Caffeine is the most widely used stimulant in the world.
Around 87% of Americans use it on a daily basis and on average they're using about 193
milligrams of caffeine every day, which equates to anywhere between one to two cups of coffee
per day.
As with anything else, there can be risks and rewards with the consumption of caffeine.
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By the end of this video, you're going to know exactly what the research says on how
caffeine aids with fat loss as well as the best way to utilize it responsibly and how
to get the best results out of it.
Now, caffeine can be made synthetically or it can also come from plants.
Most caffeine is consumed naturally from coffee beans and recent data has found that coffee
and tea make up about 83% of the total caffeine intake that comes from the United States.
And on that note, if you want to know some specific health benefits from coffee, I've
actually done a video on this and I will link to that video below in the description if
you want to check that out.
Caffeine is a powerful stimulant and it actually has quite a few different benefits that can
come from it in the short term.
A lot of people will use it for strength and power output and of course for energy and
mental stimulation.
And what many people don't realize is that habitual caffeine use has actually been shown
to reduce the risk in Parkinson's and cirrhosis and liver disease and liver cancers.
Caffeine has been looked at as a weight loss aid in many different studies.
The one that I'm going to mention today is a study that's actually a meta analysis.
Essentially what that means is they look at a bunch of different studies that were done
on caffeine and they analyze the results and the data from each one and kind of combine
it together into one specific study.
And from this study, the average caffeine used between all of them was around 360 milligrams
was the average, which can be anywhere between three to four cups of coffee.
In this study, they specifically looked at body weight, body fat and BMI, and how caffeine
had an effect on these three things and what they found was that coffee increases energy
expenditure by about three to 4%.
Now understand that increasing energy by three to 4% a day isn't really a ton, but it actually
does make a difference.
It's one of the few fat burners out there if you choose to call it that or weight loss
aids that actually does make a difference on top of your diet and exercise program and
being able to take it and utilize it can help boost by three to 4% and they found that it's
pretty consistent across the studies that they're seeing a three, three to 4% increase
in energy expenditure.
I do have a question.
How much coffee do you get in a day or caffeine specifically?
The meta analysis that I mentioned showed around 360 milligrams per day is what they're
doing, which can be anywhere between three to four cups of coffee.
If you're a coffee drinker, how much do you get?
Do you actually knock out that much in a day?
I've got quite a few clients and friends that knock out quite a bit more than that.
Uh, pretty consistently every day.
Now if you're wanting to use caffeine specifically for fat loss, there's a couple of things that
we need to discuss in order to get the best results out of.
And the thing about caffeine is if you're using it for fat loss or mood or energy, it
can definitely be beneficial.
The research shows that, but it starts to lose its efficacy over time.
So you start to build up a tolerance.
Many people are familiar with caffeine tolerance and it starts to build and this is why a lot
of people that are looking for those specific results out of caffeine end up doing caffeine
cycling.
So to give you a couple of examples of when you would want to actually cycle caffeine,
and whenever I say cycle caffeine, essentially I just mean take breaks, essentially stop
taking it or drastically lower the dose for a little bit in order to continue to make
it efficient for what you're trying to accomplish.
So if you're looking for any type of mood enhancement or boost and energy or fat loss
specifically, this is one of those when you're going to want to cycle it, uh, on a regular
basis.
It's shown in the literature that if you continue to increase the dosage, it gets to a point
where it doesn't matter how high the dosage gets, you just have to completely stop taking
caffeine for a little while in order to see those specific benefits.
Again, more on on the fat loss and energy and appetite suppression.
When it comes to those, you have to cycle the caffeine on a regular basis.
If you were to take caffeine long term consistently day in, day out over a three month, six month
period, you're going to start to find that it's not going to have the same effects, if
any at all.
Whenever it comes to fat loss.
Now, if you're taking caffeine for other purposes as far as cardiovascular performance or to
help in the reduction of Parkinson's disease or type two diabetes or liver cirrhosis, that
actually shows the biggest benefits on longterm consumption consumption, chronic consumption
of caffeine.
So a lot of it depends on why you're taking caffeine and what your overall purposes are.
If the only thing you're looking to get out of it as fat loss, you're going to want to
cycle off and on.
If you are looking for other benefits, more health benefits as far as you know, again,
avoiding Parkinson's and lowering your risk for that and cardiovascular, you can take
it every day consistently and still see good results with that.
Now whenever we start talking about how to take it, caffeine is going to be very individual
and it depends on if you have any type of a tolerance.
If you're new to utilizing caffeine, if you don't drink anything that has caffeine or
use caffeine and supplementation, I would highly recommend that you start off a little
smaller dose somewhere around a hundred milligrams or approximately a an eight ounce cup of brewed
coffee is about what we're looking at.
That's where I would start.
Most of the time whenever people are looking at fat burning purposes, it's anywhere between
200 and 300 milligrams per day, which can be anywhere between two and four cups of coffee
depending upon how strong you make it.
A also, most caffeine supplementation if you were to take it in a pill form is usually
around 200 milligrams per pill on average.
And most of the people that are looking for like strength increases whenever they're using
it for weight training, it may be upwards of four to 500 milligrams on average for people
that are going that route.
One thing I would talk about whenever it comes to supplementing is pay attention to how much
caffeine you're actually getting from your dietary sources before you look into supplementation.
Uh, to give you an example, I'm not a coffee drinker.
I'm going to be honest with you.
I wish I was, the benefits are great, but I just cannot seem to make myself like coffee.
So for me, because I don't really drink a lot of coffee, I don't get a lot of caffeine,
I don't drink much tea.
I actually choose to supplement with caffeine, uh, in a pill form.
But for people that drink multiple cups of coffee, three or four cups of coffee a day,
you might want to get an idea of approximately how much caffeine you're getting from that
before you try to make any decisions if you're going to supplement.
Because a lot of times people don't think about how much they're getting and they can
end up taking too much.
And for healthy adults, 400 milligrams of caffeine is considered safe, which can be
anywhere between four to five cups of coffee a day.
Now a couple of things to think about if you do choose to supplement with caffeine, is
that supplementing on an empty stomach can cause stomach distress.
It can cause a little bit of a upset stomach, but it also does potentially increase the
absorption.
So this is one of those that you're going to have to take, uh, from an individual basis.
If you take caffeine on an empty stomach ended upset your stomach, I would probably avoid
doing so.
If you can take it on an empty stomach and it doesn't cause any pain, you're going to
see a little bit better absorption from it.
And another thing to consider that most people are probably already familiar with is just
that caffeine can disrupt your sleep.
Now here's the thing about it.
I can take caffeine later in the evening and I can still fall asleep.
But in most cases, taking caffeine later in the day, even if it doesn't hinder you from
falling asleep, can more than likely hinder your quality of sleep.
The amount of time that caffeine stays in the body is around five to six hours.
Now, I mean, that can change based on different factors, but the average life of it in your
system is around five to six hours.
So most people recommend that you don't take it within five to six hours of going to sleep.
Because of course, especially if your goal is fat loss, you don't want to start taking
a supplement that affects your sleep.
Whenever sleep quality is so important to fat loss, so it's not worth taking one thing
that's going to help boost fat loss.
And then pulling another one down that may make fat loss a little bit harder.
So we know that caffeine can definitely be beneficial as a weight loss aid, but understand
that you're still gonna have to accompany this with diet and exercise.
If you are not paying attention to your diet, if you're eating too much food, if you're
not being active, three to 4% increase in energy expenditure is not probably gonna make
any difference in fat loss.
So if you're not making any changes and you just start taking caffeine, you're probably
not going to see a reduction in fat.
It still needs to accompany it.
This is something that can just help increase the amount of fat that you are losing if combined
with a solid diet and exercise program.
So knowing that and knowing the risks and rewards, just make sure to use caffeine safely
and responsibly.
And if you're looking for a little bit of assistance whenever it comes to getting onto
a nutritional routine, if you need something to help get you started or maybe kind of tighten
it up, I've actually put together a 28 day fat loss program.
It's completely free.
All you need to do is click the link below in the description.
It'll take you to my page and you can download this 28 day meal plan for free.
It'll definitely help get you kickstarted, pointing in the right direction, help you
get some meal plans together, and an idea of kind of where to get started.
And of course, if you enjoy this video, I would appreciate it if you would smash that
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Don't forget to subscribe to my channel and I'll see you guys in the next video.