Many people wonder if drinking coffee makes them lose weight or gain weight, and there are many opinions about it.
The truth is that caffeine, the main ingredient in coffee, is one of the main components used to make slimming supplements .
But… what exactly do the experts in the field say?
Learn if frequent coffee consumption can help you lose weight.
How can coffee help you lose weight?
Coffee is one of the most consumed beverages in the world and has always created disputes as to whether its intake is beneficial or detrimental to health.
Fortunately, many experts have dedicated themselves to studying its components and their effects on people and, at present, it is confirmed that moderate coffee consumption is not harmful.
In fact, coffee has been found to boost memory and general cognitive functions, increase physical performance, reduce the risk of diabetes and dementia , and ease symptoms of depression, among others.
But that is not all…
Drinking coffee can also help you lose weight through several mechanisms.
Let’s see how:
Drinking coffee helps you burn fat
Coffee contains large amounts of caffeine , an active compound that can dramatically increase fat burning .
Caffeine stimulates the nervous system in such a way that a signal is sent to fat cells so that they metabolize fat (1).
What’s more, did you know that caffeine is used as an ingredient in numerous slimming supplements?
According to one study, caffeine increases fat loss by 10% in obese people and up to 29% in lean people , an effect that seems to intensify in younger subjects and decrease with age (2).
In other words, the caffeine present in coffee helps to mobilize fat from adipose tissue so that it can be used as energy (fat burning).
Drinking coffee speeds up your metabolism
Scientific evidence has confirmed that caffeine consumption can temporarily speed up metabolism by 3-11% (3).
That being said, drinking 4-6 cups of coffee a day can burn up to 150 more calories per day in lean individuals and 70 calories in obese individuals .
However, experts also reveal that it is very possible that people who drink coffee very frequently can develop a certain tolerance to this drink.
For this reason, the effects of caffeine in contributing to weight loss may be reduced in regular coffee consumers.
On the other hand, there are indications that coffee intake can improve physical performance in several ways:
- Making available the fat from fatty tissues so that it can be used as fuel.
- Giving you an extra boost of energy that reduces effort during training.
The results of various investigations show that caffeine can improve sports performance by around 11% (4).
Is it a short-term or long-term weight loss?
As I have commented in the previous point, people who usually drink coffee can often develop a tolerance to caffeine that mitigates the way in which it affects the body.
In other words…
The acceleration of metabolism and increased fat burning caused by coffee consumption may only occur in the short term .
Likewise, people who already drink a lot of coffee might not experience any of these effects even in the short term, as they would already be considered caffeine tolerant.
However, there is still a small hope that coffee can continue to help you on your way to a leaner body.
In one study, men’s coffee consumption was found to reduce their calorie intake by almost 22% , but other studies showed no effect (5).
Thus, we can conclude that there is not enough evidence to show that drinking coffee promotes weight loss in the long term and its short-term effects are insignificant.
Drinking coffee may slightly promote short-term weight loss.
But if your goal is to lose weight, there are many other more effective ways to do it than by drinking coffee.
Whether you want to lose weight or not, there are a thousand more reasons to drink coffee. Discover 13 scientifically proven benefits of coffee .
(1) http://ajpendo.physiology.org/content/268/6/E1192.short
(2) http://ajpendo.physiology.org/content/269/4/E671
(3) http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/49/1/44.abstract
(4) http://fitnessforlife.org/AcuCustom/Sitename/Documents/DocumentItem/4584.pdf
(5) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0271531788800770
University Professional in the area of Human Resources, Postgraduate in Occupational Health and Hygiene of the Work Environment, 14 years of experience in the area of health. Interested in topics of Psychology, Occupational Health, and General Medicine.