Your Morning Coffee Could Help You Shed Pounds

If you’re hoping to shed a few extra pounds ahead of the summer, it seems that drinking coffee could give you an extra helping hand.

While a sugary vanilla latte isn’t going to be beneficial to your weight loss goals, a simple cup of Joe could help boost the number of calories you’re burning on an average day.

However, decaf options aren’t going to do the job, as it’s actually the caffeine in coffee that does the trick. Caffeine leads to the release of a hormone called oxytocin, which has an effect on your metabolism and appetite.

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Drinking coffee means that you don’t feel as hungry, so end up eating less throughout the day – which is good news if you find it hard to avoid snacking at your desk. It also helps to boost your activity levels, so you’re moving more. This, combined with a faster metabolism, can mean you’re burning more calories, which is a good thing if you’re trying to shrink your waistline.

While people have linked caffeine to weight loss for years, Chinese researchers from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology have discovered exactly how it works to do this.

Not only does this mean they better understand why drinking coffee could be beneficial, it could also lead to advances in obesity treatments, such as medication based on the process that caffeine triggers.

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However, the levels of caffeine used in the research equate to between 24 and 36 cups of coffee a day, which would leave anyone a jittering mess.

Although the researchers didn’t pinpoint exactly how many cups of coffee it would take to see results, having a couple a day and combining them with a healthy diet and exercise could help you achieve your weight loss goals.

Of course, if you’re not a fan of coffee, you can also give tea or green tea a try. Just be sure not to load up on the sugar or you could end up undoing all of your hard work!