Coffee drinking calorie counters..
 

Well, here I am on my first full day of counting calories and I just brewed my morning pot of coffee... now - what do I put in it!?!?? I have equal and International Delight, and skim milk. I am thinking I am going to have to pass on the creamer, but I really love the flavoring.
Any suggestions?

I'm a Calorie Counter and a Coffee Drinker (geez, sounds like I should be opening a 12-Step meeting! :rofl:)

I love my cream. If I had to choose between coffee with cream (real cream, not milk, no flavored stuff, no frothy nonsense, no "dairy cremer", just good, old-fashioned cream) and coffee without, I'd forego the coffee altogether. Coffee without cream just isn't worth the hassle.

I count the calories in the cream as part of my daily intake. As a calorie counter, nothing is "off-limits" to me. No foods are "bad". The calories (fat and all) are included in my daily Fitday recordings and just get incorporated into my daily totals. If I used sugar (I don't -- I use Splenda), I'd record those calories, too.

To me, it's all a matter of how you want to spend your calorie budget. I choose to spend a portion on cream. Other folks may not feel that's a worthwhile expenditure, but it makes me happy :).

I feel the same way about the cream. I will not have my coffee without half and half, otherwise I don't want it. I've tried fat free milk and the powder, but it just isn't the same. If I were you, I wouldn't give up what you put in your coffee. Just pay attention to how much you put in.

I'd skip the International Delight, or switch to a sugar free version (I believe they are available) unless it's the reason you are drinking coffee in the first place. But make sure you get your measuring spoons out and measure it, do not eyeball it or you may end up with a 1/4 cup (or more) of creamer. I just gave it up completely and use 2 ts non-dairy creamer and 3 packets of artificial sweetner. Remember, each packet has 4 calories, so if you drink a lot of coffee, it can really add up. If I had 8 cups of my coffee a day, I'd be taking in an extra 256 calories a day.

International Delight has 40 calories per tablespoon and if you use 2 packets of Equal, and 1/8 cup of skim milk, your cup of coffee has 58 calories in it. And if you have a pot a day, that is an extra 464 calories a day!!! And it's almost 3500 calories a week, which *ta da*, is a pound of weight lost or gained. I'll just advise you to take it easy on the creamer.

Happy first day!!!!!

Whoa - equal is 4 calories a pack!??!??? I thought it was calorie free??? I went ahead and had my coffee minus the ID, just with skim milk and equal.... at 2 packets a cup for 3 cups --- so that is 24 calories just in sweetener :mad: This is why calorie counting so hard for me because I feel like I totally freak out over 24 calories...


****UPDATE****
I looked up the calorie count on Equal brand sweetener and it has 0 calories per packet.

Actually the FDA allows anything under 5 calories to be listed as 0 calories ~ it's viewed as an insignificant amount of calories. Just ask the low carb girls ~ you've got to count the packets as 1 gram of carb, because there are carbs in there. It's like .88 carbs, and the food labels count it as less than 1 carb as well. (Look on the packets, it's right on there) And it's 4 calories per packet (remember one gram of carbohydrate equals 4 calories, so technically, it's probably more like 3.8 calories). I'm about 98% positive (I've read it in many places).

And a note on trans fat ~ the FDA allows it to be listed as 0 if its under 1 g of trans fat, because trans fat is actually in non dairy creamer, because it has partially hydrogenated soybean oil in it, and ANYTHING partially hydrogenated has trans fat in it, regardless of what the label says. I personally think some of the FDA's rules and regulations need to be reformed. And food companies know how to use the flimsy rules to their adavantage.

From the FDA website : Free. This term means that a product contains no amount of, or only trivial or "physiologically inconsequential" amounts of, one or more of these components: fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, sugars, and calories. For example, "calorie-free" means fewer than 5 calories per serving.

*edited*

All this is why, years ago, I learned to drink my coffee black! :) I do like to have a latte (ff milk of course) several times a week, but to me it's more like the milk with coffee flavor than coffee with milk. :shrug:

I drink coffee with skim milk now (used to be 2% a long time ago). I do like cream but save it for special occasions.

I also did not realize the calories in equal, but harpochicogroucho IS right.

In my calorie counting, I am not striving for absolute accuracy. I figure it's impossible to do. I am looking for accountability... so I'm too bothered by the 16 calories a day -- actually, I think there are other place I over-estimate, so it probably works out in the end. However, now that I know about this, I'm actually going to make the change so it's logged with my coffee in Nutridiary.

That being said, I typically have 4 packs of equal a day, for a total of 16 calories. I haven't been logging it, but it doesn't seem to have been a problem in my weight loss.

Edited to add: Oh, if anyone's interested, according to nutridiary, coffee itself is not calorie free -- 10 oz has about 3 calories...

Yes, I have been using fitday and it also informed me that coffee has calories... :(
What I did today was brew a smaller pot, use a smaller cup, and start off with 1 packet of sweetener and 1T of creamer and no milk, when I got half way through my tiny little cup I refilled it and adding nothing else. I kept doing it until the pot was gone. I added only 2 more packets of sweetener and no more creamer.... It worked pretty well. And since I had the first half of the cup at full strength I didn't feel deprived.;)
Thanks for the good info about the deceitful FDA LYING about the calorie count on things!:devil:

i used to have up to 6 coffee's a day - nearly half milk, half coffee. very milky.

i managed to reduce that down to about 3 and have now replaced those coffee's with black and green teas and herbal teas.

thoroughly recommend getting looseleaf teas and an individual infuser - it tastes so much better than tea bags. i found i don't even need anything to sweeten the black tea either. believe me, i was surprised.

give it a go - you might surprise yourself ;)

I will not give up my hazelnut creamer. No way, no how, no chance. And I don't want the sugar free or fat free; I want the real enchilada. And I have it, every morning. That is the one thing I will not give up. And if that keeps me fat, then doggone it, I will just have to stay fat, because I will give up the chocolate, the ice cream, the pizza, the hoagies, the pie, but hazelnut creamer? ? ? That's where I draw the line. It is staying. I need it, and I'm worth it. :D :D :D

I whole-heartily agree with you, mudbugs. I love my creamer. I like the International (I think its that one) Southern Pecan. I will NOT give that up. I'm not a daily coffee drinker anyways, but when I do drink it, I go for the REAL stuff. I do use Sweet N Low though. ;)

:D :D :D

I know it is not the same as cream, but I like sugar-free (sweetened with splenda) Torani syrups like you see at coffee shops and are sold at places like Cost Plus World Market and some grocery stores. The syrups have 0 calories and give the coffee a sweetened flavored taste. There are many different flavors to choose from so you don't get tired of just one. However, these won't satisfy if you really need the creamy taste and texture. Best of luck from a fellow coffee fanatic!

Also, most stores carry ff half and half these days. I know that doesn't really make any sense that half and half should have no fat, but it only has 20cal per serving. It tastes fairly good if not quite as good as the original.

Try torani sugar-free syrup (comes in a variety of flavors) and some low-carb 2% milk. Also try Hershey's sugar-free chocolate sauce (although its nasty on its own, you may like it in coffee) and I would definatly reccomend diet hot cocoa mix. Not just "no sugar added", because thats still 60 cals a packet. Diet swiss miss is just 25 cals a packet, zero fat, and works as both a creamer and a flavorer. Your morning mocha may be less creamy than usual with it, but still a pretty good pretty chocolaty mocha. Good luck!