#20: Caffeine: The Pros, the Cons, and Common Myths

Hey guys,

Last week I gave an introduction to the basics of what caffeine is and how it works in the body. I’m going to continue on our caffeine discussion this week by talking through a bunch of the benefits, the negatives, and some of the common myths/misconceptions I hear.

I wanna start by saying that I’m not the caffeine police. The point of this 3-week caffeine series is not to tell you to stop drinking caffeine, because there definitely are a ton of benefits.

So put down your pitchforks, you can still drink your coffee.

My goal rather is to help you understand more about caffeine so that you can be intentional about your use and understand how to get the maximum benefit from it. I’m hoping to help you avoid being a coffee zombie that just uses caffeine on autopilot.

Actually using caffeine appropriately (dosage, timing, etc.) can have huge benefits on the quality of your life. I’m going to talk through a bunch of the benefits and negatives this week, then next week I’ll detail how to incorporate caffeine into your life to maximize the benefits and avoid as many negatives as you can.

Weekly Action Point

😴 💤For this week: Zero caffeine after 2pm in the afternoon 💤 😴 

Bonus points if you can do no caffeine after 12:00pm. I believe that sleep is essential for any fitness goal you’re working towards, and avoiding caffeine later in the day is a great way to start improving your sleep.

Benefits of Caffeine

🧠Increased Altertness and Cognitive performance 

• Blocking adenosine receptors and increasing dopamine leads to the benefit that caffeine is most known for: you feel more alert

😄Mood Improvments

• Caffeine can help people be happier, less irritable, and generally more motivated. If you are someone who feels really grumpy before you’ve had your morning coffee, you probably know what I’m talking about here

💪Physical Performance Benefits

• Pre-workout supplements commonly contain caffeine for a reason. The majority of the population uses caffeine for the two above mental benefits, but there are also benefits for physical performance such as speed and strength. It has been shown to have an ergogenic effect, which at the very simplest level essentially means your muscles don’t fatigue as easily

💭Enhanced Memory

• Has been shown to improve short term memory, which can be beneficial for things that require quick thinking

☕️Antioxidant Benefits

• Coffee and Tea (the two most common sources of caffeine) have benefits independent of their caffeine content such as antioxidants and digestive health improvements

Negatives of Caffeine

😰 Increased Anxiety

• Caffeine, especially in large quantities or on an empty stomach, can cause jitters and increased heart rate, which increases anxious feelings. Especially for people with anxiety at baseline, caffeine can heighten/worsen it

💤Sleep Disruption

• I’m sure you’ve heard this one. Drinking too much caffeine, or drinking it too late in the day can lead to difficulties falling asleep or a disruption in sleep quality. If you’re having sleep issues, drinking a bunch of caffeine certainly won’t do you any favors

😑 Dependence and Tolerance

• Caffeine is a drug that your body gets addicted to, and as a result develops dependence and tolerance. Tolerance meaning when you drink it regularly, your body adapts and you need to drink more of it to get the same effects. Dependence meaning that when you don’t have it you can get withdrawal effects such as headaches, irritability, and extreme fatigue.

📉Afternoon Crashes

• It’s common for people to drink a bunch of caffeine right away in the morning and then experience a crash shortly after lunch. Then, they drink a bunch more caffeine in the afternoon to help them recover from their crash.

Common Caffeine Myths/Misconceptions

1. “I can fall asleep even if I drink caffeine late in the day, so it doesn’t affect my sleep at all.”

WRONG! I hear this all the time, and is the biggest misinformation about caffeine that I wanted to address. Caffeine has a long half life in the body, meaning that on average it takes 10-12 hours for caffeine to be completely out of your system.

Even if you have no issue falling asleep (or staying asleep) when you drink caffeine late in the day, it still impacts the structure of your sleep.

Your sleep quality is not as good because you get significantly less deep sleep, which is essential for the brain.

The result? You feel groggy and tired in the morning and immediately reach for more caffeine to get your day going.

2. Caffeine gives me more energy

This isn’t necessarily true. Caffeine doesn’t give you additional energy, rather it blocks adenosine from binding to its receptors, reducing feelings of drowsiness. So the boost you feel isn’t actually from an increase in energy, it’s from the absence of drowsy feelings.

3. The best time to drink caffeine is immediately after waking up

I’ll address this more next week when I talk through how you should be using caffeine, but rolling out of bed and immediately starting the coffee machine is not how you get the most benefits from caffeine.

Ben’s Best

🍗Recipe for the week: Slow cooker chipotle honey chicken. Extremely easy meal prep, just throw everything in the slow cooker for 3-4 hours, and you have protein for the week. Serving mine with rice and veggies.

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🩺 Check out this video of two Doctors talking through some more caffeine myths