Social media isn鈥檛 a great place to find wellness or nutrition advice. The most viral stuff tends to be the most over-the-top and the influencers who create it typically care more about shareability than science. Put bluntly: 鈥淟ikes and follows do not indicate competence,鈥 says , co-founder of and the sports dietitian for the Kansas City Chiefs.听But once in a blue moon, a viral nutrition trend is worth trying. Like protein coffee, which recently took TikTok by storm.
#Proffee is pretty simple: it鈥檚 a protein shake, made with coffee. And while the idea of a caffeinated smoothie isn鈥檛 earth-shattering, it has its merits, particularly if you鈥檙e someone who likes to work out in the morning. Here鈥檚 what two sports dietitians have to say about it.
How to Make It
There鈥檚 no master recipe for #proffee. Scroll through the tag on TikTok and you鈥檒l find thousands of videos. One woman orders a couple of shots of iced Starbucks espresso in a venti cup and then pours a pre-made shake on top. Another uses a vanilla protein shake as 鈥渃reamer,鈥 and several people blend their own shakes with flavored protein powder, ice, and coffee instead of milk. You get the idea.
Protein coffee is a great way to kill two birds鈥攏utrition and caffeination鈥攚ith one stone. Let鈥檚 get one thing clear, though. 鈥淐offee is not a meal,鈥 says Abby Chan, a sports dietitian and co-owner of Evolve in Flagstaff, Arizona. 鈥淎nd adding protein to coffee still does not make it a meal.鈥
If you鈥檙e relying on protein coffee alone to get you through the morning, Bonci recommends adding carbohydrates by blending in a banana or eating some fruit or cereal alongside your drink. Chan points out that you could add fat with a scoop of nut butter, too.
Protein coffee works well alongside a regular breakfast, particularly if your morning meal contains less than 15 grams of protein. Chan says this is the minimum amount that most people should eat per meal, although there鈥檚 no need to hit this target on the nose every time. For reference: two large eggs contain roughly 13 grams of protein, a seven-ounce container of plain Greek yogurt has 20 grams, and a half-cup of rolled oats cooked in a cup of two-percent milk has 13 grams. If you鈥檙e already eating protein-rich foods at breakfast, Chan says, there鈥檚 not much benefit to adding it to your coffee, although it won鈥檛 cause any harm. 鈥淵our body can only absorb 25 to 35 grams during a meal,鈥 she says.
Why It Works
Some TikTokers use protein coffee as a pre-workout drink. This makes sense, since caffeine is the main active ingredient in most pre-workout supplements, and a cup of coffee is far cheaper than a scoop of expensive powder. Bonci explains that for many people, consuming caffeine 30 to 60 minutes before a workout can boost endurance and increase focus.听
But it might not work for everybody, and it鈥檚 not a magic bullet. 国产吃瓜黑料 columnist Alex Hutchinson previously reported on a looking at caffeine鈥檚 effect on performance, published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. The study followed a group of 101 male athletes during 10k cycling time trials, and found that, while caffeine did boost performance on average, the athletes who benefited the most had a specific gene that helps them metabolize caffeine well鈥攁nd those without that gene actually rode more slowly.听
You likely already know from experience whether caffeine helps, hurts, or doesn鈥檛 affect your workouts. If you feel better exercising after coffee, Chan explains that adding protein could have some benefit听for workouts lasting more than 90 minutes. When your glycogen stores are depleted, having amino acids (the building blocks of protein) readily available in your system will prevent your body from breaking down existing muscle to get them. But for shorter workouts, the protein probably won鈥檛 serve any purpose beyond helping you hit your nutrient requirements for the day.
Chan stresses that you shouldn鈥檛 need caffeine to train. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e relying on caffeine to get through a workout, then you are not ready or recovered enough to be training,鈥 she says.
鈥淎t the end of the day, protein coffee is simply a protein shake with caffeine,鈥 Chan says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not a meal, and it鈥檚 not a magical elixir.鈥 Frankly, it鈥檚 surprising that something so simple took off on TikTok, a space usually reserved for wellness trends that are either or completely ridiculous (like dipping cucumber slices in stevia as a low-sugar substitute for watermelon). If you like the taste of a coffee protein shake, great! Just don鈥檛 drink it in lieu of breakfast.