Coffee alternative.

MrsSeager

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?

Heather4448

Chai is a wonderfully tasty tea that most coffe lovers enjoy.

janjunie

I couldn't give up coffee, maybe if someone paid me I'd consider it, but for my sanity I NEED coffee. Personally I'd cut back on the creamer. Liquid coffee mate has 56 calories for .8 oz and there are a tonne of flavours, so you don't really need a sweetener.

gamerbabe14

2tbsps of half and half is 40 calories. I think this is totally reasonable. If you don't add any sweetener then your morning joe is only 45 calories. I have about 2.5 cups a day and can keep my coffee calories to under 100. Because I loveeeeeee coffee.

vivelajackie

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

Great recommendations all! I'll try them out and see which works best for me. Thanks!!

amtyrell

Coffee itself is not calories dense at all. Can you decrease the amount of cream you add??

MrsSeager

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.

lioness803

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.

MrsSeager

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

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

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

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.

mattsgirl27

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.

MrsSeager

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

TxTiffani

Unsweetened Cashew milk for the win:) Its way creamier than almond milk and only 25 cals for a whole cup! I drink that and splenda in my coffee:)

bbell1985

Sorry if you're using splenda that's a lot of cream calories. Try 2 tablespoons...that's a serving. Whoa!

MoiAussi93

ccsernica wrote: »

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.

She's not overestimating. She doesn't use half & half...she uses actual cream which is about 50 calories per tablespoon. I'm assuming she takes 3 tablespoons...which is a lot of cream.

I like cream, but I don't like to use THAT much because it makes the coffee too rich.

MoiAussi93

SPlenda is zero calories, the cream is your problem.

You can switch to half & half or gradually reduce the cream every week until you get it down to one tablespoon or even less as your tastes adapt. You can try whole milk...but I feel like it just waters the coffee down, so I personally don't like it that way. You may be different.

There are a lot of non-dairy creamers with artificial sweeteners that are very low or zero calories. You can try those as well.

Lots of options out there.

Luna3386

Yeah, 4 calories per packet of splenda. Cream adds up fast. I struggle with some coffee types being too bitter. I like dunkin donuts.

Or, I drink ON nutrition amino energy. 10 calories with bcaas (protein) and as much caffeine as coffee (or close). Tastes delicious too. I like fruit punch. I buy it on Amazon. I use this for my lunch time pick me up. I also travel with it in case our location either doesn't have coffee or has unpalatable coffee, or no Splenda (nothing else cuts the bitterness).

bbell1985

So there's half and half and then there's...heavy whipping cream? Is that what she's using?

ccsernica

MoiAussi93 wrote: »

SPlenda is zero calories, the cream is your problem.

You can switch to half & half or gradually reduce the cream every week until you get it down to one tablespoon or even less as your tastes adapt. You can try whole milk...but I feel like it just waters the coffee down, so I personally don't like it that way. You may be different.

There are a lot of non-dairy creamers with artificial sweeteners that are very low or zero calories. You can try those as well.

Lots of options out there.

I gave the numbers above for half-and-half, assuming "cream" wasn't what was technically meant any more than "cup" meant exactly 8 oz of coffee. But even if we're talking heavy cream, you need over 1/8 cup to get this many calories out of it. (3 tbsp to be more or less precise.) I find it hard to believe anyone really uses that much, particularly if it's heavy cream.

I'd like to know how OP is measuring the "cream" added and what exactly she means by "cream". Because folks are talking as if this makes sense when they suggest alternatives -- some of which are actually more caloric than half-and-half -- and as far as I can see it just doesn't.

voldemortisreal

I've actually switched from "regular" coffee to espresso. I, surprisingly, found it less bitter (for my taste) and more palatable in terms of only adding almond milk.

Oh, and I completely agree with hiding it in breakfast shakes too. Tomorrow: 1x Cookie Dough Halo Top, 2x Espresso, 1x protein powder and 2c unsweetened almond milk w/ice.

ETA: coffee is life.

MrsSeager

I usually just eyeball the amount of cream I put in, I know if you go to Dunkins a regular coffee has 4 cream and 4 sugars. So when I did my stats i just put in that I was taking 4 servings of coffee mate coconut cream. I took some time tonight and actually measured (!) and found that to get the "color" I like takes two servings, not 4..so I've been overestimating. I'm going to switch to a lighter roast and slowly will cut back the cream. Hopefully I'll get to the point where I can eliminate it all together! Thanks for all the support!

victoria_1024

I use a flavored coffee and unsweetened almond milk with a sugar free caramel syrup. Mmmm! I prefer cold brew so I usually have it iced. It's like 20-30 calories totally depending on how much I drink.