Have you noticed your body’s engine seems to run that bit faster after your first coffee of the morning?
In recent years, many scientists have dismissed the buzz people claim to get from coffee as a placebo effect – we expect to feel energised and alert so our brain convinces us we do.
But now a raft of new research has confirmed that caffeine really can rev you up.
And it’s not just alertness – this month an Australian report suggested two cups of coffee a day could also help encourage weight loss by speeding up your metabolism.
Read on to discover the fat-burning benefits of coffee – then try it for yourself with our diet plan.
How it works
Caffeine increases the body’s metabolic rate, so you burn more calories even when you’re at rest.
One to three cups of black coffee could increase your metabolism enough to burn up to 150 calories a day, according to one study by King’s College University in London – and that’s without even changing the rest of your diet.
“Drinking coffee before you exercise has also been shown to improve energy levels during activity,” adds nutritionist Linda Foster.
“It helps you work harder for longer therefore burning more calories overall.”
Sipping a hot beverage after a workout can also be beneficial.
Coffee has been found to increase muscle glycogen (the stored sugar in the body that fuels exercise) by 66% in athletes, enabling them to quickly replenish energy stores used through exercise, according to a study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology.
Either way, coffee crossed with exercise boosts overall calorie burn.
Coffee may even help prevent new fat forming.
One study published in 2010 in the American Journal of Physiology found phenols, chemical compounds in coffee, not only increased calorie burn, they decreased the body’s production and storage of new fat – helping reduce obesity in the process.
This two-week diet includes two to three cups of coffee per day, as part of a healthy meal plan of around 1,350 calories per day.
By reducing calories, the food plan alone is designed to help you lose weight – and with the added coffee boost it could help you drop up to a dress size in a month.
Research shows it’s best to drink your coffee after rather than with your meal for maximum fat-burning potential.
Have your first coffee just after breakfast and your second mid-morning. If you’re aiming for three, have the third straight after lunch, as any time later can sometimes interfere with sleep.
It takes almost an hour to feel the full effects of caffeine, so you won’t gain any benefit from drinking more than one cup at once.
Choose the best quality coffee possible, ideally freshly ground for optimum results, although instant coffee will still have some metabolism-boosting benefits.
Check our chart below for a guide on selecting shop-bought coffees if you’re out and about.
If you can, always take your coffee black, but if you do need to have milk, stick to a splash of skimmed and no sugar to avoid adding too many extra calories.
All followed by one coffee
■ Porridge made with skimmed milk and topped with a handful of berries
■ Mushroom and tomato omelette made with one egg, five sliced mushrooms and one chopped tomato
■ Small pot (90-100g) of Greek yoghurt topped with mixed berries
■ One poached egg on one slice of granary toast
■ Granary toast with peanut or almond butter
MID-MORNING COFFEE & SNACK
You can choose two snacks per day
■ Two tbsp houmous and carrot sticks
■ Two oatcakes and cottage cheese
■ One handful of almonds
■ One apple
■ One satsuma
■ One small no-added sugar yoghurt pot
All followed by your third and final coffee
■ Half a tin or carton of vegetable soup with a granary roll, one orange
■ Grilled chicken breast, half a sliced avocado, handful of cherry tomatoes with a green salad
■ Tuna (one small can) mixed with a tbsp plain yoghurt, a little balsamic vinegar and half a chopped red pepper in a wholemeal wrap, small banana
■ Baked beans (low sugar) on two slices granary toast, no butter
■ Prawn cocktail – 20g of prawns served with crisp lettuce leaves and balsamic dressing, plus an apple
■ Roast lamb dinner – made with two slices of lean meat, three potatoes roasted in olive oil or five boiled new potatoes, plus a large portion of mixed green veg and carrots to cover half the plate
■ Grilled steak, no bigger than the palm of your hand, served with mixed Greek salad made using any green leaves, six cherry tomatoes, quarter of thinly sliced red onion, handful black olives and half pack of low-fat feta, crumbled.
■ One salmon fillet, cooked in foil for 18 minutes in the oven with a little soy sauce and lemon juice, and served with steamed spinach and green beans
■ Grilled pork chops served with three large oven-roasted tomatoes and cannellini beans (half a can, drained) drizzled with two tsp olive oil and balsamic vinegar
■ One chicken breast filled with a matchbox-sized piece of mozzarella cheese, wrapped in one slice of Parma ham, then baked for 20 minutes. Serve with steamed broccoli and sweet potato mash (made using one potato)
■ One cod fillet served with six grilled cherry tomatoes and half a sliced courgette, plus two handfuls brown basmati rice
NB: After-dinner coffee should be approached cautiously and taken infrequently as it can interfere with sleep
The safety bit
There’s no official recommended limit, but it’s generally agreed that up to four coffees a day are safe for most adults.
And although many people find too much coffee can disrupt their sleep, as long as your last one is drunk just after lunch, it shouldn’t affect your shut-eye that night.
Drinking this much coffee may not be right for everyone. If you’re sensitive to caffeine and find drinking it can make you jittery, anxious or affects your heart rate, this probably isn’t the best diet for you.
In any case, always check with your doctor before starting any new diet plan.
Smart cafe coffee picks
In general, go for black, opt for
the smallest serving size or choose skimmed milk to save on calories –and always say no to cream and flavoured syrups.
Good choices are:
■ A medium Americano with no milk – it’s just eight calories
■ Add skimmed milk: 18 calories
■ Flat white with skimmed milk:
■ Medium cappuccino with skimmed milk: 90 calories
■ Medium latte with skimmed milk: 133 calories
Fancy coffees to avoid:
■ A large frozen cappuccino with cream and full-fat milk contains around 400-520 calories — that’s the equivalent of a small meal!
■ A medium latte, made with full-fat milk and flavoured syrup contains around 250 calories – that’s 10% of a women’s recommended energy intake for a day.
Five more great reasons to drink coffee
For years we were told that coffee was bad for us, but more and more research is finding the opposite to be
true. Here are some of the popular drink’s benefits:
1 It may help you to live longer
A major study by Imperial College London found drinking three cups of coffee a day cuts the risk of dying from a host of causes, including heart disease and stroke, by an astonishing 18%.
2 It can boost memory
When a group of volunteers received a dose of 100mg of caffeine, about the same as contained in one cup of coffee, Austrian researchers found a surge in the volunteers’ brain activity (measured by a brain scanner) as they performed a memory task.
3 It may reduce your dementia risk
Regular coffee consumption may help prevent the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia. In one promising Finnish study, researchers found that drinking three to five cups of coffee daily in middle age was associated with a 65% decreased risk of Alzheimer’s in later life.
4 It’s good for your heart too
A landmark Dutch study, which analysed data from more than 37,000 people, found that moderate coffee drinkers (who consumed between two to four cups daily) had a 20% lower risk of heart disease, compared to light coffee drinkers and non-drinkers.
5 It could cut your risk of diabetes
Several studies have found links between lower rates of this condition and drinking coffee regularly. One bit of research found your risk of developing diabetes dropped by 7% for every daily cup of coffee drunk.