Coffee is the favorite beverage of people around the world. A lot of people don’t feel their day has started unless they get a cup of joe in their hands. Is there a connection between drinking coffee and losing weight though?
Often ascribed the qualities of a miracle drink, how far does coffee actually travel with its miracles?
Can the cuppa that brings your morning kick, also be a partner in your dieting and weight loss goals? Let’s find out!
Coffee’s Relationship With Fat Tissue
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Where weight loss is concerned, it is obvious that fat tissue would be involved.
A recent study suggests that coffee can indeed play an important role in the body’s management of fat tissues and cells. It seems coffee can accelerate the body’s fat distribution.
Can Coffee Be Slimming?
Coffee encourages the body to process fat more easily. This, in turn, helps the body to break down stored fat and disperse it. It is one of the best fat burning drinks in existence.
This causes an increased energy expenditure for the body, which is attained by “burning” of fat. Well, you always knew your consistent pilgrimage to emptying carafes and filling up the office coffee maker would eventually pay off!
If you’ve felt slightly warmer or hot after drinking coffee, it is quite likely due to the raised energy expenditure. And of course, it follows that burning fat can help with reducing weight.
Coffee achieves this effect by stimulating the brown fat cells of the body. It could help you get rid of those flabby arms
White And Brown Fat Cells – How Coffee Burns Fat
Our body has two forms of fat cells – brown cells and white cells. Brown cells, which form the Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT) are capable of rapid metabolization of nutrients and help generate heat. White cells, on the other hand, are responsible for storing energy (fat) to be released as the body demands it.
Children are known to have a high concentration of BAT. It was earlier believed that adults don’t have BAT, and instead rely on white fat cells. A few years ago it was discovered that adults do indeed have BAT, mostly concentrated in the upper chest and around the neck.
The study found that drinking coffee was a great way to trigger BAT; consequently making it metabolize glucose and lipids. While the study is still in its early phase, researchers hope to find a way that better targets BAT. And so far, coffee seems to be doing great!
Coffee Effects On Metabolism
Coffee can increase metabolic rate. Our bodies naturally burn calories for regular body functioning. The rate at which the calories are burnt is called resting metabolic rate (RMR).
Coffee intake boosts the RMR, in some cases increasing it by as much as 11%.
How Does This Boost Affect Weight Loss?
Well, most of the gains in RMR come from burning fat tissue. A randomized study found that people who had a strong dose of caffeine in their coffee exhibited increased energy expenditure.
There was also a slight increase in skin temperature, showing the effects lasted for several hours amongst coffee drinkers. The change was negligible for participants given decaf.
Another point worth noting is that the change in metabolism is more pronounced for lean people and less effective in obese people. Also, young adults are more likely to see a larger change as compared to the elderly.
The Stimulants That Make It All Possible
One of the reasons you get cravings for coffee is that it is rich in stimulants. Caffeine is one of the strongest central nervous system stimulants in widespread use. It doesn’t act alone though and includes other stimulants like Theophylline and Chlorogenic acid.
How Do These Work?
Chlorogenic acid is a strong antioxidant that has several benefits. Caffeine is a stimulant that can enable you to stay active for longer. Caffeine blocks inhibitory neurotransmitters in the brain and brings about enhanced firing of neurons. This results in the release of dopamine and norepinephrine.
By doing this, caffeine makes it possible for you to be active for longer and improves general mental function for a small duration.
Caffeine also stimulates the release of adrenalin, helping increase general activity. Putting all these factors together, you can have a kick-ass training session and great exercise. Plus, coffee reduces pain after workouts. Better activity and less pain, just what you want from your workout sessions!
More On Caffeine And Dieting
Popular and awesome as it is, where does coffee stand in the world of the health conscious? If you are on a diet, drinking coffee can offer an advantage.
Coffee can suppress your appetite, keeping those hard-to-beat hunger pangs at bay. The same effect has also been noted with decaf, so you can make effective use of coffee to stick to your dieting schedule.
Calorie counting, is of course, an integral part of any serious attempt to lose weight.
Coffee is your friend there. A conventional cup of black coffee has less than five calories. Espresso shots do even better, barely managing a single calorie. Significant increases show up once you start adding other things to your coffee.
Sugar, milk, Half-and-half add a fair amount of calories to your coffee. Heavy whipping cream brings on some serious calories. So if you have coffee in your dieting plan, give up any additives and stay miles away from elaborate beverages that add mountains of calories to your cuppa.
The Social Construct Of Coffee
Coffee is often linked to social constructs and activities that encourage eating. A delicious pastry or cake might catch your eye as you get your coffee from a coffee shop. Or, if you’re sitting in a café with your coffee, you might feel the urge to eat something.
The effects increase if you have a companion who decides to take a bite of the delicacies on offer. For the sake of your diet, do not put yourself into temptation! It is remarkably easy to get on the slippery slope of “one cupcake with my coffee won’t do any harm”.
FAQs For Using Coffee For Weight Loss
Coffee can indeed help you make the best for your weight loss goals. It is one of the reasons you find caffeine in several fat-burning supplements available commercially. However, coffee or caffeine cannot manage your weight loss goals single-handedly. Bring on a healthier lifestyle, a good diet, and start exercising! A good plan will certainly speed things along towards your weight loss goals. Sipping on coffee all day and hoping it does the trick certainly won’t work!
Moderation is key. Having about 3-4 cups of coffee a day is unlikely to have any negative effects on your health. Chugging coffee like you’re at a kegger won’t do you any favors though. On that note, being stuck to a kegger isn’t healthy either, but ah… to be young and partying!
Remember how we said earlier that coffee suppresses appetite? Well, for some people, the effect isn’t as desirable. These people will see their hunger pangs return with a vengeance in a short time after drinking coffee. If you are one of these people, it is probably best that you avoid coffee as part of your dieting regimen.
Bulletproof coffee has become a popular choice for people looking to lose weight. This coffee is part of the larger Bulletproof Diet and promises to help people reduce their weight faster. We would suggest you steer clear of the fad diet. Doctors and dietitians remain skeptical of this diet and its purported benefits. Also, the low-carb, high-fat diet carries some serious medical risks. If you are looking at a keto diet for weight loss, it should be done under the guidance of a doctor or dietitian (and not just nutritionists).
Short answer: black. No sugar, no milk. Black coffee has the lowest amount of calories and offers the greatest advantage for dieting. However, if you must have coffee and want it sweet and milky, use sugar substitutes and low-fat milk. These additions do add more calories, but they’re significantly lower than regular sugar and milk.
Green coffee beans are those that are un-roasted. Raw, in other words. In terms of weight loss, there are two major benefits of supplementing with green coffee as opposed to black. 1. It can block the absorption of some glucose that you consume. It is often labelled a “carb-blocker”
2. It can increase thermogenic fat burning without stimulating the central nervous system (CNS)
Coffee does help you forge ahead towards your weight loss goals. However, its effects diminish over time. The body becomes accustomed to the effects of caffeine. This means you get a lower response from the body in terms of increasing metabolism and burning fat. It continues to serve as an appetite suppressor, so there are still some benefits to be drawn.
Coffee is a natural ally in your battle for weight loss. It helps speed up metabolic processes, burns fat, suppresses appetite, and carries a minuscule number of calories by itself. Bolster your diet and exercise with well-timed coffee breaks, and your weight loss goals will start looking a lot closer.