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If you love your morning cup of coffee, nothing will convince you to change your routine — nor is that necessary. Whether you’re trying to lose weight or not, coffee is the antioxidant-rich beverage that help boost your metabolism. Unless you’re making the one coffee mistake you should avoid because it slows down your metabolism in the morning.
As a rule, the caffeine in coffee is one of the great metabolism-boosting ingredients. You’ll find it in countless weight loss supplements (which aren’t always safe, so be wary of them) and one single cup of coffee contains 95mg of caffeine — enough to give you a major boost in energy, without packing on calories and sugar.
According to studies, coffee can also induce thermogenesis, which is when you body temperature is raised and your metabolism speeds up. The act of thermogenesis can help your body burn more fat. Instead of taking a potentially dangerous supplement to create thermogenic conditions in the body, one or two cups of coffee do the trick — naturally.
One of the biggest mistakes you can make when it comes to how you drink your coffee in the morning is choosing decaf coffee over regular caffeinated coffee. Unless there’s a health reason that keeps you far away from caffeine, it’s always a better idea to avoid decaffeinated brews, especially if your goal is to boost your metabolism.
Decaffeinated coffee used to be more controversial than it is today, and that has everything to do with potent chemicals that were used to process coffee beans and remove caffeine. These days, most reputable brands of decaf coffee won’t use these chemicals (though some still do, according to Consumer Reports). But when you take away its caffeine content, you also strip coffee of its fat-burning benefits.
According to Marisa Moore, RD, who spoke to Oprah.com: “Caffeine stimulates your central nervous system. It's estimated that drinking caffeinated coffee can increase your metabolism by about 15 percent for up to 3 hours."
Coffee can also lower your risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cognitive decline.
If you can handle the caffeine, make the switch from decaffeinated beans to regular coffee to give your metabolism a major kick that will contribute to fat and weight loss.
