Caffeine and Weight Gain

Coffee only has 9 calories per cup, but before sip that hot, steamy brew it's important to know the relationship between caffeine and weight gain. Drinking that coffee or other caffeinated beverages can sabotage your efforts to lose weight.

Relationship Between Caffeine and Weight Gain

If you drink caffeinated beverages throughout the day you may actually be causing yourself to eat more. That's right. If you're struggling to lose weight, it may help you to kick the caffeine habit. Here's why:

Food Cravings

Do you wake each morning with new determination to eat healthy and within your calorie limit only to find yourself snacking or eating more at lunch that you had first planned? Limiting your intake of caffeine can help control your food cravings to stay within your dieting goals.

Caffeine affects cravings for food because it raises the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol raises heart rate, blood pressure and tells your body to increase its energy stores. This results in the body craving sweets. So if you're wondering why you snacked on cookies in the afternoon, it could have something to do with that coffee you drank with breakfast.

Appetite Stimulant

Low blood sugar known as Hypoglycemia occurs when blood glucose levels drop. When this happens, your body doesn't have enough energy to perform regular activities because glucose provides important fuel for your body. The main dietary sources for glucose are carbohydrates like:

• Rice
• Potatoes
• Bread
• Tortillas
• Cereal
• Milk
• Fruit
• Sweets

Drinking caffeine can trigger hypoglycemia. The body’s reaction is an increased appetite and cravings for higher calorie foods. The more caffeine consumed, the more your body urges you to eat.

Stress

Caffeine is known to make people feel jittery, but its affects go beyond that. The stress caused from drinking caffeine can be:

• Physical
• Mental
• Emotional

Caffeine-induced stress can actually interfere with how you feel about yourself and trigger emotional eating or a need for comfort food. This correlation between caffeine and weight gain is another good reason to consider weaning yourself from caffeine to reduce stress hormones that result in emotional eating.

Cortisol Levels

As mentioned earlier, caffeine can raise cortisol levels and it's important to take a closer look on what this means because raised cortisol levels can leave you feeling anxious, fearful and even lashing out at in frustration and anger. It diminished feeling of well being and can even lead to feelings of depression and affect your ability to communicate and learn. Prolong cortisol levels can:

• Lower your immune system
• Slow thinking
• Generate blood sugar imbalances
• Raise blood pressure
• Weaken muscle tissue
• Decrease bone density
• Increase fat in the stomach areas

That's right! Increased belly fat can be the result of elevated cortisol levels. Decreasing caffeine intake combined with regular exercise can help you reach that goal to a flatter stomach and better overall health.

Caffeine and Insulin Resistance

Studies show that caffeine also contributes to insulin resistance. When this happens glucose and insulin builds up in the blood. It's common knowledge that drinking coffee can also cause insomnia and sleep deprivation. Both of these conditions are related to insulin resistance and insulin is a metabolism hormone. It affects every cell in the body. Insulin:

• Regulates blood sugar
• Controls the storage of fat
• Helps direct the functions of amino acids, fatty acids, and carbohydrates
• Regulates the liver’s synthesis of cholesterol
• Affects appetite control
• Affects kidney function

A consistent elevation of insulin presents other possible problems including:

• Raised blood pressure
• Raised cholesterol levels
• Stores food as fat instead of using it for fuel
• Causes kidneys to retain excess fluid
• Damages arteries
• Elevates triglycerides
• Changes protein into sugar and fat

These are the problems your body faces with insulin resistance. Breaking the caffeine habit can help to lower the risk to insulin resistance and as a result help to manage your weight.

Give Up Caffeine

Don't let caffeine sabotage your efforts to lose weight. Limit your caffeine intake and you'll have better control over your appetite. Instead of a cup of coffee learn to drink herbal teas, water or drink a smoothie made with fresh fruit..

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