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Liquids and Intermittent Fasting: What Can You Drink?
This article will discuss liquids and intermittent fasting — what you can drink while fasting.
Intermittent fasting is a pattern of eating that involves alternating feeding periods with fasting periods or eating very few calories. Intermittent fasting focuses on when you eat rather than the food you eat.
Intermittent fasting isn’t new. Humans have practiced fasting throughout history for various reasons, including survival, health, and spiritual reasons (1).
The goal of intermittent fasting is not necessarily to minimize calorie intake but to maintain your health and help your body recover.
Most fasting techniques incorporate brief periods of 12–16 hours into each day. On the other hand, other patterns may include 24–48 — hour fasting periods once or twice every week.
Whenever you fast, your body undergoes several metabolic changes. For example, after an extended fasting period, your body enters ketosis. Ketosis is a state in which your body burns fat for fuel. This happens when there are no carbohydrates (2, 3, 4).
It is also important to note that fasting causes a drastic decrease in insulin levels. It also enhances autophagy. Autophagy is the process by which your body gets rid of damaged, unneeded, or harmful cells (5, 6…
