What is “Bulletproof” Coffee and why am I so excited about it!?
Let me explain the Bulletproof craze in my own words. It’s essentially healthy fats in coffee to stave your hunger, promote fat-burn, and help you feel great in the morning. There’s a lot of misconceptions about consuming fat, and I wanted to tackle that in this blog about understanding Bulletproof Coffee.
I’m careful to pick and use what works for me, and leave the untested or questionable material behind. Overall though, I am a huge fan of Bulletproof coffee, the taste, and the benefits so let’s just get into it!
Understanding The Benefits of Bulletproof Coffee
- Eating fats doesn’t make you fat. It helps you BURN fat. We had it wrong for decades. A single quote in the 1950s led to the “fat” scare that has dominated our commonly-held dietary belief that we should avoid fats at all costs. As a result, fat-free items are found everywhere in grocery stores. The truth is, however, that fats are GOOD for you. Fats help tell your body that you’re full. Fats made you feel satiated. When this happens, your body freely burns fat (energy), because the fats that you are consuming tell your body that food is not in short supply, and it does not need to consume energy. Knowing this, we can “trick” our body into a fat-burning state by consuming a healthy amount of HEALTHY fats. Conversely, when you are not having enough fats, your body goes into starvation mode, and it retains energy.
- Put fats in your coffee. Bulletproof Coffee is the symbol of Bulletproof. Bulletproof Coffee is coffee made from Bulletproof Coffee Beans combined with grass-fed butter (like Kerrygold’s) and MCT oil (coconut oil). Bulletproof also makes their own brand of highly refined MCT (medium-chain triglycerides) oil, called XCT oil, as well as a Brain Octane Oil.
- Bulletproof Diet. The Bulletproof Diet is a #1 bestseller that will teach you a whole new way of looking at foods. A lot of the Man Flow Diet draws on ideas from this diet. The Bulletproof Diet is similar to paleo in content, but emphasizes more fats and very minimal fruits. It also incorporates ketosis, which is a very particular form of dieting that helps to put your body in a constant state of burning internal fat stores (instead of running on sugar).
- Hack your body. Hacking your body does not refer to shortcuts to results (although in some cases, it can). Bio-backs are practices, habits, or activities that you can do to trigger a certain response in your body to help you perform at your highest mental and physical abilities. You probably participate in several biohacks now, even though may not call them by that name. Some bio-hacks that I use are:
- Drinking a full glass of water when I wake up.
- Exercising for 90 seconds before I eat a cheat meal.
- Meditation in the morning to start my day.
- Earthing.
As you can see, biohacking is more common than you think, even if you aren’t calling healthy habits by an awesome name like bio-hack. So, no drinking healthy fats isn’t bad for you, and you should give Bulletproof coffee a try.
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How to Make Bullet Proof Coffee (the abbreviated version)
Required equipment: french press, coffee beans, butter, and coconut oil.
- Boil water.
- Pour it into the french press. Leave it there for a minute.
- Throw the water out.
- Add coffee grounds.
- Fill it with the now slightly less hot boiling water so that the coffee beans are covered. (This technique is called mudding.) Set the timer for 1 minute.
- Once 1 minute is up, add the rest of the water. Stir. Let sit for 2.5 – 3 minutes.
- Plunge coffee.
- Add butter and coconut oil (about spoonful each) to your mug.
- Pour coffee in the mug. Stir.
- Enjoy
Note: This is not the “official” Bulletproof method. Blending the coffee, butter, and coconut oil in a blender is supposed to help release something in the butter. Guess I’m missing out on that part though. Oh well. I still feel pretty damn good.
Additional Resources
About the author, Dean Pohlman, Founder & CEO of Man Flow Yoga, Author of Yoga Fitness for Men, Expert on Yoga Fitness for Men.
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Based on a few articles I’ve read, I’m a bit curious if it is okay to add protein to this or if that would be too much. I’m also pretty new to hearing about ketosis and the benefits however it sounds like you have breakfast then do bulletproof coffee. Isn’t that counter intuitive to the ketosis process? How would you recommend switching to this? I typically have a protein shake in the morning as I get up and bolt to work after taking a shower. I’ve read a number of articles that mention you need nutrients in the morning or at very minimum that glass of water you have each morning from your article The Best Diet is a Simple Diet. I’m moving back to the K.I.S.S. diet mentality however am still very active with playing soccer and lifting so any input you have would be appreciated.
If you are lifting and playing soccer then I would say you need a lot of food to sustain that. I wouldn’t be afraid of overdoing protein intake with just one additional ingredient to your coffee. You’d have to change your diet far more significantly than that to have a negative impact. I like the KISS concept and follow that because it’s what has worked for me (and many others that I have trained). Regarding the ketosis aspects, I don’t follow the Bulletproof diet or drink coffee to put my body into ketosis. If that’s what you would like to do, I would recommend looking into Ben Greenfield for advice on ketosis.
I’ve just listened to the SIGMA Nutrition podcast episode 358 on Coffee & Health. They dismissed Bulletproof coffee as ‘quackery’ and gave their reasons why. Interesting to hear a different perspective.
Thank you for the feedback. We’ll look into that episode 🙂