Research

Mixed

Capsaicin or capsiate supplementation does not significantly improve aerobic endurance performance (time-trials or time-to-exhaustion) in healthy adults.

Do not rely on capsaicin or capsiate to improve your running or cycling times. The evidence shows no benefit for aerobic endurance, regardless of whether you do a time trial or exercise until exhaustion.

GoodRefutesHIGH confidence
In the meta-analysis for aerobic endurance, there was no significant difference between the placebo and capsaicin/capsiate conditions (Cohen’s d: 0.04; 95% confidence interval: −0.16, 0.25; p = 0.69).
Jozo Grgić et al. · Nutrients · 2022

Why this rating

Meta-analysis of 7 studies, though heterogeneity was high (I2 = 72-78%).

Source

Effects of Capsaicin and Capsiate on Endurance Performance: A Meta-Analysis

Jozo Grgić et al. · Nutrients · 2022

DOI 10.3390/nu14214531

Meta-analysis · 14 studiesCited 17×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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