Caffeine is not going to help you lose weight, says study

There is a myth that caffeine consumption speeds up weight loss. In fact, some dietary supplements contain caffeine supposed to reduce appetite; others claim that it speeds up the metabolism.

This is not as true as it seems, then, according to a recent study that included the participation of Carol Denysschen, the chair of the Department of Health, Nutrition and Dietetics SUNY Buffalo State College, Caffeine does not help people lose weight.

Research was conducted on 50 healthy adults aged 18 to 50 years. In this regard, they were told that for one day a week, for three weeks, they should go to the lab in the morning to drink a drink containing caffeine or placebo.

More specifically, they were given to drink 3 types of drink: a coffee with 4 ounces of caffeine, another with 8 ounces of caffeine and another drink that did not contain this substance.

The participants did not know which drink they consumed, however, at the end of the study, each of them had taken

half an hour after the ingestion of the liquid, the People had access to a buffet-style breakfast, in which they could eat whatever they wanted

. They were told that they should keep a record of their diet for the rest of the day using a digital tool; in the same way, they had to record their appetite levels throughout the day.

In this way, it was observed that when people consumed the lowest dose of caffeine, they ate about 10% in the breakfast mentioned above. comparison with the days when they ingested the caffeine-free drink or the one with the highest dose of this substance.

More specifically, it was discovered that after consuming this liquid with little caffeine, people ate more or less 650 calories; On the other hand, after the placebo, people consumed an average of 721 calories, while, when the dose of caffeine was the highest, consumption averaged 715 calories per person.

As for appetite, statistically significant changes were observed in the attention to the amount of caffeine ingested or to the body mass index of the participants in the study.

Taking this into account, the researchers conclude:

"Caffeine may have a small effect on food intake shortly after drinking, but this effect disappears quickly. other words, caffeine has weak and transient effects on energy intake, so we do not endorse it as an effective appetite suppressant. "

Therefore, according to researchers, the recommendation revolves around Maintaining good eating habits does not depend on weight loss aids, especially unhealthy habits.

Reference: Caffeine transiently affects food intake at breakfast, (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2018.05.015