For years, coffee has been a subject of debate, with some claiming it's detrimental to health while others tout its benefits. However, recent research suggests that when consumed properly, coffee can be a healthy and even beneficial addition to your daily routine. The "Coffee Lover's Diet" has emerged, promising improved health, weight loss, and mental clarity through strategic coffee consumption. This article delves into the details of this diet plan, exploring its potential benefits, risks, and how it works.
What is the Coffee Lover's Diet?
The Coffee Lover’s Diet was popularized by Dr. Bob Arnot, who suggests that drinking coffee several times a day can boost your metabolism, burn more fat, block calorie absorption, and reduce your appetite. This concept was inspired by the inhabitants of Ikaria, a Greek island known for its healthy and long-lived population, who consume a significant amount of antioxidant-rich coffee.
How the Coffee Lover's Diet Works
The coffee diet plan involves drinking at least 3 cups (720 ml) of light roast coffee per day. Light roasts tend to be higher in polyphenol antioxidants than dark roasts.
Dr. Arnot emphasizes the importance of choosing the right type of coffee and brewing it correctly. He recommends using lightly roasted, whole-bean coffee that is ground at home and prepared with filtered water. On this diet, you can consume as much coffee as you like, whether caffeinated or decaffeinated, as long as you meet the minimum requirement of 3 cups (720 ml). However, it is essential to avoid adding sugar or cream to your coffee.
In addition to coffee, the diet involves replacing one meal per day with a homemade, high-fiber green smoothie. The book provides recipes for these smoothies. The remaining meals and snacks should be low in calories and fat while being high in fiber from whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. Dr. Arnot advises against consuming highly processed foods, such as refined snack foods and frozen meals, and encourages the consumption of whole foods.
Read also: Protein Coffee Smoothie Recipe
Dr. Arnot's sample meal plans in the book consist of approximately 1,500 calories per day. Examples of suitable meals for this diet include tofu and vegetable stir-fry with brown rice or grilled chicken salad with vinaigrette dressing.
Potential Benefits of the Coffee Lover's Diet
Coffee is Rich in Antioxidants
Coffee is rich in caffeine and antioxidants called polyphenols, which have been linked to several health benefits, including reduced inflammation and free radical damage.
May Reduce Appetite
Dr. Arnot claims that coffee can reduce appetite, thereby helping to reduce daily calorie intake.
Drinking coffee shortly before a meal may decrease the amount of food consumed at that meal. However, consuming coffee 3 to 4.5 hours before eating appears to have minimal effect on the amount eaten at the next meal.
May Increase Metabolism
Caffeinated coffee, in particular, may increase the number of calories and fat your body burns, making it easier to lose weight.
Read also: Weight-Loss Trend: Coffee Loophole Diet
May Reduce Fat Storage
A 2021 review of earlier research suggests that coffee may help reduce fat stores. This may suppress the accumulation of body fat. However, it does not reduce fat on its own.
Potential Downsides and Risks
Excessive Caffeine Intake
Although decaffeinated coffee is an option in the coffee diet, many people prefer caffeinated coffee. However, excessive caffeine intake can lead to some health problems, such as high blood pressure. According to an observational study of over 1,100 people with high blood pressure, those who consumed three or more cups of coffee per day had higher blood pressure readings than those who did not drink coffee.
Caffeine is also a diuretic, meaning it causes the body to excrete more fluid through urine. If you drink a lot of coffee, you may need to use the bathroom more often. Furthermore, many important electrolytes, including potassium, can be lost. Losing too much potassium can lead to a condition called hypokalemia, which can affect muscle control and heart health.
Finally, excessive caffeine intake has been linked to heart attacks, headaches, insomnia, and an increased risk of fractures, osteoporosis, and even depression. While drinking too much caffeinated coffee can be harmful, caffeine intake up to 400 mg per day, or about 4 cups (960 ml) of coffee, is generally considered safe.
Rapid Weight Regain
Diet plans that involve a significant reduction in calories, such as the recommended 1,500 calories per day on the Coffee Diet, often result in rapid weight regain due to a number of changes the body goes through when restricting calories.
Read also: The Truth About Baking Soda and Coffee for Weight Loss
The body adapts to the number of calories it regularly consumes. Therefore, when you reduce your calorie intake significantly, your body adapts by slowing down your metabolism, reducing the number of calories you burn.
Additionally, the hormonal changes that occur due to calorie restriction can increase your appetite. Leptin is a hormone that promotes feelings of fullness and sends signals to the brain to stop eating. However, leptin levels in the body can drop significantly when following a low-calorie diet, leading to increased hunger and cravings.
For these reasons, it can be said that it is very difficult to lose weight on a diet that reduces calories significantly, such as the coffee diet, and the end result is often rapid weight regain.
According to some studies, about 80% of people who lose weight on a low-calorie diet regain weight within the first month of being off the diet. Nearly 100% of people regain all the weight they lost within 5 years of coming off the diet.
The Coffee Diet Is Not a Long-Term Solution
According to testimonials, people typically follow a coffee diet for two to seven weeks. In fact, it may not be safe in the long term for a number of reasons.
Other Considerations
Coffee or caffeine in general can greatly reduce the quality of your sleep. And when sleep quality drops, lots of other health issues can develop.
Is the Coffee Lover's Diet Healthy?
Successful weight loss diets usually involve only small calorie restrictions, which lead to slower, more sustainable weight loss. Increasing your protein and fiber intake, reducing your refined sugar intake, and exercising regularly can help you lose weight and keep it off longer. For most people, the most successful weight loss diet is one that they can stick to.
The Coffee Diet encourages you to drink at least 3 cups (720 ml) of coffee per day while restricting calories. While it may lead to short-term weight loss, it is not a healthy diet in the long term. It can lead to weight regain and side effects from drinking too much caffeine.
The coffee diet may also be too low in calories for some people, making it difficult to maintain weight loss over the long term.