EndurElite Chief Endurance Officer Matt Mosman discusses if bulletproof coffee is good for runners, cyclists, OCR, and other endurance athletes and if it is beneficial or a bunch of BS.
Video Transcription:
Good afternoon family of fast. Matt Mosman, the Chief Endurance Officer over at EndurElite, here today to talk to you about one of my favorite things in this whole wide world. And that is coffee. And more specifically, today we're gonna talk about bulletproof coffee. Now, I was in the grocery store the other day, getting my creamer for my bell lap coffee, and some weirdo comes up to me because some reason I attract weirdos. He's like, "Hey bro, you try this bulletproof coffee? It's so delicious. And there's so many good benefits for you. It'll help you to like jump faster, and run higher, and all this other stuff." And after agonizing for 10 minutes listening to this complete mouth garbage, I had to like slowly walk away. Then I was like, "You know what, I'm gonna look into this bulletproof coffee a little bit more and see if all these claims they make are actually have any truth to them or not."
What Is Bulletproof Coffee?
So, unless you've been living under a rock for the last five years, bulletproof coffee is basically coffee mixed with MCTs and then unsalted grass-fed butter because it's healthy for you. So basically, that's what bulletproof coffee is. Now, there's a ton of claims being made about it in terms of like health, performance, weight loss, and all this other stuff. Now, before we start to examine the claims and see if there's any truth behind this, for all you drinking bulletproof coffee now, I don't want you to get offended by this video. Inherently, I don't have any problem with bulletproof coffee, but I do like to bust the bullshit on claims that certain products make, and that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna try to remain calm, unbiased, and if I rage once or twice I'm gonna apologize ahead of time. So, I have all this information pulled up in front of me in my computer screen, so I don't wanna miss any of these claims, or little nuggets, or gems of information and leave you guys feeling cheated at the end of the day.
What Are The Claims Being Made About Bulletproof Coffee And Does It Have Any Benefits?
So, let's examine the claims made by drinking bulletproof coffee. Okay, buckle in. Here we go.
Claim number one, bulletproof coffee improves mood and feelings of general well-being by increasing testosterone.
No. Okay, so maybe the improves mood and feelings of general well-being basically, from only the caffeine found in the bulletproof coffee which can also be found in a regular cup of coffee, but is not gonna increase your testosterone. There's only a couple things that legitimately increase testosterone and one being is steroids which is illegal. Nothing found in bulletproof coffee is going to increase your testosterone. So, improves mood and well-feelings and well-being? Yeah, absolutely. Increases testosterone? No, not at all.
Claim number two, bulletproof coffee increases energy by combining the effects of caffeine and high power fats.
Okay, increases energy by the effects of caffeine, which, again, can be found in regular coffee. But I don't know what high-powered fats have to do with increasing energy. Maybe a little bit like if you're on a ketogenic diet. When I think of like high-powered energy, I think of like hit training, which mostly requires carbohydrates to be really intense. Okay, I'm not dealing with that anymore.
Claim number three, bulletproof coffee impacts weight loss and metabolism with the linoleic acid from grass-fed butter.
Okay, I'm on board. Nope, I'm not bored with any of this. So metabolism will be raised from the caffeine found in the coffee and that's about it again, but not to an effect where it would have a significant impact on weight loss. And then the whole claim about the linoleic acid causing weight loss, there's no truth to that. Linoleic acid does not have enough effect on something called PPAR receptors to influence weight loss. So, that claim is total bull crap. Oh, here we go. I'm trying to make it through it.
Claim number four, bulletproof coffee fires up brain power with quick acting medium chain triglycerides.
So medium chain triglycerides are fats that act more like a carbohydrate. So they kind of bypass the digestion process where they can be used for immediate energy. Now, if you're on a regular kind of high-carb diet as an endurance athlete, I don't know how much this is gonna fire up your brain power. But if you're on a ketogenic diet or something low in carbs, yeah the MCTs may be able to have you have more mental clarity or brainpower, or feel more focused. So that claim is so-so.
Claim number five, bulletproof coffee improves strength by increasing lean muscle mass with testosterone containing healthy fats.
Oh God, help me. Oh God, save me. I want this five minutes of my life back so far. So, I don't know how anything in the coffee besides the caffeine will improve strength. And I guess, you could say that you're gonna train harder with caffeine, and that will improve lean muscle mass. But anything outside of that? No. And again, there's nothing in that coffee that's gonna increase testosterone significantly. Oh God, my head hurts.
So, that's claim number five. But wait, there's more claims. So, keeps you full for hours. Keeps you full part, maybe, four hours, probably not. Curb hunger, maybe. So, the reason being, again, is with the butter and oils found in the bulletproof coffee, that may have a more satiating effect that will make you feel fuller for longer and won't have quite extreme elevations in blood glucose ups and down. So, yeah, okay that's a pretty legitimate claim except the whole full for hours part. Increases fat burning. Maybe, but again, studies have shown that regular coffee with caffeine, and again, the key point is caffeine, may to a degree stimulate fat oxidation. Another claim, supports your hormones. I don't even know what that means. I don't think there's anything behind that. Tastes awesome. Yeah, I'm sure anything with butter and MCTs in it is absolutely delicious.
Okay, what else? Any other benefits? A happier outlook. I don't know how you can make a claim on that except, again, for the caffeine which can be found in regular coffee. Better physical performance and less fat. Okay, better physical performance. Again, that's mostly from the caffeine which can be found in a regular cup of coffee. The butter and the MCTs, MCTs on a ketogenic diet, I'll give them that. Maybe give you a boost in performance. But again, it's basically gonna be the caffeine. Oh, let's just see if I'm missing anything else. I don't think I am missing anything else. So those are all the claim to benefits of bulletproof coffee.
Why Most Of The Claims About Bulletproof Coffee Are Complete BS
Some are absolute total BS, some are kind of right on the money, and some are kinda eh. But I think the take-home point here is, you know, the benefits from bulletproof coffee mostly come from the caffeine which can be found in a regular cup of coffee. Another benefit, and I'm trying to reach out on a limb here to like give them the olive branch in kindness to all you bulletproof coffee drinkers is that, if you're trying to lose weight, if you use bulletproof coffee to replace your breakfast in the morning, you may lose weight. Again, this is because there's nothing magical about bulletproof coffee, but more than likely you're creating a calorie deficit when you're having the bulletproof coffee instead of a full breakfast. You know, another good reason to take bulletproof coffee for all you ketogenic people, the butter and the MCTs right up your alley with the ketogenic diet. So, adding that into your coffee may just be super duper awesome.
Take Home Point On Bulletproof Coffee
So, what's the take-home point here? I'm gonna say, you know, if you like bulletproof coffee, that's awesome. You know, definitely stick with it. But if you think it's like a magical potion that is just gonna be the best thing in the world, I think you're a little off there. Absolutely again, the caffeine in the coffee is gonna help with performance and various aspects of increased energy, mental focus, feelings of well-being, the things like that. But it's not gonna increase your testosterone, it's not gonna oxidize fat that much better. And all those other claims, it's probably not gonna do a lot of that. So I'm sorry, bulletproof coffee people, I told you I was gonna try to be unbiased, but I felt like I was a little biased in this video. But we're just looking at the facts here of what they're saying, and comparing it to what the scientific literature actually has to say, or see if there's any scientific literature to support the claims which in some cases with bulletproof coffee, it does, but for the most cases it doesn't.
So, rant over. I'm off my soapbox. If you have a friend that loves bulletproof coffee, please share this video with them. If you want other videos like this on endurance training, nutrition, supplementation, my random musings, subscribe to the EndurElite YouTube channel or head on over to the EndurElite blog at www.endurelite.com. Get super social with us on Instagram in the EndurElite Facebook Training and Nutrition club page. And until next time, my endurance friends, stay fueled, stay focused, stay fast, and stay informed.
