Does medication break intermittent fasting?

In a nutshell

Intermittent fasting can be a beneficial approach to weight loss and health improvement but only if you carry out your fasting windows efficiently. Consuming anything that has calories, stimulates digestion, causes an insulin response, or hinders the autophagy process may break your fast, and even medications may be unsafe during your fasting windows.

Does medication break intermittent fasting? It may, if it contains sugars, carbs, or additives, or triggers one of the bodily responses described above. Namely, some medication and supplement types that may break your fast include:

• Cough syrups
• Chewable vitamins & supplements
• Antacids
• Medications that are taken with food, such as steroids, NSAIDs, or diabetes medications (e.g. metformin)
• Protein powders and amino acids

Fasting-friendly medications and supplements include:

• Painkillers
• Most antibiotics
• Thyroid medications
• Blood pressure medications
• Electrolytes
• Collagen
• Probiotics

Intermittent fasting is a dietary approach that implies switching between fasting and eating windows according to a fixed schedule, such as 12:12, 16:8, etc. The concept is incredibly easy–depending on the schedule you choose for your body type, you should abstain from any food and beverages that break a fast for a certain number of hours and then eat during the rest of the day. However, while everything is pretty clear with what you can and can’t eat in your fasting windows, it becomes less certain when it comes to taking meds in your fasting windows.

So does medication break intermittent fasting? Let’s figure it out!

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Understanding What Breaks a Fast

In order to understand how medications can interact with your fasting progress, it’s important to understand what ultimately breaks your fasting windows. To understand it, we need to look at two forms of fasting:

• Clean fasting implies full abstaining from calories during your fasting windows. If you adhere to it, you’re only allowed to consume plain or mineral water and other zero-calorie drinks like black coffee or tea.
• Dirty fasting is a more forgiving approach that allows you to consume little (usually up to 100) calories during your fasting windows. If you follow it, you can add some extras to your fasting windows, such as artificial sweeteners or bone broth.

Depending on the specific type of fast that you follow, you may have different rules in terms of breaking your fast. Namely, in a clean fast, adding any additives to your drinks that will make you go over 1-5 calories can break a fast.

In a dirty fast, respectively, consuming anything that’s over 100 calories will break your fasting window.

Apart from calorie consumption, there are also a few other factors that can break your fast depending on its goals:

• Insulin response - If you are on intermittent fasting for blood sugar regulation purposes, consuming anything that will spike insulin levels will break your fast.
• Digestion and metabolism stimulation - Consuming foods and beverages that stimulate digestion and trigger metabolic responses will also break a fast.
• Autophagy - Finally, if the primary goal of your fasting is cell repair, known as autophagy, you may break your fast by consuming substances that hinder this process. For example, antioxidants have been shown to inhibit autophagy and enhance neurodegeneration.

Does Taking Medication Break Intermittent Fasting?

Now that you know the main things that can break your fast, let’s move on to our primary question–can you take medicine while intermittent fasting, or will it hinder the process?

Given a pretty diverse set of terms that can break a fast, naturally, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. That is, different medications may or may not break your fast due to their unique specs.

Let’s consider a few common types of medication and their impact on the fasting process:

Non-Caloric Medications

Since calories are among the primary things that break a fast, it makes perfect sense to look at the caloric content of different medications to understand if they will hinder your fasting.

The first type of medication we’ll review is non-caloric medications. These are pretty much most capsules, pills, and tablets that don’t contain sweeteners, flavors, and other additives that would increase their caloric content. These meds are generally safe for fasting. Some of their examples include:

• Painkillers (e.g. aspirin, ibuprofen, etc.)
• Most antibiotics
• Thyroid medications (e.g. levothyroxine)
• Blood pressure medications

Liquid and Chewable Medications

Unlike most pills and capsules that usually don’t have any calories, many liquid and chewable medications contain special additives to make them taste better. Depending on the type of medication, it can contain sugar, artificial sweeteners, and other fillers that can increase the content of calories in them.

As you can easily guess, such meds can potentially break your fast, depending on how many calories they have and which specific additives are there. To stay on the safe side, it’s important to read labels and consider such medications individually.

Here are a few examples of liquid and chewable medications that you may want to be careful with:

• Cough syrups (they are usually quite high in sugar)
• Chewable vitamins & supplements (may contain additives and calories, as well as stimulate digestion or trigger insulin spikes)
• Antacids (may contain sugar or dairy)

Medications That Are Taken With Food

Lastly, if you are wondering “Is it permissible to take medicine while intermittent fasting,” you need to take special considerations when it comes to meds that need to be taken with food. Some medications are required to be taken with a meal by instructions. Neglecting this requirement can cause stomach irritation, nausea, and many other adverse symptoms.

Needless to say, taking medications with food during your fasting window will break your fast. Thus, it’s generally recommended to adjust your intermittent fasting schedule accordingly, so that you take them during your eating windows. Some examples of meds that require these special considerations are:

• Steroids (e.g. prednisone) 
• NSAIDs (e.g. ibuprofen, naproxen, etc.)
• Some diabetes medications (e.g. metformin)

Different Types of Supplements and Their Impact on Intermittent Fasting

So does medication break a fast? - As you now know, the answer depends on the specific type of medication that you need to take. And while some meds can be perfectly safe, others may break your fast.

The same is true for supplements. If you are taking some supplements for weight loss purposes or use them to manage your medical condition, let’s say PCOS, it’s important to consider the specific type of supplement and its impact on fasting. 

Let us give you a brief overview of what may be okay and not okay for intermittent fasting:

Fasting-Friendly Supplements

• Electrolytes - Electrolytes, such as sodium, potassium, or magnesium, are essential substances that carry a positive or negative electrical charge when dissolved in water. They are crucial for hydration and overall well-being. These substances don’t contain calories and thus, are safe during fasting. Moreover, they are quite important for it because prolonged fasting causes faster depletion of electrolytes.
• Collagen - This supplement is crucial for skin health, youthfulness, joint mobility, muscle mass, etc. Taking it while fasting might be also safe. However, only if you pick unflavored and unsweetened collagen that doesn’t contain any carbs.
• Probiotics - Probiotic supplements are known for promoting gut health, boosting immunity, and reducing inflammation. If you want to combine this type of supplement with intermittent fasting, it should be okay, as long as you choose capsules with no additives or sugar coatings.

Supplements That May Break a Fast

While the aforementioned supplements may be fasting-friendly, some types of supplements can hinder your intermittent fasting. These can include:

• Gummy vitamins that typically contain sugar and carbohydrates.
• Protein powders and amino acids (BCAAs) because they may cause an insulin response.
• Fat-soluble vitamins (e.g. A, D, E, K) are usually taken with food because they need fat for absorption.

How Can You Take Medicine While Intermittent Fasting With No Adverse Effects?

If you are on intermittent fasting but need to take certain medications and/or supplements, it can be a bit tricky. Luckily, it’s possible to combine your IF with meds if you follow these simple rules:

• Carefully check the nutritional fact labels and ingredients before taking medicines during your fasting windows.
• If possible, opt for medicines that don’t contain sugars, fillers, and carbs.
• Choose capsules over liquids or chewable medicines.
• If you need to take medications with food or have to take variations that may break your fast, time your intake of such meds wisely so that they fit into your eating window and don’t affect the fasting progress.

FAQ

What breaks intermittent fasting?

The answer to this question depends on whether you are doing a clean or dirty fast. In the first one, consuming anything that contains more than 1-5 calories during your fasting window will break it. In a dirty fast, you may be allowed to consume some additives up to 100 calories, respectively, going over this limit will break a fast. Additionally, anything that triggers insulin response, stimulates digestion, or hinders the autophagy process can also break your fast.

Does medication break a fast?

It also depends. Many medications that come in the form of capsules, pills, and tablets don’t contain any additives or calories and are generally safe during fasting. These meds include most antibiotics, painkillers, blood pressure medications, and thyroid medications. On the other hand, there are liquid and chewable medications that often contain sugar and other additives for a better taste. Such medicines can break your fast. Also, taking medications that require food may break your fasting windows.

Is it permissible to take medicine while intermittent fasting if it’s just a supplement?

Just like general medications, supplements should be considered individually if you are on intermittent fasting. Some supplements that don’t contain carbs or sugar, such as collagen, electrolytes, and probiotics might be completely safe. Others, such as gummy vitamins, protein powders, amino acids, and fat-soluble vitamins may not be okay to take during your fasting windows because they contain sugar, trigger insulin response, or need to be taken with food.

Conclusion

So does medication break intermittent fasting? As you now know, anything that contains calories, stimulates digestion, causes an insulin response, or hinders the autophagy process may break your fast. And medications are not an exception.

Some medications and supplements, specifically those that come in the form of sugar-free capsules, pills, and tablets may be completely safe to take during your fasting windows. These include most painkillers, antibiotics, thyroid medications, blood pressure medications, electrolytes, and collagen.

On the other hand, medications that contain additives or need to be taken with food may break your fast. These include cough syrups, chewables, antacids, steroids, NSAIDs, diabetes medications, protein powders, and amino acids.

Use this article as your guide for safe medicine and supplement intake during intermittent fasting to reap all the benefits and avoid breaking your fast!

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