I’ve been drinking bulletproof coffee (recipe here) in the morning for a little more than a month now. I also had a few days off to feel the difference.
Here are my results. There are some positive effects. There are also some negative ones. If you’ve tried bulletproof coffee too, I’d be very much interested to know if your results concur with mine.
1. 120% mental clarity
It just works as advertised. I noticed it the first day when I first tried this “fat coffee” and I keep noticing it every morning I drink one.
Every morning I decide to do an “off day”, though, is a different story!
Bulletproof coffee kicks in within 15 minutes after drinking it and after 30 minutes I do feel like I’m 120% alert! And that lasts for 4 to 8 hours. I’m not sure what creates the variation yet. Maybe the dosage of butter, coconut oil and MCT oil? Maybe the quality of sleep the night before?
To put things in perspective: on a normal day, after normal sleep, it takes me an average of 2 hours to reach 100% mental clarity and it typically lasts 4 to 6 hours… unless I somehow get “into the zone” of course, in which case everything is different (I’ll save that for another post).
2. Insanely easy weight loss
Up to 6 lb ( 2.7 kg ) in 8 days!
With an average BMI below 20 all year long I don’t really need to lose any weight any more (how I got there is a story for another day). Maybe I could still lose a little bit of belly fat though…
Anyways, this wasn’t my goal, but it was definitely a very noticeable side effect! Here’s my weight graph for the last 30+ days (as automatically recorded by my Withings body scale):
To put things in perspective: before I started the BP coffee, I had been slowly and steadily gaining a little weight for the past 6 months or so. When I started the BP coffee, I immediately lost most of that gain, everything else being (roughly) equal, and as you can see, I repeated that experience 3 times in a row…
On the first week I went from slightly above 150 lb to slightly above 146 lb without even trying. I think this is clearly due to the fact that the BP coffee cuts your hunger and you don’t even want to eat breakfast after it. Note the one day (orange arrow) where I had an “off day” the day before. It instantly translated into a little weight (re)gain.
After that, I traveled to Germany for a week. This is the best week of the year in terms of pastry! :) I always come back with a couple more pounds. I did a few hotel room BP coffee attempts during that trip but without much success – as I was clearly lacking the right equipment.
The week after I got back I lost all my gained weight again… again without even trying. I actually got even closer down to 146 lb!
The week after that, I travelled to the US for a conference. This is the most taxing kind of trip as you have nearly no control whatsoever on what you’re going to eat… starting in the plane. Huge weight gain! No surprise. And that, BTW, was while doing some proper hotel room BP coffee with some proper equipment too. And also using the official Upgraded Coffee Beans BTW… But I’ll save all that for another post. Suffice it to say: I think that week was too stressful to draw any conclusions. It’s only interesting to note that at the end of it, I had gained some weight again…
And… as you would expect by now… I immediately lost it again when I resumed my normal routine with my usual BP coffee recipe. Except, once again, after a “day off”. This time I actually got under 146 lb!
So that’s 3 insanely fast and easy weight losses in a row. I wouldn’t dare to call it statistically significant but I sure know how I’m going to recover from next christmas/new year! :)
3. Tastes awesome
Once you dare mixing enough butter and coconut oil into it, it tastes so awesome you’ll want to go for a second cup just for the taste. (Don’t!)
4. Addictive!
It is definitely addictive! At least to me. I was drinking green tea before that, which is a lot less strong in terms of caffeine. Maybe people used to coffee would find it less addictive… but that might well be because they’re already addicted to caffeine.
I have to admit: when I wake up now I can’t think of anything else but get my shot of BP!
Mind you: the feeling goes away if I start eating and drinking something else… So I belive I’m always just one decision away from breaking the habit… Which I decided was good enough for now…
Now, however, every single day I go back to green tea + normal breakfast I feel like I’m wasting a day of productivity… and that feeling lasts for the whole day…
I’ll have to keep this in check but this August being such a busy month for me, I’ve decided to keep going for a couple more weeks…
5. Less tolerance for ADD / ADT / slow people
When you’re at 120%, you see //Attention Deficit Trait// all around you… especially in the people you know and are used to interact with (not all of them though…) They suddenly seem to think slower or with less focus than you do! (and that can be a bit frustrating in fact…)
It makes me want to recommend BP coffee to many of my family and friends… and hum… maybe this is actually why my subconscious wants me to write this blog post?
6. Jetlag: erased!
I’ve never had trouble flying from Europe to the US. But the way back though… has always been horrible! It typically takes me 2 weeks to get back to a normal schedule.
This time is was easy. Disturbingly easy!
I took a BP coffee on the day I got back, about 8 hours before a proper bed time and the next morning I went with my normal morning BP coffee routine. After another day, I was completely back to normal.
Interestingly, I recently heard that jetlag messes with your blood glucose levels and it takes days to get back to normal. I wonder if breakfasts without carbs — hence without glucose — help regulate blood glucose levels faster.
I’ll have to re-check this in the winter though. The real jetlag recovery challenge is when the days are short…
7. Easy adaptation to any schedule
I normally don’t react very well to sleep deprivation or even just to having to get up early for travel. I would be grumpy for the whole day and the day after too.
Bulletproof coffee seems to fix that for me. Even after insufficient sleep I’d be able to hit the road, almost at any hour of the morning where I’m usually not good for anything – except for keeping the bed warm.
Of course caffeine has done that for me in the past, BUT the effect of a coffee with sugar would have lasted for about 30 minutes before I’d need another one to keep me awake. And I’d still be grumpy anyways.
With just one cup of BP coffee I’d be alive and kicking for at least 4 hours. Then another 4 hours after well balanced meal… and then… well suppose I’ve been traveling or driving for the whole day… I’d be properly exhausted and fall asleep at the single sight of a bed… which at that point is probably normal.
8. Messes with my sleep?
I’m not 100% sure yet if it’s because of the stress (really busy month for me), the travel, the jetlag or the coffee, but my sleep quality and quantity has definitely gone down… with some episodes of catch-up here and there.
I do suspect that the coffee messes with my sleep though, and that, to me, is the biggest downside.
BP coffee might allow me to sleep less than my regular 9 hours but I do not regard that as a good thing.
My immediate response to this has been to reduce the quantity of coffee in my morning cup but it needs more experimentation still… The next step shall be to track my sleep with my Zeo again and see what changes between a day with BP coffee and a day without.
That’s it for today
I’ll post more when I have experimented some more.
If you’ve tried bulletproof coffee for yourself, please share your own observations. Thanks!
Comments from long ago:
Comment from: Didier
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing your experience. I’ll try that, even if I’m not so fond of coffee.
FYI, as you’re interested in nutrition, I’ve been away from gluten (almost no bread, pizza, pastries…) for 3 weeks now and I really feel better (less tired, more energy even until late). For me, the difference is amazing. I’d be happy to discuss about that one day at a bar in Paris. Bye ;-)
2014-08-22 17-46
Comment from: TDoG-Warrior
Interesting blog about Bullet Proof Coffee … I don’t drink coffee but used to drink mocha in winter time … Have you try the Death Wish Coffee yet ?…
link : http://www.deathwishcoffee.com/
I read about it when it was on the news last year … you might need a straight jacket to hold yourself very still …
(laughing)
2015-06-23 06-38
Comment from: Alex
Thanks for the article. Any ideas where I could enjoy a great BPC in Paris?
:) just came back from a trip to Canada where I discovered it and I would love to have some here!
2015-08-11 17-31
Comment from: François Planque
Hum… I’m afraid you’ll have to make it at home ;)
It’s quite easy though: http://fplanque.com/misc/nutrition/how-to-make-bulletproof-coffee-recipe
2015-08-12 02-25
Comment from: meli
Hey thank you for your article, i m a holistic nutritionist, I live in Bali, LA and now Paris. I suggested many of my friends and clients to try BP Diet but the pure strict diet as explained in the book. You wrote in your article about the BP coffee but what about the diet?? Were you following a no carbs diet??? Did you lost weight even though you were not on total BP Diet and last question : did you respect the interval fasting????? thank you for all your infos i m really interested to know more about your diet during this month.
Meli
2016-05-29 17-22
Comment from: François Planque
Hi Meli: I haven’t read the Bulletproof Diet and have not tried it. When I did this experiment I was losely following a slow carb diet.
Losing weight with BP coffee doesn’t work that well if you stuff yourself with fast carbs in the evening, once the hunger cutting effect of BP has faded. (Big surprise! Who would have predicted that? :p)
Short answer to your question: by order of importance in my diet: slash fast carbs as much as possible, focus on slow carbs, add fat (BP is part of it), add fiber, don’t obsess about proteins.
2016-05-29 19-01
Comment from: Alexandra Saperstein
Thank you for sharing your experience! It was very helpful to me as I am starting the Bulletproof program tomorrow morning! ( :
2017-03-26 04-33
Comment from: miss lena
thank you for sharing with us this information,it was very helpful to me as lam starting the bulletproof program today at night
2019-02-25 14-55