Will your daily green juice or celery juice break your Intermittent Fast? Is it possibly even ruining your results?? Today, I'm breaking down the details of juicing and Intermittent Fasting.
Does Juicing Break a Fast?
If you're following Intermittent Fasting for the purposes of tapping into fat burning mechanisms and achieving a weight loss goal (like in the Complete Intermittent Fasting Bundle protocols), then the aim is to keep carbs and protein to near 0g during your fasted period. Carbohydrates and protein both stimulate an insulin response and therefore will break a fast and shift the body out of lipolysis (aka fat burning).
Taking a look at green juices that exclusively use vegetables and no fruit, 12 oz. will contain at least 8-10 grams of carbohydrates. This level of carbohydrates will break a fast and therefore should be used during the eating window, not the fasting window.
If you're adding fruit into your green juice, this can greatly increase the carbohydrate count. For example, a green juice that uses apple contains around 33 grams of carbohydrates, 28 of which comes from sugar. This most certainly will break a fast and spike the storing hormone insulin.
If you're juicing while working toward a weight loss goal, it's important to keep your juice free of fruit and only have it during your eating window.
Does Celery Juice Break a Fast?
Because celery juice is so low in sugars and starches, it also is fairly low in carbohydrates, fat and protein. 16 oz. of celery juice (which is typically the amount suggested to drink by Celery Juice advocates) contains roughly 2g protein, 4g net carbohydrates, less than 1g fat and 40 calories.
Due to the presence of protein and carbohydrates (although fairly low, still present), Celery Juice may impact your insulin levels and therefore may break your fast.
If you are using Intermittent Fasting for religious purposes or if you are following water fasting, then anything that is not water will break your fast.
Does Lemon Juice Break a Fast?
Looking at lemon juice, the devil is in the details. Lemon juice technically contains carbohydrates and therefore can break a fast, but it comes down to the amount of lemon juice that you're using. One full lemon, juiced, contains a little over 3 grams of carbohydrates. This means using one full lemon will break a fast. However, if you drop the amount of lemon juice used to 1/4 of a lemon or less, then this brings the carbohydrates down to less than 1 gram of carbohydrates, making it a good option during the fast.
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Your Nutritionist,
Autumn
Autumn Elle Nutrition