How Much Caffeine Is Too Much For Weight Loss, Muscle Building And Increasing Energy?

Caffeine has become synonymous with getting up and moving. We need our morning cup of coffee to get out the door, our afternoon tea to perk us up or our late night energy drink to fuel a study session or extra hours at work. But caffeine might be good for more than just propelling us through our days. Consuming caffeine, in certain quantities, might have an impact on weight loss, muscle building and, of course, boosting energy.

Caffeine and Weight Loss

Companies peddling weight loss supplements and quick fixes often advertise the power of caffeine in their products. While there might be a kernel of truth behind their claims, caffeine is not some top secret weight loss miracle cure. If it were, every person toting a can of Monster Energy Drink would be slim. Not so. According to the Mayo Clinic, caffeine could give your weight loss a little boost, or prevent weight gain, but there’s no sound evidence that upping your caffeine intake results in significant or permanent weight loss.

Caffeine isn’t going to change your life, but it might set you up for success. Although research on caffeine’s effects on weight loss isn’t definitive, there are a few theories about how it might help. The first is appetite suppression. The Mayo Clinic says that caffeine might curb your desire to eat for a brief time. Your morning coffee might help to prevent you from going back for that second muffin, but it won’t throw your appetite off for the long-term.

The other theory of caffeine’s effects on weight loss comes down to thermogenesis. Thermogenesis is basically your body’s way of creating heat, which burns energy. The energy for this heat can come from digesting food or from burning fat. One study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition examined caffeine’s thermogenic effect and found a positive correlation between caffeine, lactate and triglyceride levels in habitual caffeine consumers and thermogenesis. The Mayo Clinic, however, says this probably isn’t enough to produce any kind of significant weight loss.

Caffeine might be able to give your weight loss a little boost, but it’s effects are so minimal that you probably won’t notice a difference with caffeine consumption alone.

Caffeine And Muscle Building

Caffeine might also have a small impact on your capacity to build muscle – just not in the way you might think. Caffeine isn’t going to directly drive muscle growth, but it might give you a push in the gym to go a little harder, lift a little more and build a little more muscle. Getting in a little caffeine before a workout can help you work harder, thus making greater strides in your quest to build muscle.

Caffeine’s effect on athletic performance is pretty well documented, too. There are a number of studies that back up the claims that caffeine can give you a physical boost. One study, published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, says simply that “caffeine ingestion prior to exercise increases performance during prolonged endurance exercise and short-term intense exercise lasting roughly five minutes in the laboratory.” Boom. This kind of boost can help you achieve more no matter what type of exercise you’re doing.

Caffeine And Increasing Energy

Increasing energy is where caffeine really shines. This is a bit of a no brainer. Of course caffeine, lauded by tired people as the elixir of life for as long as humanity has known of its existence, gives you energy. This is because caffeine is a stimulant. According to BodyBuilding.com, caffeine increases alertness and wards off drowsiness, but only temporarily. This gives you the capacity to perform certain tasks for longer time periods.

Mental and physical tasks can benefit from this caffeine bump. This happens, according to the Tufts Journal, because of caffeine’s ability to boost the effects of the neurotransmitters serotonin, dopamine and acetylcholine. These heightened dopamine levels affect concentration by blocking the receptors at the front of the brain that signal to us when it’s time to go to bed.

Caffeine also increases the release of chemicals like adrenaline via the sympathetic nervous system, making your heart beat faster, sending more blood to your muscles and telling your liver to release more sugar into your bloodstream for energy.

You can count on caffeine’s energy-boosting benefits. Its impact on weight loss may be minimal. Its direct muscle-building benefits may be minimal. Caffeine is best used to give you the energy to push yourself even harder in the gym.

So How Much Caffeine Should You Get Daily?

Now you know how caffeine can benefit you in your crusade to build muscle, lose weight and increase your energy, but the question remains: how much caffeine should you get? Well, like all good things, it’s not that simple. There’s no one right amount of caffeine. One study on the effects of caffeine on athletic performance published by the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition examined just how much caffeine you need to see the benefits. Researchers determined that a caffeine dose of at least three milligrams per kilogram of body weight in the form of an energy drink was necessary to significantly improve participants’ half squat and bench press maximal muscle power.

This brings up another point in the caffeine consumption conundrum: not all caffeine sources are created equal. Caffeine from, say, green tea is vastly different than caffeine from a sugary energy drink or fancy flavored coffee. BodyBuilding.com warns against getting hooked on these sources of caffeine because, with all of their added junk, they could be doing more harm than good.

BodyBuilding.com suggests sticking to black coffee, caffeine pills and other natural, crap-free sources of caffeine. It’s also recommended to not exceed 400 milligrams of caffeine per day, according to the Mayo Clinic. This is roughly the equivalent of four cups of brewed coffee, 10 cans of cola or two of those “energy shot” drinks that line the checkout counter of a gas station.

Too much caffeine can result in a caffeine overdose (it is a drug, you know). This can present itself as a racing heart, nausea, restlessness, anxiety and even cardiac arrest. Lay off the caffeine if you’re pregnant, have heart disease or have another vulnerability. And be careful not to develop a dependence. Caffeine is a stimulant, and as such you could develop a tolerance or even become addicted to it. Bad news.

Incorporating caffeine into your daily routine, like the 70 milligrams of natural caffeine from green tea found in Performance Inspired Nutrition’s Ripped Whey Protein, might help give you the push you need to meet your goals. It’s not a miracle substance that will magically melt away the pounds, but it could give you a thermogenic boost. And it’s not going to miraculously pack muscle onto your frame, but it might give you the energy you need to make even more progress in the gym.