[HN Gopher] Drinking strong coffee before exercising increases f...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Drinking strong coffee before exercising increases fat-burning, new
       study finds
        
       Author : curmudgeon22
       Score  : 186 points
       Date   : 2021-03-28 17:14 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (canal.ugr.es)
 (TXT) w3m dump (canal.ugr.es)
        
       | amelius wrote:
       | But coffee induces stomach acid reflux, which is definitely not
       | what you want during exercise, so catch-22 here.
        
       | gumby wrote:
       | There was not a caffeine without exercise arm. Clearly sponsored
       | by Big Exercise.
        
       | pengaru wrote:
       | This past year I've been doing a lot of heavy manual labor;
       | excavating large areas using a pick axe and shovel, hauling it
       | away in a wheel barrow. And moving large ~200lb granite boulders
       | in a wheel barrow ~1/3rd a mile up a slight grade from a nearby
       | mountain.
       | 
       | At the same time I started drinking a strong pot of Earl Gray tea
       | every morning to try get my butt in gear and outside in the dirt
       | quicker. Normally I'm not a caffeine user. For the first week of
       | this, my teeth would chatter and hands shake after finishing the
       | pot of tea, it was very reminiscent of a cocaine bump. And it
       | certainly worked well for motivating me to get busy.
       | 
       | But something I learned was my endurance went to shit on the
       | caffeine. I was super impatient and wanting to do everything as
       | fast as possible, while doing fundamentally slow long-haul heavy-
       | mode operations. It turned out I got less done with the caffeine
       | than without. I'd quickly burn myself out inadvertently trying to
       | move everything faster than they were ever going to move with
       | just my manpower. It was like the stimulant tricked me into
       | operating deep in the realm of diminishing returns where I'm
       | putting in 200% effort for 10% faster movement, while making
       | myself frustrated with how long it's taking.
       | 
       | Now I don't think caffeine is particularly useful for anything
       | physical that doesn't resemble a sprint, at least not for me. The
       | psychological effects just increase the likelihood of burnout by
       | mistreating an endurance task as a sprint.
        
       | maxrev17 wrote:
       | Be interested to see a percentage increase in fat burning (I.e.
       | is it worth nailing a coffee or not if you are a big fat coder
       | looking to shift a few pounds)
        
         | bserge wrote:
         | It's not. Just eat less of whatever you're eating.
        
         | dbsmith83 wrote:
         | There is a link to the study at the bottom
         | 
         | > MFO, Fatmax and VO2max were significantly higher in the
         | afternoon than in the morning (all P < 0.05). Compared to the
         | placebo, caffeine increased mean MFO by 10.7% (0.28 +- 0.10 vs.
         | 0.31 +- 0.09 g/min respectively, P < 0.001) in the morning, and
         | by a mean 29.0% (0.31 +- 0.09 vs. 0.40 +- 0.10 g/min, P <
         | 0.001) in the afternoon. Caffeine also increased mean Fatmax by
         | 11.1% (36.9 +- 14.4 [placebo] vs. 41.0 +- 13.1%, P = 0.005) in
         | the morning, and by 13.1% (42.0 +- 11.6 vs. 47.5 +- 10.8%, P =
         | 0.008) in the afternoon.
        
         | jonnycomputer wrote:
         | From paper's abstract:
         | 
         | >Compared to the placebo, caffeine increased mean MFO by 10.7%
         | 
         | https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12970-020-...
        
         | kec wrote:
         | Exercise is great for general fitness and can give you a slight
         | edge in a calorie deficit but has little impact on weight loss
         | in general. If you want to lose weight by far the easiest and
         | most effective thing you can do is to get your diet under
         | control.
        
           | dbsmith83 wrote:
           | I've lost significant weight twice (~20-25 lbs). Once was
           | purely diet with very little exercise, and the other way was
           | way more exercise, but less diet control.
           | 
           | The first way made me feel tired and light-headed, and not
           | that great overall. The second way (high exercise, a little
           | diet control) took longer, but also makes me feel 10 years
           | younger and pretty much as healthy as I've ever been.
        
             | bloaf wrote:
             | My personal experience is that establishing a good exercise
             | routine helps with the diet a lot. If you're pushing
             | yourself fitness-wise, you start to notice the impact diet
             | (and sleep) has on your performance and select for foods
             | that won't make you miserable during your workout.
        
               | dbsmith83 wrote:
               | Yeah, working out regularly makes me think twice about
               | ever drinking enough to get even a minor hangover. Plus,
               | a good exercise routine inspires a good diet because
               | after all that time and energy working out, who wants to
               | mess it up?
        
             | cseleborg wrote:
             | Thank you! Though anecdotal, it is super helpful to learn
             | about your experience like this.
        
               | watwut wrote:
               | For whatever is worth, I had similar experience. The
               | thing, calories deficit means you are passive, tired,
               | irritable, have problem to focus. So you are less
               | effective at work too. How bad the irritability is for
               | others I understood only when someone else was dieting
               | and turned into someone constantly angry.
               | 
               | In addition, if you diet only, it is very easy to cause
               | yourself annemia or other health issue. It happened to me
               | and it actually affects life a lot. Most of sources talk
               | about what you should not eat, but very little about how
               | to recognize you are missing something or overdoing it.
        
           | watwut wrote:
           | However, exercise is very important ingredient if your goal
           | is health rather then aesthetic.
        
             | umanwizard wrote:
             | It's probably important in either case.
        
               | watwut wrote:
               | Yes, especially if you have passive lifestyle. But it is
               | not all that much how many calories you burn, but about
               | what it does to your body in general.
        
           | randlet wrote:
           | > If you want to lose weight by far the easiest and most
           | effective thing you can do is to get your diet under control.
           | 
           | Easy is the wrong word. Getting your diet under control is
           | the hardest part of losing weight. Most effective,
           | absolutely. Simple, yes, easy, no.
        
             | mmartinson wrote:
             | I've always found exercise to be a motivator for getting
             | diet under control. Periods of low exercise correlates with
             | bad eating. Building back the routine makes shifting diet
             | much easier.
        
               | randlet wrote:
               | Same! Periods of low exercise correlate with lower moods
               | for me and lower moods mean less will power which makes
               | keeping my diet in check tougher. The opposite is also
               | true.
        
               | Fricken wrote:
               | When I'm getting regular exercise everything else just
               | kind of falls in to place. My appetite works properly,
               | and I move towards my healthy body weight eating whatever
               | I feel like eating.
        
             | bserge wrote:
             | Sure, but if you exercise and don't control your diet,
             | you'll end up still fat but with more muscle underneath.
             | Which isn't exactly the goal.
        
             | noobrunner wrote:
             | I agree. Whenever I decide to lose weight, I've always
             | found that turning both the knobs(diet & exercise) at the
             | same time in the beginning is overwhelming and doesn't work
             | for me. I have to get into a routine for one of the two
             | first before focussing my attention on the other. Usually,
             | it's exercise first. Wonder if other people have same
             | exeperience
        
           | Fricken wrote:
           | Getting my diet under control is contingent on getting my
           | appetite under control. It's mediated by my sleep levels,
           | stress levels, how much exercise I'm getting, what types of
           | calories I'm eating, what time I'm eating them, and my
           | microbiome. It's so disingenuous to say "Just eat less". If
           | it was that simple, there wouldn't be an obesity epidemic.
        
       | bryanrasmussen wrote:
       | it is of course good to get confirmation that taking a stimulant
       | that is also a diuretic increases fat-burning - as I believe most
       | people would suspect - but I don't think that confirmation is
       | headline level good.
        
       | softwaredoug wrote:
       | I've always avoided caffeine before exercise because I've worried
       | about overexerting myself and getting an injury from going all
       | out. I wonder if there's research on this factor?
        
         | bluedino wrote:
         | Caffeine is the main ingredient in most pre-workout drinks
        
         | klyrs wrote:
         | The only reason I've found to avoid it is that 1 time in 10,
         | coffee before a long ride means that I'll urgently need to pee
         | every few miles -- way more often than I can find a legal place
         | to do so.
        
           | noobrunner wrote:
           | haha, this has happened to me during a half marathon. It cost
           | me 10-15 mins as there was a big line outside the toilet
        
         | jniedrauer wrote:
         | Anecdotal, but I find the exact opposite to be the case. The
         | more alert and "strong" I feel during intense training, the
         | less likely I am to let my form slip. When you're dog tired and
         | slouching over, that's when the injuries happen.
        
         | dbsmith83 wrote:
         | I do too for the most part. It seems too risky and I am not a
         | professional athlete, so there is no need to push it too hard.
         | 
         | https://aaptiv.com/magazine/pre-workout-drinks "Are Pre-Workout
         | Drinks Healthy or Harmful?" > The caffeine and creatine that
         | most of these drinks contain can also have harmful effects on
         | the body. "Excessive caffeine can increase your heart rate and
         | blood pressure, causing cardiac issues," Woeckener notes.
        
         | melolife wrote:
         | This is the last thing I'd be worried about. It's coffee, not
         | some kind of anabolic steroid/cocaine mixture.
         | 
         | I know a lot of people who spend way too much time trying to
         | optimize supplements and other tiny details instead of throwing
         | down and getting on with your life.
         | 
         | Edit: after reading other comments yours makes more sense, but
         | I'd still be more worried about what's actually in a pre-work
         | out beverage than over-exertion.
        
         | notsuoh wrote:
         | I'm objectively very high performing at aerobic exercise, since
         | high school and have kept it up. I have seen quantitatively
         | higher performance when taking 3-5 mg/kg of caffeine before
         | exercise and regularly during. This includes anything high
         | intensity aerobic, from swimming to running to cycling.
         | 
         | This is the best collection of research I have seen on the
         | topic and where I arrived at my 3-5 number above many years
         | ago, perhaps it will be useful and seems to speak to the
         | broader topic at hand: https://fellrnr.com/wiki/Caffeine
        
       | TwoBit wrote:
       | I haven't read this study, but I read about this from other
       | studies 20 years ago.
        
         | webmaven wrote:
         | _> I haven 't read this study, but I read about this from other
         | studies 20 years ago._
         | 
         | A few years ago I saw an EMEA advertising campaign promoting
         | Turkish coffee as a pre-exercise boost.
        
       | mrfusion wrote:
       | Follow up question. Does intense exercise metabolize caffeine
       | faster?
       | 
       | I usually can't sleep if I have caffeine after 2pm but if I drink
       | it in the evening but before a big workout I don't notice any
       | trouble sleeping.
        
       | mean_gene_1976 wrote:
       | Is this really a eureka moment? I mean this has been pretty
       | obvious.
        
       | jonnycomputer wrote:
       | "15 caffeine-naive men" mean age 32 years.
       | 
       | Now we know why the N is so low. /s
        
       | beforeolives wrote:
       | This has been known for a long time and it's fairly well studied.
       | I suppose the more interesting part for them was studying the
       | daily variation in fat burning.
        
       | poundofshrimp wrote:
       | > A total of 15 men (mean age, 32) participated in the research
       | 
       | A sample size of 15. Seriously?
        
       | jniedrauer wrote:
       | We've known that caffeine increases aerobic capacity for half a
       | century now. I don't see what new information this study is
       | bringing to the table. If you take caffeine and your aerobic
       | capacity increases, then you will either do more work, or perform
       | at a lower percentage of your lactate threshold. In both cases,
       | you metabolize more fat.
        
       | baby wrote:
       | Or can give you a heart attack no?
        
       | PragmaticPulp wrote:
       | > Subjects ingested 3 mg/kg of caffeine or a placebo at 8am and
       | 5pm
       | 
       | 3mg/kg is over 250mg of caffeine for an average weight man. Twice
       | a day makes that 500mg.
       | 
       | An 8.4oz can of Red Bull contains 80mg of caffeine. They were
       | giving these people an amount of caffeine equivalent to 6 cans of
       | Red Bull. Not a perfect comparison because Red Bull contains
       | other ingredients, but that's still a lot of caffeine. For
       | another point of reference, that's 2.5 shots of 5 hour energy
       | (200mg caffeine per bottle).
       | 
       | To top it off, the subjects were caffeine-naive, so they had no
       | caffeine tolerance. They must have been feeling extremely
       | energetic.
       | 
       | No wonder they burned more fat. I'm not sure this is going to
       | translate to your casual coffee drinker or someone with a high
       | caffeine tolerance.
        
         | lmilcin wrote:
         | I am pretty sure that not sleeping at all also increases fat
         | burning as body uses less energy when asleep
         | 
         | The fat burning might be from reaction of organism that is not
         | used to a lot of daily caffeine ingestion. For example, when I
         | don't use caffeine for a long time my heart rate increases when
         | I increase amount of coffee I drink. But then goes back after
         | some time (presumably when my body gets accustomed to it
         | again).
         | 
         | Also, this kind of research must be read with a little bit of
         | scientific background.
         | 
         | It is easy to get an impression author wanted to establish
         | causation, but in reality this research only shows correlation,
         | and correlation does not prove causation.
        
           | sjg007 wrote:
           | Poor sleep is associated with weight gain.
        
             | lmilcin wrote:
             | See my other response to sibling comment.
             | 
             | TLDR: weight gain is not from body using less energy but
             | from your regulating machine being put out of balance.
             | 
             | Body on caffeine will still use more calories, but your
             | brain on poor sleep will make worse choices and you will
             | eat more just to offset unhappiness.
        
             | umanwizard wrote:
             | I wonder if that's because sleepiness is associated with
             | poor impulse control. I know when I'm super tired I tend to
             | eat whatever I want the next day.
        
               | readme wrote:
               | it's because sleep regulates the hormones that control
               | your appetite
               | 
               | if you mean poor control of your body's natural drive to
               | eat which is imperative to our survival, then sure
               | 
               | very few people can consistently control this "impulse"
               | -- the best way to control it is to get adequate sleep
               | and regulate your hormones
        
               | DoreenMichele wrote:
               | One means to keep functioning while sleep deprived is to
               | eat more. I don't think it's really _poor impulse
               | control_ per se. It 's a coping mechanism, sort of like
               | the body shunting waste gas through the kidneys at high
               | altitude because you can't offload them all via breathing
               | out and they have to go somewhere, but that's not really
               | the optimal way to do that and it has knock on effects
               | because urinating to remove them also drags salt and
               | other stuff with it, thus the need to drink more and get
               | more electrolytes at altitude. (Edit: implicitly, weight
               | gain us the equivalent knock on effect for eating more
               | while sleep deprived.)
        
               | luxuryballs wrote:
               | That and you may be having an extra meal whereas you
               | otherwise would have been asleep.
        
               | toyg wrote:
               | There is that and there is the "enforced fasting
               | interval" that sleep is.
        
               | moron4hire wrote:
               | The first meal after sleeping through the night is called
               | "break-fast", after all.
        
               | sjg007 wrote:
               | The sleep deprived body directs calories to fat storage.
        
           | dijit wrote:
           | > I am pretty sure that not sleeping at all also increases
           | fat burning as body uses less energy when asleep
           | 
           | From the admittedly little I know about biology and sleep
           | science; I thought it was universally accepted that poor
           | sleep harms your metabolism and thus would make fat-burning
           | less likely.
        
             | lmilcin wrote:
             | No, it is not "universally accepted".
             | 
             | It is actually opposite. Most organisms under stress
             | _increase_ their energy consumption.
             | 
             | A good proxy for energy consumption by your body is your
             | heart rate. Heart rate is linked to the amount of blood
             | distributed through your body and amount of blood is amount
             | of oxygen that is needed by your cells for metabolism.
             | 
             | And amount of oxygen used by cells is almost equal to the
             | amount of energy produced (excluding those rare anaerobic
             | regimes).
             | 
             | Heart rate is always lowest at night during sleep.
             | 
             | What you probably meant is that a person who has poor sleep
             | will have a statistical tendency to eat more, for many
             | reasons. One it is more difficult to exercise willpower
             | when you are not rested well. It might also be more
             | difficult to accurately judge whether what you feel is
             | hunger.
             | 
             | To accurately compare energy use by body you would have to
             | externally limit amount of calories ingested to same level
             | and figure out how much CO2 you emit or how much weight you
             | lost.
             | 
             | Otherwise you are measuring your regulating machine -- ie.
             | your brain, hormones, etc. and that is whole other set of
             | problems.
             | 
             | Eating makes us feel better and if you are on poor sleep
             | you might eat just to offset it.
        
               | dijit wrote:
               | I'm quite sure you're mistaken as studied animals
               | (usually rodents) do not behave the same as humans; and
               | ultimately if our metabolic system becomes unbalanced
               | then our body is suffering and will certainly attempt to
               | overcompensate or risk damaging itself.
               | 
               | It matters very little if we burn fat faster, though I
               | doubt it; it matters what the outcome is. In this case it
               | does appear that people get fatter.
               | 
               | > More than two dozen epidemiological studies from around
               | the globe looking at sleep deprivation and BMI in humans
               | have shown association between decreased obesity and an
               | increase in sleep duration.
               | 
               | > Data regarding impact of sleep deprivation on weight
               | loss is conflicting in animals and humans. Sleep
               | deprivation in rodent models causes weight loss despite
               | hyperphagia [63-68]. These differences in rodents and
               | humans may be explained by increased brown fat in rodents
               | (rarely present in adult humans), which is metabolically
               | more active and has been shown to increase thermogenesis
               | and total energy expenditure [67]. In conclusion,
               | epidemiological data is suggestive of weight gain with
               | sleep deprivation though a few studies have also noted
               | weight gain with prolonged sleep. Based on data on sleep
               | duration and weight, sleep hygiene counseling could form
               | an important tool in management of obesity.
               | 
               | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2929498/
        
               | matwood wrote:
               | You left out the next part of your first quote:
               | 
               | > More than two dozen epidemiological studies from around
               | the globe looking at sleep deprivation and BMI in humans
               | have shown association between decreased obesity and an
               | increase in sleep duration. _These studies however do not
               | establish a causal relationship._
               | 
               | The paper also mentions and agrees with who you were
               | responding to:
               | 
               | > In summary, energy expenditure is reduced during sleep.
               | Sleep deprivation appears to increase energy expenditure.
               | 
               | And finally in the conclusion:
               | 
               | > Paradoxically a similar U-shaped relation is also noted
               | in several studies looking at the relationship between
               | sleep and weight, with both short and long sleep leading
               | to weight gain.
               | 
               | I may have missed it, but it doesn't appear a causal
               | relationship was ever formed between metabolic
               | dysregluation from sleep issues and weight gain. And
               | since both less and more sleep were associated with
               | weight gain, is sleep or the lack thereof just another
               | symptom of stress and depression? Both of which often
               | cause people to eat more.
        
               | satellite2 wrote:
               | I don't see how this contradicts GP points.
               | 
               | The first point is that lack of sleep is associated with
               | increased metabolism (increased energy expenditure at
               | rest).
               | 
               | The second point is that the apparent link between weight
               | gain and sleep deprivation could be explained by
               | involontary caloric intake increase.
        
             | arcticbull wrote:
             | A lack of sleep leads to higher levels of cortisol and
             | insulin, and decreases insulin sensitivity. This in turn
             | physically prevents you from burning stored fat and leads
             | to blood sugar being converted into fat for longer-term
             | storage.
             | 
             | [1] https://www.sleepfoundation.org/physical-health/sleep-
             | and-bl...
        
         | ApolloFortyNine wrote:
         | It's odd they didn't speak of caffeine itself as a supplement,
         | and instead mentioned coffee.
         | 
         | Caffeine is a pretty common ingredient in any pre-workout, and
         | you can get 200mg pills online cheaply.
        
           | thinkingemote wrote:
           | Not that odd if you consider science writing should appeal to
           | as many as possible. The study itself used these workout
           | pills you mention which were made from green coffee beans:
           | 
           | https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12970-020-.
           | ..
        
         | raverbashing wrote:
         | Yeah one can is my limit (let's say, for a 4h period). I can't
         | imagine what would feel taking the equivalent of taking that
         | amount all at once. Probably the usual effects (headache and
         | severe dizziness)
         | 
         | That being said, caffeine is a good pre-workout.
        
         | perrylaj wrote:
         | Seems like a lot when put in terms of Redbull, but isn't really
         | in the context of athletes and performance. 5mg/kg is a common
         | number as a pre-event dose for endurance athletes, and science
         | seems to be mixed on ideal due to large individual variation in
         | tolerance, response, and metabolics[1]. There are many
         | 'thermogenic' fat loss supplements that have 150mg+ per dose
         | taken multiple times a day.
         | 
         | Cyclists I know commonly take 400mg before a race to training
         | session, and often top up over the course of the event if it's
         | more than a couple hours. So I don't think the numbers reported
         | are high, unless casual coffee is your basis comparison. But in
         | the context of caffeine for fat loss, where supplements have
         | high amounts, the numbers seem in line with common use.
         | 
         | 1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5752738/
        
           | PragmaticPulp wrote:
           | The subjects were caffeine-naive non-athletes. They had zero
           | caffeine tolerance.
           | 
           | 500mg is a huge amount for a caffeine-naive person, no matter
           | how you look at it. No one goes from drinking zero caffeine
           | to 6 Red Bulls per day without experiencing abnormally high
           | stimulation.
        
             | BurningFrog wrote:
             | I'm not sure you two are disagreeing?
        
           | SkyPuncher wrote:
           | > Seems like a lot when put in terms of Redbull,
           | 
           | Redbull doesn't actually have that much caffeine. A
           | typically, 8oz cup of coffee has more caffeine than a
           | redbull.
           | 
           | In fact, most "energy drinks" don't have that much caffeine.
           | They have other ingredients that also provide energy.
        
             | schappim wrote:
             | In the industry the other ingredients are called "pixie
             | dust".
             | 
             | The heavy lifting is done by the caffeine.
        
               | qeternity wrote:
               | And anyone without a shockingly low caffeine tolerance
               | also knows that one of the main ingredients in energy
               | drinks is marketing.
               | 
               | Red Bull does nothing to most people that a cup of black
               | coffee wouldn't do. But the placebo effect is a helluva
               | drug.
        
         | bluedino wrote:
         | 240mg is pretty common for the canned energy drinks
        
         | carbocation wrote:
         | Extrapolating from your comment, I guess we'd kind of want a
         | blocked design that is placebo-vs-caffeine and exercise-vs-
         | none.
         | 
         | That would tell us whether there is just an additive effect of
         | high-dose caffeine and exercise, or if somehow the caffeine is
         | interactive with exercise (i.e., has a bigger effect in the
         | exercise group than in the rest group).
        
         | sinsterizme wrote:
         | A tall (smallest size) pyke roast from Starbucks is 235 mg of
         | caffeine. A venti (what I normally get) is 410 mg.
        
           | dragonwriter wrote:
           | The smallest size at Starbucks is "short", it's just not
           | listed on the menu.
        
             | noobrunner wrote:
             | Haha, I just learned this recently. It's on the menu in
             | their app. I always order short now when I am in a mood for
             | "unhealthy" drink
        
         | erickhill wrote:
         | If they truly had no caffeine tolerance, iirc back when I first
         | started ingesting more than I was used to it would make me a
         | bit sick to my stomach.
        
         | bosswipe wrote:
         | mg/kg is a really weird unit to use without saying how many kg
         | were consumed.
        
           | carbocation wrote:
           | It's usually a unit of mg consumed per kg of body weight.
           | (Hopefully 0 kg of which are being consumed.)
        
           | detaro wrote:
           | When used in contexts like this, it's mg of substance per
           | kilogram of body weight. (with the assumption that the effect
           | on metabolism etc somewhat scales with body weight, at least
           | for people that are otherwise similar)
        
             | bosswipe wrote:
             | Oh. Thank you that makes more sense.
        
         | watwut wrote:
         | Yet another question is, whether or is even healthy. It might
         | just be that not burning that fat more quickly can be healthier
         | then drinking so much coffein.
        
         | Godel_unicode wrote:
         | A grande (16oz) drip coffee from starbucks is over 300mg of
         | caffeine. The problem with Red Bull is the sugar.
        
           | thinkingemote wrote:
           | How about sugar free energy drinks?
        
             | bserge wrote:
             | Just use caffeine pills.
        
         | snarfy wrote:
         | 3mg/kg for an average weight man is about 3 cups of coffee.
        
         | hombre_fatal wrote:
         | Almost seems like you're trying to sensationalize it by
         | changing it to Red Bull, something that's actually pretty low
         | in caffeine once you put marketing aside.
         | 
         | How about comparing it to Starbucks' regular hot coffee sizes?
         | 
         | - Short - 180 mg
         | 
         | - Tall - 260 mg
         | 
         | - Grande - 330 mg
         | 
         | - Venti - 415 mg
         | 
         | Is drinking a 12oz Tall at Starbucks really dropping your jaw?
        
           | coderintherye wrote:
           | That's a fair point, Starbucks coffee has more caffeine than
           | an average cup of coffee. I'm sure many people (including
           | myself) are not aware of that.
           | 
           | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-
           | caf...
        
             | arcticbull wrote:
             | The amount of caffeine in a coffee depends on its
             | extraction method, the grind, and to a lesser extent on
             | roast. An espresso actually has much less caffeine than a
             | cup of drip (60mg vs 200mg). Generally the longer you leave
             | the beans exposed to water the more caffeine comes out, up
             | to about 400 minutes when making cold brew. [1]
             | 
             | I doubt Starbucks is deviously out to over-caffeinate its
             | customers (although if they were, they've got my vote!) but
             | rather the difference is attributable to variations in
             | their brewing process.
             | 
             | There's a limit to the amount of caffeine that can possibly
             | come out of a bean, and so I would say that unless there's
             | evidence they're spiking the brew, that Starbucks coffee is
             | roughly the definition of an "average cup of coffee"
             | 
             | A Venti is 590mL and 415mg of caffeine, 700mg/L of coffee.
             | Based on the chart in [1] that would be roughly speaking
             | the midpoint of roast kind at the 150 minute mark making
             | cold brew, 10g/100mL of coffee beans (Figure 1). Or
             | approximately a dark roast, coarse grind hot brew (Figure
             | 3).
             | 
             | [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5740146/
        
               | leetrout wrote:
               | I get so tired of people equating espresso with high
               | amounts of caffeine. I don't know where that
               | originated... maybe because of the high temp / pressure
               | extraction and the oils making it so much richer?
        
               | Godel_unicode wrote:
               | Well it is much higher caffeine/volume, it's just that
               | you (typically) drink a much lower volume of it.
        
               | dfee wrote:
               | A Starbucks Espresso shot has 75mg at 1oz.
               | 
               | A Starbucks dark roast (short size) has 130mg at 8oz -
               | that is 16.25mg/oz.
               | 
               | That means the espresso has 4.6x the caffeine per volume.
               | I'd say those people you're tired of have something worth
               | listening to.
               | 
               | https://globalassets.starbucks.com/assets/94fbcc2ab1e2435
               | 985...
        
               | leetrout wrote:
               | But look who I was responding to: people think a single
               | shot of espresso had more caffeine than a cup of coffee
               | and that is not true.
               | 
               | Starbucks drinks typically have 2 shots (such as a grande
               | mocha) which gonna be around the same amount of caffeine
               | as a cup of coffee
        
               | httpsterio wrote:
               | there's also an approximate 30% difference in caffeine
               | between Arabica beans and robusta beans, the latter
               | having more caffeine.
               | 
               | Starbucks use Arabica, typically Italian or French
               | espresso based drinks ha e been made with robusta or an
               | Arabica robusta blend.
               | 
               | Starbucks coffee is not higher in caffeine compared to
               | other cafes, it can actually be lower. The only sig
               | ificant difference is portion sizes, like you mentioned.
        
               | SkyPuncher wrote:
               | A "cup" of coffee is officially 8oz and typically between
               | 80 and 100mg.
               | 
               | Starbucks coffee doesn't really have a higher ratio of
               | caffeine, just more volume than the official
               | measurements.
               | 
               | That being said, I don't know anybody that drink 8oz cups
               | of coffee.
        
               | beforeolives wrote:
               | I think the point is that there is a difference between a
               | cup of filter coffee and an espresso drink (Americano,
               | latte, cappuccino etc) with the same volume. The first
               | one is well... coffee, the latter contains only a shot or
               | two of espresso and the rest of the volume in the cup is
               | hot water/milk.
        
               | gabrielsroka wrote:
               | I make coffee at home every day. I rarely go to places
               | like Starbucks. I just measured my cup and it's 8 oz. I
               | have one cup every morning.
        
               | js2 wrote:
               | Coffee "cups" are measured in units of 6 oz:
               | 
               | https://www.triplebarcoffee.com/blog/how-many-ounces-are-
               | in-...
        
           | scrozart wrote:
           | Thanks for digging these up. I agree OP would have to try to
           | avoid first looking at coffee.
        
           | JUNGLEISMASSIVE wrote:
           | Coffee is a lot more than caffeine, though. It contains a
           | whole family of monoamine oxidase inhibitors, which have a
           | host of effects on the nervous system.
           | 
           | That said, Red Bull very likely contains several types of
           | flavonoids that also act as MAO-B inhibitors.
           | 
           | Coffee, on the other hand, contains both MAO-A and MAO-B
           | inhibitors mainly from the Harmala alkaloid family. Some of
           | the compounds are neurotoxic.
        
             | arcticbull wrote:
             | It seems like caffeine alone is an MAOI [1] and that decaf
             | may not have the same effect [2] - very cool, thank you for
             | sharing! I know there's a lot more in coffee too, so I'm
             | looking forward to learning more.
             | 
             | [edit] Found this [3] which I assume is what you were
             | talking about? Which I assume is the reason studies show it
             | can act as an antidepressant [4]. Fascinating!
             | 
             | [1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23850513/
             | 
             | [2] https://www.jwatch.org/fw108796/2014/05/06/severe-
             | hypertensi...
             | 
             | [3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16139309/
             | 
             | [4]
             | https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/313988#possible-
             | ri...
        
           | seaman1921 wrote:
           | Yes drinking two 12oz Talls at Starbucks every day is not
           | good for your sleep.
           | 
           | Nespresso capsules have 60g for reference.
        
             | sokoloff wrote:
             | Do you mean mg rather than g?
        
             | halfmatthalfcat wrote:
             | Source? I drink a fair amount of coffee every morning (not
             | any after 10am) and never had any sleep issues. The half
             | life for caffeine is somewhere around 6 hours, no?
        
               | nwienert wrote:
               | Closer to 10 or 12 for many, it has a high variance in
               | humans.
        
               | csa wrote:
               | Anecdata, but one tall (actually, even one short) at 8am
               | will typically postpone the time I fall asleep by 4 hours
               | and will typically reduce my sleep by an equal amount
               | (i.e., I wake up at the same time despite falling asleep
               | later).
               | 
               | I've run some experiments on myself, and this lasts for
               | days at a time with one tall in the morning. If I keep at
               | it for several days, I will crash early one evening, but
               | still only sleep for 4 hours. It's a nightmare for
               | someone who typically sleeps 8 hours a night -- I just
               | feel fog-brained all the time. That said, workouts are
               | super easy.
               | 
               | If I had a tall in the morning _and_ evening on a regular
               | basis, ugh... I can't even imagine. I did this once for
               | extra energy during a sports tournament (we won), but I
               | basically had to drink myself to sleep each night.
               | 
               | Multiple doctors have told me that caffeine sensitivity
               | varies from person to person, but I am on the unusually
               | sensitive side.
        
           | PragmaticPulp wrote:
           | > Is drinking a 12oz Tall at Starbucks really dropping your
           | jaw?
           | 
           | Yes, absolutely. But I rarely consume caffeine so my
           | experience is very different than yours.
           | 
           | The study used caffeine-naive individuals. That is, people
           | without any caffeine experience or tolerance.
           | 
           | If you give two tall Starbucks coffees to a caffeine naive
           | person, it will definitely cause some notable effects.
           | 
           | Frequent coffee drinkers tend to underestimate the impact of
           | their caffeine tolerance. A seasoned coffee drinker consuming
           | two of the strongest coffees on the market day after day is a
           | different story than caffeine-naive individuals skipping
           | straight to excessive doses of caffeine without any
           | tolerance.
        
             | hombre_fatal wrote:
             | Still, not too many people are drinking 6x Red Bulls at
             | once, the scenario you brought up as an example. Meanwhile
             | swathes of the world are pulling into Starbucks daily, many
             | for their first time.
             | 
             | It's also not two 12oz coffees, it's one at 8am and another
             | at 5pm. It just kinda seems like everything you write here
             | is trying to cause a reaction and it feels manipulative.
             | 
             | You write all this just to reveal your actual point:
             | 
             | > If you give two tall Starbucks coffees to a caffeine
             | naive person, it will definitely cause some notable
             | effects.
             | 
             | Well, sure. We can all agree on that. And one of the
             | notable effects is increased fat oxidation. Notice how
             | uninteresting this observation is by itself. No need to
             | dress it up as something more.
        
           | have_faith wrote:
           | It drops my jaw that anyone drinks that regularly.
        
             | arcticbull wrote:
             | Well, this massive million drinker meta-analysis of coffee
             | consumption (high levels, 5 cups a day) shows it
             | significantly improves cardiovascular health. [1]
             | 
             | > A nonlinear association between coffee consumption and
             | CVD risk was observed in this meta-analysis. Moderate
             | coffee consumption was inversely significantly associated
             | with CVD risk, with the lowest CVD risk at 3 to 5 cups per
             | day, and heavy coffee consumption was not associated with
             | elevated CVD risk.
             | 
             | [1] https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/circulatio
             | naha....
        
               | jorvi wrote:
               | There is also a breadth of studies that show consumption
               | is bad - I wouldn't cheer just yet.
        
               | nwienert wrote:
               | What does it do to every other disease? Doesn't say much
               | if it looks at a single factor outcome.
        
               | toxik wrote:
               | Suffice to say, if there were meaningful risks from
               | drinking normal amounts of coffee, it would be known by
               | now. Its main drawback is that it makes people nervous
               | and jittery if taken in excess.
        
               | ThrowawayP wrote:
               | One of the other major ones is that it can aggravate
               | stomach problems like gastritis since both coffee (even
               | decaf) and caffeine are said to stimulate stomach acid
               | production.
        
         | themolecularman wrote:
         | Interestingly I've heard about a strong relationship between
         | heart attacks and consumption of energy drinks like
         | Monster/Red-Bull.
         | 
         | I used to drink a lot of Red Bull and stopped as a result. But
         | I sometimes think one of the reasons I haven't put on weight
         | despite my lifestyle is because of my caffeine habits.
        
           | SkyPuncher wrote:
           | Most energy drinks include other energy additives, which I
           | think is where the dangers come from.
           | 
           | I can no longer drink red bull because it gives me really bad
           | heart palpitations. Meanwhile, I can pretty much drink coffee
           | all day without issue.
        
             | retrac wrote:
             | Caffeine, at least in large doses, is somewhat stressful on
             | the heart by itself. It increases respiration and blood
             | pressure and heart rate. A strong cup of coffee can give me
             | minor palpitations.
        
           | krtkush wrote:
           | I was diagnosed with high BP very early in my life (23-24
           | yo). The doctor said it is okay to have everything in
           | moderation but asked me to not touch energy drinks.
        
           | SkyMarshal wrote:
           | Back in the late 00's I discovered Redbull really helped me
           | overcome after-lunch food-coma. I'd drink one right after
           | lunch to help me get back to work and focus for the rest of
           | the day.
           | 
           | After about 6 months of this, one day I was sitting at my
           | desk having just finished my afternoon Redbull, and felt my
           | heart skip a beat, literally. Like a little mini-heart
           | attack. Scared the shit out of me, and I quit Redbull cold
           | turkey that day.
           | 
           | At the time I was really into cycling, riding about 100 miles
           | per week (50 on the weekend plus daily bike commute). I was
           | in tip-top shape, with no family history of heart problems,
           | and an otherwise normal, low-sugar, whole food diet.
           | 
           | Never experienced that since, and I wouldn't be surprised if
           | there are studies that find a link between super-high
           | caffeine energy drinks and heart or other health problems.
        
             | dbsmith83 wrote:
             | Ah, this is called an ectopic heart-beat (usually
             | harmless). Back when I drank too much coffee and didn't
             | sleep in my last year of college, I got a few of these. Now
             | I'm a one-cup-a-day kind of guy, and it hasn't happened
             | much anymore.
        
       | dbsmith83 wrote:
       | The article title is misleading since the participants didn't
       | actually drink coffee. I know, they said they ingested caffeine
       | 'equivalent to', but it's a little misleading. There are other
       | compounds in coffee which could increase or decrease the effects
       | of just caffeine so it's best to not just assume it would be the
       | same.
        
       | jokoon wrote:
       | anti depressants also makes you quite sensitive to caffeine
        
       | dhimes wrote:
       | I no longer give much attention to nutrition or sports
       | performance studies that test a handful of people for a few
       | weeks. It's simply not enough people, not a long enough study,
       | and probably not controlled enough. My guess is that there are or
       | will be (a) study(ies) with pretty much the opposite outcome.
       | 
       | Years ago "studies showed" that caffeine had an anabolic effect
       | that aided muscle growth. Now it seems that the opposite is
       | "thought" to be true. [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28177708/]
        
         | goostavos wrote:
         | >probably not controlled enough
         | 
         | This is the most frustrating part of any exercise science
         | related literature. There are just so many studies that have
         | absolutely preposterous designs. There is no shortage of papers
         | drawing sweeping generalizations while using a sample size of
         | 10 untrained individuals, over the course of 3 weeks, and with
         | no regulation of diet. Then there's the general meaninglessness
         | of "volitional failure" as a measurement -- Gah! It's
         | maddening!
        
       | oatmale wrote:
       | Kind of old news at this point right? It's been touted as a "life
       | hack" for at least a decade. I remember reading about this in the
       | four hour body book. That was published in 2010. It was also
       | based on prior studies.
        
       | fc373745 wrote:
       | Alright, caffiene = vasoconstriction and exercise means high bpm.
       | 
       | Wouldn't this be a recipe for cardiac arrest?
        
       | JeremyNT wrote:
       | Regardless of this study's merits this makes some intuitive
       | sense, since caffeine is a stimulant and a moderately performance
       | enhancing drug. In my marathon training I consume caffeinated
       | food as a quick "pick me up" after the first 90 minutes or so of
       | exertion.
       | 
       | If you are able to run faster... well guess what... you'll also
       | consume more calories!
        
       | dbsmith83 wrote:
       | This from the study was very interesting to me:
       | 
       | > In athletes, it is known that endurance performance is poorer
       | early in the morning and late at night compared with the
       | afternoon [6], and that MFO and Fatmax are higher in the
       | afternoon compared to the morning whether in non-athlete male
       | students [7], in untrained normal-weight and obese individuals
       | [8], or in endurance-trained athletes [9]. The difference has
       | been explained by the higher body temperature, the enhanced
       | neural activation and contractile properties of the skeletal
       | muscle, and the higher plasma catecholamine concentrations found
       | in response to exercise in the afternoon compared to the morning
       | and evening [10, 11].
       | 
       | So it seems like regardless of if you had caffeine or not, it is
       | better to work out in the afternoon vs. in the morning
        
       | bArray wrote:
       | I believe this is the paper:
       | https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12970-020...
       | 
       | Seems as though we're talking about MFO (maximal fat oxidization)
       | of 10.7% in the morning and 29% in the afternoon. Interestingly
       | you see an increase in VO2max as well - which I believe is
       | essentially blood oxygen.
       | 
       | A few things I'll point out though:
       | 
       | 1. This is just 15 men, aged 32 +/- 7 years. Doesn't quite seem
       | like enough people to definitively draw a conclusion.
       | 
       | 2. They are described as 'caffeine-naive' (which I assume means
       | they do not normally consume caffeine) - so it's unclear if this
       | effect would be the same to somebody who already regularly drinks
       | caffeine.
        
       | fabatka wrote:
       | ... in mice.
        
       | ve55 wrote:
       | My favorite thing about 'study finds' articles on HN is that I
       | get to read the comments and see people instantly tell me why the
       | article (or sometimes paper as well) is terrible.
       | 
       | I mean this _sincerely_ too, since it 's a very low-effort and
       | quick way to find what is often some pretty critical flaws in the
       | presented conclusions.
        
         | chiefalchemist wrote:
         | Perhaps. But in this case, 15 ppl is not a "study".
         | Furthermore, this had no control group.
         | 
         | This is not the type of information we come to HN for.
        
         | kevinyun wrote:
         | I appreciate this on the S1 filing threads where you can get
         | some deep anecdotal insights on companies that you would have
         | otherwise never been able to find through research.
        
         | pizza wrote:
         | Wait a little longer and you'll almost surely get comments
         | pointing out why the top comments are bad as well lol :)
        
         | SkyMarshal wrote:
         | Same. Also, even studies without obvious flaws need to be
         | reproduced with same results multiple times before we can start
         | accepting the conclusion. A single study is at best suggestive.
        
       | poundofshrimp wrote:
       | If they approached me, I would have been a happy 16th
       | participant.
        
       | valleyjo wrote:
       | >15 men participated in the study
       | 
       | This is no where near the number of participants that would be
       | needed to make such a broad claim
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | waynecochran wrote:
         | As soon as a saw N = 15 then I realized this is pathetic
         | empirical evidence. How does this even get published?
        
           | seaman1921 wrote:
           | well as long as you have a heading..
           | 
           | Experiments have been conducted this way since forever - just
           | 3 days ago I was reading richard feynman's book where he
           | talks about this issue as well - basically the people who try
           | to run experiment properly take longer and are pushed away
           | and never get published or cited, whereas the poorly
           | conducted experiments which show results aligned with what
           | would make headlines get all the attention.
           | 
           | This is why I take any studies, experiments, trials results
           | with a big grain of salt.
        
         | benmaraschino wrote:
         | Counterpoint: the investigators used a crossover design, where
         | each participant acts as their own control. Since within-
         | subject variation <<< between-subject variation, this makes the
         | effective sample size much, much higher than it would seem at
         | first. In terms of efficiency, their design's potentially
         | equivalent to a vanilla parallel-arm trial with close to 100
         | subjects (or more) in each arm. So, you definitely can obtain
         | solid evidence from N=15 (or less), if your study is carefully
         | designed.
         | 
         | Sample size is only a very small part of the overall
         | methodological picture--design matters too.
        
       | airhead969 wrote:
       | Caffeine is performance-enhancing, raises metabolism
       | (temporarily), and suppresses hunger.
       | 
       | Unfortunately, it's readily-apparent that you can never outrun
       | your fork, so forget about "burning calories" through cardio. The
       | goal of fitness to lose weight ought to be weightlifting to gain
       | as much muscle mass as possible to raise one's BMR. Passive
       | metabolism is about the only way to do it without enrolling in
       | BUD/S. In general, gymrattery and endless treadmill running are
       | wasted effort.
       | 
       | https://youtu.be/mTABw0EyIWY
        
         | qeternity wrote:
         | The additional fat loss due to increased lean muscle mass is
         | minimal, comparatively. All of these things like "afterburn"
         | effect (EPOC), etc are all to give people the illusion that
         | there are easier ways to lose weight than eating less.
         | 
         | I'm not a keto maximalist, do whatever works for you. But most
         | people looking to lose weight would do wonderfully on 1,250
         | calories per day of high protein, medium fat, with the odd day
         | of fasting and plenty of water and coffee. Refeed every couple
         | of weeks to keep leptin in check.
        
           | dhimes wrote:
           | I agree.
           | 
           | From what I understand, a pound of muscle burns 6 Cals/day
           | (that's kCals, but in the US we just use Cals capitalized). A
           | pound of fats burns 2-3 Cals/day. A 25 year old amateur non-
           | drug- enhanced male can put on maybe 10 lbs of muscle in a
           | year with a oot of hard work.
           | 
           | So the idea of putting on muscle to increase metabolism in
           | order to get lean won't pay off for most of us.
        
             | qeternity wrote:
             | Precisely. I'm a big lifter, who used to be pretty chunky.
             | I did a full recomp years ago and it definitely wasn't the
             | added muscle/increased BMR that let me cut. It was my diet.
             | 
             | Muscle makes you look good with clothes on. Diet makes you
             | look good with clothes off.
        
       | SkyPuncher wrote:
       | From the study:
       | 
       | > This began with the same warm-up protocol, followed by
       | increments of 50 W every minute until self-reported exhaustion
       | 
       | Am I wrong to think that this is simply "caffeine gives you
       | energy to push yourself harder"? They controlled calorie intake,
       | so simple CICO would suggest a longer exercise period needs to
       | dig into fat reserves.
       | 
       | Based on my personal anecdote, drinking caffeine before athletic
       | activities gives me the energy to more consistently work at the
       | edge of my physical limits. When I'm sleepy, I just don't care to
       | push myself as hard.
        
         | thinkingemote wrote:
         | I suppose you would need to ask, scientifically, what do you
         | mean by "give you energy". Do you mean purely a kind of
         | psychological energy, a will, motivation?
        
         | dbsmith83 wrote:
         | There's many things at play with caffeine. You have increased
         | heart rate and bp, increased concentration/focus, appetite
         | suppression, etc.. I don't think you can point to one effect
         | and say 'this is the one that makes the difference' in a cause
         | and effect kind of way. They are all too related. I personally
         | don't think it matters in this study. You would need another
         | study to pinpoint factors down even more I suppose.
        
       | raarts wrote:
       | If my calculations are correct taking a strong cup of coffee
       | (very strong actually), will burn 6 grams more fat per sustained
       | hour of training.
       | 
       | And still we don't know if total energy output was the same,
       | because coffee can be a stimulant so may drive you to work
       | harder.
        
       | rubyn00bie wrote:
       | This is not surprising to anyone who has ever walked into a GNC,
       | or other health food store... is it even news? They've been
       | selling shit like "redline" for many years to do exactly this.
       | 
       | Power fat burner: caffeine + blood thinner. That's most of what
       | things like redline do. Is it going to work if you don't
       | exercise? Nope, but it sure as hell does help if you are
       | exercising.
       | 
       | I'd really only recommend it to people focused on losing a lot of
       | weight. If you're trying to lose 10lbs it'll never make a
       | difference. If you're trying to lose 100lbs though, then yeah,
       | 6-12 months worth of slightly increased metabolic rate will probs
       | have a net positive affect.
        
         | robbintt wrote:
         | What is the blood thinner for?
         | 
         | Edit: found this ingredient list but not sure if it is the same
         | formulation or what I am looking for:
         | https://www.heb.com/product-detail/vpx-redline-xtreme-triple...
        
           | nullify88 wrote:
           | Blood thinners reduce blood viscosity increasing flow.
           | Aspirin is commonly used together with ephedrine and caffeine
           | to form an ECA stack.
           | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECA_stack
        
             | bserge wrote:
             | Can't buy ephedrine anymore. Or pseudoephedrine, which was
             | shit anyway. They've been replaced with synephrine and
             | other stuff, which is just bad.
        
               | cheezerman wrote:
               | Ephedrine is still available over the counter, in the US,
               | at least.
        
         | bserge wrote:
         | And no amount of exercising will ever be better than just...
         | eating less. The only surefire way to lose weight fast. People
         | hate this one simple trick.
        
           | rubyn00bie wrote:
           | I 100% agree with you. I probably should have called out the
           | "probably net benefit" is at most an extra 2-5% weight loss
           | over an entire year with eating correctly and exercising
           | making up 95%+ any potential weight loss.
           | 
           | When I lost a bunch of weight, I counted the calories of
           | everything I ate for about a year (and still more or less do
           | 15+ years later; calorie content of foods is generally the
           | same). After a few weeks/months, you pretty much memorize the
           | calories of what you're likely to eat regularly. It makes the
           | cost benefit analysis a lot easier, "the next X I eat is 300
           | calories, is that 300 calories going to provide me the
           | satisfaction the first did?" Personally, I found the answer
           | is almost always no, and when it's not, you generally feel
           | good about it.
        
           | halfmatthalfcat wrote:
           | Don't even need to particularly eat less. Calories
           | in/calories out. As long as you're in a caloric deficit, you
           | will lose weight. Now what your body is actually burning to
           | lose that weight is a different story.
        
         | retrac wrote:
         | Amphetamine and methamphetamine are actually approved as
         | treatments for morbid obesity by the FDA in America. AMP is
         | actually still used in some cases today, though much more
         | sparingly than historically. The side-effects and potential
         | dependency make their use often very problematic. Still,
         | between increasing the base metabolic rate and energy levels,
         | and suppressing appetite, they do work.
         | 
         | While caffeine has a very different mechanism of action, it
         | does appear to indirectly work on the same dopamine-adenosine
         | system. So it's not too surprising it'd work much the same way
         | for weight loss. And fortunately caffeine seems to be mostly
         | self-limiting in its compulsiveness.
        
         | nodamage wrote:
         | > This is not surprising to anyone who has ever walked into a
         | GNC, or other health food store... is it even news?
         | 
         | I mean, these places sell a lot of "supplements" that may or
         | may not actually do what is claimed on the label. A triple-
         | blinded trial showing that caffeine does actually increase fat
         | oxidation is absolutely newsworthy, IMO.
        
         | wk_end wrote:
         | GNCs and other health food stores sell lots of snake oil. I
         | wouldn't be surprised if lots of the stuff on the shelves, or
         | stuff in the stuff on the shelves, does very little, if
         | anything, for fat burning/muscle building.
        
         | stefanmichael wrote:
         | If you ever want a very real anxiety attack drink half of a
         | redline without any caffeine tolerance. If you want to die,
         | drink an entire redline.
         | 
         | I tried it once in college and it blew my mind that something
         | like that was available off the shelf.
        
           | matwood wrote:
           | I came here to write this same comment, and I _have_ a
           | caffeine tolerance. Redline is the pot candy bar of caffeine.
           | It 's a tiny bottle and if you don't read the side that says
           | drink 1/2 or less too start, you can end up in a pretty bad
           | state.
           | 
           | But it's still nothing compared to Ripped Fuel in the 90s. In
           | college I could take a couple of those, lift hard for 2
           | hours, shower and then party all night like it was no big
           | deal.
           | 
           | https://www.livestrong.com/article/32157-ripped-fuel-work/
           | 
           | > Thermogenic dietary supplements, more commonly known as
           | weight-loss supplements, were classically made up of
           | ephedrine, caffeine and aspirin, known as the ECA stack
           | (ephedrine, caffeine and aspirin).
        
       | pdimitar wrote:
       | If I drink a full cup of good coffee before exercise I'll likely
       | die of heart attack. My heart is starting to literally ache after
       | I get 3 normal gulps of coffee and wait for 15 minutes.
       | 
       | Other anti-oxidizing drinks like green tea do help a lot though.
       | 
       | It really depends on the person. I was a former coffee addict and
       | even though I mostly have quit coffee for full 10 years now I
       | still can't get back to regularly consuming it. It's either half
       | a cup once two weeks or a very shitty 2-3 days after.
        
         | bserge wrote:
         | Interesting. I had a similar experience, but recently I started
         | taking levothyroxine and now coffee works exactly as it did
         | 10-15 years ago.
         | 
         | You should check your thyroid gland/thyroxine/TSH level
         | sometime.
        
           | pdimitar wrote:
           | Yep, one of my 5 thyroid hormones is having high values so I
           | am definitely going to the doctors soon.
           | 
           | Whether I am epically stupid for not having done it 10 years
           | ago is... entirely another matter.
        
         | amelius wrote:
         | > My heart is starting to literally ache after I get 3 normal
         | gulps of coffee and wait for 15 minutes.
         | 
         | Are you sure it isn't heartburn? It happens to a lot of people
         | who drink coffee (and hasn't anything to do with the heart).
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heartburn
        
         | Felger wrote:
         | Did you have to stop coffee because of those heart like
         | symptoms ?
        
           | pdimitar wrote:
           | I have never seen a doctor about it. By the time I stopped
           | coffee I already had some slight arrhythmia so I was quite
           | scared and never pursued any more detailed info.
           | 
           | But yes, I stopped and got better almost instantly.
        
             | jmmcd wrote:
             | I think a doctor would recommend to see a doctor, here.
        
       | whereis wrote:
       | caffeine, aspirin, and ephedra - while ephedra is banned, this
       | combo has been long known for fat burning properties. it is
       | unsuprising that strong coffee also works.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-03-28 23:01 UTC)