Caffeine Intake?

Narz

keeping it real
Joined
Jun 1, 2002
Messages
30,537
Location
Haverhill, UK
Probably was a thread on this recently, if recent enuf feel free to merge.

How much caffeine yall take in usually?

I never acquired a taste for coffee but a bit over a year ago I started taking preworkout before the gym and it made a huge difference. When you've never really had much caffeine your whole life & you start taking 300mg at once it kinda feels like hard drugs (not that I've taken any just imagine it would feel like that).

I only have take in caffeine before a workout (ideally in the morning, usually around 200-300mg) except trace amounts in chocolate (which I'll eat anytime).

I hate dependency on substances so I'll occasionally take a few days off of caffeine so it feels stronger when I go back. I find the whole "I'm a cranky lil ***** until I drink my coffee, lol" culture kinda gross but I do respect the power of the stuff!

The most caffeine I ever took was about 500mg in the course of an hour an a half, I've done this twice. It's a nice high without too much comedown in my experience.

I've been taking this supplement in the evening on days I have caffeine after 1pm . Dunno if its a scam, doesn't seem to be much research on it. Anyone have an herbal fix in the evening they find takes the edge off decaffeinatedness?
 
About 3 cups of instant a day, a mocha or latte etc 1-2 a month.
 
I don't do coffee. I get my caffeine from Diet Coke/Pepsi.

Yes, it is addictive, as I discovered after going off it cold turkey when I was in the hospital last year. I had all the symptoms of caffeine withdrawal, but not one of the nurses or doctors figured it out. I figured it out on my own, after getting home and doing a little research.

Credit goes to one of Mary's posts mentioning this in connection with coffee, so I looked up the symptoms related to caffeine intake from pop.

It all fits. Since I'm not willing to go through the dizziness and headaches again (if I'm dizzy or have headaches I'd prefer to know it's for a different reason), I have my daily caffeine dose.
 
I used to be indifferent to it. Now I'm sensitive to it.

Its efficacy is also wildly unreliable for me.

I'll go through periods where I get an Iced Capp from Tims every day or every other day or so, and that'll last for a few weeks, and then I'll just stop and abstain from caffeine for several months afterward. I would usually do those runs at night so that I could get out of bed and "get a second wind," since I've been pretty useless physically past 8 to 11 hours for the past couple years and then spend ~6 hours just laying in bed. Success rate was abysmal. I'd get that second wind maybe a quarter of the time. The other three quarters of the time I'd be right back in bed the moment I got home.

Pairing caffeine with something else ups efficacy, I find. And reduces the nausea of just straight caffeine. The energy drink concoction of sugar, caffeine, and other things like ginseng and taurine has the highest efficacy, but it's not a good thing to rely on. Coffee has the lowest efficacy; I might as well just spin in a circle a few times and I'll get the same physical feeling. Iced Capps or iced coffees (with added syrup) are a decent-ish middle ground, caffeine and sugar. But as mentioned, the efficacy is never great.

When I drank sodas, they were usually always caffeine-free.

If I ingest more than 120 mg, it's over the course of several hours.
 
During my B.sc. I drank at some point up to 6-8 cups of coffee a day.
Until I was once in the morning at my doctor, and had a blood pressure of 160/120, then I decided to reduce that ^^.
A few years ago I was sleeping badly, and tried many things, including no coffee anymore, and at some point I extended that to teas.
I was still drinking cola, but only when going out, and it also has less of an effect. Drinking coffee or tea gave me then already extreme effects. I knew, before, I could drink a cup at midnight, without any issues. Afterwards, I'd not be able to sleep through the night if I had one in the evening.
And now during the pandemic I didn't even drink coke (no soft drinks at home, for the diet), only had once after it was lifted, and it started giving me bad effects already.
So I guess I'm now down to 0%.
 
These days I drink a giant mug o coffee in the morning. 3 teaspoons of instant coffee, whatever that is. They mailed me this giant mug "for free" when I ordered 2 Chelsea jerseys from a certain website. The weight of the mug increased my shipping by a decent amount, although I still ended up getting a great deal on the jerseys overall. It could have been even better though, so at first me and the mug were sworn enemies. However, it's sort of brilliant. It's the only giant mug I own, and I've never even gone to the website that's printed on it in giant letters (since ordering the jerseys). I suppose it might be subconsciously affecting my guests, but as far as I'm concerned I came out on top here.

Anyhow, I used to drink more coffee, I'd usually drink a coffee after lunch. My excuse was that it "helped with digestion" and "woke me up a bit cause eating slows me down and makes me sleepy". I have stopped drinking coffee after lunch these days, unless I am especially tired. I noticed that even if I don't drink caffeine in the afteroon, that caffeinated feeling stays with me for the rest of the day and makes it harder for me to fall asleep later. So, I figure.. the less caffeine I drink the better.. but I'm also not a morning person at all, so it seems I will never be able to cut this magical drug out of my life.

Isn't it funny how caffeine is an addictive drug and yet.. it's fully accepted? I guess maybe "funny" isn't the right word here, but that's an amusing thought. I suppose if you had to smoke coffee instead of drinking it people might have different feelings about it.

Narz, I am going to have to research that "decaffeinenantor" thing you linked. Any sideeffects? Did they do trials and peer review and all that? Scientifically proven results?
 
Cold brew coffee naturally has almost twice the caffeine as perk or drip coffee. It's a natural result of the long brewing time. You can make your own by mixing coffee and water in a jar and strain the grounds in the morning. Use a wire mesh to catch the big stuff and then a normal filter. It works be I wanted something easier.

I ordered some cloth bags from Amazon. It's the same ones they use for squeezing soy milk, only smaller. A package of eight was under $10 shipped. Steep it like a tea bag overnight and you have real wake up juice in the morning. I gave a couple bags to my wife for herbs when she makes soup.

Cold brew coffee has a different mix of flavor ingredients. It's less acidic, hence less bright, but smoother with significantly more chocolate notes. Mixed with commercial Italian sweet cream style creamer, you would swear there was chocolate in the mix.

J
 
Narz, I am going to have to research that "decaffeinenantor" thing you linked. Any sideeffects? Did they do trials and peer review and all that? Scientifically proven results?
I've done a half ass Google search and not turned up anything legit.

I haven't noticed any side effects, I couldn't swear by any effects at all honestly but that's the case for most supplements for me
 
About 100 mg rn, I was down to about 40 recently, and on my drive back to California I had 520mg in 24 hours.
 
I've done a half ass Google search and not turned up anything legit.

I haven't noticed any side effects, I couldn't swear by any effects at all honestly but that's the case for most supplements for me

Ahh, I've been drinking, but imma put this down to "old wives tale that prob gives you nut cancer" for now but will have to research this thing further
 
Isn't it funny how caffeine is an addictive drug and yet.. it's fully accepted? I guess maybe "funny" isn't the right word here, but that's an amusing thought. I suppose if you had to smoke coffee instead of drinking it people might have different feelings about it.

I think it's more about the magnitude of effect.
Drinking coffee makes you more awake and maybe you can't sleep at night. Withdrawal takes like...2 days (?), and it gives you a headache.
So it's not exactly heroin ^^.
 
About 100 mg rn, I was down to about 40 recently, and on my drive back to California I had 520mg in 24 hours.
You're back in the bay area and out of Austin?

I have a packet of energy drink mix every morning which is about 60 mg, so about equivalent to a cup of coffee. My standard for years was 2 packets every day but I find caffeine can trigger anxiety so I backed it down. I gave up drinking actual coffee years ago as I could never stand the taste.

A couple of companies that I worked for had free soda fountains so I would chug diet Mellow Yellow all day and became basically insensitive to caffeine for a while.
 
I think it's more about the magnitude of effect.
Drinking coffee makes you more awake and maybe you can't sleep at night. Withdrawal takes like...2 days (?), and it gives you a headache.
So it's not exactly heroin ^^.

Heroin is an extreme, man! You can't use that as an example. That's basically why, though, so you're not wrong. Plus there is the global coffee cartel and conspiracy that has brainwashed us into accepting this filthy drug.
 
Usually I drink two mugs (=4 cups) a day and a couple of mugs of tea, typically gyokuro, karigane or houjicha (just google them if you're interested).

1-2 cups of coffee per day. Honestly haven't the foggiest what that is in terms of actual caffeine content.
A typical cup contains around 60 to 90 mg of caffeine. Darker roast contains less (more heat dissipates more).

There have been some larger scale studies on coffee & tea intake and overall mortality (as well as other health benefits, too numerous to list here), e.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5871637/pdf/10654_2018_Article_359.pdf (a prospective study with ~120000 participants)
If you're not familiar with the terminology, you can see the main results just by looking at the graphs. Optimal intake is 3-5 cups/day for reduced risk of mortality. There are differences between men and women, and individual variation is high, probably due to lifestyle factors, genetics, etc., that can't be controlled in a study like this. Obviously coffee contains other compounds besides just caffeine and the results aren't directly comparable to caffeine pills or energy drinks.

I'm not personally that familiar with the effects of caffeine supplements, but I recommend searching scientifically valid evidence about risks and benefits, whenever you think about taking some supplement. It's a huge market and there's a lot of bogus stuff being sold. The best site I know of and regularly use is PubMed, e.g. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=caffeine+supplement
Just remember that a single study proves almost nothing, look for reviews & systematic meta-analyses.
 
I have found that chugging water makes a huge impact on my energy levels. I mean this was already pretty well known so it's not like some secret thing I discovered but I have only recently experienced it first hand and noticed the effect.
 
Top Bottom