A study confirms that drinking a strong coffee half an hour before a sports session promotes oxygenation and fat burning during exercise. These results are published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition.
For many years, several studies have focused on this famous psychotropic natural molecule that we call caffeine. Present in high doses in coffee, it is known to stimulate cognitive performance, maintain alertness and increase memory performance. Drinking coffee regularly also decreases the risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common liver cancer, as well as reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes.
Finally, for several years, caffeine has been also renowned for its virtues for athletes . But is this really the case? In a study, researchers from the University of Granada tried to find out whether this ergogenic substance could actually promote the oxidation or "burning" of lipids during exercise.
For this study, the researchers recruited fifteen men (average age:32 years old) who they asked to perform four stress tests seven days apart. . Tests were carried out in the morning at 8 a.m. and in the afternoon at 5 p.m. Part of the group ingested 3 mg/kg of caffeine before exercise (a strong coffee), while the others took a placebo. Note that each subject completed the tests under all four conditions (8h with or without caffeine and 17h with or without caffeine) in random order.
The prerequisites for each stress test (hours since last meal, physical exercise or consumption of stimulant substances) have been standardized. Furthermore, fat oxidation during exercise has been calculated accordingly.
The results showed that "the ingestion of caffeine thirty minutes before doing aerobic exercise increased lipid oxidation, regardless of the 'time of day “, concludes Francisco J. Amaro, lead author of the study. However, he notes that this phenomenon is more important when physical exercise is practiced at the end of the afternoon.
For researchers, people should therefore prefer a session during the afternoon, drinking a coffee half an hour before. The results of this study indeed suggest that the combination of caffeine intake and moderate-intensity aerobic exercise in the afternoon provides the optimal scenario for people wishing to increase fat burning during the physical exercise .
We should point out, however, that this study was only carried out on a limited sample of participants. Furthermore, all of these participants were men. We also remember that coffee has the effect of reducing blood flow to the heart. However, it is precisely when you play sports that the heart needs to be most efficient. This is why it is important to not take it just before a session .
