Does Drinking A Greens Drink Break a Fast?
Diets have taken the world by storm and that's no surprise, dieting has been apart of our culture for years.
Yet something that seems to have resurfaced is 'fasting'
Something we get asked a lot on our Facebook page and support desk is;
'Does drinking a greens drink break a fast?'
Or, can you drink greens during intermittent fasting?
Drinking a super greens like Lean Greens is effectively breaking a fast. All greens drinks have a caloric load (Lean Greens has 55 calories per serving), and fasting is essentially an abstention from taking in any calories. However we have seen some intermittent fasting plans which allow a certain amount of calories during the 'fast'.
Double check with the intermittent fasting plan you're on to check for the specifics.
What is Fasting?
The dictionary definition of 'fast' is to 'abstain from all or some kinds of food or drink.'
Fasting can commonly come under many terms such as calorie reduction, intermittent fasting, 5:2 Diet, 16:8 Diet or if you're like me, simply skipping breakfast.
For some people fasting is a choice, for others like myself, I simply can't stomach breakfast!
Fasting is often chosen by many people for different reasons, for example;
- Religious purposes
- Losing Weight
- Chronic Health Issues
Fasting has been around for a long time, alongside many other diets. In 2012, a BBC Journalist Dr Michael Mosley’s TV documentary Eat Fast, Live Longer and book The Fast Diet highly popularised the approach to dieting.
Shortly it was followed by journalist Kate Harrison’s book The 5:2 Diet based on her own experience, and subsequently by Dr Jason Fung’s 2016 bestseller The Obesity Code.
Is Fasting Good For Your Health?
The amount of energy in an item of food or drink is measured in calories.
When we eat and drink, we put energy into our bodies. Our bodies use up that energy through everyday movement, which includes everything from breathing to running. (NHS)
Fasting is often chosen to help people lose weight.
If you eat fewer calories than your body burns, you'll lose weight, if you eat more calories than your body burns, your body with convert it and store it as fat.
Eating fewer calories than your body burns is known as a 'calorie deficit'
Popular Types of Intermittent Fasting
5:2 Diet
The most well-known intermittent fasting diet is the 5:2 diet, where you are encouraged to eat normally for 5 days a week and fast for the other 2.
Researchers in this latest study looked at a variant form of intermittent fasting dubbed the 16:8 diet, which we discussed above.
(NHS)
16:8 Method
The method is in the name, you fast for 14 - 16 hours and restrict your eating window to 8-10 hours.
This approach is also known as the Leangains protocol and was popularised by fitness expert Martin Berkhan.
Doing this method of fasting can actually be as simple as not eating anything after dinner and skipping breakfast.
For example, if you finish your last meal at 8 p.m. and don't eat until noon the next day, you’re technically fasting for 16 hours!
So Does It Break A Fast?
The short answer is,
Yes.
Fasting is defined as 'abstaining from food or drink', and if you're drinking Lean Greens this contains 54.5 calories per 15g serving.
That being said, if you are going to break a fast - Lean Greens is probably the best thing to do it with, as your body will be flooded with all of those essential vitamins and minerals you need! (Try this product if you're in America)
Discover Our Favourite
Super Greens
Is Intermittent Fasting Sustainable?
Here at Lean Greens, we love food.
It's one of life's simple pleasure and should be there for us to enjoy.
This being said, a lot of the time we can over indulge which can lead to unwanted weight gain.
'Fasting' is simply another name for a 'Calorie Deficit'.
Calories are law- if you eat more calories than your body burns you'll store it as excess fat, but if you eat fewer, your body will use up those stores and you breathe it out as oxygen.
The body is pretty amazing, right?
The two most popular fasting diets above are simply putting you in a 'calorie deficit' by making you eat 500-600 calories on two days a week.
There are a few problems with restricting yourself to only 500 calories for two days such as;
- It's not sustainable: The average man and woman need around 2,000/2,500 calories per day. If you suddenly cut down to 500 calories two days a week, you and your body are going to be pretty unhappy. We all know what we get like when we're hangry!
- It's not necessary: Such a significant restriction is truly not necessary, the majority of people can lose weight with just a 500 calorie reduction.
For example, if my body burns 2,200 calories per day, all I need to do is eat 500 calories less than what my body burns, which would result in daily calorie intake of 1700 calories.
This would lead to a healthy and sustainable weight loss of probably around a 1lb a week.
I'd highly recommend following Graeme Tomlinson @TheFitnessChef on Instagram. He's a evidence-based coach, who provides a very clear cut nutrition database and is also the Bestselling Author of ‘Eat What You Like & Lose Weight for Life’