TOO MUCH CAFFEINE!!

I'm kind of in the same boat. Until last week I lived in coffee and Mountain Dew. If I go for a full day without caffeine I get the biggest headache. What I'm doing is slowly tapering off. Last week I did one cup of coffee and replaced one Mountain Dew with a 20 ounce bottle of water. This week I'm doing my coffee and a 34 ounce bottle of water. Next week's plan is to substitute 2 Mountain Dews with water.

Get rid of the XL coffee and have a small. Little doses of caffeine throughout the day instead of big ones that will cause the headache when it wears off. Ditch all the energy drinks, some have as much caffeine as four cups of coffee and they can be dangerous. Pack a thermos of coffee (if you use milk, heat it so it doesn't cool the coffee) and you can take small cups of it throughout the day.

I drink Soylent Cafe Vanilla in the morning for breakfast. It's a meal replacement with 400 calories and the caffeine of a cup of coffee. If I need an afternoon pick me up I either get a small nitro coffee or a small cappuccino.

I would get rid of the energy drinks unless you really REALLY feel like you need them. Like limit to one a week, or every two weeks. Less even. I used to rely too much on those things myself. They have a lot of stimulants other then added caffeine. Like ginsing, guarana and taurine all act on the body as a stimulant. It may be too much for you on top of your coffee and pre-workout caffeine.

Back in my retail days some days like overnighters & Black Friday (which is basically an overnighter) consisted of two energy drinks back to back plus a large coffee, plus chocolate covered coffee beans for good measure... 0_o I was basically a vibrating zombie version of myself.
I personally have switched to coffee only and I only have the energy drinks if I'm pulling an all nighter for some reason. Or I am particularly sleep deprived...

But, if just coffee is too much and you still feel you need a pick-me up, swap to lower caffeine alternatives. For example you could have a cup of black tea, or green tea instead of coffee. If you feel you don't want to limit your energy drinks further, only have the ones that come in 8oz cans instead of 16oz cans. Mtn. Dew Kick Starts are good too. They are usually around 80 cals a can, come in a variety of flavors, and have way less caffeine then a Rockstar or Monster.

I'd figure out how much caffeine you're getting per day and what other stims you're consuming besides caffeine from the energy drinks, pre-workout, etc.

Assuming the "I feel like I'm 1 coffee away from a heart attack" isn't hyperbole, that alone would make me cut out the unknowns (pre-workout and energy drink).

Caffeine, pre-workout, and other stimulants are not harmless contrary to what some believe. I work in the ER and have had some patients come in with cardiac arrhythmias after drinking tons of caffeine and pre-workout and stuff. I would recommend getting more rest. Cutting back on caffeine will give you rebound headaches at first. You could try replacing some of your coffee or energy drinks with tea, which has less caffeine, and cutting out the pre-workout.

I thought 300 was the limit for pregnant women?

NickyGee2015 wrote: »

jjpptt2 wrote: »

NickyGee2015 wrote: »

Thank you everyone! I dont actually feel like I'm going to have a heart attack physically. Its more mental because on average I have 785mg caffeine/day and it should only be about 300mg a bit more since im a bigger fella. I get the migraines when I havent had any caffeine but im trying to slowly decrease that way the short term withdrawals arent as bad.

So the only reason you're cutting back is because you are taking in more than what is recommended? No actual side effects that you are trying to mitigate?

I'd like to see if the cause of the migraines are due to withdrawal of caffeine first. My BP and cholesterol was high but went down when I started keto a few months ago. Other than that no side effects. Mostly cautious because it's been known that even the best athletes who eat super clean just have an over stimulated heart, have a heart attack. No proof its caffeine but until more studies are done, it would be nice to not be one of those statistics.

Gotcha. I do think you're making some leaps there, but clearly it never hurts to be cautious. Think of it like this - guns aren't inherently dangerous. Depending on how you use them and/or who you give them to, they could be harmless or they could be lethal. Same with caffeine - harmless to some, dangerous to others. Depends on the person/situation.

No way to know for sure if the headaches are withdrawal-related, but that's a common side effect and what you've said certainly makes sense that it could be.

I've never liked coffee or caffeinated drinks, so I've always used caffeine pills. The standards ones sold in the US are generally 200mg each, which is WAY to much for me in one dose. I found some on Amazon that are 100mg and I used to take those about 2-3 times a day which helped spread out my caffeine and I didn't get jittery or headaches. When I became pregnant, I knew I had to cut down some more, so I bought a pill splitter and split my pills into 50mg. It was hard to get used to at first, but now I have 150mg max per day and a lot of days I go completely without and don't really notice.

Just an alternative to coffee and other energy drinks to help reduce caffeine without cutting it out all together.