Coffee is one of those things we just don’t know if we can trust. Each day, there seems to be a contradictory news article about our daily cuppa. One week, it’ll be that coffee makes you live longer. The next, it’ll be that there’s a link between caffeine consumption and chronic disease and that it reduces your lifespan. Quite frankly, it’s all so exhausting that we need another cup of coffee!
In any case, we’re going to count the latest news about our beloved coffee as a major win. According to Australian dietitian, Melanie McGrice, drinking caffeine can actually help you burn excess body fat and speed up your metabolism. We think Melanie may be our new best friend!
“Contrary to what most people think, drinking coffee isn’t bad for you as long as you aren’t adding a whole lot of sugar to it,” Melanie told FEMAIL. “It can be a good strategy for many people to drink a couple of coffees a day and give your metabolism a little boost — it is only little, but better than nothing.”
Melanie is quick to point out that chugging endless coffees isn’t going to be your golden ticket to a shredded bod. However, she believes it’s a much preferable alternative to most of the fat burning supplements on the market at the moment.
Interestingly if you look at over the counter weight loss medications, the key ingredient is caffeine or some form of caffeine. It’s much cheaper and effective to have a cup of coffee or green tea for weight management than it is to take some of those over the counter weight loss medications. Not only are you getting the benefit of the caffeine, but there is also a lot of health benefits as well.
-Melanie McGrice via FEMAIl
Scientists believe that drinking coffee can speed up your metabolism and lead to fat loss because ingesting caffeine jumpstarts the process of lipolysis, which is when your body releases free fatty acids into the bloodstream. This occurs when your body is breaking down your fat stores to convert it into energy.
But even so, too much of anything is a not a good thing. Even if you’re drinking black coffees, it can cause your body’s cortisol (stress hormone) production to go into overdrive, which can actually backfire and make you store more fat. Melanie recommends capping your daily intake at four coffees.
She also points out that if you’re adding sugar to your daily joe, it’s going to outweigh any fat-burning benefits. “If you’re adding sugar you’re undoing the benefits of coffee for weight loss because the sugar is going to be providing more calories than what you burned from the caffeine,” she says.
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