Does Fish Oil Break a Fast?

Depending on your goal with fasting, fish oil might not break your intermittent fast. Here’s what you need to know.

Does Fish Oil Break A Fast?

Whether or not something breaks a fast depends on your goal with Intermittent Fasting. If you’re looking for the gut health perks of Intermittent Fasting, then anything other than water and electrolytes will likely break a fast. However, if you’re looking to achieve a weight loss goal, anything that causes insulin (the storing hormone) to spike will break a fast.

With this in mind, fish oil will very likely break a fast if your goal is to improve gut health. Intermittent Fasting helps to improve gut health by activating the gut cleaning process called the Migrating Motor Complex. This flushes out left behind food and bacteria that typically causes bloating and GI distress. When you eat/drink anything other than water or electrolytes, this has the potential to stop the Migrating Motor Complex. Because of this, you might want to keep your fish oil intake to your eating window with a gut health goal in mind.

However, if your goal is weight loss, fish oil won’t break a fast. Fish oil supplements come in a pure oil form or in a capsule form — either way, it’s primarily fat. Pure fats don’t spike the storing hormone insulin. This means that the body stays in a fat burning state. But it’s important to note that fish oil is best taken with food to maximize absorption. So even though you can take fish oil during your fast, you might want to hold off until your eating window when you can get better absorption.