Caffeine The Drug Of Death For Dieting And Othewise

[MS]

Agreed HappyFunBall. If you're "bulking" then caffeine intake should be minimal to nil. If you're "cutting" then gradually crank up the volume. Just like any other 'fat burner'.

Of course the majority of Americans are "bulking" in one way or another, so the best advice I can give is to avoid caffeine if your calorie intake is in excess of your calories burned. As soon as you hit a negative calorie balance then I think that caffeine is your friend.

Even better advice is to avoid insulogenic foods. Blaming caffeine is kinda like blaming the messenger!

 

[Mr.X]

Did I miss something?

I wish I saw this last night.

Just as a side note, besides MS taking care of disputing these idiotic claims; have any of you TESTED your blood glucose levels and fat stores with drinking and not drinking coffee? I have and found no difference, whether bulking or not. My mmol/dl was the safe, the time of glucose disposal was the same and my bodyfat was the same. NO changes, w/ or w/o.....

Mr.X

 

[HappyFunBall]

caffeine

Caffeine has been studied for 100 years or so and has never been conclusively shown to be harmful, if taken in moderation. Studies like this get a lot of attention (for the researcher and the University) because everyone drinks coffee and freaks out.

I'd take these kind of studies with a grain of salt, but its interesting and worth watching for more studies on caffeine in the future.

I'm not drinking coffee anymore when bulking though, just to play it safe.

 

[OMEGA]

Good, inspirating post!

Thanks

 

[MS]

Although I am not disputing much of the original claims posted by OMEGA are 'idiotic' when appled to dieting bodybuilders, I will partially stick up for my feeling that caffeine is NOT something that your average overweight western couch potato should be drinking lots of (as they do, ususally at StarBuck's with some high fat/high sugar thingy as well). Even worse is the growing consumption of high sugar caffeineated beverages such as "V", "Red Bull" etc... that young folks like to scoff down with lots of greasy fried fast foods or alcohol......

You would not be able to detect caffeine's 'insulogenic' effects with a blood glucose test. It only raises INSULIN levels, not blood glucose levels, therefore only an insulin test would detect this increase in insulin resistance. This is much the same as many westerners who have some degree of insulin resistance, yet pass their fasting blood glucose test with flying colors. This is a misleading and downright dumb blood test to do IMHO because it reassures insulin resistant folks that there is nothing wrong when in fact they are in a pre-diabetic condition.

BUT to some degree you have to become insulin resistant to lose fat (due to the high blood levels of free fatty acids that appear when you're burning fat). So use caffeine like any other drug-at the right time with the right diet and training-and I promise you it won't make you fatter!

 

[MR. BMJ]

This winter while "bulking", i have been taking my Ephedrine/caffeine 1-2 X's per day, especially on workout days. I have managed to stay leaner and a little more vascular in comparison to when I cut it out completely while bulking from previous years.

I take it between meals, for obvious reasons as MS has stated. I also take ALA with almost every meal, so maybe that will have an effect with its use as well.

I think as long as you pick smart carb meals that are relatively low GI with low-mod fat, then insulin sensitivity will be of no problem with caffeine, even if following a hypercaloric diet. ALA and daily exrcising and weight lifting will help even more.

BMJ