By definition when you consume anything with calories you are not fasting anymore.
Honestly you should just try it, it gets easier when you get used to it. Then you find out that you really don’t get any hungrier over time. I’m on the tail end of a 4 day fast and I’m not hungrier today than I was on day one. That’s not to say you don’t get cravings but sorting those out is part of making it easier and easier.
Start with what I call the grown up fast: 3 meals a day, drop the junk and liquid calories, no snacking between meals. Congratulations, you just fasted 12 hours between dinner and breakfast and most of it was while sleeping. From there just skip breakfast for a 16/8 fast.
I usually get ocular migraines when I start keto. I have a glucose monitor to see if I have any insulin response to artificial sweeteners. I found I do not.
I am in the middle of two 5 day fasts with a 2 day refeed between them. I have been drinking zero energy drinks, powerade zero, diet coke, diet pepsi, ect to see if I can trigger a migraine. It has had zero impact on my weight loss.
Your mileage may vary.
I drink coke zero when I fast. I’m not concerned about the miniscule cephalic insulin response from the aspartame, and although some people report diet sodas making them crave sweets and food, I luckily don’t suffer from this side effect so it works for me.
No idea what it means for my gut health, but the overwhelming majority of my fasts are 72 hours and I feel just fine at the end of them. Dirty water fasting exists as a tactic for a reason– some of us aren’t willing to go full water-only.
Ice cubes and farts. /s
Water, flavored water (0 cal), other 0 cal beverages. I’d stay away from sweetened beverages. You might be able to fight it, but they’ll just make you feel hungry.
Oh. And electrolytes.
A large chunk of people who are into fasting are also into nebulous ideas about purity. If that’s not an important ideas to you, then anything that has negligible calories (like diet soda, sugarless gum, etc.) is going to have a negligible effect on your outcome. There is no scientific basis to suggest that consuming 20 calories per day of any normally edible substance is going to lead to have a meaningful effect on a human. Whether or not someone drinking artificially sweetened drinks is “really” fasting may seem like an important question to some people, but it’s not a question that has any actual stakes for participants.
Technically, only water, coffee, or tea.
However, if you’re so hungry that you’re close to quitting the fast early, bone broth is your friend. It has such few calories that there is debate as to whether it ends the fast, yet has enough calories to quench your hunger.
Here is my personal list. Things I can drink while fasting from food. This is things that don’t make me hungry, I believe if it makes me hungry the fast is broken. I kinda consider it a long state of “I feel fine” without eating.
Water
Tea and Coffee
Stevia and Splenda
Diet drinks, diet coke tends to give me headaches even when not fasting.
Heavy cream and butter (under 50 calories) like a bullet proof coffee or tea
Sugar free creamers. I like coffee mate
Apple Cider Vinegar, calms hunger pains quick
Sugar free hard candy. I like weathers. 1-2 a day if desired.
Stock, chicken or beef flavored. There is no protein in stock, its basically just flavored salt water. Sip it warm and it will help.
I’ve been fasting for years and incorporate these into regular eating days as well as extended fasts. If I’ve eaten a meal and want to over eat, I may just have a cup of coffee instead.
If youre fasting for only weight loss ur really just doing calorie restriction. So the answer is, consume less calories that u do now and u will lose weight.
The answer is none of these things are acceptable for a “fast”. The more sugar and carbs the worse.
If u need something u can keep it to fat and a little protein. Even a kinda small amount of sugar will negate most of the benefits of fasting.
It probably depends on the person. I don’t fast for weight loss - nevertheless, my body quickly got in tune with the idea and my stomach kind of goes to sleep. If I was drinking soda or eating small amounts of anything, that would make me sooo hungry. So the easiest fast for me is a complete fast. But not everybody has a body that that will do that, whether it’s not having their mind and and body in tune, or simply a different metabolism and different hormones. Also, I have chronic stomach problems so my system tends to be relieved to have a break.
Find whatever’s right for you - your body will find a nice pattern, whether it’s drinking coffee, having a small keto snack every day, chewing gum, what have you. But keep in mind there’s a possibility that eating or drinking any thing with calories, and definitely anything with carbs, will make you hungrier. Just experiment to find what works and what your body is happy with!
I do regular 4-5 day fasts for weightloss. I have coffee with sweetener, diet sodas, tea. If I feel dizzy I have broth, sometimes even V8.
Like other people have mentioned, this is not a true fast, it’s basically a liquid diet. But it works for me. I usually lose 8lbs and gain half back.
You can’t eat or drink anything that I traduces sugar or anything else to your body. A lot of people drink broth, black coffee, plain tea, lots of water, carbonated water. But you can’t drink a soda.
The point of fasting is to deplete your body so it “eats itself” so if you drink a soda you’re defeating the purpose