Is Caffeine Helpful in Weight Loss?

Drinking coffee is often the best way to start your groggy mornings. It is one of the most popular morning drinks that people consume. No matter what kind of coffee you like to drink, whether you prefer your coffee with milk or just good old black coffee, it will refresh you and make you ready to take on your day. But your morning cup of coffee and other caffeine products can do so much more than refresh you. 

Coffee has caffeine in it, which is added to many metabolism-increasing supplements. So, that makes us wonder, can drinking coffee and the use of caffeine help you lose weight? Research seems to suggest that it does. Many experts have suggested that drinking coffee does not just promote healthy weight management but also help you in increasing your metabolism rate in the long run. There are many caffeine health benefits that help you improve your lifestyle and boost your energy. 

According to some experts, the use of caffeine in moderation and without adding too many sweeteners can be beneficial in your weight loss journey. There are various nutrients in coffee, such as niacin, potassium, antioxidants and magnesium, which help in improving your digestive health. Additionally, the caffeine in coffee helps in boosting your metabolism and improving energy, which means that you can use your black coffee for weight loss. Also read A Guide to Weight Loss: Losing Weight With Weight Loss Ayurvedic Drink

Ways in Which Coffee Helps You Lose Weight

A low-calorie beverage

A calorie deficit helps you in losing weight. So, the fewer calories you consume, the more you lose weight. Coffee, especially black coffee, is a low-calorie beverage and contains less than five calories per serving. 

However, to make sure that you use your black coffee for weight loss properly, you need to ensure that you do not add any sweetener or sugar to it. In short, coffee is a low-calorie beverage, only if it is black and without any added sugars. So, the regular use of caffeine can prove beneficial for your health. Among these various caffeine health benefits, weight loss is also a health benefit

Good for metabolism

The process with which nutrients break down in the body utilising calories is called metabolism. The caffeine in coffee is among the few substances known to increase your BMR or the Basal Metabolic Rate. The BMR is the rate at which your body burns all the calories while you sleep. Metabolites are a product of metabolism, and some studies find that people who drink coffee regularly have a larger number of metabolites in their bodies.

This is also one of the many caffeine health benefits that make coffee a weight-loss drink. The regular use of caffeine is also beneficial as there are various other stimulants in coffee that help in increasing your metabolism rate. These stimulants include caffeine, theobromine, theophylline, and chlorogenic acid. All these stimulants are not just fat reducing stimulants but also help you improve other areas of your health by maximising the caffeine health benefits and making coffee good for health.

Helps Mobilise Fat

It has been found that the caffeine in coffee stimulates the nervous system, which then sends signals to fat cells, ultimately breaking them down. This happens because the levels of epinephrine increase in the blood. This releases fatty acids from fat tissues, and if you couple the use of caffeine with either exercising regularly or cutting down on your food, you reach a negative energy balance. Or, you can also complementarily take fat-burning supplements, which also have caffeine in them. 

The caffeine in coffee also boosts your energy, making it easier to exert yourself during a workout, especially if it is a short workout. 

Contains Antioxidants

Coffee and the caffeine in coffee is rich in antioxidants. Antioxidants are responsible for helping in crushing free radicals, which accumulate fat. Antioxidants also help in the regeneration of new cells and ensure that optimal vital functioning of the body is happening. Antioxidants are an essential part of your body as they help maintain your health and prevent diseases. 

There are many antioxidant-rich foods, including coffee, that help you with weight loss. Coupling these foods with regular use of caffeine will help you achieve your weight loss goals. Caffeine also has polyphenols, which are weight-loss friendly and help you lose the excess fat in your body. In turn, polyphenols make coffee good for health. Also read Top Beauty Benefits of Coffee

Appetite Suppressant

The caffeine in coffee also acts as a suppressant of appetite. Appetite suppressants cause you to eat less as they suppress your appetite. Some studies find that the caffeine in coffee can reduce a person's appetite. Appetite is influenced by many factors, like the food you consume or your physical activity. The use of caffeine also reduces ghrelin levels in your body. 

Ghrelin is the hormone that is responsible for making you hungry. Caffeine helps stimulate the peptide hormone, making you satiated and reducing your desire to eat more. Drinking up to four cups of coffee in a day without adding any sugars, or adding minimal sweeteners, will be ultimately beneficial for you in your weight-loss journey. This is why a lot of people consume black coffee for weight loss.

Increased Fat Burning

Even though the use of caffeine does not result in burning more calories, it does help in shifting the calorie burn to include more fat. When you do any physical activity, like working out or playing any sport, a certain number of calories in your body burn as a result. Those calories are derived from either carbs or fat. 

Consuming coffee or caffeine products shifts the calorie burn towards fat rather than carbs. Instead of the stored carbohydrates being burned caffeine causes the stored fat to be burned. This does not just help you lose fat calories but also reduce your intake of carbohydrates as your body will not need it. 

Therefore, the use of caffeine in coffee or caffeine products before a work-out or any other intense physical activity makes you better physically and improves your health. These other caffeine health benefits make it a wholesome drink. 

Prevents Body from Regaining Weight

The use of caffeine in coffee and other caffeine products, including caffeine supplements need to be coupled with a diet and exercise regimen to extract the most benefits out of them. However, some studies find that regular use of coffee results in the prevention of regaining weight after losing it. 

Losing weight is easy but maintaining that weight is difficult. But, consuming coffee and caffeine products helps you maintain that weight loss and prevents the lost weight from coming back. 

Reduces Cravings

Even though there is not much research about the effects of caffeine on cravings, there is one correlation between caffeine products and cravings for food. The caffeine in coffee and caffeine products does not just make you more energetic but also helps in boosting your mood and making you cheerful. 

A lot of comfort eating and cravings are the result of low mood. There is a possibility that caffeine products help reduce your cravings by lifting your mood. Comfort eating reduces once your mood lifts, and you do not feel the need to eat your favourite food to make you feel better. Try Auric Gourmet coffee with the goodness of turmeric.

How To Increase Your Caffeine Health Benefits?

All the points mentioned above are helpful if you do not add sweeteners to your coffee. Given below are a few ways you can make your coffee good for health, and use your black coffee for weight loss:

Dark chocolate

It might sound outlandish but, the combination of caffeine and dark chocolate can work wonders for your weight loss goals. Both caffeine in coffee and dark chocolate are good sources of antioxidants. However, to ensure your weight loss goal is not compromised, do not forget to only include non-sweetened dark chocolate in your caffeine product. By adding dark chocolate, your use of caffeine in the drink can prove to be even more healthy for you.

Lemon Coffee

This caffeine product is as simple to make as it sounds. You need an espresso shot and half a lemon to make this black coffee for weight loss. Just make a cup of espresso and while it is warm, add the juice of half a lemon in the espresso. The lemon juice is rich in Vitamin C and citric acid, which helps the body burn fat and also helps in flushing out toxins and increasing your metabolism. 

All these factors combined make lemon coffee good for health. Lemon coffee also helps you increase the caffeine health benefits that you derive from coffee. 

Nutmeg Coffee

Nutmeg is a spice that does not just increase the health quotient of your coffee or caffeine product but also improve its taste. Apart from making your coffee good for health, nutmeg also is good for weight loss as it is rich in Manganese. Manganese helps you break down fat molecules and contains healthy dietary fibres, which work wonders for your gut health. 

Preparing this caffeine product is easy too. You need to add some nutmeg to your cup of coffee and then mix it nicely. Drink it while it is hot and nourish your body with its health benefits and taste. 

 As we saw above, caffeine in coffee and caffeine products can be beneficial for your weight loss journey. Apart from weight loss, there are various other caffeine health benefits too. However, there are risks attached to this. Your morning cup of coffee will only help reduce weight if you cut off all the fanciness from it. 

Drinking regular black coffee for weight loss is the best way to maximise the weight loss benefits of this caffeine product. Drinking too much coffee can also be harmful in the long run. 

Caffeine has many benefits, like black coffee for weight loss, but it is also very highly addictive, and its excessive use can cause a variety of problems such as sleeplessness, anxiety, etc. To combat these side effects of coffee, you need to make sure that you drink this caffeine product in moderation. 

One way to do this is by cycling your use of caffeine to prevent your body from building a tolerance to caffeine products. You can make a cycle of two weeks on and two weeks off where you consume caffeine for two weeks and then leave it for two weeks. Also, your consumption of caffeine products should stop several hours before you sleep otherwise, it can seriously affect your sleep pattern. 

Finally, the caffeine in coffee makes coffee a great drink with many benefits, including weight loss, but only if used in moderation without any additives that make it sweeter. Also try Auric weight balance drink.

Authored By : Poorvi Chhajer

About Author : Poorvi is a psychology graduate with a knack for writing and belief in ayurveda.