#HealthyDetectives#

This article discusses caffeine from the perspective of fitness and fat loss.

Why do we need to talk about caffeine separately? Because caffeine is the most important of all functional fitness and fat-loss supplements, without a doubt, and there is no other supplement of the same weight.

1. What is caffeine?

Strictly speaking, caffeine is a drug and probably the most widely used drug because it is found in large quantities in beverages, not just coffee, but also tea and many other types of beverages.

The amount of caffeine is generally expressed in milligrams. Based on current research evidence, it is safe to consume no more than 600 mg of caffeine per day (except for special groups such as pregnant women).

2. The magical effect of [caffeine] on fitness and fat loss

If there is any supplement that can be described as a "magic weapon", it must be caffeine.

Caffeine has a very good effect on both fat loss and fitness. In the field of "supplements", caffeine is the absolute king. In fact, the vast majority of fat burning supplements you can buy, and the vast majority of supplements that improve acute training performance, the real effective ingredient is caffeine. Without caffeine, more than 99% of fat burning supplements and pre-training supplements will become pure placebos (note that this only refers to supplements with acute effects, and does not consider supplements with chronic effects, such as creatine).

In the case of fat loss, caffeine can keep you excited, focus on things and work, temporarily forget about food, and reduce the difficulty of diet. Observational studies have found that caffeine is more likely to cause spontaneous weight loss (this shows that caffeine can really reduce the amount of spontaneous intake, at least for some people).

In the fitness scene, caffeine can not only improve your training performance, allowing you to lift heavier weights more easily and complete the planned training volume, but also increase training excitement, making you train more excited, which has a significant positive impact on the sustainability of training.

Anyone who has not tried caffeine must try it. You can't find any reason not to try it. Of course, if you find that you are not suitable for using caffeine after trying it, such as the effect is too poor, or the negative reactions exceed your tolerance limit, you should also give it up decisively.

The main effects, extent, and strength of evidence for caffeine are as follows (unless otherwise specified, all evidence is strong, with a large number of supporting studies, high quality, and consistent results):

• Improve sprint performance (suitable for HIIT): moderate evidence, with some studies not supporting this finding.
• Aerobic performance: The strength of evidence is high;
• Adrenaline secretion: strength of evidence is high, magnitude is low;
• Strength: The strength of the evidence is very high, suitable for trained subjects, with only a few studies disagreeing.
• Training volume tolerance: slightly improved;
• Reduce fatigue;
• Slightly raises blood sugar and reduces insulin sensitivity: Found when consumed with carbohydrates;
• Slightly raises blood pressure;
• Cortisol: Slightly elevated at high doses;
• Increase heart rate: The effect is related to tolerance;
• Improves response rate: moderate-strength evidence;
• Increases testosterone: But only to a small extent, so it has no effect;
• Anxiety: There is only one experimental study on this, and the conclusions are unclear;
• Blood flow: Slightly increased;
• Basal metabolic rate: varies from person to person, and the conclusion is not yet clear;
• Excitement, happiness: short-term improvement;
• Suppress appetite: It varies from person to person and the conclusion is not yet clear.

The time it takes for the effect to appear varies from person to person, ranging from as short as 10 minutes after taking it to as long as half an hour after taking it, and the effect lasts for 30-60 minutes.

3. Side effects and tolerance of caffeine

Caffeine, if not tolerated, can increase heart rate, which can be problematic for some people with existing heart problems. The ideal approach is to start with a small dose (a small cup of coffee) to find your tolerance.

Caffeine's anti-fatigue and excitement-enhancing effects will undergo adaptation, but will not significantly diminish with adaptation.

IV. Recommended usage of caffeine

If you only want to train for performance, you should only eat before training, and not eat at other times. It is best not to drink coffee. You can also not use it when you are in a better state or when the training task is lighter, so as to reduce the impact of tolerance. A small number of studies have found that tolerance does not affect endurance, but most studies have found an effect.

If the goal is to lose fat, beginners can start with 100 mg in the morning, then increase to 200 mg after the dosage stabilizes, and you can try taking it in the afternoon.

If you use intermittent fasting and skip breakfast, then eat at breakfast time, which will make it easier for you to get through the adaptation period in the first few days.

In addition, the combination of caffeine and another drug will produce a more obvious fat-reducing effect. This combination can be said to be the strongest fat-reducing supplement combination (in fact, both are drugs), and has been used for decades. But that "other drug" is a banned item in China, so it cannot be bought. I dare not say the name, but you can find it with a simple search. If you are abroad, you can try to buy some.