Are you wondering whether or not you can take supplements during a fast? Got to get your vitamins and minerals! Or do you? This article is the Ultimate Guide to Taking Supplements While Fasting. Fish oil included, haha.

You Don’t Need to Take Supplements with Short Fasts

Let’s start off with first talking about do you even need to take supplements?

It’s true that your body needs a certain amount of essential vitamins and minerals for survival. However, it doesn’t mean you need to be getting them all the time every day. It definitely doesn’t mean that if you skip your multivitamin in the morning, you’re going to become severely deficient and need to be put under an IV. #hitmeupwiththejuicer

In fact, most of the minerals in your body are stored in your bones, fat tissue, and other storage locations. The problem is that if you’re eating all the time several meals a day, then you’re preventing yourself from using those micronutrients. Your body wants to store as much backup energy as it can and therefore an abundant supply of nutrients coming in around the clock actually reduces your ability to utilize those minerals that are currently stored in your body.

While fasting for longer periods of time, your body is breaking down and catabolizing all the dead cells and waste material that’s already inside your body. This creates energy and gives you most of the nutrients you need for short-term survival.

While you’re fasting for longer than 48 hours, you trigger autophagy and other metabolic pathways that can release those micronutrients from your mineral stores and actually use them. Before that, you’re getting more than enough of these nutrients from foods, granted you’re eating real food and not processed Twinkies or something like that.

Moral of the story is: you don’t need to be taking a lot of supplements as long as you’re eating a wide variety of foods, even if you’re eating just once a day. There are of course some supplements you can benefit from if you’re deficient in some of the micronutrients, but in general, unless you’re fasting for 3-5 days, you don’t have to „get your daily vitamins and minerals“ from some sort of a pill that you’ve been sold to.

Are You Even Absorbing Your Supplements

The second thing that needs to be pointed out is the absorption of your supplements.

It’s also easy to get hypnotized by the fancy numbers on labels – just one tablet gives you all the essential amino acids and vitamins, and minerals your body needs…IN 10x TIMES!!!

Just taking a pill or a capsule with 1200% of your daily requirements doesn’t mean that you’ll absorb all of that amount.

Let’s talk about how your body absorbs different vitamins and minerals by starting off with the different type of vitamins.

Fat-soluble vitamins are vitamins that need to be consumed together with fats for them to be absorbed. They are vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, and vitamin K. Fat-soluble vitamins are also stored in the liver and body fat. If you’re taking these supplements, then you have to combine them with real food that has some fat in it. While fasting, you’ll be burning your own body fat and getting those vitamins that way. At least if you’re fasting for less than 5 days.

are vitamins that need to be consumed together with fats for them to be absorbed. They are vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, and vitamin K. Fat-soluble vitamins are also stored in the liver and body fat. If you’re taking these supplements, then you have to combine them with real food that has some fat in it. While fasting, you’ll be burning your own body fat and getting those vitamins that way. At least if you’re fasting for less than 5 days. Water-soluble vitamins are not stored in the body and they get excreted throughout the day if you’re consuming liquids. These vitamins include B-complex vitamins, like B1, B2, B3, and so on, folic acid, vitamin C and many others. These vitamins can be absorbed with water and it’s a good idea to consume them on a regular basis if your diet isn’t that rich already. However, while fasting, it’s not necessary to supplement them either unless you’re fasting for like a week or so.

There are other nutrients like CoQ10 that comes in both fat soluble and water soluble forms, which is a supplement that promotes mitochondrial functioning. However, fasting itself already supports mitochondrial biogenesis and efficiency to a large degree.

The thing with fasting is that while the body catabolizes itself, you mobilize a lot of the nutrients that are already there. Micronutrient deficiencies are mostly caused by poor dietary choices overall not by inadequate supplementation.

Hormetic Response to Micronutrient Deficiencies

There’s also the fear that if you miss out on your daily recommended dose of vitamins for a day you’ll turn into a raisin and die. This kind of thinking is already based on a false understanding of how the human physiology works.

Fear of missing out on some micronutrients and dying. This kind of thinking is already based on false understandings of human physiology.

The body can adapt to small amounts of stress and nutrient deprivation through a process called hormesis, which actually makes you stronger. Examples are resistance training, cold thermogenesis, heat shocks, and hypoxia. This same kind of hormetic response applies to micronutrients as well.

Skipping certain vitamins and minerals for a short period of time can actually promote the absorption rate of those nutrients if you follow it up with adequate nutrition.

For instance, if you’re slightly deficient in a specific nutrient, like vitamin K2 or B12, then your body will absorb them more effectively because it’s craving for them.

Over-Abundance is Lethal

The same effect is already shown in the example of insulin – eating low carb and doing intermittent fasting increases insulin sensitivity, which helps your body to manage higher amounts of blood sugar by releasing less insulin. A person with diabetes or someone who is eating high amounts of carbs all the time will need more insulin to get the same effect. Over the long term, this can lead to insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome.

That’s why you never want to always give your body an over-abundant supply of all the nutrients because it’s going to lower your efficiency with the ones you already have.

That’s also the reason you don’t really have to worry about micronutrient deficiencies even when fasting for 5-10 days because (1) you won’t really become deficient, and (2) it can have a positive hormetic adaptation after the fact.

There’s also the thing that food preservation and supplementation drastically reduce the micronutrient component of certain vitamins and minerals, especially water-soluble vitamins and probiotics, which practically get wiped out completely once they stay on the shelf for a certain period of time.

With that being said, I don’t want to be the Grim Reaper or anything, saying that you should simply eat real food, there are still some supplements you can take while fasting that can actually be useful.

Let’s start off with some of the essential electrolytes you need.

The most important electrolytes you need are sodium, magnesium, and potassium.

To prevent muscle cramps and headaches, you’d want to get at least 1500-2300 mg of sodium a day , which is about 1 tsp or 6g of salt. However, while fasting or if you’re physically more active you should aim for 4000-7000 mg-s of sodium, which is up to 3 tsp or 15-18g of salt.

, which is about 1 tsp or 6g of salt. However, while fasting or if you’re physically more active you should aim for 4000-7000 mg-s of sodium, which is up to 3 tsp or 15-18g of salt. The RDA for potassium is 1000-4700 mgs, which is quite a lot. Potassium is necessary for blood flow and heart functioning. If you’re potassium deficient, you may experience heart palpitations, increased blood pressure, cramps, and gallstones. Potassium deficiencies will also tank your energy levels and make you feel extremely tired. However, sodium is potassium-sparing and you become potassium deficient only if you lose your sodium. Studies on prolonged fasting have shown that even 2 months of continuous fasting do not decrease potassium levels below a dangerous range (3.0 mEq/L) even without supplementation. So, focus on sodium first and then worry about potassium. There are specific potassium salts like potassium chloride and potassium citrate. You can also take the Nu-Salt brand, which has 3180 mg of potassium per tsp.

Potassium is necessary for blood flow and heart functioning. If you’re potassium deficient, you may experience heart palpitations, increased blood pressure, cramps, and gallstones. Potassium deficiencies will also tank your energy levels and make you feel extremely tired. However, sodium is potassium-sparing and you become potassium deficient only if you lose your sodium. Studies on prolonged fasting have shown that even 2 months of continuous fasting do not decrease potassium levels below a dangerous range (3.0 mEq/L) even without supplementation. So, focus on sodium first and then worry about potassium. There are specific potassium salts like potassium chloride and potassium citrate. You can also take the Nu-Salt brand, which has 3180 mg of potassium per tsp. The RDA for magnesium is 300-450 mgs, which can be difficult to get with just fasting. Pink Himalayan rock salt has some magnesium but in small amounts. There are specific magnesium salts or magnesium flakes that you can add to your water. Taking a magnesium supplement hasn’t been shown to be very effective in terms of how much magnesium you’re actually absorbing. In fact, absorbing magnesium through the intestinal tract is much lower than absorption through the skin. That’s why taking an Epson salt bath with magnesium flakes will make you absorb a lot more magnesium than a supplement. With that being said, if you’re fasting, then that would also be the wiser choice because taking a magnesium capsule won’t kick you out of a fasted state but you won’t absorb most of it because of not combining it with food.

Pink Himalayan rock salt has some magnesium but in small amounts. There are specific magnesium salts or magnesium flakes that you can add to your water. Taking a magnesium supplement hasn’t been shown to be very effective in terms of how much magnesium you’re actually absorbing. In fact, absorbing magnesium through the intestinal tract is much lower than absorption through the skin. That’s why taking an Epson salt bath with magnesium flakes will make you absorb a lot more magnesium than a supplement. With that being said, if you’re fasting, then that would also be the wiser choice because taking a magnesium capsule won’t kick you out of a fasted state but you won’t absorb most of it because of not combining it with food. RDA for Zinc is about 11-15 mg for adults. It’s needed for testosterone production and nerve functioning. You should also take zinc with food because its absorption is improved with other nutrients. However, calcium that’s found in dairy products or in calcium supplements inhibits the absorption of zinc so you wouldn’t want to combine them together. Also, you shouldn’t take zinc if you’re having low levels of iron because zinc inhibits copper absorption, which in turn will inhibit iron absorption. While fasting – don’t bother with zinc if you’re fasting for just under 3 days.

It’s needed for testosterone production and nerve functioning. You should also take zinc with food because its absorption is improved with other nutrients. However, calcium that’s found in dairy products or in calcium supplements inhibits the absorption of zinc so you wouldn’t want to combine them together. Also, you shouldn’t take zinc if you’re having low levels of iron because zinc inhibits copper absorption, which in turn will inhibit iron absorption. While fasting – don’t bother with zinc if you’re fasting for just under 3 days. RDA for Calcium is 1000-1300 mg for adults. It’s required for muscle functioning and integrity of skeletal muscle. Calcium and Magnesium absorption compete with each other in doses higher than 250 mg so you shouldn’t supplement them together. And you don’t need to either – Calcium is already stored in the body in abundant supply. Consuming more dairy and calcium isn’t healthier and won’t strengthen your bones. Regions with highest dairy consumption also have the highest rates of bone fractures and osteoporosis. Studies done on rats, however, have shown that fasting actually initiates healing of cartilage in bones with a rise in phosphorus and recalcification[i]. Once you get out your own way and give your body a break from eating, it begins to heal itself and uses the mineral stores you’re already carrying around with yourself.

Iodine While Fasting

Iodine supplementation can help with low thyroid problems. Studies on multi-day fasting show that fasting does decrease T3, which is the most active form of the thyroid hormone, but T4 (the precursor of T3) and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) remain unchanged[ii][iii].

What it means is that during prolonged fasts, your thyroid and metabolic rate will lower slightly but this effect is not permanent. It happens because your body switches into energy preservation and it’s perfectly normal.

After you break your fast, your thyroid will resume its normal functioning. Hypothyroidism and slow metabolism happen not because of fasting but because of inadequate thyroid production from the diet.

You have to make sure you’re getting enough sea vegetables, especially sea kelp, get enough selenium, and other fat-soluble vitamins. Taking an iodine supplement while fasting isn’t necessary because you don’t need to „speed up your metabolism“ during a fast. Too high metabolic rate and energy demands during the fast may actually be a bad thing because you’ll get hungrier and you’ll burn more muscle.

Taking a multivitamin while fasting is also not necessary if you’re fasting for less than 10 days as most of the minerals are stored in your bones and the demand for other vitamins decreases thanks to the hormetic response of fasting.

The longest recorded fast lasted for 382 days and the guy survived on just a multivitamin and some brewer’s yeast. His plasma electrolyte concentrations all remained relatively the same and he lost 276 pounds[iv].

The same applies to most minerals and electrolytes – focus primarily on sodium and potassium and don’t worry about the other ones like copper, zinc, or iron if you’re fasting for just a few days.

Don’t Do This While Fasting with Supplements

You definitely don’t have to worry about micronutrient deficiencies while fasting for just 16-24 hours. Honestly, anything less than 24 hours isn’t fasting because you’re not triggering almost any of the metabolic adaptations.

It’s still important to keep in mind how you’re absorbing the nutrients you’re consuming.

Iron and electrolyte deficiencies happen usually because of dehydration and excessive excretion of your body’s salts. The most common reason is coffee and tea consumption.

How do coffee and tea affect the absorption of supplements?

You can drink coffee while fasting but hot liquids and beverages may make you absorb less of the micronutrients. The tannins and caffeine in coffee and teas can lower the absorption rate of your supplements. They can also make you excrete more of the other electrolytes and minerals through urine, so you have to be careful with not taking your supplements together with these drinks. Otherwise, you’re simply pissing them out and wasting your money.

In most cases, you’re fasting for only 16-24 hours, and you’ll absorb your vitamins and supplements if you combine them with real food.

Probiotics While Fasting

Let’s talk about breaking a fast with supplements.

Pro- and prebiotics should be taken before eating and they’re more effective on a fasted stomach. The reason is that while fasting, you’re producing less hydrochloric acid (HCL), which reduces your digestive enzyme production as well. Taking a probiotic right before a meal will promote the population of the good bacteria in your gut, thus making you absorb the meal you’re going to be eating.

If you’re fasting for several days, then you wouldn’t want to take a probiotic because it may downregulate the effectiveness of the fast.

Fiber supplements like psyllium husk or something similar can break a fast and they’re completely unnecessary. Because you’re not consuming food, you don’t need to be consuming more fiber either.

What’s funny is that, although you’re fasting, it doesn’t mean your bowel movements will stop completely. On the morning of my 5 day fast, I still went to the bathroom. It wasn’t a glorious dump but it still showed that my gut had plenty of stuff to break down.

Most feces are made of dead bacterial cells and other waste materials. If you’re fasting for a longer period of time, autophagy will break down the old cellular debris and worn out tissue, which in turn are going to give you some proteins and other nutrients, which can be reconverted back into energy. Those dead cells can fuel your muscles and feed the bacteria in your gut. That’s just amazing – you’re literally making food out of yourself.

What About Fish Oil While Fasting?

Although fish oil supplements contain a small amount of fat, you’d still be better off by consuming it with actual food. That’s why it’s better to take fish oil, krill oil, or any other omega-3 supplement during your meals. However, if you’re fasting, you can still take a fish oil capsule. It’s not going to spike your insulin and the amount of fat isn’t probably big enough to kick you out of a fasted state either. One fish oil capsule has about 5-10 calories so don’t be consuming any more than 1-2 while fasting.

The same applies to vitamin D3 supplements, which usually are capsuled with some fish oil or olive oil. So, if you do take fish oil, take some vitamin D while you’re at it and you’ll absorb both much better.

BCAAs While Fasting

One common fear amongst people is that fasting is going to break down your muscle and you’ll become too catabolic. Not true, as long as you switch into ketosis and activate autophagy.

The fear of muscle catabolism comes from the body’s inability to convert its fat stores into energy. That and also from supplement companies wanting to market you their stuff…

Taking branched-chain amino acids are said to protect against muscle loss. However, they’ve been shown to be effective only if you exercise in a fasted state. There are plenty of BCAAs in real food and if you eat, then you’ll have those same BCAAs in your bloodstream. Therefore, you ever benefit from BCAAs if you’re working out in a fasted state.

With that being said, the nutrient profile of BCAAs will definitely kick you out of a fasted state by inhibiting autophagy and potentially kicking you out of ketosis as well. That’s ironic because if you were to skip the BCAAs, you’d be less catabolic thanks to higher levels of ketones than if you were to break the fast and stay malnourished.

I’d suggest taking BCAAs while fasting only if you’re having a harder workout and you need an extra push in energy. You won’t promote the longevity benefits of autophagy but you may muster up a few extra reps and sets, which may promote fat loss or muscle gain.

Creatine While Fasting

Another performance enhancing supplement is creatine monohydrate. It can improve your cells’ ability to produce ATP and it’s also been shown to have cognitive benefits. In fact, creatine is one of the few supplements with real proven effects. It’s dirt cheap and you don’t need to be taking a whole lot to gain the benefits.

With that being said, can you take creatine during a fast?

Creatine functions as a buffer for liquid retention and fluid absorption, which means that it’s going to make the muscle cells hold onto more water. If you combine that with the effects of insulin, you’ll see a greater effect in muscle fullness and performance. That’s why you’ll always absorb creatine much better with simple carbohydrates.

However, if you’re taking creatine on a low carb diet, you’ll still absorb it but the rate at which your muscle cells get filled up with creatine may take slightly more time. With that being said, on a glycogen depleted state like when you’re in ketosis, you’ll also lose less creatine because your muscle fibers will burn less glycogen as well.

Either way, taking 5-10 grams of creatine every day is more than enough to reap the benefits of physical and mental performance. It’s best to take it around your workouts and with food.

Some Safe Supplements to Take While Fasting

To help the mobilization of your body’s minerals and balance the electrolytes, there are some additional things you can consume while fasting.

Baking Soda – it’s 100% sodium bicarbonate and 1 tsp of baking soda has 1259 mg of sodium. Baking soda is great for balancing the body’s pH levels, fixing digestive issues and healing the kidneys. It’s a natural antibacterial and antifungal agent that promotes alkalinity in the body.

– it’s 100% sodium bicarbonate and 1 tsp of baking soda has 1259 mg of sodium. Baking soda is great for balancing the body’s pH levels, fixing digestive issues and healing the kidneys. It’s a natural antibacterial and antifungal agent that promotes alkalinity in the body. Apple Cider Vinegar – it’s a fermented type of alcohol that has many health benefits like reduced inflammation, improved insulin sensitivity, and digestion. ACV is zero calories but it has trace amounts of potassium and other minerals so it’s great to consume while fasting.

You don’t want to be consuming any more than 1 tsp of baking soda a day because of the high sodium content and getting too much apple cider vinegar can also cause an upset stomach as well as mess up your teeth. In most cases, you can drink 2-4 tsp of ACV and get most of the health benefits.

Medications While Fasting

We’ve talked about the essential vitamins and minerals everyone needs and that everyone can get from food, but what about specific medications while fasting? Should you take prescription drugs during an extended fast?

DISCLAIMER: This is not professional medical advice and I’m not a physician. The information I provide here is just a resource of information and must not be taken as professional advice. I am not responsible for your health and any potential damage that may occur after reading this article. Only you are responsible for your actions and results.

There are so many prescription drugs out there that it all depends on what particular disease you have and what kind of medicine it requires.

If you’re fasting for just 16-24 hours, then take your medication with food to make sure you absorb it. That short period of abstinence won’t make you sicker because most of the drugs are already bullsh#t.

If you’re fasting for several days, then consult your doctor and ask what are the absorption implications and what ingredients the drug has. Most medications have additional filler ingredients like corn starch, dextrose, and other compounds that may potentially inhibit the autophagy effects of a fast.

But honestly…

Doing strict fasting for several days is much more effective and healthier for you than taking medicine. Only in very specific and severe conditions would you need to take some drugs.

The majority of diseases can already be fixed with fasting. Diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome, heart disease, Alzheimer’s and arthritis can all benefit from extended fasts. There are even some cases where fasting cures cancer and tumors.

Your body already knows how to heal itself but it won’t be able to do it if you keep it in a constant state of anabolism and feeding. You need to lower your insulin, lower your blood sugar and allow your cells to take out the trash for you. If I got diabetes or I get diagnosed with some sort of other metabolic diseases, then I’d immediately start fasting until I’m well and then eat a very strict ketogenic diet, rather than take prescription drugs.

But then again…this is not professional medical advice.

The Truth About Taking Supplements While Fasting

In general, if you only need to supplement the vitamins and minerals if you’re actually deficient in them. More micronutrients are not definitely better, as in the example of zinc and iron absorption.

Giving your body an overabundant supply of all the nutrients isn’t a good idea either because it will have conflicting reactions and may cause some other issues. It’s definitely a waste of money.

Before supplementing any specific vitamin, you’d be better off by first focusing on eating real food, getting your nutrients from that, taking blood tests to see your deficiencies, and then taking those supplements you need with food.

While fasting, you’re much better off by getting your electrolytes and not worrying about the other micronutrients. You won’t become deficient, you’ll promote the mobilization of your already existent mineral stores, you’ll elicit a beneficial hormetic response, and you’ll maintain your sensitivity to those nutrients while you’re actually consuming food.

Hopefully, this video was enough for you to lift you from the fear of not getting your vitamins and minerals if you skip a meal. Honestly, most people’s diets are crap and they’re worried about not taking a multivitamin for a few days? You need to simply improve your body’s ability to convert its own stored fuel sources and what better way to do so than practice some frequent intermittent fasting.

If you want to learn about how to do intermittent fasting, then check out the Full Guide to Intermittent Fasting FREE BOOK!

Stay Empowered

Siim

References

[i] http://www.jbc.org/content/59/1/237.full.pdf

[ii] https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/thy.2007.0253

[iii] http://www.eje-online.org/content/171/5/R197.short

[iv] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2495396/