Intermittent Fasting FAQ: Does Coffee Creamer Break Your Fast?

Whether you’re following a keto diet or a low carb plan for weight loss, the good news is adding intermittent fasting to your routine can speed up weight loss. The bad news – if you make common intermittent fasting mistakes, you could be losing out on the fat burning benefits of a finely tuned IF plan.

One of the biggest mistakes on an intermittent fasting weight loss plan is what you add to your daily cup of coffee. So can coffee creamer ruin your results? This is an intermittent fasting question where it’s hard to get a straight answer. Keep reading to find out the truth.

Before we chat about how to get the most out of your fasting plan, I wanted to let you know this blog may contain affiliate links. I also link to the same info that helped me lose 100 pounds, plus how I now help other women lose weight for good! (Like the Keto Challenge ⬇️)

How Intermittent Fasting Works for Fat Loss

In case you’re brand new to intermittent fasting, let’s break down how this amazing fat loss tool works to speed up weight loss. Even if you’ve been around the IF block a time or two, read on since even small details may unlock the intermittent fasting puzzle, which in turn can unlock your fat loss!

You Practice Fasting … Even If It’s Not Intentional!

You likely already follow an intermittent fasting routine, whether it’s intentional or not. When you choose to follow intermittent fasting for weight loss, your day is split into two separate sections: a portion of the day known as your fasting period, as well as a portion of the day known as your fasting window.

The reason I mentioned you already fast most days is that fasting and feasting is a natural eating pattern. Most people wake up, eat breakfast, and then continue to indulge in a feeding window for the rest of the day. Once you hit the hay for the evening, your body makes a natural shift into a fasted state. Even though your fasting window isn’t quite as lengthy as someone who’s in it for the weight loss benefits, most people technically follow a fasting and feeding schedule.

Those who purposefully follow an intermittent fasting protocol for weight loss simply extend the time they’re not eating, typically either before bedtime or first thing in the morning. In many cases, those following intermittent fasting for weight loss will slash caloric intake in both time slots in order to extend the fasting window.

Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

Since you stumbled upon this intermittent fasting FAQ blog, you already understand there are many health benefits that come with extending total fasting time. In fact, the benefits of proper fasting are plentiful. A solid intermittent fasting routine can:

Lower inflammation
Reduce brain fog / improve brain function
Help control blood glucose
Improve insulin sensitivity
Reduce hunger pangs while dieting
Improve blood pressure
Speed up weight loss

While these are the main reasons most people take advantage of longer periods of fasting, the positive effects of intermittent fasting extend beyond the benefits listed above.

One of the best reasons to consider extending your fasting hours beyond a typical 8:16 eating routine is, in the short term, you don’t feel as hungry. This is especially true while following a ketogenic diet combined with intermittent fasting.

In the long term, daily fasting can help improve several diseases that result from insulin levels that remain high for too long, such as Type 2 Diabetes or PCOS. When you remain insulin resistant for too long, many diseases of civilization begin to set in.

While I have nothing but good things to say about using an intermittent fasting diet in conjunction with a low carb meal plan as a faster way to reach your goals, if you follow flawed advice you find on internet free-for-alls (like most social media channels) you can easily get kicked out of a fasted state without even realizing what happened!

What You Can Drink While Intermittent Fasting

Now that we talked about the basics of how intermittent fasting works, plus some of the reasons waiting to eat your first meal is a good idea, let’s talk about one of the biggest mysteries of a proper intermittent fasting plan: what you can drink while in a fasted state.

If your goal with intermittent fasting is weight loss, then the drinks you should consume during your fasting window are limited. While you’ll hear different answers from different fasting resources, too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the broth, or in this case – the coffee.

With that said, drinks that are safe to consume without breaking your fast include plain black coffee and water. While this can vary slightly for different people, if your goal is to get the most out of your fasting window, then stick to the basics.

What About Artificial Sweeteners?

Now you may be thinking – plain coffee and water? That’s it? What if I want a little sweetness added to my beverages? Can I at least get away with minor coffee additions like artificial sweeteners?

Nope! Not if you want to remain in a fasted state.

In fact, adding even small amounts of sweeteners during your fasting window is one of the worst things you can do! That little taste of sweetness can result in a negative impact on your blood sugar that could last all morning long. Even seemingly harmless zero-calorie sweeteners can lead to cravings, hunger, and can even stop your weight loss efforts dead in its tracks.

Sugar alcohols are an even worse addition, so don’t even ask 🧐

Is Bulletproof Coffee Safe While Fasting?

If you’re part of the keto crowd, you may have come across information that leads coffee drinkers to rejoice. There’s an entire subculture of keto dieters who basically live off of morning brew filled to the brim with heavy whipping cream.

These dieters take the term eating hours all too literally, and instead of chewing a breakfast made up of protein, carbs, and even a little fat, they add grass-fed butter, coconut oil, MCT oil, or even coconut cream to their morning coffee.

While bulletproof coffee can have a time and place in a successful keto diet, drinking BPC during your fasting window isn’t it. The general rule of thumb when it comes to bulletproof coffee is while it may be OK for you to make this part of your regular coffee consumption routine, be prepared to eat once your body sends signals that it’s time to eat.

Oh … and before you ask – yes, bulletproof coffee does break your fast.

What About A Splash of Milk?

No matter what you’ve heard when it comes to adding just a little bit of cream to your coffee, even if you keep the calorie count low, the answer is still no. Whether you use large amounts of dairy products in a bulletproof coffee, or even small quantities by sneaking in just a teaspoon of heavy cream, both of these actions break your fasted state.

If your primary goal is weight loss, then you’re doing far more damage than you know by sneaking even a little bit of cream into your morning coffee. Once your body gets a little tease of nutrients coming in with even a small amount of cream, now it wants more.

When you refrain from food by purposefully extending your fasting window, your primal body doesn’t understand that your goal is to lose the jiggle from your middle. Since your body’s priority is survival, and withholding food signals famine, weight loss doesn’t go as expected when you tease your body with small amounts of calories here or there, but wait to eat an actual meal.

How About Green Tea?

Now we’re getting into a bit of a gray area when it comes to what you can drink while intermittent fasting. Most people are 100% OK to drink plain black coffee and plain water while fasting for weight loss. While the majority of people can also get away with plain green tea during a fast, this is something you’ll have to test for yourself.

For the majority of people, green tea actually works like an appetite suppressant and can help extend your fasting time. However, some people may feel hunger soon after drinking green tea, which is a sign that having green tea during your fasting window isn’t a great idea.

While I personally drink green tea most days for the health benefits that come along with this beverage, I don’t really love the flavor. To make do, I mix my green tea with another herbal tea like peppermint. In this instance, I wouldn’t drink green tea while fasting since flavored herbal teas can break a fasted state.

There’s one more thing I wanted to mention about green tea before we finally talk about the intermittent fasting FAQ on deck: does coffee creamer break your fast?

When I mention green tea, I’m talking about the loose leaf version you brew yourself at home. Most green teas sold in convenience stores in the refrigerated section have sugar or other high-carb additives, which means these versions are never a good option – fasted or not.

Can You Have Coffee Creamer While Intermittent Fasting?

I realize that I’ve addressed quite a few intermittent fasting do’s and don’ts throughout this blog before addressing the actual intermittent fasting FAQ you were promised. But I did that with purpose, I promise.

After all, if I just flat out said – NO WAY IN HE-DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS should you ever consume coffee creamer while fasting, would you have even bothered to read the rest of the blog? Probably not.

With all of the fasting misinformation floating about the Ketosphere, I thought it was important to clear up a thing or two about a thing or two when it comes to what you can drink while intermittent fasting for weight loss. In case you’re still confused at this point, thing one is plain water and thing two is black coffee.

In zero parts of thing one or thing two did I mention coffee creamer, or any of the horrible ingredients most coffee creamers use.

This is where 💩 gets real.

Do you even know about the toxic ingredients most coffee creamers use to make their seemingly innocent product? No? Then let’s have a chat.

Many popular brands of coffee creamer use some combination of:

Sugar (in various forms)
Toxic thickening agents, like carrageenan
Hydrogenated oils
Artificial flavors and artificial sweeteners
Chemicals like Dipotassium Phosphate, Polysorbate 60, and other chemical preservatives

Why You Should Ditch Coffee Creamers – Even During Your Eating Window

If your main goal is weight loss, adding more toxic ingredients is never the answer. The best way to finally shed the weight for good has less to do with the number of calories you consume, and more to do with the amount of junk your body has to deal with.

Drinking coffee creamer filled with toxic ingredients, even in smaller amounts, is a good way to give your body another problem it has to fix. And guess what – your body will work to get rid of the toxins long before it works on taking off excess pounds.

So when asking does coffee creamer break my fast, the answer is a resounding yes – so don’t do it … not even a splash. Even beyond that, I hope this blog has led you to rethink adding toxic coffee creamer to your coffee any time of day.

Your best bet is to switch to a little bit of heavy cream, or even one of the many keto coffee creamers that don’t contain the junk ingredients most creamers do. After a period of time you won’t even miss your normal coffee creamer. A small behavior change like this can make a big difference when it comes to a successful weight loss plan.

But no, you cannot drink keto coffee creamers while in a fasted state. Listen – you can do this the easy way or the hard way.

Fasting = black coffee and water, pay attention puh-lease. (That’s a direct quote from Danielle Staub, so that’s not me being rude – it’s Danielle).

Get Better Weight Loss Results

A weight loss plan that works consists of small habit changes that add up to big results. While skipping creamer in your morning coffee is a great start, take time to learn ALL of the habits I followed to lose more than 100 pounds with a simple low carb and intermittent fasting combo.

When you join the Keto Challenge, you’ll learn everything you need to know to jumpstart your weight loss plan, and to kick your results into high gear. In fact, most Keto Challengers use to lose between 10 – 25 lbs in only 3 weeks! Get into a fat burning state fast with this simple plan.