Does More Caffeine Increase Performance?

by Ben Hallam

Many sports drinks and energy gels have now got varying levels of caffeine in them. Caffeine is a central nervous system and metabolic stimulant which has been shown in many studies to increase sports performance. Up until 2004, there was a limit on the amount of caffeine you could consume without failing a drugs test and WADA are still monitoring the use of caffeine in sport to detect patterns of misuse (1).

So, does taking lots of caffeine increase performance exponentially? If 250mg makes you go faster will 500mg make you go faster still? There’s been an interesting recent study in the Journal of Sports Sciences by Desbrow et. al. looking at the effects of different levels of caffeine intake (2). Three groups of cyclists were tested over 60 minutes (very similar to a 40km time trial effort) and then retested after taking either a 6mg of caffeine per kg of body weight, 3mg of caffeine per kg of body weight or a placebo 90 minutes before. The two caffeine groups saw a significant increase in performance but there wasn’t a significant difference in improvement between the two caffeine levels. Therefore, taking more caffeine won’t have the effect of increasing performance further.

Taking too much caffeine, however, can have negative side effects. The Scientific Committee on Food have noted that 5mg caffeine per kilogram bodyweight per day can cause irritability, nervousness or anxiety, particularly if you’re not used to consuming large amounts of caffeine (3).

So what does 3mg per kg of body weight equate to? Below is a quick conversion table and some examples of typical levels of caffeine found in different products:

Body Weight	3mg.kg
50kg	150mg
55kg	165mg
60kg	180mg
65kg	195mg
70kg	210mg
75kg	225mg
80kg	240mg
85kg	255mg
90kg	270mg
95kg	285mg
100kg	300mg
105kg	315mg
110kg	330mg

Product	Typical Caffeine Amount
Tea	Average of 40mg (4)
Instant Coffee	Average of 54mg (4)
Ground Coffee	Average of 105mg (4)
Coca Cola (can)	32mg (5)
Red Bull (250ml)	80mg (6)
Monster (500ml)	160ml (7)
ProPlus (1 tablet)	50mg (8)

References

1) http://www.wada-ama.org/en/Resources/Q-and-A/2012-Prohibited-List/

2) http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02640414.2011.632431?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3dpubmed&goback=%2Egmp_2046220%2Egde_2046220_member_108072131

3) http://www.food.gov.uk/safereating/additivesbranch/energydrinks

4) http://www.food.gov.uk/science/surveillance/fsis2004branch/fsis5304

5) http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/health/caffeine-in-your-can.html

6) http://www.redbull.co.uk/cs/Satellite/en_UK/Red-Bull-Energy-Drink/001243026254412?pcs_cid=1242989368765&pcs_pvt=ingredient&pcs_iid=1242989367799

7) http://www.energyfiend.com/caffeine-content-uk-europe-drinks

8) http://www.proplus.co.uk/about.htm

9) http://www.torqfitness.co.uk/acatalog/torq_energy_gels.html

10) http://www.guenergy.co.uk/products/gu-roctane/flavors-nutrition_blue-berry-pomegranate

11) http://www.extrauk.co.uk/product/detail/Accelerade/Nutrition/2273/

12) http://www.clifbar.com/food/products_shot_bloks/