Effects of coffee on weight loss

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gertieblueboots
gertieblueboots Posts: 46
in Food and Nutrition
Okay guys, so with the changing season I've really started drinking a lot of coffee. And I'm wondering what kind of studies ya'll have read about the effects of this. I mean aside from the obvious...it's bad if you put lots of cream and sugar in it, but I use minimal amounts of heavy cream and truvia, so I'm not concerned about that.

I have read that the caffeine can jolt your metabolism a bit and raise your BMR, so you burn more calories just sitting there cause your heart beats and little faster and stuff. Makes sense, but I'd only expect to see a handful of calories burned from that, and not really enough to be concerned about. But it seems like somewhere there'd be studies showing us how terrible it is, too. Anyone know anything about it?

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  • MissMaryMac33
    MissMaryMac33 Posts: 1,433 Member
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    I have links in my signature about this....

    I am a HUGE coffee drinker. In fact, I drink it most of the day and I even make my protein shakes with it.
    I usually have decaf now because I just love the flavor, but even with caffeine it's so minute itsnot a big deal.

    I like putting sugar free creamer in my hot coffee -- so in addition to tracking it as fluids, I add it to my diary so I track calories etc. as well.
  • Kabula
    Kabula Posts: 97 Member
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    Just drink it in the morning! but also beware because caffeine causes heartburn! I'm having issues with that!
  • bigapple66
    bigapple66 Posts: 5 Member
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    Check this out: http://www.livestrong.com/article/27570-coffee-boost-metabolism/

    There are also other related topics in the panel to the right of the article. Hope this helps
  • mrsfoose
    mrsfoose Posts: 59
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    Coffee has a ton of health benefits. I have a cup every morning. I put my Lactaid in it and leave out the sugar so it's not at all a diet wrecker. Those creamers can get scary fast!
  • Larius
    Larius Posts: 507 Member
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    I think that in the short term caffeine can burn an insignificant number of Calories. Longer term, it will raise cortisol (a stress hormone) levels, make you tired and lethargic ( and burning less Calories) any time you are without caffeine due to dependence, as well as promote insulin resistance which among other things can effect the appetite.

    Some quickly googled studies:
    http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0091305706000645
    http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/content/67/5/734.short
    http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/25/2/364.short
  • gertieblueboots
    gertieblueboots Posts: 46
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    Kabula, I used to have the same problem! But when I started eating healthy, I really just don't have that problem anymore. That's been one of the great benefits of my healthy diet :)
  • Espressocycle
    Espressocycle Posts: 2,245 Member
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    People always want there to be some ill effects to coffee because it is delicious, gives you a little buzz and has 5 calories and no nutritional value. Fact is, apart from how great it pairs with cream, sugar, donuts and cigarettes, there is nothing wrong with coffee and mounting evidence that it can even be good for you (as long as you skip the cream, sugar, donuts and cigarettes).
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/questions/coffee/

    5. Why does it seem like scientists keep flip-flopping on whether coffee is bad for you or good for you?

    Often people think of coffee just as a vehicle for caffeine. But it's actually a very complex beverage with hundreds and hundreds of different compounds in it. Since coffee contains so many different compounds, drinking coffee can lead to very diverse health outcomes. It can be good for some things and bad for some things, and that's not necessarily flip-flopping or inconsistent. Few foods are good for everything. That's why we do studies on very specific health effects—for example, studies of how coffee affects the risk of diabetes—but we also conduct studies such as this most recent one looking at coffee consumption and mortality over a long period of time, which better reflects the overall health effect.

    Coffee is also a bit more complex to study than some other food items. Drinking coffee often goes along together with cigarette smoking, and with a lifestyle that's not very health conscious. For example, people who drink lots of coffee tend to exercise less. They are less likely to use dietary supplements, and they tend to have a less healthful diet. So in the early studies on coffee and health, it was hard to separate the effects of coffee from the effects of smoking or other lifestyle choices.

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