Coffee— An Effective Drink to Lose Weight?咖啡：有减肥效果的饮料？

Some people choose to drink a cup of coffee to start a new day. Others might notice that the drink tames their hunger， too. Many people on social media are increasingly drinking their favorite pick-me-up to shed pounds. But studies are only beginning to explain how caffeine and other compounds in coffee might affect weight.

一些人选择喝一杯咖啡来开启新的一天。有人可能会注意到这种饮料也能让他们不感到饥饿。社交媒体上有许多人越发频繁喝他们最喜欢的提神饮料来减肥。但有关咖啡中的咖啡因和其他化合物如何影响体重的研究却并不多。

Coffee and other caffeine products have been rumored to be a quick， easy weight-loss food. The reason is partly linked to coffee’s ability to get the digestive system moving. The caffeine in coffee can ramp up muscle contractions in the colon that stimulate bowel movements. That means the digestive   system clears its contents a little quicker than usual. Caffeine is also a diuretic， meaning it increases urine production， and peeing more causes a loss of water weight. These combined effects on digestion and water weight happen quickly after consuming coffee but are short-lived—they don’t cause permanent weight loss. Consuming coffee over longer periods of time， however， seems to bring on different effects.

有传言说咖啡和其他咖啡因产品是一种快速、简单的减肥食品。其部分原因与咖啡活络消化系统的能力有关。咖啡中的咖啡因可以加快结肠肌肉的收缩，从而刺激排便。这意味着消化系统可以比平时更快地消化食物。咖啡因也是一种利尿剂，这意味着它会使尿液增多，而频繁地排尿会让身体的水分减少。饮用咖啡之后这些对消化和水重的综合影响会立竿见影，但持续时间却不长，咖啡并不会长久性地减掉体重。然而，长时间饮用咖啡似乎会带来不同的效果。

Caffeine， the primary bioactive compound in coffee， appears to be one of the main drivers of the reduced weight gain. The compound is known to stimulate diet-induced thermogenesis—the energy used to digest， absorb and store nutrients from food. On average， people spend about 10 percent of their total energy expenditure processing food. Studies have shown that caffeine can increase that amount by raising a person’s metabolic rate. A higher metabolic rate causes the body to use more energy at rest. The digestive process speeds up， causing organs in the gut to use slightly more energy and burn more calories. Overall， this energy increase is small， however， coffee drinkers might burn 80 to 150 more calories per day， according to one short-term study.

咖啡中的主要活性成分咖啡因似乎是防止体重增加的一种重要物质。众所周知，咖啡因能够刺激饮食诱导的产热，即用于消化、吸收和储存食物营养的能量。通常来说，人们在消化食物时需要消耗的能量约为总能量的10%。研究显示，咖啡因可以通过提高新陈代谢率来增加这一能量消耗。更高的新陈代谢率会让在静息状态下的身体消耗更多能量。消化过程加快，可以让肠道器官消耗稍微多一点的能量，燃烧更多卡路里。但总的来说，能量增幅很小，一项短期研究显示，喝咖啡的人每天可能多燃烧80到150卡路里。

Drinking coffee regularly doesn’t lead to significant weight loss， but it may prevent weight gain—although modestly. The average person typically gains weight as they get older—about a pound per year through middle age—but coffee drinkers seem to experience less age-related weight gain. A study followed the coffee habits of more than 150，000 participants and found that drinking unsweetened coffee was associated with a modest reduction in weight gain over four years after adjusting for other lifestyle variables. With each additional cup， the coffee drinkers gained about a quarter of a pound less than their peers. Most people probably won’t feel such a small difference in weight， though.

定期喝咖啡并不会使体重显著减轻，但可能会防止体重增加，尽管收效甚微。一般来说，年纪越大，人的体重也会增加，中年人每年大约增加一磅。但喝咖啡的人的体重似乎较少随年龄增长而增加。一项研究跟踪调查了超15万名受试者喝咖啡的习惯，发现在调整了其他与生活方式有关的变量后，四年内喝无糖咖啡与体重增加幅度的降低有一定关联。每多喝一杯咖啡，他们增加的体重要比同龄人少约0.25磅。不过，大多数人可能感受不到如此微小的体重变化。

Word Bank

tame /teɪm/ v. 驯化；使易于控制

be rumored 谣传；传说

ramp up 使增加；增加