Does Bulletproof Coffee Break a Fast

Over the last few years, millions of people around the world have discovered the benefits of the intermittent fasting method. As well as being an extremely effective weight-loss method, intermittent fasting, or IF,  has many health benefits. This includes cleansing the body, improving heart health, making you mentally sharper, and reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes. [1]

One of the most common questions asked by people who get started on a fasting diet is will bulletproof coffee break a fast? In this article, I’ll provide the definitive answer.

Will Drinking Normal Coffee Break Your Fast?

Drinking conventional coffee with milk and sugar will break a fast. But black coffee will not break a fast. That is because it does not contain any calories. That means that there are no protein, carbs, or fats in a standard black coffee. Instead, it contains a number of compounds that do good things for the body.

Coffee contains caffeine that boosts energy and alertness and helps to speed up the metabolism. Coffee also improves brain function so that your focus, memory, and alertness are improved. it also contains vitamins B2, B5, and B3 as well as essential minerals like magnesium and folate.

So, drinking coffee has a lot of plusses, provided that you don’t put extra things like sugar or milk into it. Those things will add calories that will break your fast.

What About Bulletproof Coffee?

Bulletproof coffee has become huge over the past five years. It was created by a guy named Dave Asprey. The original bulletproof coffee recipe consisted of coffee beans, medium chain triglyceride (MCT) oil, coconut oil, unsalted butter, and ghee. Asprey put these ingredients through a blender to produce a very healthy fat-enhanced version of the popular beverage. 

Bulletproof coffee quickly became popular among ketogenic dieters and those following an intermittent fasting lifestyle. It can be made with any high-quality coffee, MCT oil, and butter. 

Bulletproof coffee provides all the benefits of standard coffee and then some. By combining the benefits of combining with those of healthy fats, it is claimed that it will supercharge your energy levels, improve fat burning, help you get into a state of ketosis faster, and further enhance your cognition and mental ability. [2]

Many people have found that bulletproof coffee acts as an awesome pre-workout, providing them with a strong energy boost to power them through their workouts.

But will the addition of the healthy fats that make up bulletproof coffee break a fast?

The answer to this question comes down to just what your definition of a fast is. 

How Do You Define a Fast?

The strict definition of fat is not to consume any calories. if you go with that definition then drinking a cup of bullet coffee will break your fast. 

So technically, there is no denying that your fast will be broken by BF coffee.

However, it pays to go beyond the technical definition to consider the benefits of adding BF coffee to your fasting regimen. 

Are you following a fasting regime to lose weight? Or are you doing it because of the many benefits to your health that it provides?

Intermittent fasting is an extremely effective weight loss method. When you fast for more than 12-14 hours, your body will use up all of its stored glycogen. At that stage, it will have no choice but to turn to its stored body fat for its energy needs. This posts you in an ideal fat-burning state. 

Intermittent fasting also boosts the release of growth hormones and reduces the release of insulin. Intermittent fasting has also been shown to promote autophagy, which is a potent anti-aging process. 

Drinking a cup of coffee in the morning will not interfere with all of the fat-burning states that you achieve with intermittent fasting. Bulletproof coffee is not calories free but it does not contain any carbohydrates or proteins.

It is all fat.

The fatty acids you are taking in with your bulletproof coffee will not spike your insulin levels. It will also not increase your blood sugar levels. That means that it will not interrupt your ketone production and knock you out of the state of ketosis. In fact, the extra fats will probably actually increase your ketone levels. 

The extra calories that come from bulletproof coffee are negligible. 

Taking that cup of BF coffee will not interfere with any of the other benefits of fasting, including the promotion of autophagy. It will provide you with a satisfying beverage that will take the edge off your hunger. This makes it easier for you to stay on your fasting diet. [3]

Are There Any Downsides to Drinking BF Coffee?

So far we have established that technically speaking, drinking BF coffee will break a fasting period. However, we have also discovered that there are a lot of benefits to be gained from adding a morning coffee that is enhanced with healthy fats – and that doing so will not detract from the benefits to be gained from fasting.

There are, though, some drawbacks to drinking BF coffee. Here’s an overview:

Increased Lipid Levels

BF coffee has been shown to increase lipid levels. Lipids are fatty acids. They form the secondary energy source of the body, after blood sugar. The whole aim of intermittent fasting is to deplete the body of glucose so that it had to draw on its stored fats.

When you consume BF coffee, however, you are adding external fats to the body. So, rather than drawing on your stored fats, the body is able to utilize the fats from your butter coffee to meet its energy needs. 

This is a legitimate concern if you are following an intermittent fasting diet. But it doesn’t really apply if you are following the ketogenic diet. That is because one of the basic tenets of the keto diet is to increase your intake of healthy fats. 

On the keto diet,  you should eat 2-4 times as much fat as protein. That can be very difficult to achieve, so having a cup or two of BF coffee can make it easier to achieve. [4]

Hormone Inhibition

Your cup of BF coffee will put a lot of triglycerides into your system. these will inhibit the secretion of hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL). Yet HSL is a key part of the process involved in breaking down stubborn fat. 

As a result of this, a cup of bulletproof coffee might not be such a good idea if your main goal is to get ridden of that stubborn fat sitting around your waistline!

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bottom Line

Technically speaking, a cup of bulletproof coffee will break a fast. But, because the calories are coming from fats and not proteins or carbs, it will not negate most of the benefits of fasting. Nor will it spike insulin levels. It may, though, slow down your rate of fat breakdown.