Is Coffee and Lemon Water Good for Weight Loss?

 

There’s always a new trend when it comes to weight loss. It’s advertised as the new ‘magic pill’. We hope you know that there isn’t ever a magic pill for weight loss. Only a healthy diet, exercise, and most importantly - consistency.

However, there are certain things you can incorporate into your daily routine to help weight loss efforts. But it’s essential that you’re able to debunk any new trends to know if they’re effective or not. Don’t waste your time or effort doing things that don’t work. That’s why WOLFpak’s resident nutritionist, Emilina Lomas, has stepped in to point you in the right direction.

What is the coffee and lemon water weight loss trend?

 

Recently, a weight loss trend went viral on TikTok, the popular social media platform. It involves drinking a coffee and lemon every morning on an empty stomach. Here’s the recipe:

 

• Cup of brewed black coffee
• The juice of half a lemon

 

Pour the lemon juice directly into the coffee, mix and drink! That’s it! Some people have used instant coffee powder with hot water, and others have used nescafe espressos, or simply brewed coffee from coffee grounds. Either way, it’s the combination of lemon, water and coffee, which is said to help people lose weight. 

 

Some of the most watched coffee and lemon water videos have claimed you can ‘get a flat tummy’, ‘lose weight’, and ‘stop bloating. Some have even called this strange combination the ‘magic elixir or weight loss’. So what’s the truth?

 

Does coffee and lemon water help you lose weight?

 

Like most other viral weight loss trends, drinking coffee and lemon water will not result in sudden weight loss. It’s important to understand that there isn’t a magic pill for weight loss, and adding in a beverage will not accelerate fat burning.

 

If you’re eating an unhealthy diet with too much processed foods and overeating, you’re not going to lose weight by drinking coffee and lemon water.

 

The only way to lose weight is to create a caloric deficit. Use this total daily energy expenditure calculator to see how many calories your body needs per day. Now, eat less than this number and you’ll be in a caloric deficit. Simply - you’ll be eating less than you’re burning, resulting in weight loss.

 

Does lemon and coffee water have any benefits for weight loss?

 

But like many weight loss trends, there is a grain of truth in the claim that lemon and coffee water can help you lose weight. Coffee and lemon are two food items that have been shown in research to speed up your metabolism.

 

Your metabolism is the rate at which you digest food. If you have a fast metabolism, you’ll likely be of a slimmer build, as your body efficiently processes food and stores less of it as fat. That’s why people with slow metabolisms (known as hypothyroidism) are more at risk of obesity.

 

There are things you can do to help boost a slow metabolism, which we’ll come onto a bit later. But for now, let’s analyze the metabolism-boosting effects of coffee and lemon water.

 

Lemons have been shown in research to increase your metabolic rate. This is because they delay the rate of starch digestion to keep your blood sugar balanced. When you eat starchy foods like white rice, white bread, pastries, or pasta, your blood sugar spikes. This triggers an insulin response and then a sudden crash of your blood sugar as your cells uptake the glucose from the bloodstream.

 

Coffee also helps to boost the metabolism. A study by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that drinking four cups of coffee daily was able to reduce body fat in a group of participants by four percent.

 

This happens because the caffeine in coffee spikes adrenaline, which increases fat breakdown as stored fat is mobilized and used for fuel.

 

There is not any research to show that combining coffee and lemon into one beverage has any advantage over including both of these into your diet separately. What’s more, it probably doesn’t taste very good!

 

If you believe that you have a slow metabolism to help yourself lose weight, try these natural and scientifically proven ways to increase your metabolism which are more effective than coffee and lemon water!

 

How to boost a slow metabolism

 

1. Get moving

The best way to increase your metabolic rate is to expend more energy, this optimizes metabolic function as your muscles and cells require more energy to be converted so your anabolic processes have a greater demand put on them.

 

Choose high intensity exercise (HIIT) or weight lifting if you’re really looking for that metabolism boost. One study found that during a six week intervention, high intensity training increased participants metabolism for up to eight hours post exercise.

 

2. Eat protein at every meal

Eating small meals frequently has a positive effect on your metabolism due to the thermic effect of food (TEF) i.e. your body uses more energy in digesting food. Protein causes the largest increase in TEF, increasing the metabolic rate by 15-30% according to this study.

 

3. Drink water

Staying hydrated is a key part of maintaining a healthy body weight. Firstly, it ensures that you are not misreading dehydration signals for hunger signals. Secondly, one study found that per half a liter of water you drink, participants metabolism increased by 25 percent.

 

If you want to really get your metabolism going, drink cold water. This is because drinking cold water requires your body to use energy to heat it up to body temperature, prompting your body to use the energy consumed rather than storing it; known as ‘water-induced thermogenesis’.

 

Drinking coffee and lemon water is not a magic weight loss pill. The only way to lose weight is to create a calorie deficit by eating healthier and working out more. However, the metabolic boosting benefits of lemon and coffee might help you improve your metabolism to make weight loss easier.

 

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