Improving Liver Function Before Going Full Peat? Dealing With Abdominal Fat

[freyasam]

I usually drink one cup of coffee every day with a meal, and often experience some mild anxiety. But today I took 100 mg caffeine powder (which I thought would be equivalent to one cup of coffee) this morning with breakfast, which made me a little anxious. Then with lunch a cup of coffee. I guess it was the coffee on top of the caffeine powder already in my system that threw me into a horrible anxiety state that came on gradually after lunch and just got worse over the next 7 hours. I just took some activated charcoal because it was so bad. I definitely won't be taking that much caffeine again anytime soon. :?

 

[panda]

I have been improving with the anxiety induced by the caffeine. I think I can handle around 300mg at once, now, twice a day; with just mild anxiety.

About the sleep, I have noted something similar to what happens with you Peata.

The last days I have noticed some bloating. I wonder if it's the caffeine. Anybody with this side effect?

 

[sunmountain]

I took the 200mg caffeine pill without taurine, and still no problem.

BUT I take pregnenolone twice per day daily, and have been on it for a long time. I don't know what the half life of preg is, how long I'd need to stop it and then take caffeine to see the effect on my liver.

 

[SQu]

I'm just drinking the Vietnamese coffee and making it strong, with a heaped tb coffee which I weighed - 12g. it goes very well unless I have more than 3 cups. then I get a bad patch of several days of headache, nausea, light sensitivity, feeling unwell, terrible sleep. Definitely symptoms I associate with an unhappy liver. I'd love to know why. Can too much be counter productive? During these patches nothing appeals so probably I eat less. Which probably makes them last longer. Anyone else get this pattern?

 

[charlie]

Oh and btw...I was able to take 50 mgs or 100 mgs(by splitting the pill in halfs and quarters) at one time of the "Jet-Alert" caffeine pills with no problem. When I switched over to the pure caffeine powder my tolerance went way down. 25 mgs a dose is about all I can handle right now.

 

[Peata]

This might not be directly related to the caffeine, but I went too long without proper meal yesterday evening, and when I got back from the store, I ate, but it was at least another two hours before my body calmed down from adrenaline. I couldn't even watch anything with an intense scene because the anxiety would kick in again. Interesting that my pulse wasn't high when I took it, but it felt like it was racing. I had that chest feeling of anxiety. After eating, I had to have a glass of wine and some candy, also took some Benadryl and it went away at last.

But I get that happening now and then and have to be very careful about the adrenaline (even before the caffeine experiment). It's bad enough if it happens while shopping, but just as bad if it wakes me in the night. Then I feel like I woke from a nightmare, and everything is scary. I know to reach for a couple crackers I keep by the bed, and I'm good within 20 minutes. I was afraid that would happen last night. But I fell asleep by 11 and I think I stayed asleep until 6:30. Amazing. I haven't slept like that in some time. Guess I was exhausted.

 

[narouz]

Sorry for not being plugged-in to the recent trend--
the powdered caffeine supplement trend --
of this thread...

...but: why the big interest in that method of caffeine supplementation?
I mean, apart from drinking coffee?

Is it specific goal, like "improving liver function"...?
Or general metabolism?
I do realize it could be many things,
because Peat has given a long list of the positive benefits of caffeine.
He usually seems to recommend coffee as the best source.
I'm not aware of his recommendation of powdered caffeine...?

Don't get me wrong--because Peat may not recommend it specifically,
I'm not saying that's a reason not to try it. :)

I'm just curious....

 

[tara]

I'm just drinking the Vietnamese coffee and making it strong, with a heaped tb coffee which I weighed - 12g. it goes very well unless I have more than 3 cups. then I get a bad patch of several days of headache, nausea, light sensitivity, feeling unwell, terrible sleep. Definitely symptoms I associate with an unhappy liver. I'd love to know why. Can too much be counter productive? During these patches nothing appeals so probably I eat less. Which probably makes them last longer. Anyone else get this pattern?

I'm drinking decaf because I seem to get more prone to worse migraine or a few days if I drink full coffee. I can tell that even the decaf has some caffeine effects, so I limit even that. I speculate that part of the reason is that caffeine may lower T4 and therefore eventually also T3, as discussed in another caffeine/coffee thread. I wonder if there are other things going on too. I would love to be able to drink real coffee and get the liver improvement benefits you are all going for, but haven't found a way to make it work for me yet.

 

[cantstoppeating]

This might not be directly related to the caffeine, but I went too long without proper meal yesterday evening, and when I got back from the store, I ate, but it was at least another two hours before my body calmed down from adrenaline. I couldn't even watch anything with an intense scene because the anxiety would kick in again. Interesting that my pulse wasn't high when I took it, but it felt like it was racing. I had that chest feeling of anxiety. After eating, I had to have a glass of wine and some candy, also took some Benadryl and it went away at last.

But I get that happening now and then and have to be very careful about the adrenaline (even before the caffeine experiment). It's bad enough if it happens while shopping, but just as bad if it wakes me in the night. Then I feel like I woke from a nightmare, and everything is scary. I know to reach for a couple crackers I keep by the bed, and I'm good within 20 minutes. I was afraid that would happen last night. But I fell asleep by 11 and I think I stayed asleep until 6:30. Amazing. I haven't slept like that in some time. Guess I was exhausted.

Have you tried taking 50-100g of white table sugar (sucrose) in one sitting?

100g of sugar + 2g salt would perhaps immediately stop adrenaline or whatever other stress response you often get. Your pulse and temp should soar within 30-90 minutes and at only that point should you try 50-100mg of caffeine.

 

[cantstoppeating]

The most common mistake people make with taking caffeine is that they take it when blood sugar levels are low and/or when liver glycogen levels are low.

Caffeine metabolises very quickly. Most of us feel its effects within minutes of sipping a cup of coffee or ingesting powder. And as we know, taking caffeine is like hitting the gas pedal, it accelerates the burning of fuel. When we have plenty of fuel available, all is good. But without fuel, we wreck the engine.

For us, the fuel needed to use caffeine is sugar.

Similarly, when we take caffeine with a meal, at which point blood sugar levels are already dwindling, the caffeine will metabolise and enter the bloodstream much faster than the sugars and proteins and fats within our meal. Caffeine will push the gas pedal on our metabolism before the sugar from our meal hits the bloodstream. Whatever little sugar is currently in our bloodstream will be quickly burnt with a resulting deficit that's filled with sugar supplied by cortisol and adrenaline - aka the stress reaction to caffeine.

Ordinarily our liver should provide the sugar when blood sugar levels are low but as is the case with many of us, our livers aren't adequately storing it.

So to minimize the stress response most of us feel from ingesting caffeine, we need to take caffeine as soon as we experience the rise in temp and pulse from our previous meal. The rise in pulse and temp let's us know there's sugar in our bloodstream. And only then, the caffeine dosage should be around 50-100mg. If 50-100mg feels good, then increase by 50mg. If we notice a stress response, we'll know that we either need to increase our sugar intake from the previous meal or reduce our caffeine dose. Soon enough we'll know how much sugar we need to ingest for a certain amount of caffeine. For me it's currently about 120g of sugar per 200mg dose of caffeine.

 

[aquaman]

And something i wonder,,,

let's say for example, If i take a capsule at 1:00, by 2:00 i am feeling it, and between 2 and 3:OO, i am definitely anxious. From 3:00 on, i am still alert, but the anxiety is gone. however, i might not be able to get to sleep even 6 - 8 hour or so later.

So, not sure if that is normal for people or if i'm metabolizing it weird.

I'd say don't take caffeine! Listen to your body, don't try to "train" yourself through this!

 

[aquaman]

Have you tried taking 50-100g of white table sugar (sucrose) in one sitting?

100g of sugar + 2g salt would perhaps immediately stop adrenaline or whatever other stress response you often get. Your pulse and temp should soar within 30-90 minutes and at only that point should you try 50-100mg of caffeine.

This sounds like madness just to be able to "get used to" Caffeine.

 

[nikotrope]

Sorry for not being plugged-in to the recent trend--
the powdered caffeine supplement tread --
of this thread...

...but: why the big interest in that method of caffeine supplementation?
I mean, apart from drinking coffee?

Is it specific goal, like "improving liver function"...?
Or general metabolism?
I do realize it could be many things,
because Peat has given a long list of the positive benefits of caffeine.
He usually seems to recommend coffee as the best source.
I'm not aware of his recommendation of powdered caffeine...?

Don't get me wrong--because Peat may not recommend it specifically,
I'm not saying that's a reason not to try it. :)

I'm just curious....

For me the reason is that I really hate the taste of coffee but wanted to try having lots of caffeine to understand how it felt. The 4th day I started I tried 3x200mg caffeine through the day and got an big adrenaline response. I finally understood what having high adrenaline was like, I don't remember having this feeling anytime in my life. I used to drink a lot of coke and tea but it was nearly impossible to hit my caffeine tolerance without coffee or caffeine supplementation.

Now I can take 4x200mg caffeine and I have no adrenaline response. Even if I loved coffee, it would have been very difficult to up my caffeine tolerance the way I did it with supplementation.

 

[jyb]

Have you tried taking 50-100g of white table sugar (sucrose) in one sitting?

100g of sugar + 2g salt would perhaps immediately stop adrenaline or whatever other stress response you often get. Your pulse and temp should soar within 30-90 minutes and at only that point should you try 50-100mg of caffeine.

This sounds like madness just to be able to "get used to" Caffeine.

Alternatively, you don't have to go sugar only and fat free to support your energy needs. The non-fat-free version is much more reasonable in terms of dosing, I find.

I usually have 4-5 coffees per day. It's difficult to know the caffeine content. Some of them without food. I don't expect some kind of stress (jittery feeling) unless I'm undernourished. I think the limit would be 4 or 5 hours without eating anything following a decent breakfast. I usually avoid not eating for so long. But if it happens and if I take coffee in that circumstance, it may be a little uncomfortable.

I find it's not always so crucial so get the timing of the foods right (e.g., wait a precise amount of time for the food to get digested before drinking coffee), but the food choice itself is important.

 

[narouz]

Now I can take 4x200mg caffeine and I have no adrenaline response. Even if I loved coffee, it would have been very difficult to up my caffeine tolerance the way I did it with supplementation.

thanks niko.
Do you like the feeling--at 4x200mg?
Could you describe what you like about it?

 

[nikotrope]

Caffeine makes me warmer and I don't need to overeat anymore (probably because I burn glucose more efficiently). But I've gone too low and need to eat more again. I've stopped caffeine for 2 weeks and my temps were lower, I felt colder even with more calories.

I am also pretty sure it reduced my estrogen dominance and some effects have been really noticeable (you can read my other posts). I'm gradually upping the dosage to see if it improves things further.

I have one problem though, my throat is drier and coupled with the high stress I had 2 weeks ago resulted in a sore throat. I am trying to get more salt to see if it is related to a deficit of alkaline minerals (I also probably have a magnesium deficit because I have muscle spasms but it started before I started caffeine). Since it improved my water retention problem I thought it could be just because I was not drinking enough but I now drink more fluids and still has the problem.

 

[narouz]

Caffeine makes me warmer and I don't need to overeat anymore (probably because I burn glucose more efficiently). But I've gone too low and need to eat more again. I've stopped caffeine for 2 weeks and my temps were lower, I felt colder even with more calories.

I am also pretty sure it reduced my estrogen dominance and some effects have been really noticeable (you can read my other posts). I'm gradually upping the dosage to see if it improves things further.

I have one problem though, my throat is drier and coupled with the high stress I had 2 weeks ago resulted in a sore throat. I am trying to get more salt to see if it is related to a deficit of alkaline minerals (I also probably have a magnesium deficit because I have muscle spasms but it started before I started caffeine). Since it improved my water retention problem I thought it could be just because I was not drinking enough but I now drink more fluids and still has the problem.

Interesting.
So it was boosting your metabolism
but you didn't eat enough to keep up with it?
How was your mood while doing it?

 

[nikotrope]

Interesting.
So it was boosting your metabolism
but you didn't eat enough to keep up with it?
How was your mood while doing it?

I ate more than 3000kcal before caffeine and naturally reduced to 2500kcal after caffeine. I didn't force myself to eat less and the negative effects I have when eating less have not been there. So I conclude I burn glucose more efficiently thanks to an improved liver and metabolism. But nowadays I eat 2000kcal I don't know why I just forget to eat despite my hunger (moving from France to Japan changed my habits and I need to stabilize a bit probably).

Except a few times when it energised me too much, I've been the same: very calm like always with a strange feeling of having energy and motivation and feeling a bit sleepy at the same time. More control over my feelings though which is a good thing.

 

[narouz]

Interesting.
So it was boosting your metabolism
but you didn't eat enough to keep up with it?
How was your mood while doing it?

I ate more than 3000kcal before caffeine and naturally reduced to 2500kcal after caffeine. I didn't force myself to eat less and the negative effects I have when eating less have not been there. So I conclude I burn glucose more efficiently thanks to an improved liver and metabolism. But nowadays I eat 2000kcal I don't know why I just forget to eat despite my hunger (moving from France to Japan changed my habits and I need to stabilize a bit probably).
Except a few times when it energised me too much, I've been the same: very calm like always with a strange feeling of having energy and motivation and feeling a bit sleepy at the same time. More control over my feelings though which is a good thing.

Very interesting.
Thanks.

 

[Peata]

Sorry for not being plugged-in to the recent trend--
the powdered caffeine supplement trend --
of this thread...

...but: why the big interest in that method of caffeine supplementation?
I mean, apart from drinking coffee?

Is it specific goal, like "improving liver function"...?
Or general metabolism?
I do realize it could be many things,
because Peat has given a long list of the positive benefits of caffeine.
He usually seems to recommend coffee as the best source.
I'm not aware of his recommendation of powdered caffeine...?

Don't get me wrong--because Peat may not recommend it specifically,
I'm not saying that's a reason not to try it. :)

I'm just curious....

I still make a latte every morning and sometimes another one later. But for me, the caffeine pills are a way to make sure I'm getting a certain minimum amount.

This is not something I intended to keep doing for a long time. I'll have to taper back down before the end of the month (if I don't decide to reduce the amount sooner anyway) because I have a medical test coming up at the end of the month, and it requires special diet and near fasting, so I don't want to risk caffeine withdrawals.

For me, I want to see if liver function and metabolism improves. I've tried many of the supplements talked about, but never really went for it with caffeine before, other than caffeinated beverages which are more self-limiting, especially because of the bloat from all the liquid. Caffeine supplement has a stronger feel. It can be scary, which is why I worked up to what I'm doing now.

It's probably another dance with the devil in my case. I mean, on one hand, I love how I feel on the caffeine - energy, alertness, talkative, feel more social in a group, a little more motivation (except I can't focus on "close work" like writing as much until later in the evening when most of it has worn off), and a lot more dancing when I'm alone. But, it has its negatives too.