Caffeine’s numerous benefits include enhanced fat burning, increased strength and better focus and concentration. And although FLEX recommends you get your caffeine in supplement form, most guys still get their first dose of the day in coffee.
Yet new research from Greece shows that when subjects drank about one cup of caffeinated coffee in the morning, their cortisol levels remained higher than when they drank water.
Cortisol (a catabolic hormone that can have detrimental effects on muscle mass) is high in the morning and drops as the day progresses. But this doesn’t mean you have to give up caffeine in general. The caffeine in coffee may react with other chemicals in the brew to keep cortisol levels up. The researchers found that even decaf kept cortisol levels higher than when subjects drank water, but not quite as high as caffeinated coffee.
So forgo the morning brew and pop a 200-milligram caffeine pill instead. You’ll get all the benefits with less risk of keeping your cortisol levels up.
