Just like you, so many men interested in losing weight try to look for ways to enhance their fat loss efforts. So many energy drinks and fat loss pills usually claim that caffeine (found in coffee) is a good way to boost your metabolism and can help give you an energy-filled and healthier lifestyle. This is one of the reasons why some men tend to look at coffee as a supplement or even as a substitute for exercising and a healthy diet. Here is why... Coffee Contains Caffeine, Which Acts As A Stimulant Coffee is not simply hot (or warm/cold) black water. There are compounds in coffee beans that end up in your cup of coffee even after processing. As a matter of fact, coffee contains at least four biologically active compounds that are well known to increase your body’s metabolic rate:
But, does drinking coffee regularly affect your fat loss in a considerable manner?... Well, continue reading to discover if there is even an actual link between coffee and weight loss. Is There A Link Between Coffee And Weight Loss? Although coffee and fat loss have frequently been associated informally, you might wonder if there is any actual evidence that prove that drinking coffee regularly can help you in losing your excess body fat? Well... the few evidences available say it sort of helps with fat loss! There are research studies that have found out that drinking coffee (which contains caffeine) can increase fat loss slightly and there are other research studies that suggest that coffee prevents you from gaining weight because it suppresses your desire to eat. It seems coffee also helps in burning calories because it stimulates thermogenesis, which is basically the body’s manner of producing heat from breaking down food. Caffeine is basically one of the most popular stimulants that we consume. And caffeine behaves like a diuretic because it promotes water loss, so you might experience a temporary reduction in your body weight. So many men have the belief that drinking coffee would give them an edge when it comes to fat loss, this is because after drinking a cup of coffee they don’t feel hungry as much and so they don’t end up eating too much food. Well... this is true... because coffee has a way of fooling your brain so that you do not eat as much. Here are some detailed explanations why coffee is associated with fat loss; Coffee Helps In Suppressing Your Appetite The caffeine that is in coffee helps in reducing your hunger pangs, so you end up eating less food (which means you consume fewer calories) and this certainly leads to fat loss. Although the amount of appetite suppression that coffee causes is still a bit questionable presently... since there is no research study that has measured how long it suppresses your appetite before you start feeling hungry. Coffee Causes Temporary Water Loss For a lot of men the caffeine that is in coffee has diuretic effects which mean you lose water by passing out more urine. Losing water would result in some weight loss, but you need to bear it in mind that you have not really lost any body fat, it is all water. When you weigh yourself on a scale, you would see that this temporary water loss would cause a reduction in your body weight, but it is not so major that you can abandon the basic fundamentals of weight loss which are: regular cardio exercise, weight training (or strength training) and a healthy and calorie-controlled diet. Coffee Could Help In Releasing Fat From Your Fat Tissues When you drink coffee, the caffeine in it stimulates your nervous system and this sends a signal to your fat cells to release the fat it has stored (according to this study here). And also, caffeine also triggers the body to produce more quantities of a hormone called Epinephrine, which is commonly called Adrenaline (here is a research study about that). This Epinephrine moves through the blood stream heading straight to the fatty tissues and causes them to break down the fats stored in them and allows them to be used as a source of energy for the body. Caffeine basically helps with fat loss because it mobilizes fat from your fatty tissues so that it becomes available to be used as fatty acids in the blood stream for your energy requirements. Coffee Can Increase Your Body’s Resting Metabolic Rate The amount of calories that our bodies burn when we are at rest is known as Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR). People with high metabolic rate can easily lose their excess body fat and can eat more high calorie foods without gaining too much body fat. One of the ways in which coffee and weight loss are associated is because of the thermogenic properties of the caffeine inside coffee. There are a few studies that have discovered that caffeine really does enhance a person’s metabolic rate by 3% - 11%, and consuming larger amounts have a clearly bigger effect on your metabolic rate. And according to a 2002 study, the majority of the boost in body metabolism is as a result of the increase in the amount of fat that the body is burning. Well, it seems that the people that really need this edge get the least benefit from it because the effect of this increase in metabolism is less pronounced in individuals that are obese. In one research study, the increase in the amount of fats burned in lean participants was as much as 29%, but for the obese participants of the study the increase was about 10%. And it seems that the effect of this boost in metabolism reduces with age because it is a lot more obvious in younger men (according to this 1995 study). When you combine drinking coffee with a healthy calorie-controlled diet, it is obvious to see how it can help you in losing body fat. If you want to improve the effectiveness of coffee, then I recommend that you drink it without milk or sugar on an empty stomach. This is because drinking coffee while you are eating carbohydrate foods causes your body to produce insulin and this may reduce the fat burning effects that caffeine gives. Coffee Helps With Your Exercise Workout Some studies show that consuming caffeine (via coffee) can improve your exercise performance by as much as 12% in most cases. Caffeine can boost athletic performance through various mechanisms; one of such is that it mobilizes fatty acids from the fat tissues to give the body more energy to use. Drinking coffee before you exercise also helps increase your focus so that you are actually burning calories during your exercise workouts and not just wasting your time. Coffee also contains powerful anti-oxidants that are essential for your recovery from your exercise workouts. What About The Calories In Coffee One of the reasons why there appears to be a positive link between coffee and weight loss is because coffee contains “almost” no calories at all. An eight-ounce cup of plain coffee contains only 2 calories! “Almost no calories in coffee” does not mean that it automatically helps you in losing your excess body if you don’t add sugar, cream or milk to your cup of coffee but at least you know that you would not gain weight from drinking coffee. If you are really serious about your fat loss, then coffee can becoming a stumbling block to achieving your goal if you have the habit of adding a lot of cream, sugar and milk to make it taste better. The little fat loss edge that coffee gives you only exists when you are drinking plain coffee – just coffee and water (hot or cold) nothing else. If you cannot drink coffee without adding milk, sugar or cream while trying to lose weight, then coffee is NOT for you – you are better off without it. Can Coffee Help You Lose Body Fat In The Long Term There is one main problem with caffeine; most people know that after a while of consuming caffeine (coffee) regularly, it loses it “stimulating punch” - there are even studies that prove this to be true. The benefits of caffeine are higher in the short term. It increases your body’s fat burning rate and boosts its metabolic rate; however after a period of time you would become tolerant to its effects and you don’t get as much benefits as you did previously. Although coffee loses its effects to help you burn more calories in the long term, there is also the possibility that coffee can help in suppressing your hunger cravings so that you end up eating less food. One study conducted in 1987 discovered that caffeine was effective in reducing hunger cravings in men, (but showed no effect in women) and this resulted in these male participants eating less at their meals after consuming caffeine. However, there is a different study that discovered no appetite reducing effects on the male participants. The truth is, whether caffeine or coffee can assist a person in losing excess body fat depends majorly on the individual. At present, there is no research study that shows that coffee or caffeine can help you in long term fat loss. And even though coffee gives you a small edge when it comes to fat loss, it is still NOT a replacement for a healthy calorie-controlled diet, regular cardio exercise and weight training. Yes... coffee can help you in burning more calories, but you can’t just rely on drinking coffee alone and think you would experience impressive fat loss. You have to combine it with other tested and tried methods of fat loss. Are There Any Negative Side Effects Of Drinking Too Much Coffee Now, you know that coffee gives you a fat loss edge, don’t just rush and start drinking too many cups of coffee... you need to understand that there are a few negative side effects of high coffee intake. The quantity of caffeine inside coffee tends to vary based on its method of brewing and its level of roasting. The common sense rule is that darker coffee beans tend to have higher amounts of caffeine in them. So, if you are a regular espresso drinker, then you are consuming as much as 100 milligrams of caffeine per drink. Drinking too much coffee has some negative side effects which include:
So, How Much Coffee Should You Be Drinking Daily Drinking more coffee does NOT mean more fat loss! So many men are already consuming too much coffee and are more likely to be dealing with the negative side effects that I listed above which can frustrate their fat loss efforts. I would recommend that your daily coffee intake should NOT be more than two (8 ounces) cups - it is better to stay in this safe zone. And if you are already a coffee drinker, you only need to adjust the way you drink your coffee to get the best possible fat loss effect from it. How?
Just drink plain coffee... this means no sugar, milk or cream. Only coffee mixed with hot or cold water – nothing else! And try not to drink coffee after 3 pm; you don’t want it affecting your sleep negatively. You should always aim to get between 6 – 8 hours of sleep every night, so stay away from any stimulant (like coffee) after 3 pm. Conclusion Although coffee can assist you in your fat loss quest by boosting your metabolism and it could also help in boosting your immune system (because of the anti-oxidants that it contains), however you still need to understand that it is not a “miracle” fat loss drink. And the benefits that you get from coffee even reduce in the long term because you would build up a tolerance to the caffeine. If you are not a coffee drinker, and you are only interested in coffee for the benefit of losing body fat, then I would advise that you cycle you consumption of coffee so that you don’t build up tolerance to it. You can cycle your coffee intake, possibly 3 weeks on, 1 week off. It is very important that you are aware of your coffee consumption because of the fact that it is both a diuretic and a stimulant. This is why you should balance drinking coffee for weight loss by following a healthy diet, drinking at least 8 glasses of water daily and engaging in regular exercise.
1 Comment
12/17/2022 09:26:54 am
Great articles and great layout. Your blog post deserves all of the positive feedback it’s been getting.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI am James T. Phillips and I am addicted to fitness. ArchivesCategories
|