Intermittent Fasting is a great way to control your cravings and reduce fats. In the current era we all have been in a situation where we wanted to lose some weight.
Most of us also turn to green tea in our weight loss journey. Drinking more than 5 cups a day is known to boost metabolism. But does green tea break a fast?
Green tea has very few calories. According to research, while fasting if you take anything under 50 calories then you are good to go.
So, green tea doesn’t affect fasting rather it is most helpful in your weight loss regime.
Further more we’ve also covered the benefits you can get from green tea while fasting, how it aids you while fasting and much more.
So, let’s get all this information in this guide
What Is Intermittent Fasting For Weight Loss?
There are a lot of diets and plans available for weight loss. Some may not be healthy and pose risks to health.
Intermittent fasting is a safe way where you control when to eat rather than what to eat. People happily start this regime because of fewer restrictions on what to eat and what not to eat.
Intermittent fasting does not control your portion sizes or restrict you to follow a specific diet.
Yes, you heard it right that means you can still grab your favorite slice of pizza and fulfill your late-night chocolate cravings.
The idea of fasting revolves around keeping some hours to eat whatever you want and then forgoing meals for dedicated long hours.
5 Types of Intermittent Fasting
To understand in detail, we have sorted different types of intermittent fasting, you can choose the one that suits you.
1) Time-Restricted Fasting
The time-restricted pattern allows you to choose to fast in different ways. The most common is to fast for 16 hours a day and eat in the other 8-hour time frame.
Also, you can fast for 14 hours and keep your eating time for 10 hours. This one is an easy approach, most of the time can be consumed while sleeping.
Another pattern can be 12:12, which is easiest for beginners. Follow this method as often as you desire.
2) 24-Hour Fasting
In this method, you simply fast for the whole day. But it’s not as simple as it sounds. Not eating for 24 hours is a tough one.
Observing this for a few days in a row is not recommended. Not for beginners surely. You can keep the goal once a week and eat healthy the other days.
3) 5:2
This is one effective way to burn calories. You have to fast two whole days a week. It’s easier on the weekend.
Include high protein and fiber foods to suppress appetite. You can go back to a normal eating routine on the other days.
4) Alternate-Day Fasting
Alternate-Day Fasting is the method where you are faster every other day.
It’s a good routine if you want drastic changes to your weight. Your body may get used to this one easily.
5) OMAD
This one is not a type of intermittent fasting but is included because it adheres to individuals’ requirements who can fast for longer hours due to certain conditions.
In this, you can eat one meal in the whole day. No other restrictions or diet plans. Eat whatever you want in this meal and skip all others. This one is relatively easier to follow.
Does Green Tea Break Intermittent Fast?
Most experts would say no to this query.
We follow intermittent fasting to restrict calorie intake. If anything, that you take contains calories it will break your fast.
The thumb of the rule is anything less than 50 calories is allowed to be taken while fasting. A cup of steeped green tea has about 2.45 calories. So, a plain cup of brewed green tea won’t break intermittent fast.
The important thing to keep in mind is that we told you about classic green tea with no sugar, milk, or sweeteners. These things can cause an insulin response and may break your fast, putting an end to all your effort.
Why Green Tea Doesn’t Break a Fast?
When on a diet a cup of green tea may break your heart as you won’t be able to eat anything you love for certain hours. Rest assured it won’t break your fast. Why?
Because these are low-calorie drinks when brewed authentically.
Green tea and any other tea without sugar won’t harm fasting. This makes Zero calorie drinks allowed in intermittent fasting.
Therefore, drinking green tea, water, and other beverages that have zero calories keeps you hydrated during fasting and even makes your metabolism faster.
How Green Tea Aids Fasting & Help in Weight loss?
What does successful weight loss depend upon? Although fasting is the best way to train your body discipline and avoid munching throughout the day. It also helps reduce calorie intake.
But the greater result of weight loss comes from how your body copes up with hunger and spends the energy. With weight loss hunger also increases. How do cope up with that?
According to studies, green tea helps a lot in supporting weight loss and aids in fasting. The most common beneficial compounds in green tea are the catechins and caffeine which suppress your hunger and make energy that increases fat burning process.
Research also reveals that these compounds when working together they increase calorie burnout by 4%. For some people, green tea has also been miraculously shown to reduce waist size with green tea intake.
Thus, green tea benefits in making you smarter and helps more during fasting. You need to drink more than 5 cups of green tea along with a fast for it to show the desired changes.
A word of caution to the people who are prone to headaches and anxiety should limit their green tea and caffeine intake.
Benefits of Green Tea Intake During a Fast
Green tea with all its health benefits helps your body cope up with a new fasting routine in the following ways:
- Green tea boosts your energy levels making you more active when your body needs nourishment as a result of fasting.
- When taken before a workout the caffeine in green tea gives you power that motivates you to keep exercising and burn more calories.
- It calms you and puts you into a relaxing state of mind.
- Green tea prevents common flu and cold by fighting disease-creating germs.
- Whenever you change your diet, your stomach is surely the first thing to get upset. Green tea keeps your digestive health at bay by relaxing your stomach and relieving gas.
- Green tea is a great detox drink and removes all the toxins from your body while you are fasting.
3 Times Green Tea Does Break a Fast
When green tea is steeped solely with out any additional ingredients it is allowed to take during intermittent fasting. But during two conditions it does break your fast.
1) Adding Milk to Green Tea break Your Fast
Milk contains calories. Anything that contains calories break your fast. When added to the green tea it increases the calorie count of tea as well.
Any kind of milk at least contains 90 calories. Therefore, non-fat milk and regular both are out of bounds during fasting.
2) Adding Sugar to Green Tea break Your Fast
Most people add sugar to green tea to make the green tea taste better. One tsp of sugar contains 16 calories.
And it does break your fast but why? Because sugar is the bad guy in the weight loss routine. Avoid it at all costs.
3) Adding Sweeteners to Green Tea break Your Fast
The main purpose of fasting is to start the process of ketosis in the body for weight loss. The sweeteners in the green tea will create an insulin response in the body that will break your fast.
The insulin response also stops the process of autophagy that tricks your metabolism into burning more fat at a faster rate. Therefore, sugar, honey, and all sweeteners are not allowed during intermittent fasting.
4 Side Effects of Green Tea While Fasting
Intermittent fasting is hard work and you never get drastic changes without one! While green tea and fasting together have great benefits to the body they may pose some side effects too.
1) Caffeine Reactions
Some people may have caffeine reactions to green tea. Taking green tea on an empty stomach while fasting may cause heart palpitation, anxiety, and sleeping disorders.
2) Upset Stomach
When you start fasting your stomach may take time to adjust to the changes. It is not common to have allergic reactions to green tea but when it is taken while fasting it may cause constipation or upset stomach like gas, pain, etc.
3) Liver and Kidney Problems
This is a rare cause and happens only in excessive and long-term effects. Green tea may cause liver and kidney problems when taken during fasting.
4) Headache & Nausea
Taking green tea on an empty stomach may cause nausea, vomit, and headaches. Pregnant ladies particularly should avoid fasting and excessive green tea intake.
Beverages Allowed to Drink During Intermittent Fasting
The drinks that have very few calories are allowed to be drink during fasting. These drinks do not break your fast and keep you fresh and curb your hunger pangs. Most herbal teas and traditional ones are great drinks to take during intermittent fasting.
Which drinks are these?
Final Thoughts
Intermittent fasting is observed around the world for religious purposes. People from different faiths from Christianity to Islam follow fasting.
They say it’s a way to cleanse your soul and yield benefits to gain health and an active body.
Science and nutritionists advise this to increase energy, weight loss, better body shape, and self-control.
Taking green tea during your fasting days is the best way to stay hydrated, make your metabolism faster and it doesn’t even break a fast!
