- What Is The Best Workout Machine To Lose Weight?
- The Raw Food Diet Plan
- Is Date Sugar A Healthy Alternative Sweetener?
- The Engine 2 Diet
- Going On A Diet May Have The Same Effects As Drug Withdrawal
- Lack Of Sleep Has Some Scary Side-Effects
- 7 Healthy Alternatives To Coffee
- Why You Should Never Use Splenda And 3 Healthy Alternatives
- The Volumetrics Diet Plan
- How To Start Working Out In The Morning
What You Should Know About Caffeine And Weight Loss
A question I get asked frequently is “is coffee bad for weight loss?” Caffeine and weight loss is a tricky subject. Many people can’t make it through the morning (or the entire day) without having their morning cup-of-joe. However, most people probably are unaware that caffeine actually inhibits weight loss. Caffeine actually makes you hungry by stimulating your appetite.
Consuming a stimulant, like caffeine, puts your body in the fight-or-flight mode but there’s no real danger so you have this internal stress that creates responses in your body that cause body fat to accumulate. I recommend that, if you’re trying to lose weight, you should either limit or replace your coffee in the morning with healthy alternatives. This will help you if you are struggling with weight loss.
Can Coffee Help You Lose Weight Or Gain Weight?
Can coffee make you lose weight? Or does it have the opposite effect? When you drink large amounts of coffee or espresso your body releases a stress hormone called Cortisol. This is a hormone that triggers your food cravings. This makes you “stress eat” and the food your body consumes is used as reserve energy so that you can “endure” the stressful situation that your body thinks it’s going through. But, because you’re not actually faced with a REAL stressful situation, your body will store the extra instead of burning it off.
Because of the increased levels of Cortisol, your nervous system and your hormone balance are also affected. Increased levels of Cortisol in your body can make you feel overly excitable, frightened, angry, nervous, or jittery. When you have higher levels of Cortisol in your body for a long period of time it can affect your muscle tone which, in turn, will affect your bodies ability to properly burn away excess fat.
Caffeine And Weight Loss: Insulin Resistance
One other way that increased consumption of caffeine can hurt the body is through Insulin resistance. When insulin is released from the pancreas as a response to glucose levels in the blood being higher because of a meal, caffeine can prevent it from being properly utilized This will leave higher than normal levels of glucose and insulin in your blood. This can create a problem for the entire body. Insulin resistance can prevent your body from carrying out it’s normal functions of keeping control over the stores of fat and the regulation of the formation of cholesterol.
Caffeine and Weight Gain: Alternatives
Breaking the caffeine habit can be a difficult experience. There are some alternatives that can give you the pep you need in the morning without caffeine stimulation. Peppermint Tea is one alternative. It can provide stimulation and actually strengthen your heart. You can also try other teas such as green, white, or herbal.
One of my favorite alternatives to coffee is an herbal drink called Teeccino. It’s very tasty and VERY good for you. It’s ingredients are carob, barley, figs, dates, chicory, and almond.
Also, remember that if you HAVE to have coffee in the morning to wake up that maybe you should try getting more sleep. Go to bed an hour earlier and you may be surprised to find out that the extra hour of sleep will give you much more focus, pep, and energy than any cup of coffee could.
Caffeine And Metabolism
There has been a positive link to caffeine and metabolism. Drinking 2 cups of coffee or 5, 5 ounce glasses of green tea everyday has been shown to increase a person’s metabolism. So there is a benefit.
Overall, if you’re trying to lose weight you should cut down on caffeine.
You don’t have to eliminate it completely from your diet, though.
If you have a cup of coffee in the morning it’s not going to be detrimental. Just don’t visit Starbucks more than once a day 
.
Hipolito M. Wiseman
August 17, 2011 at 3:35 am
Nice blog post. i really love your tips and techniques about weight gain. More people should be viewing this article to learn the tips to weight problems.
Sara
August 17, 2011 at 5:51 pm
Thank you Hipolito!
Eloy Rodrequez
August 17, 2011 at 8:56 pm
Really love your informative blog post abotu weight issues Keep it up. will be tuning in for mroe great articles