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Home arrow Nutrition arrow Intermittent Fasting arrow Does Throwing Up Break Your Fast? Key Fasting Rules

Does Throwing Up Break Your Fast? Key Fasting Rules

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Written by Edibel Quintero, RD
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Fact checked by Rosmy Barrios, MD
Last update: October 21, 2023
1 min read 1890 Views 0 Comments
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There are many rules when it comes to fasting. Sometimes, these rules depend on your reasons for fasting and what you want to achieve. When following an obligatory fast for religious purposes, the answer to what breaks a fast can differ slightly. Find out whether vomiting breaks your fast and how to handle feelings of sickness.

does throwing up break your fast

So, you’re in the middle of a fast and find that you need to vomit.

You’re likely faced with the immediate question – does vomiting break a fast?

The answer lies in the purpose of the fast. A person can partake in food abstinence for several reasons, and this ultimately determines the outcome.

In this article, you can discover whether a sudden attack of vomiting leaves your fast broken.

Does Throwing Up Break Your Fast?

If you are following an obligatory fast for Ramadan, vomiting can break your fast. However, whether the fast is truly broken depends on your intentions. In Islam, if a person vomits deliberately, then it does break the fast. If unintentional vomiting occurs due to sickness, a mistake, or you simply forget, the fast remains valid.

For a person fasting for benefits such as weight loss, promoting blood sugar control, or boosting brain function, a fast is only broken when you reintroduce calories. When you swallow calories from eating and drinking, your body cannot remain in a truly fasted state. Vomiting, however, will not cause you to fall off course.

Why Do I Vomit When Fasting?

Fasting transitions your body into a completely different eating pattern. You can no longer eat food or drink beverages containing calories like you would in your ordinary diet. As you adapt, it is normal for side effects to occur, such as nausea, vomiting, and low energy.

Feeling sick is often a result of low blood sugar levels, which drop when you don’t eat. Hunger pangs from an empty stomach can also cause you to feel nauseous, leading some people to vomit.

What to Do if You Feel Like Vomiting While Fasting

If you’re feeling ill and need to throw up while fasting, you can try some remedies to reduce nausea. You can reduce the need to vomit with proper hydration and fast-friendly supplements that keep you healthy. Sipping a glass of water and getting fresh air can help you feel better.

During Ramadan, you should drink plenty of water to ensure hydration before the fast begins.

A Word From Our MD

Vomiting is the emptying of the stomach contents via the mouth. The act can occur voluntarily or involuntarily. For instance, you can vomit deliberately by placing your fingers in your throat to produce a gag reflex.

It’s well-understood that consuming food in the fasting period will break your fast, but not everyone is clear on the consequences of having to throw up. You’re not taking in calories or triggering an insulin response by emptying your stomach, so you’re not breaking your fast.

However, deliberately breaking a mandatory fast with intentional vomiting, even a small quantity, breaks a fast. In this case, the person must make up the fast another day.

Conclusion

The bottom line is to be careful because vomiting can break a fast depending on its purpose. You should avoid vomiting intentionally when fasting for Islam as it will break your fast. If fasting for health and wellness benefits, vomiting will not hinder your progress or results.

Written by Edibel Quintero, RD
Edibel Quintero is a medical doctor who graduated in 2013 from the University of Zulia and has been working in her profession since then. She specializes in obesity and nutrition, physical rehabilitation, sports massage and post-operative rehabilitation. Edibel’s goal is to help people live healthier lives by educating them about food, exercise, mental wellness and other lifestyle choices that can improve their quality of life.
The article was fact checked by Rosmy Barrios, MD
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HR_author_photo_Edibel
Written by Edibel Quintero, RD
HR_author_photo_Rosmy
Fact checked by Rosmy Barrios, MD
Last update: October 21, 2023
1 min read 1890 Views 0 Comments
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