There's nothing worse than not seeing any results while you're fasting
because you're unknowingly breaking your fast. One of the top questions I get is,
“What breaks my fast?” We're going to get to the bottom of this very important question, but before
we get started, I'm Dr. Zyrowski and I started my holistic health practice in order to help
you take control of your health naturally, because true health only comes naturally.
I've been fasting for a long period of time - way before it was considered cool. In fact,
it was actually considered really weird when I started.
But I've added in so many different things while in a fasted state, cream in my coffee,
flavored water, amino acids, electrolytes, stevia, you name it, and some of them really did my fast.
Recently I had an individual that I was working with and they kept having constipation issues and
they blamed it on fasting. They said, every time I fast, I have constipation issues. And I thought
to myself, hm, intermittent fasting doesn't cause constipation. As I dug a little deeper,
one of the things I found out is that they thought that if you restrict water while
intermittent fasting, you would get better results. The problem was is that intermittent
fasting day after day and restricting water, they were becoming far too dehydrated. And so, when
you're intermittent fasting, water is certainly approved and you should make sure that you're
getting proper hydration during this time. It's important to realize that when you're fasting,
sometimes you don't necessarily think about drinking water because you're not eating. So,
make sure when intermittent fasting, you're drinking plenty of water. Now, when it comes
to other forms of water, sparkling water can also be beneficial while intermittent fasting.
It's approved, but also it can actually be beneficial in the way of curbing hunger.
Now, for me, I always like to switch up my fasting routine and I do this because
otherwise I get bored with it. Doing it day after day, I just need a little
bit of change. One of the things I like to add in is some apple cider vinegar.
I'll take some Bragg's apple cider vinegar. I'll mix it with some ice water and I'll sip on
that while fasting. Now, not only does it not break your fast, but also has some benefits.
It can help improve your digestion and it also helps with insulin sensitivity.
Now this is where I see a lot of people go wrong. Coffee lovers, listen up here.
Coffee is something that is very beneficial while fasting. In fact, it's something that can even
push you into autophagy faster, but the problem isn't the coffee. The problem is when you start
putting all the additives in. I see people do this all the time. They have their black coffee,
they put a little cream in there. They put a little xylitol in there. Tastes their coffee.
Coffee doesn't taste right - little more cream, a little more xylitol, and then bam,
this is when you're getting thrown out of your fast. When we're thinking of coffee, black coffee
is fine. Black tea is fine. It's the additives that get us in trouble. I will say this though.
I find that some people will do just fine with a little bit of cream, a little bit of stevia, or a
little bit of erythritol and some people don't. It really depends on your state of your metabolism.
And that's why I don't want to talk about all this stuff in absolutes because it can vary from one
person to the next. Let me know in comments, how do you make your coffee when fasting?
I had this one lady I was working with and she started intermittent fasting and she was going
to be drinking some black coffee during that time too. Now, the next follow-up appointment we had,
she just wasn't getting the results that I anticipated her getting. So, I started
to dig into the very detailed specifics. Okay, you're having coffee. Are you putting anything
in your coffee? And she says, well, yeah, I put a spoonful of sugar in it. And I'm like,
you can't put a spoonful of sugar in your coffee. That's going to break your fast. And she says,
but I took the creamer out. I see these scenarios all the time. And it's funny to me too how many
people, you pull the cream and you pull the sugar and whatever else they're putting in their coffee,
and you pull that from them and they decide that they actually never liked coffee to begin with.
Now I really need to clear this up too. And this is pick of fats and fasting. There's so much
misinformation out there, but I want to be able to agree on one thing before we get started. Can we
agree that fasting and ketosis are two different things? Put down below, let me know. Now that we
agree or maybe agree to disagree, you can't put a hundred calories of fats into your coffee and
still remain in a fasted state. There's some companies that really popularize this and they
were really just trying to sell their product, but the fact is a lot of people got confused.
They thought that you could add a whole bunch of fats into a coffee and still remain fasted. So,
whether it's MCT oil, it's coconut oil, it's ghee, it's butter, it will inhibit the fasted
state. Sure, you can remain in ketosis and maybe that's your goal. I'll teach you just a moment
on how to navigate this and when adding fats in your coffee would be appropriate.
I had a person telling me one time, “Every time I do intermittent fasting, I get nauseous.” Having
a lot of experience with this, I thought to myself, well, that's a pretty weird side effect
of fasting. When I dug a little bit deeper, one of the things I found I found out is that they were
slamming a stack of vitamins while in a fasted state every single morning. Now I'm all about you
taking your vitamins. However, you have the entire day. Don't worry about them when you're fasting.
Certain vitamins, they're going to make you feel sick and nauseous when you take them on
an empty stomach. Take your vitamins during your eating window and this way you're not
altering your physiology and you're allowing the fast to balance and heal as it does.
Now, let's talk about exceptions to the rules and let's really talk about your health and
your goals and what you're trying to accomplish. I've been fasting for a long period of time and my
health goals have changed over time. Sometimes they're changing month to month, maybe week to
week. I've had times where I'm trying to promote gut health. I'm trying to promote brain health.
I'm trying to promote fat loss or even build some strength. I've added in gut support while
fasting. I've added in essential amino acids after my workout in a fasted state, knowing
full well that I was trying to build strength - not eating for another six hours after that.
I've added an MCTs into my coffee while fasting because my brain felt a little bit sluggish,
but at the time, they all met my current goals. Now, were these perfect fasts? Not at all.
But was it better than not fasting at all? I can tell you with full experience, it was. Don't be
so strict with your fasting that you're not able to work it into your current health goals. And
don't be so redundant with fasting that it’s not sustainable and you want to give up altogether.
Now I know for the creatures of habit out there,
the redundancy is nice, but for those who are the exact opposite, you need to change
it up a little bit. Sustainability is key. Now, I've been doing fasting forever and I
continue to do it. Fasting has never been a flash in the pan health strategy for me.
Let's talk, breaking your fast because you should have some sort of strategy behind breaking your
fast when intermittent fasting. I had this one guy I was working with and he did have a strategy.
His strategy was to have this one particular food every time he broke his fast. Now you would think,
hmm, probably something really healthy, right? Well, wrong. His one particular food that he
strategized to have every single day was a rice crispy treat. Probably not the best decision,
but he also had some health problems that kind of showed he wasn't making the best choices
in terms of eating. Now, when intermittent fasting, we don't have to make it complicated when
we break our fast. We just have to follow some of the best practices if we want to have good health.
Some of the best practices are things like cutting out all sugar on that meal,
making sure that that meal is low carb, and then making sure that that meal is highly
nutritionally dense so it offers you a lot of value in terms of improving your health.
Want to become an absolute master when it comes to intermittent fasting? Watch this video right
here. In this video, we're talking about how to start intermittent fasting - the complete guide.
Have you ever wondered what's the best style of intermittent fasting to do, how often you should
do it, who can do intermittent fasting? Cause there's so many questions that you probably have.