Does Coffee Burn Fat When You Exercise? Assessing The Evidence
Today I’m going to tackle the question: does coffee burn fat? There’s a lot of information going around out there about caffeine and fat metabolism.
Some of it is pretty bogus - recipes for fat burning coffee and overblown theories on caffeine as the key to miraculous weight loss.
But some of it is very legit; there is a scientific connection between caffeine and fat burning, which I will explore in this article.
The question is more: why does it matter and to what benefit do we use the fat burning potential of caffeine?
The Science: How Does Caffeine Burn Fat?
Anyway, the theory behind caffeine and fat burning is well documented and has been looked at in various studies.
Although I mention coffee in this article, the same applies to any caffeine related beverages: tea, caffeine pills - whatever really.
Fatty acids, and we’re just going to call them fats, are stored in your adipocytes, or fat cells. In simple terms, when you drink caffeine, it helps to move the fat out of your fat cells to be more readily available to be used for energy.
This means that when you have caffeine in your system, your body is primed to start burning through its fat stores.
So, does coffee help burn fat? Yes, technically.
HOWEVER, this information must be contextualized.
For example, caffeine itself does not burn fat - you still need to exercise! Sitting in front of the TV drinking endless cups of coffee will not help you to burn off fat - if only it was that easy!
The role of caffeine is more to enhance your body’s capacity to burn fat through exercise - to put it in the optimum state!
What’s the Best Exercise for Fat Burning with Caffeine
It is important to take into account the kind of exercise that burns fat. If you want to use caffeine for this purpose, you need to make sure you are doing the right kind of exercise, or it’s a pretty futile pursuit!
Your body only really burns through fat stores while doing low intensity exercise. Carbs are the go-to energy source that your body uses during high intensity exercise - more demanding work that requires more energy.
The harder you exercise the more carbohydrates you use, and if you’re working really hard you use 100% carbs and 0% fat. Caffeine won’t change that.
You have to be exercising at a relatively easy intensity, and by that I mean easy aerobic training - the type of exercise you could have a chat whilst doing!
This is the sweet spot for burning fat.
As for whether caffeine enhances this process or not, the research results vary.
Let’s take a more recent study from 2020 as the most up to date stance. This study suggested that caffeine does cause you to burn more fat, and actually a whopping 27% more compared to a dummy caffeine pill - otherwise known as a placebo.
Now that’s pretty impressive, but, again, we need to look at the bigger picture.
The participants did burn more fat compared to carbohydrates, however it didn’t change the overall amount of calories that they burned.
This is incredibly important.
If weight loss is your goal, using caffeine to burn fat doesn’t make you lose weight any more effectively than without caffeine.
You still have to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight and lose fat, and using caffeine does not increase your energy expenditure.
It is more important to focus on long term consistency, appropriate calorie deficits, regular exercise and a healthy diet.
So, to sum up: does coffee burn calories? No, absolutely not.
Can caffeine help you race faster and harder in endurance sports?
Caffeine and Endurance Performance
If you’re interested in the performance side of things and whether caffeine might help with fat burning in relation to endurance exercise, the truth is that it probably isn’t that helpful either.
We know that the best racing performance is generally carbohydrate fuelled, because it will be moderate-high intensity exercise and carbs are the optimum fuel source for this.
The amount of carbs and the amount of fat you burn are inversely related. As you the amount of carbs you burn goes up, the amount of fat you burn goes down.
So if by drinking caffeine you’re hoping to improve your fat burning potential, you would be theoretically decreasing your carb burning potential and working at a lower intensity as a result, so I suspect this isn’t overly helpful.
Theoretically it could be more useful for fasted training though, because you’re increasing fat oxidation or burning, which should be the goal of fasted training.
However we don’t really have any long term studies which look at whether this might be beneficial so we can’t really draw conclusions from that.
Personally, I also rarely recommend fasted training.
This is a whole extra topic in itself, but according to the current evidence, the potential benefits of fasted training are very small but the potential risks are much higher.
If someone is going to do it, then I would suggest undertaking fasted training no more than 1 or 2 times a week.
It’s generally harder and more stressful on your body, reduces your ability to perform and seems to increase the risk of negative outcomes from training such as stress fractures.
If you do choose to drink coffee before fasted cardio, then I would recommend around 1-3 mg of caffeine per kg of bodyweight.
However, caffeine does have other proven benefits for endurance events! It is one of the only supplements proven to improve performance in athletes. It increases alertness and focus, and reduces perception of effort!
Check out our guide to fuelling for a half marathon if you want to learn more about the benefits of caffeine in endurance events.
So by all means, take caffeine before and/or during an endurance event - just not for fat burning purposes!
Coming Full Circle: Does Coffee Burn Fat?
Technically, yes, caffeine might well increase the amount of fat you can burn during exercise, but in practice, it’s pretty negligible.
So whether your goal is weight loss or performance, you’re likely far better off getting the basics right in terms of eating well, getting enough sleep, and having a realistic, manageable exercise schedule.
FAQS: Caffeine and Fat Burning
Can coffee reduce belly fat?
Coffee alone cannot reduce belly fat. Caffeine is proven to support fat burning when you exercise, however to lose physical belly fat, you will need more than just caffeine.
To reduce belly fat you should follow a weight loss plan with a healthy calorie deficit and a sustainable amount of exercise.
Can coffee make you lose weight?
No. Coffee alone will not help you lose weight. You need a healthy calorie deficit in order to lose weight.
Some studies report that coffee does have the weight loss benefit of being a mild appetite suppressant, but other studies suggest the opposite.
Is coffee bad for you when trying to lose weight?
No, coffee is not bad for weight loss. However, be wary of the many caffeinated drinks with high sugar content - these might derail your hard attempts when trying to lose weight.
How much does caffeine burn fat?
Caffeine does not burn fat, however it does help to make the fat in your body more readily available to be used for energy. This means that exercising while caffeinated could cause your body to burn through more fat than usual.
Why does caffeine help burn fat?
Caffeine helps burn fat because it helps to move the fat out of your fat cells to be available to your body for use as energy. Therefore, when you do low intensity exercise, your body will be better prepared to burn through its fat stores.
