This seems to be the coffee makes you thin theory! It's short.
(I tend to find short uncomplicated theories more believable, but that's
just me.)
The theory has a "thin person vs. an obese person" aspect. So, I've
headed each claim with by noting the groups it supposedly applies too.
Claims:
-
Everyone: Coffee raises your metabolism. So, after drinking the coffee,
you burn more calories that you would if you hadn't drunk coffee.
If you don't believe this, well, don't you think fidgeting burns calories?
It does. Anyway, evidently, your metabolism is elevated for a long
time, including while you are asleep. So, coffee increases the number of
calories you burn throughout the day.
-
Everyone: During the time your metabolism is high, you burn off a little
more glucose, and a lot more fat. The balance goes to being a "fat burning
machine." By the way, this idea is observed consistently enough that
some coaches advise endurance athletes to drink coffee before a race because
it helps the athlete burn fat and spares glucose. If you want to
make it through a marathon, it's important to spare glucose.
-
Thin People vs. Fat People: The elevation in metabolism has been observed
to be greater in thin women than in obese women. So, the increased
fat burning is more noticeable in thin women than in obese women. According
to one study, thin women who drank coffee burned 30% more fat while sleeping;
fat women only burned 10% more fat while sleeping.)
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This seams to be the coffee makes you fat theory.
It's long and complicated.
Like the coffee makes you thin theory, some of the ideas are thought
to apply to everybody; others apply to a sub-set of people. The sub-set
is those with imperfect or poor insulin response.
Here are the claims. I'm heading off each claim by noting the group
it supposedly applies too! I'll wrap up at the end.
Claims:
-
Everyone: Coffee increases adrenaline in the body. Somehow, this
stimulates your body to release glycogen from your muscles and liver and
increases
blood sugar. (This means, coffee takes the sugar you ate yesterday
and shoots it into the blood.)
-
Everyone: Your blood sugar needs to stay in a certain range for good health--
too high is bad, too low is bad.
-
Everyone: If you blood sugar rises too high as a result of coffee,
and you don't have diabetes type I, your body will produce insulin.
-
People with normal insulin response: If you have perfectly
normal insulin response, the insulin will cause the blood sugar to go back
into the muscles and be converted back into glycogen. So, the blood sugar
ends up back where it came from. The coffee doesn't make you
fat.
-
People with poor insulin response : If you have insulin resistance,
your muscles and liver will resist letting the glucose back in.
You're body still needs to lower that high blood sugar, because if it gets
too high, you will die. (That's why diabetics can die.) Since your body
can't send the blood sugar into the muscles and liver, your body will convert
the blood sugar into triglycerides, a type of fat. Your body will then
store this fat. So, for these people, coffee tends to convert the
sugar you ate yesterday into fat today.
-
People with borderline insulin response : Coffee also temporarily
decreases insulin response. So, if your insulin response is borderline,
you may temporarily become insulin resistance. So, for people with
slightly poor insulin response, coffee will turn stored glycogen, that
is sugar you ate yesterday, to fat. (Plus, if you add sugar to that coffee.
Whooo boy. Since coffee increases insulin resistance, according to
this theory, that sugar will turn to triglycerides. Fat stores watch
out!!!)
-
Obese people are more likely to be insulin resistant than thin ones.
Many physicians believe obesity causes the poor insulin response not the
other way around. Still, most people have normal insulin response.
I read have that approximately 1 in 3 people are insulin resistant; that
means 2 out of 3 have normal insulin response. For the record,
exercise tends to improve insulin response.
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Interpretation:
Assuming all these claims are true, and I don't know if they are, I'd say:
Coffee may make thin women get thinner by increasing their
metabolism. It may help obese women, but not as much. Obese
women should read the "coffee makes them fat" theory, and decide if it
applies to them.
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Interpretation:
Assuming all the claims are true, and I don't know if they are, I'd
say:
The "coffee makes you fat" theory suggests that coffee may
make many may make people with poor insulin response heavier.
Since poor insulin response is more common in people who are overweight
and don't exercise, coffee may make you fatter-- if you are already fat
and don't exercise. If you are thin, exercise and show no signs of insulin
deficiency, there is no reason to believe that coffee will make you fat.
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Summary
Ok, both theories are out there. Interestingly, the underlying claims
don't contradict each other. It may very well be that coffee helps
some people lose weight and cause other people to gain weight. So,
which are you? Which am I?
I'm pretty sure my insulin response is normal. I exercise regularly;
this improves insulin response. I have been slightly overweight based on
BMI
but I've never been obese.
So, even if the coffee makes you fat theory is true, it doesn't seem
to apply to me or people like me. I figure coffee doesn't make me
fat, and might make me thin.
I'm not counting on it thought. In any case, I'm not certainly
not going to replace diet and exercise with coffee, and no one should.
I'm also not giving up coffee because I love it!
You, the letter writer, are probably more concerned about what coffee
does to you, right? The "coffee makes you fat" theory, if it applies
at all, would suggest it would only make you fat if you have
imperfect insulin response.
Anyway, let's assume the theory is completely true. You didn't
say whether your insulin response is poor. ( Heck, you probably don't know
if your insulin response is poor.) If you are currently obese, and you
are really concerned about coffee, you might want to have your insulin
response tested to find out if it's normal. If it's not normal, then consider
giving up coffee.
Since you exercise, you are doing something to improve insulin response.
That's good all around; it should also counter any some hypothetical fat
making tendencies of coffee. So, no matter what you decide about coffee,
keep up the exercise.
Or what the heck, if you like experimenting, try quitting coffee "just
in case". Coffee is not an essential nutrient. Other than giving
up something you love, and experiencing withdrawal headaches, there doesn't
seem to be any harm to giving up coffee.
I'm still not quitting.... Oh, I drink my coffee black, in the morning
before I exercise.
Oh, if you do quit, watch out for caffeine in other forms. It's pointless
to give up coffee without giving up caffeine; that's the ingredient that
either makes you fat or makes you thin, according to these two theories.
So, check the ingredients label of these items:
-
Aspirin.
-
Carbonated beverages and
-
Diet pills. (Yep, diet pill manufacturers believe the "coffee makes you
thin" theory.
Good luck,
Lucia |