Is 4 cups too much?

[Adrian Neyland]

I am a regular coffee drinker, recently a friend asked me how much much I drink a day, I told him 4 cups (3 before I get to work and one in my lunch break). He told me that that was mental. These are my questions.

-Do you drink coffee?
-If yes, how frequently? (per week, per day, per month, ect...)
-is 4 in a day really that mental?

I'm honestly interested on the general public opinion on this.

-THX

 

[Tdc2182]

Yup.

You can actually make yourself allergic to caffeine if you become to dependent on it.

I'd cut back pretty hard if I were you.

 

[Billska]

4 a day isn't that bad, but 3 before work is crazy.

I used to drink 2 a day but I stopped only because I'm too lazy to make any.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Firstly, I'm not a coffee drinker, but a cup isn't a standard amount, right? Some people have stronger or weaker coffee than otehrs, making it hard to determine exactly how much.

[small]I thought this was going to be alcohol...well, my first thought was to wonder if this was some sort of furry bra thing. I probably should get more sleep[/small]

 

[OverweightWhale]

I do occasionally enjoy a cup of coffee. I'd say I have a cup every other day, sometimes more depending on what I'm eating. 4 cups in a day doesn't seem like a problem, my friend has the same amount if not more a day. If your drinking 4 a day then it sounds like your not effected by caffeine.

 

[Keava]

Im a coffee addict so i might be biased.
I usually start a day with a cup of cofee when i wake up, along with a morning smoke. Then about hour later another cup before i get going to work. Then one at work. That's 3 morning coffees done.
During day i usually drink 2-3 more. So average per day is about 6-7 cups. 4 seems perfectly normal for me, but as i said, i may be biased in that regard.

Health wise? Even despite that i have blood pressure below average, even my doc told me to drink coffee and a glass of brandy before sleep. Good to be messed up.

 

[lobster1077]

Better to have some lovely green tea instead.

 

[loc978]

Depends on the strength of the coffee, really. If you're talking about brown water from a vending machine or a starbucks.... four's not really that much. If you're talking about proper espresso shots or just very strong black coffee, it's a ton. Four cups of what I make would keep my heart racing for hours, but I can throw back a whole pot of the stuff at work and just feel alert... and I only drink the stuff when I'm dragging badly and have no access to my gunpowder tea... or I decide to break out the espresso machine for a treat.

 

[Llil]

I drink 1-3 cups a day. 1 or 2 in the morning and one more in the afternoon.
I don't think 4 is that much, if you brew it at home that is. Buying 4 cups a day from a cafeteria or whatever could be pretty expensive.

 

[infohippie]

I have one cup of coffee a day, and usually two or three cups of tea over the course of the day/evening. A decade ago, though, I used to drink between ten and twenty cups of (strong) coffee per day, because my caffeine tolerance had built up to the point that I just didn't feel it any more unless I drank such vast quantities. It wasn't until I just went without altogether for a year or so that I could get my caffeine habit back under control. I was just lucky I wasn't working for a big chunk of that year - I could never have made it to work every day while going caffeine cold-turkey.

 

[OZITOMAI]

well i personally think that one cup was pretty bad but then those girls were pretty ho... oh you mean coffee cups... ~whistle~

 

[Mr. Eff_v1legacy]

I drink coffee every couple of days. I love the stuff, but I think everything should be in moderation.
As for four cups? It depends on the size, and strength. Also, if you put anything in it. In short, I think if you don't notice any adverse effects, it can't be that bad - you just may get addicted or build a tolerance to the caffeine.

 

[Daymo]

When uni is on, I'll probably have it 3 or 4 times a week, but if I'm on holidays, I'll just have it if I have to wake up early.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

While the phrase "too much" leaves a lot of room for interpretation, if we are talking purely about the caffeine intake I'd wager that the coffee alone is not "too much" if we use the average American intake as a metric. While I will, at most, drink two cups of coffee in a day (and this limit is based on nothing more than the fact that I can't stand the terrible taste it leaves in my mouth for hours if I can't brush my teeth), I might drink a total of 4 or 5 cans of caffeinated beverage in a day (though not always from a can).

While I rarely drink things that are caffeinated to wake up or stay awake, it happens to be an ingredient in several of my favorite beverages. Personally, I've never found caffeine to be terribly effective at the "waking me up" thing and if I honestly needed chemical assistance to stay awake, no quantity of caffeine was going to be effective. I have, in the last few years at least, noticed that I can no longer drink caffeinated beverages before bed as it finally appears to keep me from falling to sleep easily but it by no means prevents it. Even in large (>200mg) doses.

 

[darth.pixie]

I have about 4 as well, though not 3 before work. It sort of depends on when you start work too. It also depends on how strong or week it is or how big a cup so it's up to you if you think it's too much.

 

[Instinct Blues]

I rarely drink coffee so I don't feel like I'm the appropriate person to make a judgement. It doesn't seem to me though that you're drinking too much coffee. I guess it depends on how strong the coffee is and how large the cups you are drinking from are. It could only be bad if you become dependant on the caffeine.

 

[Adrian Neyland]

I

Depends on the strength of the coffee, really. If you're talking about brown water from a vending machine or a starbucks.... four's not really that much. If you're talking about proper espresso shots or just very strong black coffee, it's a ton. Four cups of what I make would keep my heart racing for hours, but I can throw back a whole pot of the stuff at work and just feel alert... and I only drink the stuff when I'm dragging badly and have no access to my gunpowder tea... or I decide to break out the espresso machine for a treat.

I generally drink lattes

 

[Adrian Neyland]

I do occasionally enjoy a cup of coffee. I'd say I have a cup every other day, sometimes more depending on what I'm eating. 4 cups in a day doesn't seem like a problem, my friend has the same amount if not more a day. If your drinking 4 a day then it sounds like your not effected by caffeine.

I think I am affected, it just takes more for the affects to sink in

 

[Avistew]

I don't drink coffee. Really don't like it.
I used not to drink anything with caffeine, then I met my first husband who was a big tea drinker and I switched to drinking like a pot of tea a day, if not more.
Then I decided to cut on caffeine. Now I only have it when I need to stay awake for work or something, and I typically get it from diet soda because they have premade sizes so I don't abuse it as easily.

It is generally agreed that consuming up to 300 mg of caffeine per day is safe. That would be about the amount of caffeine you would get from three cups of coffee.

If coffee is your only source of caffeine, you can have up to three cups of it. Most people though will have something else, like soda or even chocolate (although I guess chocolate has very little caffeine in comparison). You can also get it from medication (when I quit caffeine I got withdrawal headaches, which is normal, but then I realised the meds I took against the headaches had caffeine in them, and I had to switch to a different med). These have small amounts but if you're already on the threshold of what's safe it could be significant.

I also would think that getting it all at once isn't as good as spreading it over the day (like one cup when you get up, one during your break if you get one, and one for lunch).

I should say though that I definitely have heard of people consuming more coffee or caffeine than you do. Doesn't make it better for you, but you're not the only one.