Cheapest caffeine tablets for sporting use
I love my coffee and highly rate my tins of ground Illy Arabica beans used in a simple stovetop Espresso machine. I love my mid-ride coffees too. However, when I’m looking at boosting performance I ignore that kind of ad-hoc caffeine consumption and take caffeine tablets.
There’s a more detailed guide below but here is the basic consumption protocol for performance during exercise.
How much caffeine should I take before exercise?
Take 3–6 mg/kg body mass. So if you weigh 70kg you’ll need 210mg – 420mg.
Looking at the well-known UK caffeine tablet brand PROPLUS, each tablet is 50mg. So you will need 4-8 tablets and they are 8p each at the moment. So that’s 32p-64p per workout (less than a dollar).
Buy: PROPLUS, don’t click the link yet there is a MUCH cheaper option.
How Often should I take caffeine during exercise?
Take it about 60 minutes before exercising and note that the half-life (t1/2) of the caffeine effect is generally reported to be between 4 and 6 hours. So if your workout is for 3 hours you likely don’t really need any top-up but for Ironman you might add half the original dosage after 4 hours or you could determine an hourly or bi-hourly amount that’s probably similar to one PROPLUS tablet.
A Cheaper Option
WELLDAILY make a 350mg tab for 13p a tablet and sells packs of 30 which should be good enough for 30 workouts and with the added benefit of one tablet for most people.
The one I bought, that inspired this post, were RIGHT CHOICE 200mg caffeine tablets. These work out at 3p a tablet but you might end up taking two. Either way, it’s the cheapest I found on Amazon. They have 369 ratings and seem to work – the danger with unrecognised brands is that they might under-dose the caffeine or add something else.
UK Buy: Right Choice Caffeine 200mg x 120 tablets about 3p/200mg
USA Buy: Rite Aid Caffeine 200mg x 100 tablets about 7 cents/200mg
Please add links to others you trust or can find cheaper in the comments section. As noted below by okrunner, consult a medical professional if you have any general health concerns.
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I think this kind of advice without some caution in the dangers of caffeine is unwise. Particularly, caffeine consumption, especially high consumption, can have a very negative effect on sleep and blood pressure. The performing enhancement qualities are real. However, sustained and constant use is unwise. I had been a lifelong caffeine user, primarily in the form of diet Coke. Recently and without explanation, my blood pressure was high. Additionally, I had been experiencing difficulty sleeping for years. Now, just 6 weeks after stopping caffeine, I can sleep through the night and my blood pressure is 12 to 15 points lower. I am not the exception but the standard among athletes and other adults who use large quantities of caffeine. My advice to younger athletes is to use caffeine sparingly and maybe only for competition and certainly not on a daily basis for all workouts. Your older self with thank your younger self down the road.
the article is about consumption for sports performance.
I would agree that you would’t take these amounts every day, just take it when you need to perform.
Additionally, the 420 mg is in excess of medical professionals recommended daily maximum limit of 400 mg. The dose you are advocating is equivalent to 5 cups of coffee. That is not wise advice to your readers. When they are in their 50’s with high blood pressure, sleeplessness, heart palpitations, affib, or worse, they’ll thank you for your dangerous advice.
Here are some direct links to sciencey stuff, read and enjoy: https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12970-020-00383-4#citeas
I had actually already read that article. For every article similar to that one you can find three that comment on the dangers of too much caffeine. As I mentioned there is performance enhancement. But, regular and sustained use of high doses of caffeine will eventually cause problems for anyone especially in the doses your article suggests. Here’s some more sciency stuff on too much caffeine. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/caffeine/art-20045678.https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/caffeine-side-effects#takeaway. https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/what-doctors-wish-patients-knew-about-impact-caffeine.https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/spilling-beans-how-much-caffeine-too-much.https://healthcare.utah.edu/healthfeed/2023/08/dangers-of-caffeine.https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/285194.
Simply stated, and again, your article suggests daily workout intake of 420 mg of caffeine which exceeds the recommended amount from the FDA or any medial professional. That’s not common sense to suggest that.
“daily workout intake of 420 mg of caffeine”
I would rather say
“PERFORMANCE workout intake of 420 mg of caffeine” you don’t need to ‘perform’ every day
(PS if you post more than one link it’s automatically put into the pending approval folder…afaik that’s a wordpress thing that I cant control)
I would urge caution going for cheapest on supplements. Vitamins and supplements are largely unregulated. The rate of false labelling and adulteration in that space is very high. You might find the dosages vary wildly from tablet to tablet or you might be taking amphetamines when you think it is caffeine or nandralone or worse — melamine — in whey powder. I want to see a NSF Certified for Sport or Informed Sports Certification Program on things that I’m willing to ingest. Both of those certifications imply 3rd party testing and quality control which is reasonable assurance.
I don’t think I’m cynical enough. Here is a study that found 89% of supplements tested were not accurately labeled and 12% had unlabelled banned substances.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2807343
Yes. “the danger with unrecognised brands is that they might under-dose” or, as you say, add something else.
I would fully trust PROPLUS which are widely sold in reputable outlets, less so the others. The main one I referred to is stated as sold by a UK company and FWIW is on Amazon which is perhaps better than fleabay
NSF Products are here and I’ve used C4 regularly I the past: https://www.nsfsport.com/certified-products/search-results.php?goal=&type=Caffeine&brand=
What is also quite important to know: Caffeine does stimulate gastrointestinal motility (read: Urge to poop). I strongly recommend to try thoroughly which dosages your body can accept. In races, taking caffeine pills can work but then eating additional caffeine gel from an aidstation might be too much.