‘Cycle’ Your Caffeine Intake To Reduce Your Tolerance

‘Cycle’ Your Caffeine Intake To Reduce Your Tolerance

I love my coffee, but tolerance to its effects can be a real bummer. If you want to feel like you can outrun a cheetah again, try a brief period of no caffeine to reset the body’s sensitivity to the stuff.

Image by Sami Niemela.

“Cycling” caffeine, as it is sometimes called, is a brief period of stopping yourself from sweeping through your favourite coffee pit stop for a quadruple-shot latte or any other caffeinated drinks — typically for one month to reduce tolerance. As you may have noticed, the feel-good effects of caffeine reduce over time with habitual consumption.

This isn’t always a bad thing; it just depends on why you take caffeine.

Cycling caffeine (even briefly) can do a lot for you depending on what your goals are. For example, if you want increased focus and appetite suppression, then you might consider cycling your caffeine to renew your tolerance. On the other hand, if you seek caffeine’s benefits on enhanced performance during endurance exercise, Examine says that cycling caffeine is not needed, since those benefits “do not seem to be reduced with time.”

Head over to the full article for figuring out if cycling caffeine is right for you. Dealing with the caffeine withdrawal, on the other hand, is a whole other beast to tame, so check this article for tips on kicking your habit (maybe for good, if you want).

Do I need to cycle caffeine? [Examine.com]


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