5 Zero Calorie Drinks for Intermittent Fasting to Keep You Hydrated

What zero-calorie drinks are best suited while you’re intermittent fasting? Find out how to keep yourself hydrated without breaking a fast.

Table of Contents

• What Can You Drink During Intermittent Fasting?
• 5 Zero Calorie Drinks for Intermittent Fasting
• Zero-Calorie Drinks to Limit
• Other Drinks to Avoid During Fasting
• Wrapping Up

Hydration is vital—even more so when you’re fasting. It helps restore the fluid balance in your body and keeps food cravings at bay. Although food is off-limits during your fasting window, certain drinks are allowed as long as they don’t introduce calories that can break the fast. 

While water is the number one thirst quencher you can easily find, it’s nice to have some other options that you can enjoy while you’re fasting. 

What are the zero-calorie beverages you can drink to keep your body hydrated while intermittent fasting? Here we list a few intermittent fasting drinks you can try during your next fasting sessions. 

What Can You Drink During Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent fasting involves eating during a set period of hours and fasting during the rest. While there are no restrictions as to what you can eat during your eating window, you can’t have anything with calories during the fasting window.

In some intermittent fasting regimes, a small number of calories (less than 50) is allowed, while some advanced schedules call for a strict zero-calorie policy.

Although you can’t eat during the fasting window, you can certainly drink various beverages during this period. They, of course, should have no or a negligible number of calories. Here’s a list of popular zero-calorie drinks you can have while you’re intermittent fasting.

5 Zero Calorie Drinks for Intermittent Fasting

#1 Water

Water is the easiest choice for hydration during fasting. It is obviously calorie-free, and it can keep your stomach full during the hours you’re not eating anything. You can drink it with no restrictions whatsoever at any time you feel like it. 

#2 Flavored or Infused Water

Not everyone likes to drink plain water, and some may prefer flavored water instead. In that case, you can squeeze some lemon or lime into your water or try infusing water with a fruit of your choice. 

Making infused water is simple: you just add cut fruit (or even vegetables like cucumber) and/or herbs to a pitcher of water and leave it aside. These infusions add an extra flavor to water and make it more refreshing, thus increasing your water intake. 

Naturally flavored water won’t break your fast as it doesn’t contain any calories.

#3 Sparkling Water

Sparkling water is another option for those who prefer something other than plain water. It is also calorie-free but comes with an added punch due to carbonation. Sparkling water is sometimes flavored and, most of the time, does not contain any sweeteners.

#4 Tea

Tea, including black tea, green tea, and other herbal teas, is also a good choice to keep you hydrated and satiated during the fasting period, as long as you drink it without sugar. 

In fact, studies have shown that green tea increases satiety and fullness, thus controlling the urge to eat during the fasting window [1].

#5 Coffee

You can also drink unsweetened coffee while you’re fasting. You can even add a small amount of creamer to your coffee as long as you keep it within the 50-calorie limit. 

However, keep in mind that drinking multiple coffees during the fasting period can increase caffeine levels in the blood. Caffeine is a diuretic and can increase water loss through urine [2]. 

Thus, it is best to limit your amount of caffeinated drinks such as coffee or even caffeinated tea.

You may also like these delicious weight-loss drink recipes!

Zero-Calorie Drinks to Limit

Then what about diet sodas? Can you drink them while you’re fasting?

Diet sodas don’t contain any significant number of calories, so they won’t technically break your fast. So in that sense, you can drink them while fasting, but they might not be the best option. 

Diet sodas don’t contain sugar but are sweetened with artificial sweeteners such as sucralose and aspartame. There is conflicting research on the safety of consuming these sweeteners on a regular basis.

For example, some studies suggest that they don’t significantly affect insulin sensitivity [3], while other studies have found that specific sweeteners such as sucralose impair the insulin response [4]. This can lead to high blood sugar.

Some research also claims that diet sodas can alter your brain activity, thus increasing your cravings for high-fat, high-sugar foods [5]. Also, most of the diet sodas are caffeinated and can increase your caffeine intake.  

Because of these reasons, it’s best if you can limit the consumption of diet sodas during fasting.

Other Drinks to Avoid During Fasting

Now that you have an idea about what drinks won’t break a fast, here’re some of the drinks that should be avoided during your fast:

• Fruit juices
• Regular soda
• Bone broth
• Sweetened coffee and tea
• Dairy milk
• Plant-based milk

Wrapping Up

So, can you drink zero-calorie drinks on intermittent fasting? You certainly can. You can drink beverages such as water, infused water, unsweetened tea, and black coffee while you’re fasting without breaking your fast.

 However, please be mindful of the ingredients in your drink, as some drinks, such as diet colas, can do more harm than good.