anything the coffee shop sells with coffee in it.
I drink espresso when I get up about 6am. I usually don’t eat breakfast till 9-10am and supper at 2-3pm. Usually a five hour window. About half the time I have another round at 4-5pm. I used to get heartburn before keto but don’t from black coffee anymore. I think it’s fine for IF. Dr Fung doesn’t have any problems with black coffee or tea during fasting. There’s even some research that shows that coffee aids in breaking down body fat, and a few who believe the opposite. Myself, I have lost a lot of weight drinking coffee while fasting.
Go for it Bansaw!
Try time restricted eating with coffee for a week.
Then try it without coffee and just water for a week.
Then try with coffee, with additives such as MCT oil, but maybe not dairy.
Then for the sake of completeness have a week where you have coffee with heavy whipped cream… if that’s your cup of tea.
Record how you go.
By the end of this fun self experiment you will have learned a lot. And you would have had over a month of customising an approach that works for you.
Keep asking questions and exploring the resources available.
While you are doing all the fun stuff, your body will repair.
The more recent hypothesis* on autophagy is that it is a steady state In the body, not ever fully switched off. At times it is enhanced (e.g. 48 hrs of fasting), and at times it hums along at a low rate around meals. It’s not an on/ off switch.
*Prof Ben Birman on the Low Carb MD podcast 30Sep19