Can Coffee Help You Lose Weight?

For most people, going a day without coffee just feels weird. Whether having a coffee in the morning, at brunch with friends, or in the breakroom at work, coffee has become a mainstay in our daily lives. The drink is so widely beloved around the world that the global coffee market continues to see monumental demand.

One of the reasons, perhaps, is coffee’s reputation for coming with a lot of health benefits. Coffee has been found to reduce the risk of heart disease and aid your body in processing sugar. It is also linked with reducing the risk of other health issues like Parkinson’s disease, stroke, and colon cancer. But another under-recognized benefit of coffee is that it can help you with weight loss, as some studies have found.

Here’s how coffee can help manage your weight.

Coffee is low in calories

Coffee is widely known for being a low-calorie drink. That is, when it’s enjoyed plain. A single serving of coffee impressively contains a meager 5 calories per cup if you’re enjoying it black. When you add other ingredients such as creams or sweeteners, then you add to the calorie count. However, with how versatile the drink is, you can tweak it according to how you want it to have that day. Not only does this offer you a great deal of flexibility, but it also makes coffee a good beverage to turn to if you want to fill up on a low-calorie drink.

Coffee aids in regulating sleep

When drunk in the morning, coffee can actually help you sleep better at night as it helps you maintain appropriate energy levels throughout the day. As a result, you can sustain your energy throughout the day with rest only being needed at night during your bedtime. This is important as regularly getting 7-8 hours of sleep at night is an integral part of every successful weight loss plan. Science has shown that people who get less sleep at night are hungrier throughout the day and are more likely to encounter weight loss roadblocks like stress eating. By drinking coffee in the morning, you can avoid drowsiness during the day and regulate your sleep schedule.

Coffee reduces body fat

When it comes to diets, you will rarely ever see restrictions on coffee. This is because drinking coffee has been linked to reducing body fat. A study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has found that drinking 4 cups of regular coffee or coffee-like placebo beverages has been associated with the loss of body fat. One of the reasons for this could be coffee’s capacity to increase the drinker’s metabolism. The result is an increase in the calories being burned and a decrease in body fat.

Coffee boosts your weight loss efforts

Many who drink coffee do so because of its energizing effects. Coffee is a well-known stimulant, meaning that it reduces how your body perceives fatigue, which may be particularly useful when you’re exercising. One study has shown that athletes drinking coffee before training received a 3-5% gain in energy levels. This effectively boosts weight loss efforts as you can perform better at the gym and yield greater results. Another study has found that caffeine stimulates thermogenesis, which is the way the body generates heat and energy from digesting food. This means that the increase in energy use allows calories to be burned even when you’re at rest.

With all of its health and weight loss benefits, it’s a miracle that coffee remains so enjoyable. For those of us who are always looking for a little treat, coffee is the best guilt-free reward we can indulge in daily.