Does Caffeine Aid Weight Loss?

Coffee is a brewed drink loved by people all over the world, and many can’t get through the morning without at least one cup. It’s well known for providing a much-needed energy boost, but can those properties help with boosting your metabolism and helping you lose weight?

Weight Loss

Caffeine gets its reputation as a weight-loss aid because of its abilities as a stimulant. One cup of coffee alone can speed up your metabolism enough to burn up to 100 calories, but this alone is not to be relied upon when it comes to losing weight.

Studies have shown that those that consume coffee before exercising perform up to 12% better than those that don’t and that coffee can increase an athlete’s short-term endurance and agility. This will of course have a knock-on effect on their long-term performance, as better training sessions should show better results. When put into weight-loss context, this of course should speed up the burning of calories and help you get to your target weight that much quicker. It’s important to bear in mind that caffeine will not magically cause you to lose weight, and only helps with energy levels during exercise.

Excessive consumption of coffee and caffeine-based products is not healthy and can cause other negative side effects such as insomnia and headaches.

There is also evidence to show that consuming coffee also boosts thermogenesis, which is when your brain sends messages to your body that it needs to burn more calories, but again the results are so minute that it is not worthwhile to rely on this process if you are serious about losing weight.

Weight Gain

Other studies have shown that in some subjects, caffeine in fact has a negative impact on the body’s ability to lose weight. It can sometimes have opposite effects on appetite, making some people crave food and snack when they drink a cup of coffee. Other pre-made caffeinated beverages such as energy drinks or flavoured iced coffees and teas can be very high in calories too – so always try to be mindful about that when you’re on the go and wanting a drink. Simply adding milk and sugar can be detrimental to your weight-loss journey and could set you back from achieving your goals.

One cup of black coffee is calorie free, whilst one large latte from Costa contains 274 calories, and one cappuccino from Starbucks contains 120 calories, so it’s a no brainer when it comes to sticking to a calorie-controlled diet!

So, whether you want to wake yourself up in the morning, improve your gym performance or boost your metabolism, don’t forget your cup of coffee before you get started.