The FastDay Forum

There are calories in herbal tea??!!

I do count them my sister doesnt.....I keep a spreadsheet for my Fasting Days and count them as 2 cal per cup (as per the back of the tea box)

I've only done one fast day so far but I didn't count black and herbal tea. I will only worry when if the weight slows down as like someone else said it could get obsessive!

I'm suddenly interested in this question after several months on 5:2. I'm trying to move to zero calorie fasts to get the most health benefits (if their are any). Before I wouldn't have bothered counting a few calories that would have so little effect on my daily allowance of 500. At 3cal/cup you'd have to drink 10 cups to hit 30 cals. That's not going to make or break your 500cal limit. (You'll probably use up more than 30 cals running to the bathroom to get rid of 10cups!)

But now I want to make sure that I'm not "breaking" my fast by ingesting them. So I looked it up...

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthrea ... 383&page=1

If the second post is correct, then unsweetened herbal tea shouldn't be increasing insulin levels and thus not breaking a fast. So...I'm still not going to count it!

To be fair, there is probably more variance in the calorie content of the food you're eating compared to the nutritional information to worry about herbal teas. Especially with fruit and veg, they dont grow all the same! For instance, you only have to nibble a handful of blueberries to notice the sweetness variance...