13 Foods You Should Always Avoid When Breaking a Fast

If you break your fast with these foods, you’ll more than likely reverse your progress. These are science-backed foods you should avoid.

What Should You Not Eat After Fasting?

When figuring out what to break your fast with (and what not to), we first need to go back to what the goal of Intermittent Fasting is. Our meal choices after breaking a fast should directly mirror and enhance the benefits of the fast itself, otherwise you could reverse your progress.

The benefits of fasting largely come down to having periods of low insulin. Insulin is our storing hormone. When it’s low, we can more easily turn on fat burning. When it’s high, fat burning shuts off. It’s also released by our body every time we eat, but especially when we eat foods high in starch or sugar. By taking breaks from eating with Intermittent Fasting, we’re naturally turning on fat burning by allowing insulin to dip down.

Which leads me to what we really should be avoiding when breaking a fast.

Foods That Spike Insulin

To maximize the benefits of fasting, our first meal (and every meal that we eat during our eating window) should do its best to not aggressively spike insulin. The less we spike insulin, the easier it is to shift back into fat burning, even between meals.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of foods that most people commonly eat that greatly spike insulin. I’ll be sharing a full list of 13 foods later in this post.

Foods That Make You Hungry

Outside of just making sure you don’t overly spike insulin, it’s also important to make sure the food you eat is filling. If we pair Intermittent Fasting with under-eating, this can trigger our body and brain to think we’re starving (especially in women). From a weight loss perspective, this causes the body to burn less energy (aka, metabolism slows down) in an attempt to protect itself from low food availability.

Two major things can make you hungry:

• Eating too little in general
• Not eating enough protein, fat, or fiber

Which leads me to the next thing…

Nutrient poor food can lead to long term negative consequences. Think of side effects like brittle nails, hair loss, feelings of depression or anxiety, or weakened immune system. What’s the point of “losing weight” if your physical and mental health ultimately suffer?

13 Foods To Avoid When Breaking a Fast

With all of this in mind, below is a list of 13 common foods that break one or more of the rules mentioned in the previous section, plus great alternatives for each.

Cereal

No matter how you slice it, cereal is just simply not a good food to break a fast with. It tends to break every one of the rules listed above: it can spike insulin, it can make you hungry, it’s low in protein, and it’s nutrient poor.

Yes, even the “healthy” cereal that I know you’re thinking about right now.

Instead, try a low-carb, high protein oatmeal for a quick and easy meal. My community loves this Pumpkin Spice Grain-Free Oatmeal.

Plain Oatmeal

Which speaking of oatmeal, let’s talk about the real deal. Plain oatmeal cooked in water, almond milk or regular milk also breaks most of the rules above: it’s very low in protein, it tends to spike most people’s blood sugar (and therefore insulin), and it makes you hungry. Researchers found that those who ate oatmeal were hungry much earlier and tended to eat more at their next meal compared to those who ate eggs.

This doesn’t mean you can’t have oatmeal at all, it just needs to be done the right way: load it up with protein, fat, and fiber ingredients to boost the nutritional value and balance the insulin spike.

Try my viral high protein overnight oats recipe to hit all of these needs.

One caveat: Those who are insulin resistant should generally avoid oatmeal (even the better version of it) until their insulin resistance has improved. Instead, opt for low carb oatmeal swaps like this one.

Pastries

This is a broad category that includes muffins, donuts, pop-tarts, toaster strudels and a lot more. If it’s a baked good that uses any type of flour or sugar, then it falls into this category. Both flour and sugar can cause a massive spike in blood sugar (and therefore insulin). Not to mention they tend to be very low in quality protein.

Although I don’t recommend things like muffins as a full meal, there are healthier alternatives that can be paired with a meal. For example, I love these protein muffins paired with eggs and avocado to get a balance of protein, fat, and fiber from nutrient dense sources.

Bread

Yes, even “healthy” whole wheat bread or sourdough. Especially if you’re insulin resistant, these can cause significant spikes in insulin. Plus, bread is low in protein and not very filling. There are some exceptions to this rule. For example, some people do well with ezekiel bread (as long as it’s paired with other protein rich foods, like eggs). You can also find a low carb, nutrient dense bread like this one (again, paired with protein).

Or you can DIY it and make your own flax bread for a very low carb, high fiber and high protein option to pair with your breakfast.

Potatoes

Think hash browns and breakfast potatoes. They’re low in protein and can be high glycemic (meaning, it can spike insulin). A good alternative to hash browns is cauliflower rice. You can flavor it up with seasonings like ground garlic, paprika, and onion powder for a very similar taste profile that’s much less insulin spiking.

“Two Eggs”

Eggs are very nutrient dense and pretty high in protein… but just two eggs is not enough for any adult. Two eggs only has about 12 grams of protein. To put this into perspective, most adults need around 30-50 grams of protein per meal. Missing the mark on protein can result in muscle loss and a slower metabolism.

If you choose to have eggs, you can either pair it with another high protein food or just… eat more eggs. This would require about 5+ whole eggs. Or you can pair three whole eggs with 3-4 egg whites.

Or my personal favorite is to make scrambled eggs with cottage cheese whipped into it. Cheesy, high protein and delicious!

UPF Treats

This is another general category that includes things like ice cream, cookies, candy, chips, crackers, and “snack foods”. If it has added sugar and it exclusively comes from the center aisles of the grocery store, it’s probably not something you want to break your fast with.

Ultra processed foods (UPF) have been found to make us eat around 800 extra calories per day. They’re nutrient poor, highly addictive, low in protein, and easy to eat a lot of.

There aren’t true swaps for UPF treats, but literally any other meal recommended in this blog post would be a vastly superior option.

Pasta

If you’re breaking your fast with a lunch food item, then you might reach for pasta. But hang on… pasta is high in carbs that spike insulin and is very easy to overeat. Compared to other food items, it’s also pretty nutrient poor and very low in protein.

If you want a pasta style meal, checkout my high protein pasta salad recipe.

Pancakes or Waffles

High sugar. Lots of processed flour. Low protein. Not filling. Nutrient poor. This one also hits all those markers. But you can actually make healthy, high protein and nutrient rich pancakes and waffles instead.

Try my chocolate chip protein pancakes for a really tasty way to break a fast.

Fruit Juice and Fruit Smoothies

Even though this seems healthy, both are very high in sugar and very low in protein. Just a small 8-ounce glass of orange juice has about 21 grams of sugar. Ounce for ounce, that’s on par with a lot of sodas. Even though it’s from a fruit, it’s still sugar and it will still spike insulin.

Instead, opt for water as your drink of choice and stick to a smoothie that is high in protein, fat, and fiber. I have literally hundreds of recipes, but this is one of my favorites.

White Rice

Think bowls and sushi. White rice can spike insulin more than some candy bars! Especially if insulin resistant, white rice is something you’ll want to avoid. A great alternative is cauliflower rice. Just make sure you season it right!

Try my cauliflower rice burrito bowl recipe.

Protein Bars and Shakes

Yes, it has the word protein in it, but it doesn’t mean it’s a good option to break a fast with. Flip over the package and take a quick peak at the ingredients label. More than likely it has a lot of similarities to your favorite candy bar. Pre-bought protein bars and shakes are typically made with only ultra processed ingredients that are nutrient poor and/or high in sugar.

Instead, DIY it with your own protein, fat and fiber rich smoothie. It’s quick, easy, filling, and nutrient-rich.

Sweetened Drinks

Think coffee, tea, energy drinks, and soda (to name a few). Because these are in liquid form, the sugar is brought into the body at a much faster rate, causing insulin to drastically spike.

Instead, choose unsweetened drink options. If you’re a vanilla latte fan, you’ll love my zero added sugar protein vanilla latte recipe as a healthy swap.

So What Should You Eat?

This list might seem like it excludes all food and that you’re forever stuck with sad steamed broccoli and grilled chicken if you want to be “healthy”. But that’s actually not the case at all. It just requires a bit re-learning as to how to properly structure your meal.

As a foodie myself, I love flavor and variety. This is why the Complete Intermittent Fasting Bundle includes delicious and simple recipes that taste great while following the protein, fat, and fiber structure to support fasting goals.

Helloooo burrito bowls, smoothies, tacos, chili, pancakes, waffles and more!

Thousands of women around the world have been following the Complete Intermittent Fasting Bundle guidelines and recipes to help them achieve (and maintain) their weight loss and wellness goals. If you’re looking for those step-by-step details or tasty recipes to support Intermittent Fasting, you can checkout the Complete Intermittent Fasting Bundle here.

Studies

Micronutrients and Depression