Recently, a lot of people have been asking me what I consume while fasting. Apparently, there is confusion primarily because I was first doing intermittent fasting where I would eat one meal (sometimes two) per day. Because of this, now when I say I am fasting, most people automatically assume that I continue to eat part of the day. That is not the case, though.

If I am doing some eating, I call that “Intermittent Fasting”. If I am not eating anything, I call that Fasting, or long-term fasting. I also people call a long-term fast a “Block Fast”.

So, if I am “Fasting” I am not eating, only drinking various things. If I say I am doing “Intermittent Fasting” that means that I fast most of the day, but do a bit of eating too.

Food During Intermittent Fasting

Most of the time when I am doing Intermittent Fasting, I am doing the 23/1 model. I fast for 23 hours of the day, and I eat one meal, giving myself one hour to eat that meal.

When I am following this model, I always follow a ketogenic diet in what I eat. This means that I eat very low carbs (usually I eat ZERO carbs, except carbs in veggies). I eat high fat. I eat things like full cream milk or cream. I eat salads with plenty of high fat, healthy oil salad dressing on them. I eat moderate amounts of protein. The proteins I eat are meats, eggs, cheese and that kind of thing. Last night (at the time of this writing, not publication time) for dinner I ate a green salad with tomatoes, with Italian Salad dressing, and all of this was inside a “wrap” made with eggs (kind of like an omelet). Oh, the salad also had some grilled chicken in it. Under a ketogenic eating plan, this is a very healthy meal.

Drinks

During times of both Intermittent Fasting and longer-term fasting, I mix up the liquids that I take in. Some of the things that I consume are below.

Tsokolate

Tsokolate is a type of “hot chocolate” in the Philippines, where I live.

Tsokolate, the drink, is made with little tablets of pure dark chocolate, which is locally grown. These tablets are called “tablea”. It is mixed with hot boiling water and kind of whipped with a hand tool. There is cocoa oil in it naturally. Dark chocolate has been shown to be very healthy for the heart. I like to drink tsokolate for two reasons:

1. I like it!
2. Heart health benefits since I am a heart attack survivor.

On an average day, I usually drink about 2 cups of tsokolate whether I am fasting or not. I find that tsokolate makes me feel full for at least about 4 hours or so. There are some carbs in any kind of chocolate, but I calculated it all out and the net carbs in a cup of tsokolate are less than 5 carbs, so two cups per day would be less than 10 carbs. I find that perfectly acceptable, even when fasting.

Coffee

I will usually drink one cup of coffee in the morning. I roast my own coffee beans. I use a small amount of artificial sweetener in my coffee, and I also use “hwc” or heavy whipping cream in my coffee. One cup only most of the time, but from time to time I will drink two cups. Usually, if I drink more than one cup, that also means that I drink less tsokolate that day as well.

Water

Of course, I also drink water.

Diet drinks

I don’t drink many diet drinks at all. I am not opposed to drinking such drinks in moderation, though. I will have an occasional diet Coke or something of that sort. We don’t keep such drinks in the house, but if I am at a restaurant for a meeting or something, though, I don’t hesitate to order a diet coke.

Bulletproof?

I get a lot of questions about bulletproof coffee. People ask me if it is acceptable to drink BPC while fasting.

Well, first let me explain to those who don’t know, what BPC is.  BPC is coffee into which you also put one tablespoon of butter, and one tablespoon of coconut oil. It is very commonly taken in the Keto/Low Carb community. Also, a lot of people into things like tech and such use BPC because it clears the brain and allows for very good thinking.

So, is it acceptable to drink BPC while fasting?

Well, in my view, fasting is a very personal thing, and only you can decide what is acceptable. I follow Dr. Jason Fung online.  Dr. Fung is, in my view, the world’s leading expert when it comes to medical fasting. If you watch his videos, he often says that you should be flexible in your fasting. If there is a social occasion that involves eating, you should not close yourself off from your friends, eat! Start fasting again after that meal. He says that taking in things like BPC is acceptable if that is what you want to do.

For me, I feel that using BPC is fine, but I also say that is my own decision and you should follow what you like to do.

One thing I will say is that I found that when I first started fasting (intermittent), BPC really did help me make it. If I drink a cup of BPC, it makes me feel full for 4 to 5 hours. Now, I rarely drink BPC though. I just don’t need it anymore.

Also, in most cases, when I was using bulletproof, it was not coffee. Instead, I would combine what I mentioned earlier… tsokolate, combined with the bulletproof recipe. I would put coconut oil and butter into my tsokolate.

That’s it!

So, now you have an idea what I consume while fasting, and how I mix up Intermittent Fasting with Longer term fasting.