With the explosion on the market of 4hour+ EnergyShots that contain little caffeine, I question the value of caffeine in weight loss products and energy pills in general. One big problem is that there are so many sources of caffeine in the diet, including coffee, chocolate, soda pop (diet and regular) and now in just about every dietary supplement. Most pre-workout NO products contain caffeine in some form. Many unscrupulous supplement companies are disguising caffeine as “methyl xanthine” or simply “xanthine” as a way to hide the use of caffeine in their supplements. Things like “chocamine” and chocolate extract are primarily composed of caffeine and its derivatives. Finally herbal extracts such as guarana and some tea extracts such as mate are used to disguise the caffeine content of dietary supplements. Imagine, you wake up in the morning and drink large cup of coffee at your favorite Four Bucks. The Venti has an average of 480mg of caffeine and that’s not using espresso beans! So, 480 mg is a great dose of caffeine to start your day. Then let’s say you have a diet soda at 10 a.m. and then at lunch have a 20 oz. That indulgence adds an extra 72mg per serving, so tack on another 144mg to your tally. You decide to hit the gym before your workout and pick up exclusive EXPLODE products from every supplement vendor in town. These pre-workout supplements have around 300mg per serving and often recommend that you take a double serving before working out, so add another 600mg. An average day in the life of a bodybuilder is sounding like a gram of caffeine without a doubt (1,224 milligrams to be exact). Now, if you add your caffeine based thermogenic on top of this, you can consume 600-800mg per day (most “stimulant” based thermogenics contain around 200mg of caffeine per serving in one of the forms mentioned above) . So the average bodybuilder is consuming 2000mg of caffeine per day! The recommended level suggested by the Mayo Clinic is two 12oz cans of diet soda at most, or about 90mg per day.
So what?!? What’s the big deal? Isn’t caffeine the most harmless thing a bodybuilder can take? Caffeine doesn’t have side effects and it can give you a boost when you’re down… right? I need that stimulant to “go”! Cry of the Desperate… Is Caffeine as Good as Supplements and Exercise? Effects of eight weeks of caffeine supplementation and endurance training on aerobics fitness and body composition. Malek MH, House TJ, Coburn JW, Beck TW, Schmidt RJ, House DJ, Johnson GO. University of Nebraska-Lincoln “These findings indicated that chronic use of a caffeine-containing supplement in the present study, in conjunction with aerobic training, provided no ergogenic effect as measured by VO(2) peak and TRE, and the supplement no There was no benefit to changing body weight or body composition.” So, it is more than possible that caffeine does not add to ergogenic effects in trained athletes and does not help athletes lose weight. What about this study showing a negative effect on creative supplementation? Caffeine counteracts the ergogenic action of constructive loading of muscles. Vandenberg K, Gillis N, van Lemputte M, van Hecke P, vanstapel F, Hespel P. This study showed that caffeine reversed the gains of creatine and muscle strength. Creatine showed an increase in muscle torque of 10-23% in the subjects studied. According to the conclusion: “The data suggest that creatine supplementation increases muscle phosphocreatine concentration and improves performance during acute intermittent exercise. However, this ergogenic effect is completely abolished by caffeine intake.” So, here we have clear evidence that caffeine nullifies some of the key benefits of creatine supplementation, so why is it NO or in your creatine product?
Let’s talk about another big problem related to excessive use of caffeine… Type ll diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Why does this matter to the bodybuilder? a fortiori! Insulin is the second most important nutrient for a bodybuilder to build muscle and anything that blunts its effects is really not a good thing. Caffeine has been proven in several scientific studies to increase the risk of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes by blunting the effects of insulin in the bloodstream. In fact caffeine may be implicated in making diabetics fat! Decreased insulin sensitivity causes the body to release more insulin (hyper-insulinemia) which reduces the absorption of nutrients into muscle cells (stay away from caffeine while you’re working out) and promotes the storage of energy as fat. Is! So, in effect consuming too much caffeine can do more harm than good and increase your chances of becoming obese, reduce your muscle’s ability to recover and tax your adrenal system. There is a ton of documentation on PubMed showing how destructive caffeine is to your ability to metabolize sugar and the diminished effectiveness of insulin in a highly caffeinated environment. Professional bodybuilders take EXTRA insulin to enhance their recovery and size, this is one of the most important nutrients they can use to enhance size and recovery. It is second only to anabolic steroids in making professional bodybuilders huge. Why would anyone who wants a better physique do something that blunts the most anabolic hormone in the body next to testosterone? Why take 2,000mg of something that has been proven to impair your recovery and ability to store nutrients? This is insane, especially when you consider that caffeine has very questionable effects on weight loss potential, with very little data showing it to be an effective weight loss aid. In fact it seems that caffeine barely has a thermogenic effect and there are better ways to get a mental lift in the gym (although caffeine is very cheap, running around $8 per kilogram, which is why so many companies include it in their supplements). In contrast, yohimbine is about $1500 per kilogram).
Type ll The insulin resistance caused by caffeine will inhibit your ability to gain muscle! period! This has been proven in several studies: “The present study in rats shows that both models of diabetes affect regenerated muscles as well as non-injured muscles. Muscles regenerate faster in diabetic than in non-diabetic rats. Doing is weak, light and slow.” (Vignaud A) Means muscles regenerate more slowly on an insulin.
Glucose homeostasis has reduced skeletal muscle nNOSmicro protein content. but instead a functional defect related to poor response to insulin. Decreased mitochondrial activity in response to insulin resistance. According to Duke University, caffeine can also substantially raise your blood pressure, which has been implicated in a whole host of diseases and complications. Additionally, high blood pressure has been linked to a worsening of metabolic syndrome, which is the body’s resistance to normal insulin function as described above. It appears that caffeine reduces the blood pressure-raising effect – an effect that causes harm and further reduces the benefits. What else is included in high blood pressure? According to the Mayo Clinic web site: “Excessive pressure on the walls of the arteries can damage your vital organs. The higher your blood pressure and the longer it is uncontrolled, the greater the damage. Uncontrolled high blood pressure can lead to: is: damage to your arteries. This can result in hardening and thickening of the arteries (atherosclerosis), which can lead to a heart attack or other complications. An enlarged bulging blood vessel (aneurysm) is also possible. Heart failure To pump blood against the higher pressure in your vessels, your heart muscle thickens. Eventually, the thickened muscle may have difficulty pumping enough blood to meet your body’s needs, which can lead to heart failure. kidney failure. A blocked or torn blood vessel in your brain. This can lead to a stroke. Weakened and narrowed blood vessels in your kidneys. This can prevent these organs from working normally. Eyes thickened, narrowed or torn blood vessels in Vision loss may occur. Metabolic syndrome. The syndrome is a group of disorders of your body’s metabolism—including elevated waist circumference, high triglycerides, and low-high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or “good,” cholesterol, high blood pressure, and high insulin levels. If you have high blood pressure. You are more likely to have other components of metabolic syndrome. The more components you have, the higher your risk of developing diabetes, heart disease or stroke.
Uncontrolled high blood pressure can also affect your ability to think, remember and learn. Cognitive impairment and dementia are more common in people with high blood pressure. The average bodybuilder doesn’t need high blood pressure. Lifting really heavy weights raises blood pressure to 250/180 (that’s less than the average healthy blood pressure of 120/80), so caffeine causes an unnecessary increase in blood pressure. Supplements can certainly use other forms of stimulation to boost metabolic effects or increase focus and intensity. Yohimene for example has been shown by Pantox Laboratories in California not to raise blood pressure at moderate doses and makes an excellent replacement for caffeine in pre-workout Nitric. Oxide drinks and powders to give a focus-enhancing effect. It also has a very good thermogenic effect without impairing insulin sensitivity. In addition, many stimulant manufacturers are using things other than caffeine to boost energy or even offset the dangers of caffeine with natural blood pressure-lowering agents like hawthorn berries (*Hawthorn for a list Search berry stimulants) and natural insulin potentiators like momordica (* *search mormodica stimulants with your thermogenics) A good place to start is searching the internet for caffeine-free stimulants (*search “caffeine-free stimulant”) for such options. is looking for. These items are useful in offsetting the negative effects of caffeine along with all the positive benefits. They are included in many supplements that do not contain caffeine. The problem is that most supplements are either stimulants with caffeine or just less affective non-stimulant versions, which don’t provide the focus and thermogenic effects of stimulants. Considering the amount of caffeine in dietary sources, the average person consumes enough from their standard diet to have any thermogenic effect without overdosing on caffeine as a stimulant-based fat burner (caffeine helps enhance the effects of other fat burners). Can add Therefore, if your stimulant and pre-workout nitric-oxide supplement contains caffeine, you should probably look for alternatives that contain other stimulants like yohimbine. They’ll give you the same boost you’d get at the gym without any of the negativity. If you want a little extra caffeine, have a cup of coffee. Caffeine has also been shown in high doses to increase cholesterol levels (suicide for bodybuilders taking anti-estrogens to boost testosterone or people using anabolic steroids since estrogen reduction, even that may also alter lipid profiles in men) effect without weight loss. High cholesterol is something a bodybuilder should take very seriously, as the current range of pro-steroids on the market have the potential to significantly alter the lipid profile.
Caffeine is something that is harmful to a bodybuilder who wants to build the most muscle possible by reducing insulin sensitivity. Insulin is a key hormone in muscle building and recovery and its loss will certainly inhibit growth. Furthermore, caffeine makes bodybuilders more vulnerable to the dangers of high blood pressure and altered lipid profiles, which can worsen the chances of sudden death when combined with anabolic steroids. Interestingly coffee is somewhat different as it turns out that coffee contains chlorogenic acid, which enhances the effects of insulin and reduces the metabolic syndrome effects of caffeine (studies found that drinking coffee can cause the same negative metabolic syndrome). Does not have the same insulin lowering effect) as standard supplements from guarana or caffeine anhydrous. So, if you must have a “caffeine boost”, have it with coffee!!
Source by Justin O Mills
