I’ve been trying to locate information with no luck about the effects of coffee/caffeine on dieting. Found some google stuff but I wasn’t sure how good it was…
I’ve been cutting a lot of extras out of my diet and coffee is the only “extra” remaining,
I LOVE my coffee, I will drink 4 cups of instant with skim milk every day,
But is the caffeine effecting my insulin in a negative way?
My question basically is, will the coffee slow my weight loss?
Or am I right drinking 4 a day still?
I know there’s possible health negatives from drinking 4 big cups per day, but will it hurt my weight loss?
[quote]danchubb wrote:
Cut the milk and you’ll be fine. [/quote]
i don’t see why he has to do that. surely there are things other than skim milk that can be cut if necessary. it’s highly unlikely that he’s adding more than 100 or so calories to his diet from the skim milk in his coffee.
[quote]JMoUCF87 wrote:
danchubb wrote:
Cut the milk and you’ll be fine.
i don’t see why he has to do that. surely there are things other than skim milk that can be cut if necessary. it’s highly unlikely that he’s adding more than 100 or so calories to his diet from the skim milk in his coffee.[/quote]
Anecdotally, a lot of people have problems with milk. Even discounting cortisol arguements and whatnot, milk can cause bloating issues with some that make evaluation of diet success difficult. Also, it’s unknown just how much is going into the coffees, and people often don’t consider it when tallying up daily calories.
If it is factored into the diet, then sure, keep it there (assuming the individuals body has no issues with it) but I have found that it’s one of those things that people rarely consider when evaluating why their diet isn’t working.
I make a habit of keeping my coffee consumption to early in the day.
I actually have 3 cups more often than 4 - 1 upon waking, 1 with breakfast and 1 with meal #2 (out of 5/6).
I’ll then switch to green tea.
I also will do a couple weeks on; couple weeks off just to give me CNS a rest and actually let my caffeine tolerance go down a bit - I find this also gives my digestion a break as I tend to get a little bloated after time (I take it black, the only way).
Buy decent enough (dark roast, organic for me) stuff and you’ll soon learn to enjoy it for itself.
Another thing, I wouldn’t even bother with the instant trash - I’m sure it’s probably harmful in other ways besides the caffeine (anyone?).
(As for milk, I’m allergic so I can definitely vouch for the bloating issue, but then I swear I react to half the food I eat, it seems the only things I’m almost certain don’t bloat me are natty PB and medium-rare steak hehe)
Soy milk (unsweetened) is low carb. I know soy is frowned upon, but in 1/4 cup amounts, it’s probably not awful. You could also go with cream or half & half which is low carb as well.
Skim milk has lousy “lightening” power with coffee (so you tend to use more volume of skim) whereas cream or half/half has excellent lightening power (so you can get by with less).
Yeah the milk is factored into my diet, and it’s really only a drop that I put in because instant is too gross to drink black,
Plus i’m too lazy to filter my own coffee at work.
I actually drink more milk with my oats, but again, it’s factored in to my daily calories and really makes F-all difference to my intake, although I wasn’t aware the milk might have some effects? I guess in all I probably consume about half a cup a day of skim milk.
I wasn’t specifically thinking that caffeine was slowing me down either as I appear to be still losing weight in small increments, but I wondered if there was something there I wasn’t thinking of chemically going on.
I’ve got down to that last KG of fat or so and i’m finding it really REALLY hard to shift, oh well just got to be patient and keep everything in check.
I wouldn’t add a sweetner as it can still spike insulin levels so just drink it black … IF you really have to i would have a coffee before workout / afterwork out when you need the sugars, a good tip for the milk thing is to have 200ml of semi skimmed milk for the day, which is 100 calories, poor it into a bottle and that is your milk for the day, that way you still know your calorie increase and it will stop you from “the unknown” of how much milk you are actually having …
[quote]quibble wrote:
caffeine slows clearance of estrogen from the body afaik.
[/quote]
"Caffeine at doses of 400 milligrams or more tended to cause a small decrease in testosterone after ingestion, but a rapid increase in testosterone began within 15 minutes of exercise. The result was significantly greater than the exercise-only prescription. A hefty 800-milligram caffeine dose produced a 61 percent average increase in testosterone after 60 minutes of resistance training! Adversely, the large dose also resulted in a 51-percent raise in cortisol over the exercise period, which continued to elevate to 93 percent over baseline during the short 30-minute recovery phase post workout.
When the results for exercise and recovery periods were averaged out, the 800-milligram dose raised testosterone 39 percent â?? in which 21 percent was attributed to the caffeine intake. However, the peak dose also resulted in a 52 percent average increase in cortisol during exercise and recovery, when compared to exercise alone.
Caffeine can amplify the training-induced secretion of this important anabolic hormone, in a dose-dependent manner. More specifically, doses of 400 milligrams or more exhibited the greatest potential to increase testosterone. But increased doses are also met with an increase in testosteroneâ??s catabolic nemesis: cortisol."
The Muscular Developement article noted the increase in cortisol, as well. However, it went on to say that cortisol can be countered/shut down by consuming carbohydrates. Nutritionist have stated that is one of the benefits of consuming a post workout carbohydrate drink. A protein-carbodhyrate drink is anti-catabolic…it shuts down cortisol.
Caffeine is used in Excedrin and other pain killers, as you probably know. Another point of the MD article was the basically caffeine numbs any pain during your workout…or as they put it, “caffeine increases you pain tolerance.” Thereby, allowing one to workout harder.
Coffee and caffeine are not the same thing. Caffeine is just one part of coffee, you are completely missing all the health benefits of coffee. Once you start adding all the sugar, cream, and stuff thats when the calories and damage add up. I also recommend investing in a good quality brand of coffee. Lavazza is my personal favorite, but you can pick and choose.
[quote]MaximusB wrote:
Coffee and caffeine are not the same thing. Caffeine is just one part of coffee, you are completely missing all the health benefits of coffee. Once you start adding all the sugar, cream, and stuff thats when the calories and damage add up. I also recommend investing in a good quality brand of coffee. Lavazza is my personal favorite, but you can pick and choose.
[/quote]
Looks like some damn good coffee judging from the picture…
Think I might give that brand a try if they have it where I shop, I usually just play it safe and get the same organic variety each time but a change should be nice.
Max, i’m not ignoring the benifits of coffee at all, I love coffee to death and there’s nothing better to me than a Late on Saturday morning from my local cafe (who server Lavazza!), did I say nothing better??? hmmm perhaps a beer
I totally get that caffeine is only part of it as well,
But it’s coffee that I get my caffeine dose from, so that’s why i’m curios whether to change my ways or not.
Thanks all for the informative responses,
As a previous poster suggested I think i’ll try also to have one bottle of milk for the day to avoid “splashing” the milk into my coffee and oats from the carton.
My coffee intake also fluctuates or has fluctuated, so I think I need to just shut my mouth and do a solid diary for 3-4 weeks with exact intakes per day/week,
Then I can make a desicion as to whether i’m not losing weight appropriately.
I think if coffee is your only source is caffeine then I think you are ok, as long as you aren’t drinking it by the gallon. I love Lavazza, I was drinking Illy for awhile but it’s just too bitter. I like some bitter, but damn that’s just ridiculous. My uncle turned me onto Illy while visiting him in Rome, but it’s like rocket fuel. Lavazza has what I think is the best in bitterness, richness, and flavor. Liquid silk if you ask me.
