Does caffeine help you lose weight?

That caffeine affects our metabolism is a reality. Accelerates the rate at which our body works, since it has an influence on our nervous system. that can make increase calorie intake.

For this reason, some diets recommend or use caffeine intake as a “extra” element to lose weight.

the effects of caffeine

“There are studios for all tastes. Some corroborate that it increases metabolism, but they are small works with a very small percentage of the population.”, warns the pharmacist and nutritionist Elisa Escorihuela.

Furthermore, these studies indicate that cortisone levels increasewhich converts proteins into carbohydrates, and causes us anxiety and desire to eat lower quality foodunhealthy.

Other studies say that it does serve to lose weight since increases metabolism up to 6%but this in itself does not imply a clear change in weight if it is not done along with a balanced diet and exercise. In the end, you don’t know if the study participants lost weight only because of the diet or if caffeine had also played a role.

Caffeine Doesn’t Suppress Hunger

A new study, somewhat larger, has debunked another of the possible effects: that you eat less by caffeine consumption.

The University of Buffalo, in the United States, did the test and found that people who drank caffeine for breakfast were satiated earlier and they ate ten percent less in that food.

However, all they recovered that lack of nutrients in the following meals of the day and at the end of the study the weight was the same as that of the people who had not taken caffeine.

negative effects of caffeine

“We are increasingly aware that there is no single basic element that helps us to lose weight ”, Escorihuela remarks. “Coffee itself is neither a better nor a worse ingredient than others and can contribute to a certain extent but within a balanced diet“.

• The coffee causes irritation and nervousness in people especially sensitive to this component.
• Likewise, it can also create discomfort and insomnia problems. Sleeping little and poorly has been scientifically proven to promote obesity, in addition to causing other health problems.

how much caffeine can you take?

Let’s also not forget that the dose It is important. To get its effects you cannot drink more than 3 or 4 cups up to date. Abusing caffeine can be worse than the possible benefit of taking it.

• Careful with caffeine sources, because it is not only in the coffee cup. There is many hidden sources. For example, the cola drinks and some energetic drinks that have even higher doses of caffeine than coffee.
• You also have to include the tea. In this infusion we speak of another name, theinebut it is about the same molecule as caffeine although its effects are softer (depends on the amount of tea you consume).
• Then there are drinks and foods that add taurine, another exciting one that adds to the total of products that can alter our body.

All this without counting that most of the drinks that have caffeine also have a lot of sugarso if we lose weight we would be going in the opposite direction.

caffeine is different in every coffee

Of the more common varieties, the arabic coffeein all its variants, It is softer y contains less caffeine than the robust coffee variety.

We would also have to take into consideration the type of preparation.

• Es roasting at low temperatures is preferable (natural roasting) and the one that is made without sugar, since the formation of toxic substances is reduced. It is distinguished because the grains are lighter.
• The fact that roasted with sugar and at high temperatures (roasted coffee)which in fact is the most popular in Spain and Italy, releases other toxic products, which are not healthy either.

Regarding the way to prepare itif the espresso coffee is taken, in a filter or in a traditional coffee maker, the differences in the amount of caffeine are small. The espresso may have more, but the amount consumed is less. The filter is usually for a large cup of American coffee, which compensates, in addition, the water is in contact with the coffee for longer and, in the end, absorbs more caffeine.

Caffeine doesn’t affect everyone the same.

These data are always generic. But it is important to point out that all the effects will depend in a clear way also on the person.

If you are a woman or a man, it does not assimilate the same, men tend to be more sensitive and it affects them more.

Also the corpulence It’s fundamental. The consumption of someone with 50 kilos is not the same as someone with 80.

• The particular characteristics. Not all of us assimilate the active principles of nutrients in the same way. Caffeine to about barely lose sleep and to others the minimum amount already reveals them.

the good thing about caffeine

However, as we indicated at the beginning, there is also many studies that support the consumption of caffeine. Among other benefits, it helps us wake up, concentrate and gives us more resistance in sports, so it makes us more active, one of the basic elements of a healthy life.

“The line between benefits and losses is very thin. -recalls the nutritionist Escarihuela-. Moderation and not being dazzled by a study that points to the wonderful or inadvisable nature of a food are the best criteria for its consumption”.