Why Caffeine Is Making You Fat

Did you know caffeine could be making you fat? Bet you haven’t heard that one before.Caffeine and other stimulants are commonly promoted as a great way of jacking up your short-term energy levels and spiking your metabolism. In fact, many popular weight loss stimulants market their caffeine content as an effective fat burning metabolism

A few quick shots of espresso, a long black in the morning, a red bull or ‘Hydroxycut’ before training – it definitely gives you that ‘buzz’, doesn’t it? It’s certainly not hard to believe that you are enhancing your energy and your metabolism when you feel that immediate adrenalin rush kick in.

Sorry to disappoint folks, but it just ain’t true.

Caffeine and other stimulants give you that rush because they work by stimulating your Sympathetic Nervous System, also known as your ‘fight or flight’ system. They send a message to the brain that stress is at hand, that you need an adrenaline boost in order to outrun or outfight that stress. Short-term, infrequent adrenalin boosts can certainly assist in increased performance, and may even aid in body fat reduction.

Here’s the problem: caffeine is not something that most of us consume ‘infrequently’. When you stimulate your fight-or-flight system daily, your body assumes you are under constant stress.

This means you create excess stress hormones.

One of the main roles of your stress hormones? To increase your fat storing capabilities. It’s a survival instinct that you can’t outrun. If you’re stressed, food might not be readily available, so you damn well better store up plenty of fat.

It’s a simple equation;

Caffeine = constant fight-or-flight stimulation = excess stress hormone release = increased fat storing capabilities.

Oh, one last thing. If you’re female, you’ll store fat twice as fast, in case you fall pregnant.

Enjoy that third latte ….