Althouse: "Coffee contains caffeine, which helps speed up your heart rate and thus helps you burn more calories..."

January 24, 2010

"Coffee contains caffeine, which helps speed up your heart rate and thus helps you burn more calories..."

Are you still running to boost your heart rate when you can just guzzle coffee?

19 comments:

Meade said...: I wonder how many calories are burned in a 20 hour sex session.; 1/24/10, 12:09 PM
robinintn said...: I've been using this theory for years!

WV: trens. I'm a trensetter.; 1/24/10, 12:16 PM
themightypuck said...: Where's the bad science tag?; 1/24/10, 12:20 PM
themightypuck said...: @meade. I'm sure you could design an experiment...; 1/24/10, 12:21 PM
Tibore said...: I think a doctor like Pogo would have better information on this than I, but I would think that it would take more than the heart beating faster to burn a significant amount of calories.

Plus, let's be honest: Quite a few people who are overweight already consume a fair amount of caffeine through colas and coffee. So weight issues are already occuring in the presence of increased heartrates induced by caffeine. So while true, I would imagine it's actually an irrelevant factoid.

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Word verification: renciti. Stimpy's favorite vacation destination. :D; 1/24/10, 12:22 PM
Roger J. said...: What crap--if we think increased heart rate burns more calories then lets just do a little speed-- Chris said re bad science--and an ignorant and overweight public who apparently lacks the basic idea about weight control--thank gaia for darwin and natural selection.; 1/24/10, 12:29 PM
Eric said...: I think a doctor like Pogo would have better information on this than I, but I would think that it would take more than the heart beating faster to burn a significant amount of calories.

Late last year my heart rate went up (for no apparent reason) to 120 beats/minute and stayed there for about five days. I lost ten pounds over those five days without changing my eating habits.; 1/24/10, 12:32 PM
AllenS said...: It's a known scientific fact that sitting on the couch watching Oprah will kill brain cells.; 1/24/10, 12:36 PM
chickelit said...: 10-15 cups of coffee/day got me through grad school. It took a pitcher or two of beer at night with friends to calm down, but hey, it worked.; 1/24/10, 12:36 PM
Palladian said...: "Plus, let's be honest: Quite a few people who are overweight already consume a fair amount of caffeine through colas and coffee."

If you think gourmands such as myself are fat now, imagine how fat we'd be without the coffee!

"-and an ignorant and overweight public who apparently lacks the basic idea about weight control--thank gaia for darwin and natural selection."

Did you know that Darwin didn't invent natural selection? Regardless, natural selection often weeds out nasty loudmouths such as yourself, who feel the need to misuse precepts of science (fat people can and do reproduce and as such there isn't selection in favor of skinny people) to justify your prejudices and belittle people for the apparently unpardonable sin of being "overweight"; 1/24/10, 1:07 PM
kentuckyliz said...: Selection rewards fat women...who have enough fat to survive pregnancy during a famine.

Coffee is a bean. It's good for you.

Same for chocolate and vanilla. :-); 1/24/10, 1:15 PM
David said...: Diet Coke.

"I wonder how many calories are burned in a 20 hour sex session."

Just the right amount.; 1/24/10, 1:18 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: Smoking does the same thing. Both suppress appetite, too.

I like how science keeps discovering things we already know.; 1/24/10, 1:21 PM
dbp said...: Did anybody else get the feeling that there were 15 items because some editor asked for that number and not due to there really being 15 real categories? 3 different hot peppers? 7 different sources of animal protein--not even counting the milk.

The author could have had 4 items: Dairy, meat, fish and hot peppers instead of the 11 listed.; 1/24/10, 1:22 PM
rhhardin said...: I generally eat one from each of the four starch groups.; 1/24/10, 1:55 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: I don't know about the rest of you, but it's before dinner and someone mentioned coffee, so I'm drinking it.; 1/24/10, 2:04 PM
Shanna said...: Did anybody else get the feeling that there were 15 items because some editor asked for that number and not due to there really being 15 real categories?

I was wondering why half the entries were "chicken, because protein is good for you...pork, because protein is good for you, beef, because protein is good for you". Honestly.; 1/24/10, 4:35 PM
Joe said...: Good God, donuts are fat burning food if that's all you eat.; 1/24/10, 5:12 PM
careen said...: The more you breathe, the more you burn, period.

Fast heart rate would have to cause more breathing.; 1/24/10, 9:19 PM