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Explore our range of solutions for your specific concerns
Explore our range of solutions for your specific concerns
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VLCC
2 minutes read
July 8, 2024
The coffee diet has been around for about 4 years since The Coffee Lover’s Diet by Dr. Bob Arnot gained popularity. However, it has been the talk of the town since the celebrities began posting about different recipes of coffee for weight loss on Instagram and TikTok.
So, what is this mythical coffee diet?
As per the book, the coffee or caffeine diet advocates drinking multiple cups of coffee per day and restricting the calorie intake at the same time. He observed the inhabitants of Ikaria, a Greek island, where people enjoyed a longer lifespan with fewer health complications.
Dr. Arnot believed the healthy senior years were a blessing because of the multiple cups of black coffee the people drank throughout the day.
Now, will you lose weight when you start the caffeine diet? Yes! You will definitely lose weight in the first 2-3 weeks, but it has some serious downsides you must consider before beginning your coffee diet. Let’s find out how the coffee diet works, the health risks of the coffee diet, and whether the coffee diet can help you lose weight permanently.
The coffee diet recommends around 3 cups or 720 ml of black coffee without any sugar per day. You need to note two primary points here:
Using packaged instant coffee or coffee with chicory mix is not the standard practice. Light-roast coffee has the highest caffeine content and a decent quantity of antioxidants.
The diet does not mention how many milligrams of caffeine are recommended per day. It is crucial, especially since people also tend to have sodas, teas, and other sources of caffeine throughout the day.
However, the FDA recommends the maximum allowance of 400 mg of caffeine in a day. It is approximately only around 4 cups of coffee per day.
However, according to the coffee diet, you can have decaffeinated coffee as well, as long as you are not using any sugar or milk.
Coffee is highly acidic. Drinking coffee first thing in the morning can increase the acidity in your stomach and cause heartburn, acid reflux, bloating, nausea, and diarrhoea.
Drinking a lot of coffee, day after day, can upset the microbe balance in your gut. These microbes are essential for digestion and nutrient absorption. Therefore, you may end up with nutrient deficiencies if you stay on the coffee diet for months.
Black coffee without sugar can have a laxative effect, but drinking 3 or more cups of coffee throughout the day can cause you to lose water from your body. Coffee is a strong diuretic. The loss of water combined with the appetite-suppressing effect of coffee can leave you constipated, which can lead to a score of health problems. For example, constipation can lead to hemorrhoids, bloating, inflammation of the colon, and chronic pain.
Eating fewer meals or less food and drinking multiple cups of coffee (even decaf) can ultimately cause stomach ulcers and chronic inflammation of the stomach. People with autoimmune conditions, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and irritable liver disease (ILD), have reported facing complications such as stomach pain and diarrhoea after starting the coffee diet.
Coffee will suppress your appetite, but is it good? Not always. Using appetite suppressants has featured in several diets from the 1930s, but even when it’s a natural compound, such as coffee, it can derail your natural hunger cues.
Once your body “forgets” how to feel hungry, you will lose weight drastically for the first 2-3 weeks. However, soon your body will learn to compensate for the lack of appetite with sudden cravings. These can come in the form of a packet of biscuits with your morning coffee, followed by chips and ice creams throughout the day.
Once you starve your body of enough calories by suppressing your appetite, it seeks ways to compensate for it through cravings for high-calorie foods. Those on the coffee diet almost always put on the lose weight and then some within a couple of years.
The coffee diet is not a long-term weight loss plan for any individual, irrespective of their age, gender, and weight. Caffeine should only be consumed in limited quantities. You should consider the following disadvantages of the coffee diet before you begin to hit “Buy Now” on that 1 kg light-roast coffee packet!
Drinking large amounts of coffee can cause:
According to multiple studies, 80% of the people who lose weight on any form of low-calorie diet, such as the coffee diet, gain it back within 5 years.
Moreover, most studies show that people have only followed the coffee diet for around 6 to 7 weeks. Long-term use of coffee to suppress hunger and lose weight has serious health issues. The coffee diet is not safe over the long term.
The coffee diet is not the perfect weight loss plan at all. Unlimited coffee consumption washes away nutrients and prevents your digestive system from processing and absorbing new nutrients.
Instead, you should increase your protein and fiber intake and reduce the consumption of saturated fats and simple carbohydrates. Even better, you should speak to a dietician for a personalized diet plan that caters to your unique health needs and aids in weight loss.
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