The Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting: Does Crystal Light Belong On This Weight Loss Regimen?

Can You Drink Crys­tal Light While Fasting? There are lots of dif­fer­ent diet plans on the mar­ket today. Some focus on eat­ing plen­ty of pro­tein, while oth­ers sug­gest cut­ting out car­bo­hy­drates. But one fea­ture all these reg­i­mens share is this: reduc­ing calo­ries is the path to suc­cess­ful, long-term weight loss.  One of the most pop­u­lar ways of achiev­ing weight loss is inter­mit­tent fast­ing (IF). In this arti­cle, we deep dive into:

• What does this reg­i­men mean?
• How many hours each day do you fast, and when and what can you eat? 
• What are the rules around what you can drink? 
• Is the pop­u­lar drink Crys­tal Light “allowed” when you’re fast­ing, or is drink­ing only water your only option?

For all you need to know about inter­mit­tent fast­ing and how this deli­cious, calo­rie-free drink can be part of your deci­sion to drop weight and get fit, con­tin­ue reading!

What Exactly Is An Intermittent Fasting Regimen?

Inter­mit­tent fast­ing sim­ply refers to peri­ods dur­ing which you con­sume noth­ing but liq­uids, most­ly water, and peri­ods dur­ing which you eat small por­tions of healthy foods. One of the rea­sons IF is so pop­u­lar these days is that it isn’t com­pli­cat­ed to fol­low, and there are no spe­cial foods to buy. If you eat rea­son­able por­tions of sen­si­ble, healthy foods, you’ll lose weight, and it won’t take ages and ages to do it. One of the keys to suc­cess with IF is set­ting real­is­tic goals and get­ting lots of exer­cis­es. Like any weight loss pro­gram, IF works best when you stay active and burn more calo­ries by doing lots of car­dio­vas­cu­lar work­outs and resis­tance training. In addi­tion to weight loss, some folks believe inter­mit­tent fast­ing brings oth­er phys­i­cal ben­e­fits. These include sharp­er focus and brain pow­er, increased longevi­ty, and the reduc­tion of inflam­ma­tion in joints and oth­er areas of the body. How­ev­er, the sci­ence behind these ben­e­fits is still in its infan­cy. But there is no argu­ing with the effec­tive­ness of inter­mit­tent fast­ing when it comes to drop­ping pounds. Peo­ple who decide to try inter­mit­tent fast­ing usu­al­ly begin on a cycle of 16 hours of fast­ing fol­lowed by eight hours of eat­ing healthy foods. How you choose to do it depends on your sched­ule – your work­ing hours and when you go to bed. These fac­tors should play a role in when you fast. But many peo­ple who sub­scribe to IF as a weight loss pro­gram find it eas­i­est to stop eat­ing after din­ner, around 8 p.m., and resume around lunchtime the next day. You may also want to try fast­ing for an entire 24-hour peri­od once or per­haps twice a week. This means that after break­fast one day, you con­sume no food until break­fast the fol­low­ing day. This approach takes dis­ci­pline and isn’t right for every­one. Fol­low­ing the 16/8 hour cycle will spur weight loss and works well for most peo­ple. After a few weeks of IF, try a 24-hour fast if you’re adapt­ing well and eas­i­ly to miss­ing meals. Many arti­cles online can guide you when decid­ing how many hours of fast­ing suit your lifestyle. Do some research, and you’ll soon dis­cov­er there is a ton of infor­ma­tion avail­able about this pop­u­lar way of shed­ding excess weight. No mat­ter how you set up your IF reg­i­men, what real­ly counts is that you stick to it close­ly. Like all “get fit” pro­grams, the key here is con­sis­ten­cy. Adher­ing to the fasting/eating cycle, you decide how you’ll lose weight and keep it off.

What Can You Drink When Fasting?

It’s vital that you keep your­self well-hydrat­ed when you’re fast­ing. That means you must con­sume lots and lots of water through­out the day. But are you “allowed” to drink oth­er fluids? You are, but only cer­tain drinks are okay. It may come as a sur­prise to learn that even calo­rie-free sodas can mess with your blood sug­ar lev­els. Experts rec­om­mend stay­ing away from these drinks. (And also, many of them con­tain quite a bit of sodi­um, which con­tributes to bloat­ing and may impede weight loss.) Dur­ing your fast, you can con­sume water, black tea or cof­fee. These drinks don’t break a fast. And there is anoth­er drink that’s per­mis­si­ble – Crys­tal Light. Four of its flavours are allowed dur­ing inter­mit­tent fasts. Those flavours are:

• Wild straw­ber­ry.
• Lite peach tea.
• Pure lemon­ade.
• Pink lemon­ade.

Crys­tal Light flavours are calo­rie-free, of course, mean­ing they don’t break a fast. (Oth­er flavours in the Crys­tal Light line of prod­ucts have a few calo­ries, so it’s best you avoid them when fast­ing.) But the types men­tioned above are per­fect when you’re hydrat­ing or when you’re fasting. And they have anoth­er ben­e­fit: they may help quell crav­ings for some­thing sweet and/or more flavour­ful than just plain water. Of course, it’s impor­tant that you drink a lot of water, even if you decide to have Crys­tal Light as well. Togeth­er these drinks pack a one-two punch that quench­es your body’s thirst and meets the goal of keep­ing you well-hydrat­ed through­out the day. And as we said, these flavours of Crys­tal Light don’t break a fast.

What To Eat On an IF Cycle?

Now that you know that drink­ing cer­tain Crys­tal Light vari­eties is fine dur­ing a fast, you might be won­der­ing what kind of meal plan you should fol­low dur­ing the eight hours of eating. We have some ideas for you on that score! We did some dig­ging, and Here’s What The Nutri­tion­al Experts Suggest: Any­one under­tak­ing IF should avoid processed and/or fat­ty foods, fast foods, and sug­ary desserts. IF adher­ents sug­gest that stick­ing to fresh fruits and veg­eta­bles, along with lean meats, chick­en and fish, is nec­es­sary for los­ing weight. Some snacks, like nuts and seeds, are fine, pro­vid­ed you con­sume them only dur­ing your eat­ing cycle. Smooth­ies made of fruit or green veg­gies are also a good idea, but just because they aren’t sol­id foods, in the strict sense of the term, does­n’t mean you can con­sume them dur­ing the fast­ing por­tion of your day. They have calo­ries; there­fore, they must only be con­sumed dur­ing the food intake win­dow of each 24-hour cycle. Con­sid­er hav­ing a smooth­ie at lunch along­side two scram­bled eggs, a slice of whole grain toast, and an avo­ca­do – a nutri­tion­al wal­lop that’s deli­cious, and the pro­tein will keep you going until din­ner. Here are the foods rec­om­mend­ed by IF experts:

• Fruits, such as peach­es, bananas, berries of all sorts, apples, and others.
• Pro­teins, includ­ing fish, chick­en, lean meat and soy products.
• Veg­eta­bles of all types, includ­ing broc­coli, onions, and leafy green veg­gies, are all okay for you to consume.
• Healthy fats, such as salmon, mack­er­el, avo­ca­dos, and olive oil.
• Whole grains, includ­ing rice, quinoa, pas­ta and bread.

Can You Treat Yourself On an IF Regimen?

Strict­ly speak­ing, no foods are for­bid­den dur­ing the eight-hour win­dow you have for eat­ing. You will like­ly lose weight fol­low­ing this reg­i­men, even if you indulge in the occa­sion­al plate of French fries or a sug­ary treat. That’s a big ben­e­fit of inter­mit­tent fast­ing. How­ev­er, just because you can do it with­out com­pro­mis­ing your weight loss goals does­n’t mean you should! By def­i­n­i­tion, achiev­ing a healthy weight and get­ting into shape means eat­ing whole foods that aren’t processed or high in sat­u­rat­ed fats. Choose foods that fuel your body and keep you healthy – not foods that con­tribute to every­thing from Dia­betes to heart disease. Eat­ing whole, nat­ur­al foods helps you lose weight. But they also boost your immu­ni­ty, reduce joint pain, pro­mote sol­id sleep and low­er your blood pres­sure. And accord­ing to some stud­ies, fol­low­ing a 16/8 cycle of inter­mit­tent fast­ing and eat­ing may even slow the aging process. That’s a huge bonus, right?

In Summary

The ben­e­fits of inter­mit­tent fast­ing are legion – for exam­ple, you can decide to do it today and start imme­di­ate­ly. There are no books to buy, clubs to join, or spe­cial foods to purchase. Choose to do it, and you’re on your way! The types of Crys­tal Light we’ve list­ed in this arti­cle are calo­rie-free and low sodi­um, and they have a place along­side the foods you eat on this reg­i­men. And they’re all delicious! It’s impor­tant that you stay hydrat­ed when you fast; while water is cru­cial, a lit­tle vari­ety in what you drink keeps bore­dom at bay. Crys­tal Light – whether it’s pink lemon­ade or peach tree – is a tasty alter­na­tive to plain water, and most notably, they don’t break your fast. If you’ve tried oth­er weight loss pro­grams after mak­ing New Year res­o­lu­tions in the past and become frus­trat­ed because they did­n’t work or the weight loss did­n’t last, con­sid­er inter­mit­tent fast­ing. This way of eat­ing has become pop­u­lar for a good rea­son – it works! And you can rest easy know­ing that pour­ing a glass of deli­cious Crys­tal Light won’t impede your progress. Enjoy!