How I Went From a Raging Caffeine Addict to a Tasteful, Conscious Caffeine Consoomer
I’ve “quit” caffeine many times.
For as long as 6 months at a time.
But the whole time I missed the slight edge that it gave me.
The truth is, I just enjoy life better when I’m consuming it.
It only became problem once I started believing I could just take as much as I want and have no negative effects.
I had to develop conscious use of it, and understand what I was actually putting my body through.
There’s no more ripping a can of celsius at 6 in the morning to knock out work I didn’t want to do…
Trying to postpone a crash by drinking more caffeine…
Or being okay drinking 400-600 mg a day (even on weekends).
It’s simply a tool that I use for specific tasks and for enjoyment of life.
The goal of this post is to teach others how to use caffeine to get more work done as a net positive, rather than sacrificing future productivity.
But before we get into the tactics to maximize caffeine effectiveness, it’s critical to understand what’s happening in your brain so you recognize why these tactics work.
What Caffeine is Actually Doing in Our Brain
Caffeine doesn’t just trigger more Dopamine to be released in our brain…
Its main effects are Dopamine’s neighbor in the brain, the Adenosine Receptors.
If you aren’t familiar with Adenosine, it’s a neurotransmitter that promotes relaxation and reduces neural activity, which is what you feel when you have a midday crash.
Adenosine also inhibits the release of dopamine by binding to another set of receptors, the A1 receptors.
So when caffeine is ingested, it blocks Adenosine from being produced by binding with their receptors.
It also binds with the A1 receptors, preventing the lower count of Adenosine from binding and inhibiting the dopamine production.
That means there’s a twofold effect:
You are less drowsy from the decreased adenosine production.
Dopamine can get produced at a higher rate, and will be reabsorbed slower allowing you to feel motivated for longer.
Here’s a visual for how the brain works when caffeine binds to A1 and Adenosine Receptors:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK223808/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1356551/
The Problem With Caffeine Consumption
While these effects occurring in the brain are pleasing, they don’t scale with more caffeine use.
Your body is a dynamic system that reacts to its inputs.
When you are constantly blocking adenosine receptors, does your brain just accept this?
No.
Instead it up-regulates the amount of adenosine receptors in your brain.
So when the caffeine wears off, you are left with adenosine being produced at an accelerated rate.
This, along with cortisol spikes and dehydration, leads to the dreaded “crash”.
Unfortunately, the increased adenosine levels also leads to what we experience as withdrawal symptoms.
When you try to stop consuming caffeine to reset your tolerance or prevent crashes…
Your brain suddenly has an increased number of unblocked adenosine receptors.
This leads to a heightened sensitivity to adenosine's effects, causing symptoms like fatigue and decreased alertness, and headaches.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK430790/
Luckily, these downsides can be mitigated through intentional usage, and strategic supplementation.
How to Avoid the Downsides of Chronic Use
By understanding the problems with chronic caffeine consumption, it also presents the solution:
Don’t scale your caffeine intake enough to trigger the up-regulation of adenosine receptors.
I can’t understate how important this is!
There’s two ways to do this.
1. Set your upper limit of caffeine usage.
For me, I will now take 200mg MAX.
And this is only on days where I really need an extra boost.
Instead, I rely on a smaller daily dose, and take days off in between.
50 - 80mg for 3-4x days a week is a sweet spot for me, and gives me enough of an increase where I can get work that is uncomfortable done.
What also helps is stacking caffeine with other synergistic supplements to get more bang for your buck.
I will cover this more below.
2. Don’t try to quit cold turkey if your daily consumption levels get too high.
If you’re currently taking more than you want on a daily basis, quitting cold turkey is not the most efficient way to tackle it.
You will go through a few extremely miserable days as your brain is flooded with excess adenosine.
You’ll have less dopamine to complete tasks, and less energy overall.
The better approach is to taper usage and allow your brain to naturally down-regulate your adenosine receptors.
Simply start drinking slightly less everyday.
For example, I was drinking 2-3 cans of Celsius everyday at my worst.
After a few unsuccessful attempts to quit, I just started leaving a few sips in the can and pitching it.
Then the next day I only drank 3/4ths.
Then down to half, a quarter, etc.
I tapered over two weeks to a point where I was drinking maybe half of a single can a day.
Then I was able to skip days again without feeling horrible because my body had naturally adjusted back down to regular adenosine levels.
How to Maximize Caffeine’s Positive Effects While Minimizing Downside (and other fun tactics)
As I mentioned above, 50mg - 80mg is MORE than enough, especially when you use other supplements with it.
Here’s what I take:
Supplements to Maximize Upside
Alpha GPC: Increasing acetylcholine synthesis
L-Tyrosine: 500-1000 mg to release more dopamine
Taurine: 1000mg for GABA activation
I’m fine taking L-Tyrosine and Taurine most days, but only take Alpha GPC or other more potent nootropics when I need an extra boost.
Supplements to Minimize Downside
Electrolytes: 1 electrolyte packet or water with trace minerals throughout the day
L-theanine: 100-200mg w/ caffeine ingestion (2:1 ratio works best for me)
Magnesium: 500-1000 mg a few hours after taking
Kombucha / Kefir: Drink throughout day to offset any gut irritation
I take this combo every single day I take caffeine. I’ll even take some extra Magnesium at night time. I’m not an expert on which Magnesium types are better so don’t come at me if this isn’t optimal, but anecdotally Magnesium Glycinate is extremely noticeable.
Stack this and the crash or other downsides is extremely minimal and manageable.
The Importance of Movement
Whenever I don’t move much and drink caffeine…
Especially busy days with high consumption…
I experience a much harder cortisol spike and subsequent crash.
I always make sure to schedule times for walks and a workout on my caffeine days.
10k steps at a minimum.
Timing
Even if you only take 50-80mg a day like me, timing is still very important.
Take it too early, and you will screw up your cortisol production.
You’ll end up spiking cortisol at weird times and having a tougher time getting up in the morning.
Take it too late, and you won’t be able to sleep properly.
The popular advice is to wait for an hour after waking in the morning…
But I’ve found that 90 minutes is better.
I also live and die by the rule not to take it on an empty stomach because of the potential gut irritation.
When I wake up at 6, that means I take it around 7:30 - 8:00 am after eating breakfast (usually a smoothie or fruit).
Experiment with what works best for your body on this one but anytime from 8:00 am - 12:00 pm is likely optimal.
Cycling and Scaling
I’m not sure if this is my ADHD, but cycling my caffeine sources makes caffeine feel much more effective.
I get a little bit extra dopamine production when I have a different drink to try.
So I cycle my source every week.
I bounce from green tea, to chai, to matcha, to cane sugar Uptime, to Yerba Mate, and sometimes to Alani, Celsius, or White Monster as a little treat (I no longer drink any coffee for other reasons but it used to be on here).
Keeps it fresh, keeps myself from growing addicted to one single way of consuming, and prevents tolerance from building.
I also scale my consumption up and down throughout the week.
My first day or two will be on the low end of 50-8mg.
But I may have a packed day where taking 150-200 mg will make more sense.
I will then follow that up with a day where I only take 50-80 mg again.
However, I NEVER string more than 2 days in a row of my max dosage anymore.
That’s when I start to get in the danger zone of building up my tolerance again.
Summary
Don’t quit caffeine cold turkey, taper gradually to reset your brain chemistry
Set your daily Max consumption limits and never exceed for more than 2 days in a row
Find your daily sweetspot (50-80mg for me)
Cycle your caffeine sources for more fun and effectiveness
Use strategic supplementation to maximize effectiveness and to prevent crash
Time your caffeine consumption to 90 minutes after you wake-up with food
Don’t forget to move and exercise on caffeine days or you may have too much cortisol
Now go forth and enjoy your life as a Conscious Caffeine Consoomer.
I will update this post periodically as my knowledge and awareness on the subject grows
