Does Coffee Help or Hurt Weight Loss Efforts

Bikini season is right around the corner. Even if you have no intention of starting an intense diet, there are always small changes that you can make to help aid weight loss.

Nutritionist Sarah Flowers says that drinking coffee in the morning will not only help your concentration and energy levels, it will also help you slim down. It boosts your metabolism by stimulating thermogenesis. This helps your body burn more fat. Coffee also contains chlorogenic acid which will help slow absorption of carbs as well as suppress the hunger hormone, Ghrelin. Carbs turn off your leptin response which means your body doesn’t tell your brain when you are full. Coffee can reduce your appetite by suppressing ghrelin and stimulating leptin.

You may be thinking, “I drink coffee all day long so why I am not losing weight?”. This is because the fat burning effect diminishes the more coffee you drink. Drinking coffee all day could lead to you becoming intolerant of the effects. Sarah recommends only drinking one or two cups of coffee per day to take full advantage of the benefits. If you are only drinking coffee to try to lose weight, you should cycle it to prevent a buildup of tolerance. You could try cycles of two weeks on, two weeks off.

If you like to work out, coffee could give you that extra boost that you’re looking for. Caffeine increases energy and burns more fat because it acts as a stimulant. Sarah said: “Coffee has been shown to help improve performance at the gym, especially when it comes to endurance sports or HIIT. Caffeine also stimulates the central nervous system, which has been said to help make exercise feel less arduous when training.” This is why you may have noticed that many diet pills and sports nutrition contain traces of caffeine.

Before you become a coffee addict or if you already are, it’s important to be aware of what is in your coffee. If you’re drinking milky lattes and cappuccinos, it probably contains a lot of sugar and calories that you’re unaware of. This can lead to weight gain and increased levels of insulin and ghrelin levels. For best results, stick to black coffee with a dash of milk.

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