Caffeine- When Why, and How Much

Who doesn’t like caffeine, right? Most of us are fond of our caffeinated drink of choice and the rituals that go with it. Today we will examine caffeine’s upsides, downsides, benefits, and risks.

How Caffeine Works

Many mistakenly believe caffeine gives us the much-desired energy to power through our day. It’s the opposite effect. During your awake hours, your body produces adenosine. Adenosine then attaches to specific neural receptors, which signals our brain that we are getting tired. The caffeine molecule fits into those exact same neural receptors, blocking the adenosine molecules from attaching so our brain doesn’t get the “I’m tired” message.

How Much Is Too Much?

Ask most people how much caffeine they consume, and they’ll answer in terms of cups of coffee or the number of drinks. This is a meaningless metric, though. A cup of coffee, a Monster Energy Drink, and Red Bull all have different amounts of caffeine. Even a cup of coffee can vary from one cup to the next depending on where you get it, the type of bean used, etc…

The only accurate way to measure caffeine intake is in milligrams (mg). To calculate your daily caffeine intake, you must know how many milligrams of caffeine your favorite beverages have. Most Americans get the majority of their caffeine from coffee or energy drinks and not from soda, pop, or Coke (or whatever name you use, depending on what part of the country you are from).

So… how much is too much?

**The short answer is 400 mg per day. **

The long answer is (as always); it depends. Caffeine tolerance can vary widely from person to person. Trial and error is the only way to find out, but as a general rule no one should exceed 400 mg daily. One of the best indicators is your quality of sleep. Caffeine may be to blame if you don’t sleep well or are a light sleeper.

Does It Help Performance?

Maybe.

Sort of.

Not really.

This is one of those areas where there isn’t a lot of research to form a conclusive opinion. Some of the best studies have come from studying the impacts of caffeine on endurance athletes. Caffeine stays in your system for up to 5 hours, so they are the best candidates to benefit from and measure the effect of caffeine on performance. So what did the study show?

Ready?

A 1% - 3% boost in performance.

So if you qualify for an Olympic or professional-level event, 1% may mean the difference between first and second place. I could not care less about shaving 1% off my Murph time. I don’t even want to do the math to see how insignificant that would be.

The Benefits Of Caffeine

That doesn’t mean caffeine is entirely worthless, though. It just means that’s not the missing ingredient keeping me out of the CrossFit Games. Again, there is not a lot of research in this area, so all of these benefits come with the “early studies indicate…” disclaimer. There’s a suggestion that people who consume more caffeine have a lower incidence of basal cell skin cancers. Caffeinated coffee is associated with a lower risk of diabetes and may be associated with a decreased incidence of Parkinson’s disease. There is also an association with a reduced risk of mortality. This doesn’t mean enough caffeine will make you immortal or prevent you from dying. Still, people who consume caffeinated coffee have a decreased risk of dying at any particular later age. Keywords: “lesser chance,” not “zero chance.”

The Risks Of Caffeine

Notice what I didn’t say in the section above. I said people who consume caffeinated coffee, not people who consume caffeine. Where you get your caffeine from makes a difference. Energy drinks are loaded with extra stuff you don’t need. Honestly, that is where the “energy” comes from, not the caffeine. As we learned in the beginning, caffeine doesn’t provide energy, it simply blocks the adenosine from attaching to the neural receptors to signal your brain that you are tired. Any energy boost you get comes from something else, and in the case of energy drinks: it’s usually sugar. The extra sugar can wreak havoc on your nutrition plan and thwart any goals you have in that area. For sugar-free energy drinks, you should ask yourself “what is in here that provides energy? Chemicals? Stimulants? Meth?

One of the other risks of caffeine is impacting your sleep schedule. Caffeine stays in your body for up to 5 hours, and the amount of caffeine needed to interrupt your sleep schedule varies wildly from person to person. If you want to sleep better, it’s worth experimenting with reducing caffeine consumption.

Increased anxiety is a considerable risk with caffeine and is not often discussed. Anxiety can come in many forms, and numerous factors can influence your anxiety. However, if this is an issue for you, much like sleep, it may be worth experimenting with reducing caffeine consumption.

And finally, the word no one likes to hear when talking about caffeine:

Addiction.

You don’t need me to tell you this: caffeine is addictive. I get it; the effects of caffeine aren’t even close to those of other addictive things like cocaine, meth, gambling, or tobacco. Odds are, you aren’t going to take up prostitution or burglary to finance your caffeine habit. But it is addictive.

Can you try going without coffee for a day? A month? Make yourself invulnerable to your dependency on comfort and convenience, or one day your vulnerability might bring you to your knees. – Ryan Holiday

What bothers me most about caffeine addiction is the loss of control. I will schedule my day around fueling my caffeine fix.

That pisses me off. I’m the Captain. I say when and where. And for that reason alone, I monitor my caffeine intake and frequently discontinue its use to prevent long-term addiction.

Take-aways

So, wrapping this up: the benefits of caffeine seem to outweigh any risks, but from a performance perspective, caffeine will not get you there. Take a day and record how much caffeine you consume and be mindful of that number. Consider eliminating caffeine for 30 days to break any dependency on it. Doing so is not as traumatic as you envision.

Today’s Tasks

Don’t forget to complete today’s tasks for the challenge.

• Drink 1 gallon of water
• Workout for 45 minutes
• Read ten pages from your book
• Stick to your meal plan

Once completed, head to the tracking site and mark them as completed to track your progress for the challenge. Tomorrow we’re going to tackle your annual physical.