Hack your coffee

Drinking caffeine is a sensitive game. Drinking too much has it’s downfalls while drinking the right ammount can increase your fitness performance.

Excessive consumption can make you jittery, increase your heart rate, insight anxiety, increase difficulty sleeping and some individuals even report loss of appetite (not ideal while on a fitness plan). It can also lead to dehydration as it is a diuretic, and you’ll find yourself using the restroom more often.

While acknowledging the potential side effects is important, we can’t ignore the many benefits associated with caffeine consumption. Benefits including increased energy, improved physical performance, reduced risk of certain diseases, and several antioxidant properties. This is why it is the active ingredient in many pre-workout drinks.

All this brings us to the age-old question, “how much coffee is optimal?”

The quickest answer is– there is no simple answer. This number will vary depending on the individual, considering everybody's caffeine tolerance is different. On average, one eight oz of coffee has about 95 milligrams of caffeine. If you start experiencing the negative side effects mentioned above after consuming one cup, then thats a sign you might be drinking too much.

All things considered, there are a few tricks to balance consumption and avoid side effects. The first rule of thumb is to have one cup of water for every cup of coffee.

Myself as a coffee lover, when I drink coffee first thing in the morning, I find myself eating later in the day and drinking less water. To combat this, I’ve been decreasing my caffeine intake by doing a few healthy swaps and turning my coffee drink into a more balanced beverage by adding protein and carbs. This helps me get my coffee fix, eat my food for the day, and hit my daily water goal.

Here are three coffee recipes I find myself drinking, depending on my mood and my activity for the day.