Watch Those Coffee Calories
It occurred to me, when I started dieting about three months ago to take off about ten to fifteen excess pounds that had been haunting me after the loooong holiday season I’d indulged in for 2008, that my morning coffee may be packing more calories than I thought, or at least that my morning coffee, which only consisted of one cup, may be setting me up for a day of diet sabotage right from the beginning, not just because of any additional sugars or carbs I was taking in that had no nutritional or “burn off” value, but also because of a little know fact about coffee and caffeinated products that may sabotage a lot of people’s weight loss efforts, especially if you drink a lot of it.
My initial concern though, was that the extra sugar and calorie intake may b ehurting my diet and weight loss endeavors. I thought that even though they say coffee is a natural appetite suppressant for some, even though it may slightly suppress the appetite WHILE you’re drinking it, it may actually increase you appetite immediately afterwards, even more so than if you hadn’t drank it at all, making you want bad foods, and lots of calories all day long. Turns out I’m sort of right about that, but it really depends on the person .
And by the way, I still have my one cup many times in the morning, but I do skip it a few days a week, in interest of saving my skin which doesn’t react well to lots of caffeine, and I’ve still lost ten pounds, although I do wonder if I may have lost more if I hadn’t indulged in that cup several times a week, it seems petty to worry about every single little life pleasure if it isn’t impacting you too terribly.
Coffee, and other caffeinated products, it turns out, actually raise the levels of cortisol in the blood stream. Actually, most stimulant type products do this. This raising level of cortisol is counterproductive to weight loss, since cortisol is a major reason behind fat storage and additional calorie intake, since this stress hormone actually makes us more hungry believe it or not. So, the sugar and extra calories really have less bearing on your weight than the cortisol content and the effects on the stress hormones that coffee may have.
However, if you’re one of those people who loves to load up your morning coffee with sweet syrups, lots of sugar, or full fat heavy creams that contain a lot of fat content as well as calorie density due their richness and thickness. Also beware those “lattes” and foofoo coffee drinks. Many of those machiatoes and other sugary drinks that you see that taste fantastic and like a dessert at Starbucks or your other local coffee shop can pack up to 500 calories and lots of fat and sugar. I can think of a lot of actual food items I’d rather eat than drinking 500 calories, I know that!
