Coffee alternative.

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MrsSeager
MrsSeager Posts: 82 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've been on MFP for about 5 weeks, I've lost 6lbs and am happy with the progress. Before I started the journey, I was drinking about 4 cups of coffee a day. Now that I've adjusted my diet, I have a lot more energy and have brought my daily coffee consumption to one cup in the morning. I have my coffee with cream and a couple Splenda, totaling about 148 calories. Every once in a while if I'm up with my kids late at night I'll have a second coffee in the afternoon, coming in at like 90 calories. I want to kick my coffee consumption all together, freeing up those calories for maybe a little more food at dinner or an afternoon snack. My only problem is I feel like I need the caffeine first thing in the morning. Other than drinking it black, what are some other options I should try for a morning pick me up?
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Replies

  • Heather4448
    Heather4448 Posts: 908 Member
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    Chai is a wonderfully tasty tea that most coffe lovers enjoy.
  • vivelajackie
    vivelajackie Posts: 321 Member
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    Have you ever tried different flavored roasts that give you an alternative taste that you may be searching for with creamers? I just used zero calorie sugar to sweeten things up and enjoy private selection's caramel truffle roast. Seconding the chai though. Tasty.
  • MrsSeager
    MrsSeager Posts: 82 Member
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    Great recommendations all! I'll try them out and see which works best for me. Thanks!!
  • amtyrell
    amtyrell Posts: 1,449 Member
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    Coffee itself is not calories dense at all. Can you decrease the amount of cream you add??
  • MrsSeager
    MrsSeager Posts: 82 Member
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    amtyrell wrote: »
    Coffee itself is not calories dense at all. Can you decrease the amount of cream you add??

    I've tried before, I just can't handle the bitterness of it. I'm probably going to try a different roast, something lighter so I use less cream.
  • MrsSeager
    MrsSeager Posts: 82 Member
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    lioness803 wrote: »
    Slowly decrease the amount of stuff you add until the calories are much less. I used to only be able to do super sweet coffee, but now I've gotten myself down to about 1 fluid oz of milk (either regular or unsweetened almond, depending on what I've got) and no sugar/sweetener. Adding any sugar seems sickly sweet to me now.

    I'll try that, thank you!!
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,238 Member
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    MrsSeager wrote: »
    I've been on MFP for about 5 weeks, I've lost 6lbs and am happy with the progress. Before I started the journey, I was drinking about 4 cups of coffee a day. Now that I've adjusted my diet, I have a lot more energy and have brought my daily coffee consumption to one cup in the morning. I have my coffee with cream and a couple Splenda, totaling about 148 calories. Every once in a while if I'm up with my kids late at night I'll have a second coffee in the afternoon, coming in at like 90 calories. I want to kick my coffee consumption all together, freeing up those calories for maybe a little more food at dinner or an afternoon snack. My only problem is I feel like I need the caffeine first thing in the morning. Other than drinking it black, what are some other options I should try for a morning pick me up?

    My way to deal with that was go black no sweetening at all. It took a while to get used to, but now I love it, and can't stand coffee with anything in it because it masks the wonderful tastes of the coffee.
  • rebeccaew11
    rebeccaew11 Posts: 1 Member
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    Is it actually coffee you need or something with the effect (warm, soothing, caffeinated)? I am not sure how much caffeine you are needing, but i do know green tea has caffeine in it. If you can handle that with just splenda that is 0 calories. I find a cup at night instead of coffee for me is much easier on the calorie part. You could even play around with the different teas. Good luck, I know the struggle. i was off coffee for almost a year. now I'm back on it.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    I use a flavored coffee - like french vanilla - add 1/2 cup of vanilla unsweetened almond milk (about 15 calories), a truvia packet and an ounce of sugar free torani syrup in whatever flavor I feel like that day - most flavors have zero calories, a few have 5. I also prefer it iced.
  • MrsSeager
    MrsSeager Posts: 82 Member
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    mattsgirl27 wrote: »
    I can't kick my coffee habit. I used to drink a lot of cream in my coffee. I had more cream than coffee. So I blend the coffee in with my chocolate protein shake. Cafe Mocha. The protein shake takes the place of the cream. I still get my coffee but its healthier for me without the cream and splenda.

    Genius! I have a French vanilla shake for breakfast every morning along with some fruit. Great idea!
  • hoorayselma
    hoorayselma Posts: 127 Member
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    lioness803 wrote: »
    Slowly decrease the amount of stuff you add until the calories are much less. I used to only be able to do super sweet coffee, but now I've gotten myself down to about 1 fluid oz of milk (either regular or unsweetened almond, depending on what I've got) and no sugar/sweetener. Adding any sugar seems sickly sweet to me now.
    I agree

  • ccsernica
    ccsernica Posts: 1,040 Member
    edited April 2017
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    How on earth are you getting 148 calories out of a coffee with cream and Splenda? I use what I think of as a decent amount of half-and-half, about 1.5 tbsp, and it comes out to less than 30.

    I mean, usually we have issues with people underestimating calories, but I wonder if you're not overestimating? This is equivalent to almost half a cup of half-and half! You'd only get 4 servings out of a pint. That can't be right.
  • arrghmatey1
    arrghmatey1 Posts: 91 Member
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    That seems a tad high for coffee. Maybe you should try Coffee Mate and one of the new zero calorie Stevia Blend sweeteners. that would bring a 16 oz cup down to 35 calories and it would be quite sweet. Personally I cant stand Half and Half or Cream anymore just leaves a bad after taste later in the morning
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,925 Member
    edited April 2017
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    The coffee itself, or the Splenda, or any other calorie free sweeteners you use are not the problem.
    The calories are from the cream.

    So all you have to do is reduce the cream!

    You could switch first to milk, then to reduced fat milk, and then reduce the quantity of the reduced fat milk!

    I used to drink my "coffee" with 4 creams and 4 sugars. At the drive through I sometimes "cut down" to "tripple/tripple". I don't even want to think about the calories involved.

    While actively losing weight I slowly reduced what I was putting in my coffee, till I was drinking it black.

    Halfway through I decided that black was a bit too much. While I still prefer my coffee without sweetener I now add 1-2oz of 2% milk per 20oz of coffee. So most of my coffees are now about 35Cal. I drink a few a day... but that's fine ;-)

    Adding coffee to protein drinks is, of course, a great idea if you were going to have a protein drink anyway.
  • rdmitch
    rdmitch Posts: 278 Member
    edited April 2017
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    Its all in the cream your using.
    Coffee with Splenda has like zero calories

    Use a little powdered creamer 1 teaspoon @ 10 calories is almost like drinking water !! You,don't need to
    Give cut it down. I sure am not going to take stuff away that I like that makes the diet unsustainable.
    I do about 10 coffees a day and just log in 1 entry every morning called coffee for 100 cals and I'm good for the
    whole day.
  • dfwesq
    dfwesq Posts: 592 Member
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    I use nonfat milk in my coffee. Or you could use nonfat powdered milk, or nonfat evaporated milk if you want a richer taste. With the milk and sweetener, my morning coffee has about 25 calories.

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