Caffeine is one of the few substances known to help mobilize fat in your adipose tissues and increase metabolism. Basically, #caffeine allows Adrenaline from your blood to go directly to the fatty tissues, allowing them to break down and release the fat into your blood.
Releasing fatty acids into your blood will not help you lose fat unless you burn more calories than you consume through your diet. So, just because they're ready to be demolished doesn't mean they're demolished. Yes, your body is constantly in a state of burning fat for energy and a higher metabolism means a higher burning of fat for energy, these numbers are so small that you would never see a physical result of your waistline even with just that.
There are studies that show that caffeine increases your resting metabolic rate by 3-11% and that larger doses have a greater effect! In the short term, that's great! After a while, people develop a tolerance to the effects and stop working. One study showed that caffeine increased fat burning by up to 29% in lean people, while the increase was only 10% in obese people. The effect also decreases with age and is greater in younger individuals. With coffee, you're doubling your caffeine intake, so you're doubling your RMR (resting metabolic rate). Is it worth it? Instead of grimacing with robusta coffee for a slight increase in your resting metabolic rate, try drinking it with a high-quality Arabica for taste.
We all know coffee and caffeine are stimulants (it's no secret), and what caffeine actually does is block the receptors responsible for fatigue. Caffeine blocks the flow of adenosine, increasing the firing of neurons and the release of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and norepinephrine.
In fact, it can improve exercise performance by an average of 11-12%. There are many instances where a long black or just a shot of espresso is used as a great pre-training. Caffeine sounds like a miracle worker right now, so you combine exercise with caffeine and the coffee itself gives you a boost to go and burn fat yourself.
So what did we learn? We learned that caffeine is NOT the miracle worker we were led to believe. Caffeine does very little in the weight loss process, but it's extremely preparing your body to burn fat through exercise.
Unfortunately there is no simple answer. It's all always about the fine balance between hard work and good preparation, and a good cup of coffee that is so good for your body is one of the best ways to help burn those fats and achieve these goals.
Comments