When you come to BioFit Performance in Oviedo, FL, we focus on all aspects of fitness, including a healthy diet with a meal plan. There are tips our personal trainers offer as well. For instance, did you know that a cup of coffee before working out can actually boost your performance? On the other hand, too much coffee may cause you to dehydrate, particularly if you’re sweating. It’s all about the variables in the situation and when you’re drinking the coffee.
Are you sweating in the gym and need more hydration?
Don’t turn to coffee, turn to water. While coffee on its own won’t dehydrate, it does nothing to hydrate your system. The caffeine in the coffee that can boost your performance in the gym, also acts as a mild diuretic. However, to have that dehydrating effect, you have to drink five or more cups at a time. You won’t lose any more water than you drank, so it’s a relative wash, but you also won’t be able to replace the fluid you lost from the sweaty workout. Stick with water when working out or thirsty.
Coffee may help you burn fat.
The caffeine that enters your bloodstream goes to your brain and blocks adenosine, a neurotransmitter. That boosts the firing of neurons by increasing dopamine and norepinephrine. Not only can it boost brain functioning, it also signals the body to burn more fat by increasing the adrenaline levels. It’s also the reason it boosts gym performance.
Even plain black coffee may add nutrients to your body.
While plain black coffee has no calories, it does have some nutrition. A single cup of coffee has 6% of your vitamin B5 RDI— Referenced Daily Intake. It also has 11% of the vitamin B2 your body needs and 2% of B1 and B3. Coffee also contains 3% of the RDI for potassium and manganese, 2% of the RDI of magnesium and niacin, plus 1% RDI of folate. Studies indicate that it may actually reduce the risk of diabetes by as much as 67%.
- Unless you’re drinking a lot of coffee or are using it to replace lost fluid in the gym, it can be beneficial if you don’t drink too much or take it with added sugar, cream or flavored syrups.
- You can get addicted to the caffeine in coffee, which includes withdrawal symptoms when you quit. One of those is a headache. Before you take an over-the-counter pain med, check the label. Some manufacturers add caffeine to get the medication into the system faster.
- If you’re making coffee, always use a paper filter. A study in the April 22, 2020, European Journal of Preventive Cardiology showed that filtered coffee using a paper filter had health benefits. The filter reduces the amount of diterpenes in the coffee that can raise cholesterol levels.
- Coffee is far more complex than you may think. It contains more than 1,000 compounds. One of those is Eicosanoyl-5-hydroxytryptamide—EHT. In an animal study on Parkinson’s, the results showed that EHT combined with caffeine may help slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease.
For more information, contact us today at BioFit Performance