Coffee Problem

  • Anyone else out there have a problem with coffee stalling their weight loss? I am assuming here that it is part of my problem. Not the coffee itself but all the junk I add to it. I like coffee to taste like dessert. I like sweet lattes but don't have a machine at home, so I end up adding half a cup of milk and 3T of creamer (40 cal EACH T) to my cup of coffee which makes it way too many calories to drink.

    I've tried fake sweeteners and can't get it to taste good to me. I have been drinking a big cup of this sweetened coffee each morning and maybe another in the afternoon and then I always want a granola bar or something sweet with it, so this habit is costing me about 400 calories per DAY. Can't afford it.

    I am switching back to tea and going to try to cut back sweeteners on that, too. Will see if that helps my weight loss efforts. If I want a coffee once a week or something, I can get one at Starbucks.
  • I had to really pare down my coffee habit. I used to make coffee the same way you do, and it was costing me a lot calories every day. I got a Keurig (single cup coffee maker) and make individual cups of flavored coffees with one tsp of sugar and 1 tbsp of flavored creamer. 45-65 per cup depending on which creamer I use. It was a hard transition to make, and I had to step down gradually. I went coffee free for awhile until I got the Keurig because I couldn't trust myself at Starbucks.

    Good luck.
  • Sometimes I add almond milk to my coffee (40 cal per cup) It is sweet - I need about 1/2 cup which at only 20 calories is great & I don't need to use sugar or sweeteners.
  • I've used soy milk or rice milk in coffee before, the vanilla or chocolate flavors. I don't use sweeteners any more in my coffee, just 2% milk, and if it's flavored coffee (like the folger's instant hazelnut I find I don't even need milk.
  • my friends adds sugar free hot chocolate mix to hers...
  • I had to scale way back on my sweetened/creamy coffee consumption, in fact, it was one of the first things I did when I began losing weight. I gradually stepped down from 3 tsp. of sugar and a great big splash of heavy cream to 1/2 teaspoon of a sugar/artifical sweetener blend (ends up as the equivalent, in sweetness, of a full teaspoon, but for 8 calories, instead of 16) and a tablespoon (22 calories per) of a buttermilk-based cream substitute. I am willing to blow about 30 calories per cup of coffee (about two per day, depending) because I enjoy it so much, but anything over that, not so much. I made the switch to the lower-calorie cream substitute immediately, and scaled back the sugar 1/2 teaspoon at a time, over a period of a couple of weeks.

    It was easier than I thought it would be, and now I'm at the point where I'm fairly sure coffee the way I used to drink it would make me gag.
  • Have you tried the sugar free Cofee-made? the French vanilla is really good. I find I don't notice the difference taste wise and its only 15 calories per tablespoon.

    There are also a lot of really good flavored coffees out there. I used to drink a mocha truffle one in high school all the time...it came in one of those smaller, freeze-dried packages? No extra calories but you could taste the sweetness.

    If you cut out the afternoon coffee OR both granola bars, would it be worth it? I know that I'm crazy all day without my coffee in the morning, so those calories are worth it, imo. Maybe you could find a way to just work a smaller amount of coffee in and not have to completely give it up
  • I always read about people drinking coffee with little or no sweetener and I can't figure out why it tastes SO BITTER to me like that. I've tried things like Splenda and Truvia. I tried some nice flavored coffees with just milk but they taste so darn bitter. I make my coffee one cup at a time in a french press and I don't brew it too hot or too long. Maybe my taste buds are just "stuck" after decades of eating candy bars... anything else just doesn't taste very sweet.

    Although, there is hope. Two years ago I would GAG trying to drink a cup of green tea. I had to add a tablespoon of sugar to it. Over time I cut back and now drink it unsweetened.
  • My sperm donor of a father drinks 1/2 gallon of coffee creamer per week, full fat. No lie.... it comes in the "coffee lovers" container. Yes, a week being 7 days!
  • I also like my coffee sweet. I switched to Splenda and use the sugar free creamer. 15 cals a tbs, and keeps it sweet enough to enjoy it, but not so sweet I want cup after cup.

    Angie
  • I understand in a teenager way, haha. I used to drink a grande (carmel, strawberries and cream, or pumpkin spice) frap almost every day... it has since then been replaced by an unsweetened iced coffee with soy milk. I've grown to love it.

    as long as you replace it with something you like, substitution is a win win .
  • I don't eat a proper breakfast so I count my coffee creamer calories as my breakfast...lol! It keeps me going most mornings till about 11:30am or so when I start to think about lunch. For me, the coffee is just how I start my morning and have since I was 15 or so, I'm not giving it up now with that kind of time invested in a habit...lol!
  • I switched to dessert tea's! Yum! Celestial seasonings makes a caramel one, chocolate ones, gingerbread spice etc. SO GOOD and so sweet for NO CALORIES!
  • Quote:
    cfmama originally posted
    I switched to dessert tea's! Yum! Celestial seasonings makes a caramel one, chocolate ones, gingerbread spice etc. SO GOOD and so sweet for NO CALORIES!
    OOH that sounds good. I will have to try those.
  • My favorite tea is Yogi Tea's Egyptian Licorice. Not for everybody but I love it and its naturally sweet so you don't need to add sweetner.