Jahnavi Sarma
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Written By: Jahnavi Sarma | Updated : September 4, 2019 5:49 PM IST
Drinking one extra cup of coffee per day will decrease your chances of developing gallstones by three per cent. © Shutterstock
Your cup of coffee may be doing more than just waking you up in the morning. It may also be helping you to lose weight. This is what the coffee diet says.
According to a study from the University of Nottingham, drinking a cup of coffee can stimulate 'brown fat'. This fat is the body's fat-fighting defence. Researchers say that this could be the key to fighting obesity and diabetes. The journal, Scientific Reports, published this study. Researcher sought to find components that may have a direct effect on 'brown fat'. The main function of this fat is to generate body heat by burning calories. People with a lower body mass index (BMI) have a higher amount of brown fat.
Earlier, experts believed that coffee can cause major health issues. But subsequent studies revealed that the antioxidants in this brew can prevent cell damage and protect you from a number of diseases. Caffeine in coffee stimulates your central nervous system, heart and muscles. Sipping on this brew can apparently also reduce your risk of kidney diseases, improve memory and mood and cure gut inflammation. It is only now that the weight loss benefits of drinking coffee are doing the rounds.
It is said that a cup of black coffee may be enough to burn 9 calories in an hour. One reason could be that caffeine suppresses appetite. But experts say that once your body develops a tolerance to caffeine, drinking this beverage alone will not help you lose weight. But to get the benefits, you have to drink it black and without sugar.
The coffee diet has become especially popular after 2017 when Dr Bob Arnot published his book, 'The Coffee Lover's Diet'. In the book, Arnot says that three cups of coffee in a day can not only help prevent diseases but may also help you burn fat. This is because coffee boosts your metabolism and rejuvenates cardiovascular function while encouraging weight loss. But he also adds that for maximum weight loss benefits, you must restrict your calorie intake to 1500 a day. He also says that you must try and consume those calories in the form of lean proteins, unrefined grains, vegetables and fruits.
Critics of the coffee diet say that eating less calories may affect the muscles. This, in turn, may slow down your metabolism and, therefore, affect your weight loss adversely. So, it may be more prudent to back up your coffee diet with a delicate balancing of nutrients in all your meals.
Green, or unroasted, coffee beans can also produce a substantial decrease in body weight in a relatively short period of time. In a study presented at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), Researchers described how a group of overweight or obese people who consumed a fraction of an ounce of ground green coffee beans each day lost about 10 per cent of their body weight.
The study involved 16 overweight or obese people aged 22-26 years who took capsules of the extract or capsules containing a placebo, an inactive powder, for a total of 22 weeks. The subjects alternated between a low dose and a higher dose of the extract. The low dose consisted of 700 mg of the coffee extract, and the high dose was 1,050 mg.
Participants were monitored for their overall diet and exercise over the study period. Their calories, carbohydrates, fats and protein intake did not change during the study. Their exercise regimen also remained the same.
Participants lost an average of 17 pounds during the 22 weeks of the study. It included an average of a 10.5 per cent decrease in overall body weight and a 16 per cent decrease in body fat.
Researchers at the University of Georgia have discovered that a chemical compound commonly found in coffee may help prevent some of the damaging effects of obesity.
Pharmaceutical Research published this study that says that chlorogenic acid, or CGA, in coffee significantly reduced insulin resistance and accumulation of fat in the livers of mice who were fed a high-fat diet. Previous studies have shown that coffee consumption may lower the risk for chronic diseases like Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. But this study looked specifically at obesity related diseases.
Aside from weight gain, two common side-effects of obesity are increased insulin resistance and the accumulation of fat in the liver. Left untreated, these disorders can lead to diabetes and poor liver function. To test the therapeutic effects of CGA, a powerful antioxidant that reduces inflammation, researchers fed a group of mice a high-fat diet for 15 weeks while also injecting them with a CGA solution twice per week. They found that CGA was not only effective in preventing weight gain, but it also helped maintain normal blood sugar levels and healthy liver composition.
But they cautioned that CGA is not a magic solution. Proper diet and regular exercise are still the best methods to reduce the risks associated with obesity.
According to the coffee diet, just drinking 3 cups of black coffee a day is not enough. You need to supplement it with regular exercise and a sensible diet too. But there is no doubt that coffee is a healthy addition to your weight-loss diet. It can reduce your risk of diabetes, heart disease, liver cancer and Parkinson's disease.
But some people may be sensitive to caffeine. In this case, drinking even 3 cups of coffee, as advocated in the coffee diet, may be bad for your nerves. It can make you anxious and give you palpitations.
All studies do not focus only on the weight loss benefits of coffee. Some, in fact, seek to disprove the theory.
The Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recently published a study that found that after drinking a small amount of caffeine, participants consumed 10 per cent less at a breakfast buffet provided by researchers. But this effect did not persist throughout the day and had no impact on participants' perceptions of their appetites. Based on these findings, the investigators have concluded that caffeine is not effective as an appetite suppressant and weight-loss aid.
