Utilizing Caffeine Properly
Caffeine is a classic case of drug abuse gone right. Even the overdosers and java fiends can’t see an issue when those who drink 3-5 cups of coffee reduce their risk of alzheimer’s and dementia by 65%. Caffeine is known to improve focus, mood, memory, energy levels, metabolism, and vehicles like coffee and green tea serve to be powerful antioxidants. People know caffeine is good, but how do you take caffeine from good to great? How do you hack caffeine to get magnified benefits and avoid the crashes? This article is going to cover when to use caffeine, how to abuse it, and how to hack both your physical and mental fitness by utilizing its powerful properties.
Intermittent fasting is an important aspect to consider when consuming caffeine. If you have a cup of coffee when you wake up on an empty stomach, your body will absorb that caffeine like a sponge. Wiring your brain for the day in minutes. More importantly, by having caffeine on an empty stomach your body starts burning more energy because caffeine has thermogenic properties raising blood temperature and causing your mitochondria to start kicking into overdrive.
This is the perfect time to move and get some exercise. Your muscles will be empowered by the caffeine and ready to go. One hour of low-intensity cardio is ideal during this time. The calories you burn from walking will come straight from your fat stores. The ideal set-up would look like this:
06:00 Cup of Coffee // Yerba Mate
06:45 10g BCAA
07:00 Resistance Training (30 minutes)
07:30 Cardio – Brisk walk, etc (60 minutes)
08:30 Go be productive.
–:– Eat 16 hours previous meal (ideally 6 hours after caffeine intake)
You want to use the metabolism boost from coffee to shed away your fat stores. If you eat a meal, your body won’t go after the bodyfat when it has fuel readily available. Coffee speeds up your metabolism, but it also speeds up the rate in which unused calories can be put away into fat stores. If you have caffeine and carbohydrates at the same time, your body is more likely to put those carb calories towards your fat cells instead of energy.
I do not recommend more than two cups a day. One when you wake-up, and one around noon. I find it can disrupt how easily I fall asleep if I have it within 6 hours of bed time. Even more importantly is that through my Zeo sleep monitor, I was able to determine my sleep quality significantly decreased if I had caffeine anytime in the afternoon or evening. So even you have no trouble falling asleep, the sleep you are actually getting is going to be significantly lower quality.
Some effects of caffeine have diminishing returns overtime. In other words, tolerance builds in such a manner that even increasing the dose does not overcome the diminished effects. Caffeine’s ability to encourage movement or activity and caffeines ability to induce euphoria are two effects that suffer diminishing returns. For this reason, I encourage caffeine to be cycled on and off daily.
Another issue with coffee that some people feel, is that it can be extremely acidic in your body. If you feel out of balance, switch to green tea or yerba mate to get your caffeine fix. They are less acidic but still a good source of caffeine. Or you can simply take pills as a substitute.
Caffeine I Recommend:
- Yerba Mate
- Bullet Proof Coffee
- Green Tea
Things I take with caffeine:
Additional Resource :
Full Analysis on Caffeine’s Interaction in the Body - Examine.com
Brian. Thanks for the article. I am looking into Yerba Tea and wondered how you make yours? Do you use tea bags, powder or stick form?
Thanks.
Alex,
I used to do loose leaf french press, which is absolutely amazing… in the past couple of months I have been using eco-tea bags. I recommend the loose leaf if you have time.
Are you “only” having one dose of caffeine per day? You mentioned having some again around noon, but it’s not in the schedule you mentioned. I get in a bad habit of having coffee (black) first thing in the morning (around 5:45 a.m.). And then having “bulletproof” coffee around 7:30 am + plus black coffee again around 10am, noon, and 2pm.
Do you have more info on Yohimbine? I haven’t noticed it discussed on BPE or other sites other than the typical bodybuilding type ones. Of course, I could have just missed it. Are you using it more for the stimulatory effects or for fat loss?
Thanks!
Clay,
I drink caffeine once every morning and try to cycle Coffee and Tea every other day so that the stimulant “Euphoric” effect stays very strong from coffee. I do this so I can turn to coffee for those days I need that extra pick me up. It sounds like you have a seriously high resistance to coffee and could be over-stressing adrenals. Usually I have one cup around 9am and on rare occasions I will have a round 2 at Noon. Anything over two cups of coffee just doesn’t make sense… remember coffee can leach calcium from the your system, so cut back on the coffee or you will pay for it soon. Calcium is linked to weight loss, so if you think your speeding up your metabolism with coffee, you might be negating it by losing calcium to the acidity.
As for Yohimbine, see http://examine.com/supplements/Yohimbine/ for detailed info. Martin Berkhan of lean gains recommends for spot fat loss because of its impact on Alpha-2 receptors. I use yohimbine as a coffee alternative, it is synergistic with caffeine. Essentially, if you take caffeine, yohimbine, and DMAA you get OxyElite Pro, a super thermogenic and appetite suppressor. Fat loss vs stim? Both. Different times for different things… usually in the morning for fat loss, and pre-workout if I want a physical stim. I will say, that yohimbine is one of the few supplements that gave me a case of rage…. so careful about its neurological implications. Since you are familiar with the BPE, I should mention yohimnine is incredibly dangerous with Nuvigil or Modafinil due to chemical interactions and it needs at least 2-3 days of clearing your system before you can take the other.
Appreciate the feedback!
I haven’t had yohimbine since the ECY (instead of the asprin) days a decade ago. I’ll take a look into it. I haven’t received an RX for provigil yet, but will keep that in mind.
I’ve had blood work done with a paleo-friendly doctor a few times. The only thing really out of line was my vitamin D levels. I’ll get blood work again this week though. My 23andme.com results said “high tolerance for caffiene,” which was interesting.
I crash really hard with DMAA, so I don’t touch it.