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the coffee dilemma

to anyone out there who have been doing this for a long while, i have a chronic illness and have messed around a fair bit with this. my question is, has anyone done the fasting and kept their coffee in the morning with creamer? and if yes, do you really think it makes a difference? i have done the 16-8 window for years but always had coffee and oat milk. im wondering if thats been a waste of time after reading up on autophagy. i know the consensus is water only, or coffee with no milk, but im looking for peoples actual experience, ideally a person who did it with coffee and topping for a long while, then without the topper, and did it make a noticeable difference to how you felt? cheers edit - just to let people know my goal is to reduce pain from severe chronic illness, i am already my recommended ideal weight, i dont care about my weight

Answer

The Obesity Code book says that if you must add something to your coffee it should be whole cream. Not the artificially flavored and sweetened stuff, just cream. Not some kind of nut or grain milk, just cream.

Something able the fat content and casein down-regulating blood sugar compared to even low-fat milks - which are just the water and sugars - and other forms of sweeteners.

That being said, fresh roasted coffee is not bitter like those found in coffee isles and, as a completely alternative approach, a 1/4 teaspoon (1ml) or less of salt in your black coffee will also knock out the bitter taste.

Answer

I’m getting to the point where I need to cut out black coffee. While I’m not a hardline absolutist regarding fasting, I feel like black coffee is kickstarting digestion and my appetite picks up identically to if I were to have eaten a very small amount of juice or a protein shake. Because of wanting autophagy and the uncertainty around this unless I were to buy an insulin test, I’m going water only during my fasting for a week starting Monday.

Answer

the non-tangible IF benefits would be very hard to measure, if it’s even possible.

I don’t know how anyone could say they have increased amount of autophagy while drinking coffee with creamer.

But it sounds like you already know the answer. If you want to do IF and get all of the benefits, then no, creamer is not going to work.

If you are just looking for weight loss and don’t want the boost that reduced insulin levels give you and are willing to deal with those extra calories, then the creamer would be fine. You can still lose weight if you are in a calorie deficit. It just probably won’t be as fast as it might be otherwise if you skipped the creamer and got those extra few hours of fasting.

Answer

For the most part, it’s generally agreed that adding creamer will break your fast. You can add zero calorie sweetners or a few drops of zero calorie lemon juice, but it’ll be considered ‘dirty’ fasting.

You can get a blood glucose reader and measure your levels before and after to see if you get an insulin spike.

Answer

Been drinking black coffee since I was about 16. Don’t understand what everyone’s qualm with it is. I get it’s acquired but give it a couple days and you won’t even realize you’re drinking it without cream

Answer

I ended up dropping black coffee (rarely with half and half/heavy cream) even though I used to love it. When I started intermittent fasting I started to notice the effects of coffee more and realized that it just wasn’t a good fit for me and was actually just more of a habit with no benefits. I know this is a sensitive subject for most but just do your own research and make the best decision possible for yourself.