[goal4agirl]

Hi, I just love to drink coffee. It helps control my appetite and it gives me a little charge when I drink it. I'm drinking 4 large mugs a day. I have tried and tried to drink it without sugar. But I just love the way sugar taste in it. I was reading on a bag of sugar a teaspoon has 35 calories. So I am using 6 teaspoons of sugar daily. Even though I am counting the calories from the sugar and the creamer, and I am losing weight I just wish I wasn't consuming this much sugar. I'm making healthy choices in everything I do now and the sugar thing makes me feel guilty. Also I'm only losing about 1 Lb. a week and the sugar could be keeping me from losing 2 lbs. a week. I don't like artificial sweetners. So what do you think?

[Creeech]

I have the same problem! Black coffee is too bitter/acidic for my taste

I've resorted to drinking tea with light Agave nectar.. it's low on the glycemic index so it's processed differently than table sugar. Another idea is buying sugar free flavored coffee creamers..my favorite is International Delight French Vanilla.. it comes in regular, sugar free, and fat free. They have tons to choose from!

-Stephy

[Vladadog]

Maybe you could cut down to less sugar?

But really, even though no sugar or less sugar would be ideal if you are otherwise making healthy choices and you are still losing weight then I say, enjoy your coffee. You have to have some special treats in your life and sugar in your coffee is a better choice than a lot of treats.

[ShellydeFlores]

You know, I had the same problem. As someone responded earlier, International Delight does have a SF creamer-French Vanilla that is very good. I am addicted to coffee, although I don't think as much as you, in the morning. A friend from work got me hooked on adding vanilla almond milk to my coffee with a teaspoon of sugar a while back. Its interesting the first time--if you like milk in your coffee. Anyway, I have since then switch to Splenda which I don't notice a difference with. Then again, I could just be use to it. It helped me out a lot as I too like the sweeter taste in my morning cup.

Either way, if you can't give it up then I agree with Vladadog--enjoy it. You are still losing and if you just can't give up the sugar then adjust your intake in other aspects of your diet.

Good luck!

[Rosinante]

The sugar isn't stopping you, just your calorie total. All you need to do is save 200 calories somewhere else, and you can carry on enjoying your coffee.

[tinycities]

Honestly, if you love coffee and enjoy the taste of it sweetened with sugar, I wouldn't be too worried about keeping that up. As you say, you're already making other healthy choices, and you don't want to deprive yourself of something you really enjoy that you're not consuming in extreme amounts anyway. I also hate artificial sweetners (to be honest I dislike "diet"/low-fat versions of pretty much everything!).

As Vladadog says, perhaps you could see about cutting down ever-so-slighly on the amount of sugar you add. I used to always add sugar to tea and coffee, and now I never have sugar in my tea (in fact I dislike it!), and I have only a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar in my coffee (and am happy to have it with none). If you cut down the amount very gradually, you may actually find you prefer it slightly less sweetened.

Perhaps another thing you could try is less refined sugar. I use demerera sugar in my coffee which has only 15 calories in a teaspoon. I think in the US, this sugar is called natural brown sugar, it's a fairly coarse, granular brown sugar, it's slightly refined but not nearly as much as white sugar, and there's nothing added to it or anything like that. It's not the sort of "brown sugar" which is basically white refined sugar coloured with molasses. I love the taste of this in coffee!

[Beverlyjoy]

I like Stevia - no calories and a good sweetener.

I like flavored coffee - you get the good flavor of a creamers with out the calories.

Flavored coffee + stevia = happy coffee drinker...few calories.

However, if you can fit it in your daily total and sugar isn't a trigger food - then it works.

[Amy9]

Coming from a previous light & Sweet Lover... I first switched over to powdered fat free milk to lighten my coffee. Kept my sugar the same. Then started reducing my sugar. Now I drink it with just powdered milk and it is very dark. Your palate does change.

[Terre]

I drink 5 cups every morning. I have for 19 years lol. When I started my lifestyle change I switched my sugar to splenda and my creamer to fat free. That way there is no reason for me not to drink it....

[goal4agirl]

Thank you all for the advice. I am really going to try to begin to decrease the amount of sugar I use in each mug. When I did the google search on sugar substitutes are they safe...the biggest point was use these in moderation. This is what messed me up with even wanting to use these. I am afraid 4 large mugs a day + the teaspoon I use in my morning grits, etc. is not moderate.
I got some good ideas to try from your posts. I will be tring some of these. Thank you!