Thanks and love your site!

Keep in mind caffeine is a diuretic, and when you have less water you’re going to look more ripped (even if you’re a bit weaker).

Anyway as Mark and Alexi say moderation is the key as always!

but.. im afraid i would have to disagree with this article, even at A level biology you learn that caffeines main metabolic product Paraxanthine (84% of caffeince metabolized to this)has the actual affect of INCREASING lypolysis (fat burning) by freein up triglycerides into fatty acids and glycerol. Ive actually learnt that athletes on caffeine supplements will turn to fat at a greater proportion then those not on caffeine supplement.

Also, regarding blood sugar i dont think ive ever seen anything regarding this being an issue for any non type 2 diabetes person, but to be honest i feel really bad for type 2 sufferers as they are pretty much warned not to do anything, im suprised they havent been advised to stop ingesting air yet.. the only scientific property of caffeine affecting glucose in blood is the other metabolic product when caffeine is metabolized, theobromine. This is a Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) phosphodiesterase inhibitor and this is actually great as it means cAMP (which is used as a REGULATORY secondary messenger) can work UNHINDERED shuttling both adrenaline but also glucagon more effectively round the body and in some one who can produce insulin, this effect will simply make them more sensitive to changes in environment, so ideal and most effective pre workout but no effect really at any other time.

Caffeine is addictive however, overuse can cause insomnia, nervousness and a whole host of problems, so moderation and correct timing seem to be key with caffeine!

Thanks

OK, coffee may raise blood sugar.
That could mean for me that I won’t be using fat as energy for the next 2-3 hours.
But I cannot understand how I would start STORING fat just from 300ml of water with two spoons of coffee (no added sugar ofcourse).

I guess it is possible if you eat cookies or a lot of fat at the same time as drinking coffee that the Sugar coming from coffee ingestion is used as energy and all the rest is finaly stored as fat. But that’s not how I drink coffee.

Moreover, cafeine raises the metabolism : so if you drink black coffee, isn’t the higher blood sugar compensated/balanced by the higher metabolism ? I’m personnally convinced about that!

I think you could wright a big article on that subject !)
Keep it up !

with that said, i’d suggest isolating the caffeine issue by weight class, as i do believe it may have more of an impact on high body fat types trying to lose weight, though more likely in terms of sabotaging appetite which may lead to binge eating out of caffeine load cycles, less to do with how the body metabolizes caffeine

at any rate, i’m 5’7, 152lbs and am quite lean, work out very regularly 3x a week on a reasonably serious diet which includes normal crap (because that’s how i roll 😉 – but note this: i drink an excessive amount of caffeine, at least one full pot of coffee every day, sometimes two, and all the way into the late evening or night !! it has had zero impact on my body’s way of storing fat (i don’t seem to hold on to much weight, it’s quite the opposite, find myself loading up on turkey, tuna and meat to get protein overload and milk for fat)…only thing i notice is that it suppresses my appetite and so i must remember to eat in the mornings!! that’s what i’m talking about with the weight gain issue- may be a more interesting angle to explore or research…

I read something recently about green tea possibly having fat-storing side effects. Any truth to that?

– while insulin is bad, raising the blood sugar is not necessarily. Think about it: insulin’s goal is to lower your blood sugar, therefore something that does the opposite could be good. Think of glucagon (the opposite of insulin), glucagon raises your blood sugar while not increasing your fat.

– furthermore if increasing your blood sugar was bad, then exercising would be bad (check it out, exercise raises blood sugar). If we do not increase our blood sugar when we exercise, we would pass out.

– the mistake you might be making is thinking that high blood sugar with caffeine is the same that the one that leads to insulin increase. The thing is that you are not thinking about where this sugar is coming from. When you take coffee, you are not (at least I am not) eating at the same time, therefore to raise the sugar, the body must take it from somewhere. Where? (hint: Fat or glycogen storage!!!)

Mark, I think that you are very intelligent person, so I tried to write an intelligent answer. There are plenty of things wrong about caffeine, I just do not think that fat gain is one of them

Continue the good work, Nico