zarrin77
Member
Theacrine is a newer methylxanthine (like caffeine) that does not have the habituation / tolerance effect that caffeine does.
(Note: theacrine has no relation to theanine, besides the fact that they are both found in teas.)
This is important, because while lower doses of caffeine can acutely make people more outgoing and motivated, repeated doses (in as little as 4 days) can induce complete tolerance such that the person feels worse off than before if they don’t have caffeine, and caffeine can bring them back to baseline (or *slightly* above, but not much).
This is why when you have coffee every day, especially if it is a lot, you really don’t feel it anymore. Yet, give a strong cup to someone who never takes caffeine or drinks soda, and they might start shaking and talking quickly.
I got more interested in theacrine when I realized that I just wasn’t getting anything from my coffee anymore. I think did a week of quitting cold-turkey, and then had 200mg of caffeine via coffee before a work out. My God, I really had forgotten how good caffeine can make you feel. I knew it wasn’t sustainable every day, but I then had coffee only 2x per week before the workout I care most about (upper body lifting). Those days have been fantastic.
Then I remembered about theacrine. I originally heard about it from Adel a long time ago here:
Lack of Drive? Theacrine Will Get You Going - <u>Every Day</u>! Camellia Kucha Alkaloid Acts via Dopamine and Adenosine - SuppVersity: Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone
My first dose was today at 200mg theacrine and 70mg caffeine. It synergizes with caffeine, and I’m still not completely back to baseline with caffeine yet, which is why I combined them for today’s workout. I definately felt it, and with only 70mg of caffeine compared to my usual 200mg. (In the past months, my usual was 400mg at a time and I’d feel nothing or only a tiny bit more awake.)
Anyway, what has gotten me more into theacrine is that caffeine, in rodent studies, much of the time leaves them worse off than they were before. Meaning, especially if they don’t have their daily dose, they will be more anxious and less active. Theacrine doesn’t do this; the positive effects stay.
However theacrine is a bit “weaker” than caffeine in terms of stimulation, so if you have a high caffeine tolerance when you try it, you’ll feel nothing, just like you wouldn’t feel anything from a lower dose of caffeine. So, in order to get this to work, you will have to suffer through some caffeine withdrawl symptoms to reset tolerance. It doesn’t have to be cold turkey, but you will likely eventually need at least 2 weeks completely off caffeine in order to get back to baseline. I’d recommend morning HIIT or a cold shower as an alternative to get you through.
It’s up to you if you then want to use it with or without caffeine. I am going to run it by itself probably for the next 2 weeks, then play around with taking it every day and adding caffeine with it 2x a week. 2x a week should not induce tolerance according to human studies.
Now, to this study:
They stressed mice by restraining them in a narrow cylinder for a long time, in which they tried to gnaw and escape. Three groups were given low, medium, and high dose theacrine during this process for 7 days. The human equivalent doses are 35mg, 70mg, and 105mg per day for a large 91 kg male. [Thus, they were not high. Most human studies get best results with 200mg per day (considering the dose-response curve in this study, this makes sense.), and 200mg outperforms 400mg in humans.]
Here are the results:
The full study is attached if you wanna read the rest!
(Note: theacrine has no relation to theanine, besides the fact that they are both found in teas.)
This is important, because while lower doses of caffeine can acutely make people more outgoing and motivated, repeated doses (in as little as 4 days) can induce complete tolerance such that the person feels worse off than before if they don’t have caffeine, and caffeine can bring them back to baseline (or *slightly* above, but not much).
This is why when you have coffee every day, especially if it is a lot, you really don’t feel it anymore. Yet, give a strong cup to someone who never takes caffeine or drinks soda, and they might start shaking and talking quickly.
I got more interested in theacrine when I realized that I just wasn’t getting anything from my coffee anymore. I think did a week of quitting cold-turkey, and then had 200mg of caffeine via coffee before a work out. My God, I really had forgotten how good caffeine can make you feel. I knew it wasn’t sustainable every day, but I then had coffee only 2x per week before the workout I care most about (upper body lifting). Those days have been fantastic.
Then I remembered about theacrine. I originally heard about it from Adel a long time ago here:
Lack of Drive? Theacrine Will Get You Going - <u>Every Day</u>! Camellia Kucha Alkaloid Acts via Dopamine and Adenosine - SuppVersity: Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone
My first dose was today at 200mg theacrine and 70mg caffeine. It synergizes with caffeine, and I’m still not completely back to baseline with caffeine yet, which is why I combined them for today’s workout. I definately felt it, and with only 70mg of caffeine compared to my usual 200mg. (In the past months, my usual was 400mg at a time and I’d feel nothing or only a tiny bit more awake.)
Anyway, what has gotten me more into theacrine is that caffeine, in rodent studies, much of the time leaves them worse off than they were before. Meaning, especially if they don’t have their daily dose, they will be more anxious and less active. Theacrine doesn’t do this; the positive effects stay.
However theacrine is a bit “weaker” than caffeine in terms of stimulation, so if you have a high caffeine tolerance when you try it, you’ll feel nothing, just like you wouldn’t feel anything from a lower dose of caffeine. So, in order to get this to work, you will have to suffer through some caffeine withdrawl symptoms to reset tolerance. It doesn’t have to be cold turkey, but you will likely eventually need at least 2 weeks completely off caffeine in order to get back to baseline. I’d recommend morning HIIT or a cold shower as an alternative to get you through.
It’s up to you if you then want to use it with or without caffeine. I am going to run it by itself probably for the next 2 weeks, then play around with taking it every day and adding caffeine with it 2x a week. 2x a week should not induce tolerance according to human studies.
Now, to this study:
They stressed mice by restraining them in a narrow cylinder for a long time, in which they tried to gnaw and escape. Three groups were given low, medium, and high dose theacrine during this process for 7 days. The human equivalent doses are 35mg, 70mg, and 105mg per day for a large 91 kg male. [Thus, they were not high. Most human studies get best results with 200mg per day (considering the dose-response curve in this study, this makes sense.), and 200mg outperforms 400mg in humans.]
Here are the results:
The full study is attached if you wanna read the rest!
