Do you drink coffee? More importantly, do you use coffee to help with your training or performance? I know there are some people that can't touch the stuff before training or it results in a trip to the bathroom mid-workout. Personally, I love to sip on a cup of coffee for an early morning workout for a bit of a boost. But does it help? Specifically with respect to fat burning, does caffeine help? And does it make a difference what time of day you have a cup of coffee in relation to your training? A recent study looked to answer this question. They wanted to know if caffeine would boost fat burning. What they did was have the experiment subjects have a drink 30 minutes before an aerobic exercise workout. The subjects included 15 males averaging 32 years old. The subjects did 4 sessions 7 days apart. This allowed them to experience all 4 test conditions of coffee, placebo, 8 AM training or 5 PM training. The researchers controlled for fasting, exercise and other stimulants consumed. They wanted to make sure the subjects weren't doing workouts before coming to the lab or slamming back a Red Bull either. The researchers used indirect calorimetry to measure maximal fat oxidation (MFO). So what did they find? MFO and VO2max were greater in the PM than in the AM. When the groups consumed caffeine there was 10.7% greater MFO in the morning (i.e. 8 AM) compared to the group that consumed a placebo. And with the 5 PM group MFO was 29% greater when caffeine was consumed instead of a placebo. So the two big takeaways are that: Caffeine works and helps increase MFOResults were better with the afternoon versus the morning group A few things to keep in mind include: Would we...

 So the #1 goal of people who go to the gym is weight loss. And it's like finger nails on a chalk board when I see people making all the right decisions when it comes to training, rest and the foods they eat only to blow it in one area. What is that one area? It's the calories they drink. They will drink coffees with flavoured shots, artificial sweeteners, creams and other additives. They will puree enough fruit for two days and drink this. Worse they will buy the commercial varieties of the juice smoothies which often have well over 100 grams of sugar. They will finish off a hard day's work with a glass or two of their favourite beer or wine. Which normally isn't a problem except when you're trying to drop 20-30 lbs. And so for these people we make the rules very simple. 1. Get all of your nutrition from food. 2. Get your hydration from water. But there are exceptions to the rule. And this post is all about those exceptions. Because at a certain point you should gain control of the calories you drink back. And your water intake should be adequate. And you should be getting all your nutrition from food. And your weight loss should be on track. And if this the case read on to find out how you can begin to reintroduce drinks back into your like. If this is you then here are 5 drinks you can reintroduce back into your lifestyle. 1. Workout Drinks - Are your workouts at least an hour in length? Are workouts fairly intense? By this I mean that you broke a sweat, lifted as heavily as you could and were out of breath at various points during the workout. If you answered 'yes' to...