Well, I’m on my second mug o’ coffee this morning. I cut back on the creamer considerably, and I’m doing ok. However, the fact that it’s my last cup for the day has me kinda freaked. I’m rather pissed that it took me three years to connect the weight gain to the coffee…D’oh! I’m hoping to see a difference within a month.
If I fall asleep over here, just flick me in the back of the head.
I take an excedrine migraine in the morning to start my day.
It has the equivalent of 2 cups of coffee in it, IRC.
Try Spenda if you need to sweeten. No calories. Drop the cream - it’s going straight to the padding you’re trying to lose.
I’m at the bottom of my first pot of coffee - getting ready to go to work and get a 16oz cup of coffee - that will be my last one for the day - then it is ALL water - no coke, no diet crap, no flavored waters. Just water.
By the way - the cream and sugar are contributing to any fat you might have - just dropping cream and sugar from coffee might shed a little, but any real weight loss comes from a complete overhaul - diet and exercise.
Good luck!
Try the DaVinci’s sugar free syrups, sweetened with Splenda - there is a French Vanilla flavor that is divine. Some coffee shops sell them (I know the coffee shop at Borders bookstores around here do), but they’re a lot cheaper at Sam’s Club or Marshall’s. I just use the syrups, no milk or cream, most of the time.
You could also try soy milk - 100 calories per CUP and it has more or the body of cream. Plus, as I recall, you are “of that certain age” where additional soy is supposed to keep the hot flashes away. Add a little vanilla or buy vanilla soy milk.
We bought some soy and rice milk for a guest - she left three months ago and I have soy and rice milk in the house all the time now.
I never use sugar. The French Vanilla is so sweet already.
Well, I already fell off the wagon. I went for the third mug (only 1/2 this time) but I’m using just a teeeeeeny splash of creamer…barely enough to change the color. I think I’ll have to do this for a couple days. I’m still trying to envision myself going “straight black.” (shudder!) The prospect is still kinda freaky.
I think about this exact same thing often. I down about 3/4 of a pot per day and use sweetened creamer (Coffeemate Hazelnut); about 1.5 tablespoons per cup. That’s a lot of sugar in one shot. I go through a 32oz creamer twice a week. So, I’m taking in ~400 calories a day on creamer.
I imagine that removing that 400 per day would make a difference after a month or so.
Nothing wrong with easing yourself down! Every once in awhile I try to give up coffee, and I always have to cut back slowly (I’ve given up on giving up, though - I only drink 1-2 cups a day).
You don’t need to make all the changes at once. You can have 6 cups today, five tomorrow (or five and a half!), 4 the next and so on. I do it by cutting my consumption in half every day, but you drink more coffee so you might want to do it more slowly. Or try adding using half the amount of creamer you use, and using skim or soy milk for the rest.
Seriously?
Excedrin Migraine has 65mg of caffeine in two tablets. From what I can find via google, the average cup of coffee has anywhere from 60-100mg of caffeine.
I do find myself more jittery if I take an Excedrin than if I drink a cup of coffee though. Probably has something to do with taking it all at once vs sipping it over time.
I do this, except later in the day when it looks like I’m not going to have time for a coffee.
Kalhoun, your OP made me feel better about, not realizing that my habit of drinking 3 cups of tea with 2 tsps each of sugar, might be contributing to my weight gain over the past 2 years.
I was so proud of myself for being healthy and not getting sick for 2 years, thanks to all the antioxidants in the tea. I cut back to 1 cup a day. There’s no way I can drink it without sugar.
Sugar is really bad for you and there are a ton of reasons not to use it but there are only 15 cal in a teaspoon of sugar. I doubt if 100 calories a day would affect your weight that much.
The first two cups of coffee I have in the morning I use half and half. After that I use whole milk with a small splash of half and half. Since it’s the only dairy I have most days I can live with that. I’m never giving up coffee, so I’d rather eat a little less. I’ve tried using 1% milk but it’s too watery in coffee for me.
Eh, my bad. It’s the equivalent to one cup to get things going.
And yes, it is fantastic. No coffee breath. No sudden urges to pee. No stains on my teeth. No spilled coffee in my truck.
And, really, an aspirin a day is something you should do anyways. (it’s a blood thinner and repels strokes and stuff like that there.)
That’s a low-dosage 81mg aspirin tablet per day.
I AM NOT A DOCTOR. THIS IS NOT MEDICAL ADVICE.
Quit the cream and sugar, and you’ll be a lot better off.
There’s some controversy about the effects of caffeine on metabolism, especially insulin resistance. Caffeine by itself may actually reduce insulin sensitivity, at least temporarily, and that might lead to high levels of circulating insulin, especially if you’re taking your caffeine with sugar, like in a regular cola. What happens after the caffeine wears off? I don’t know, but it seems possible it could cause some higher risk for weight gain if the insulin resistance tracks with caffeine dosage, and there’s lots of sugar and residual insulin around if and when insulin sensitivity returns.
Coffee is harder to evaluate because it’s such a soup of other compounds, many of them biologically active. I’d say to be safe it’s a good idea to taper off the multiple cups o’ joe and get it down to something more manageable, to be taken in the morning. There’s mounting evidence that poor sleep hygene can increase ones risk of weight gain. Consuming loads of caffeine, especially late in the day, is about the worst thing one can do their sleep cycle. In all, while caffeine can be a really wonderful drug, and coffee itself looks to have lots of good healthy stuff in it, you’ve gotta take it in moderation, and if you dump lots of fat and sugar into it, you’re pretty much negating any of the beneificial effects of even moderate consumption.
Oh, and can I recommend some green tea instead?
Anything to excess - but many people find a nice coffee after dinner or around evening really nice after a long day - it’s impossible to resist, coffee in the morning is mandatory to become ambulatory, at night it can be enjoyed a little bit more…
Well, one is free to do as they choose, but I’ve never heard of a sleep specialist who didn’t tell people to knock off the evening caffeine consumption, especially 4-6 hours before bedtime.
Splenda has new flavored sweeteners, including one that’s French Vanilla. It might be worth a try for someone wanting a no sugar flavored sweetener.
If I was a sleep specialist, I’d say that too.
Because…it would be your job to dispense helpful information?