When your feet hit the floor each morning, do you head straight for the coffee pot?
Do you wind down with a glass of wine or other adult beverage at the end of a busy day?
More importantly, do you ever feel guilty about those choices?
A lot of us have been made to believe that caffeine and alcohol will ruin or negate our healthy choices. But that’s not necessarily true.
Last week I shared some healthy coffee choices you can make on your Starbucks run so you aren’t messing with your health and fitness goals.
But did you know caffeine can help you reach some of those goals?
I actually use coffee as a pre-workout sometimes because caffeine is known to improve physical performance.
Here’s what the experts at Medical World News Today have to say: “Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system to reduce fatigue and drowsiness. It may also benefit exercise performance; research has shown that it can improve endurance and increase muscular strength.”
Basically, it helps you wake up and can improve endurance while making you stronger. Win-win! It’s even known to help athletes train harder and longer.
Caffeine is also known as one of the best-tested ergogenic aids - which is fancy talk for “something that enhances your energy use, production, or recovery”. It also stimulates the brain and helps you think more clearly and have better concentration.
However… we should note that someone who overconsumes coffee regularly may be desensitized to this affect. (Like Lorelai from Gilmore Girls… she’s not going to feel any workout affects thanks to her coffee addiction, lol.)
There are more than 74 good studies on the use of caffeine for both endurance exercise and short-term, higher intensity exercise.
Most of these studies found that caffeine enhances performance and makes the effort seem about 6% easier. Hey, every little bit helps, right?!
In fact, the average improvement with caffeine is about 12%... noticed more during endurance exercises than with shorter exercises. (That’s according to active.com.)
Here’s the thing: I’m responding to the masses with this info. Individually, you may react to caffeine differently. Some of you may get the jitters, feel anxious or even feel nauseous. You do what’s good for you!
Besides, nutrition science is always evolving. You know how one day you read eggs are bad for you and then the next day, they’re good for you again? Maddening!
That’s because we don’t have all the answers yet. But as humans, we want the answer NOW! That’s why I don’t like to overindulge in things that may seem like the new fad.
You can always find one random study to support anything you want so it’s very important to always consider your source and look for replication!
My motto? EVERYTHING IN MODERATION.
There’s a place for almost everything in life with moderation.
The Bottom Line:
Unless you are making every cup of coffee every day with more cream and sugar than coffee, or having three lattes a day, you do not have to worry too much about coffee and its calories/macros. A cup of black coffee alone has minimal calories.
My go-to is steamed skim milk! And I will add one serving of cream in my coffee on the days I really want it.
I also believe using a serving of sugar is perfectly fine! Along with …wait for it…. Sweet N Low, Equal or Stevia. (That is another topic that is SO interesting and I am overly passionate about! We’ll tackle that another day, lol.)
With all that said, I personally think it is nice to occasionally break free of anything we feel “addicted” to, even if it’s something that’s good for you, like working out or coffee.
It can be nice to conquer the challenge of giving up something we feel like we need. The mental reset can be good for us.
