3 month NO Coffee experiment results...

When I first started on this journey, I stopped (cold turkey) many many things. One of them was coffee drinking. I had been a coffee-aholic and junkie for more than 20 years. I loved coffee so much and was totally hooked on it. I liked to drink my coffee loaded with flavored creams. So, as of January 20th, 2012 I stopped drinking it cold turkey (and had no withdrawals, cravings, nothing). One reason I hesitated to stop drinking it sooner (because it was so so addictive to me), was the "fear' of withdrawals i'd always heard/read about. No such thing happened to me. When I was a coffee fiend, it made me lose my appetite and I was never really hungry--would skip breakfast, lunch and pig out on dinner and craved greasy, fried, junk foods. When I stopped drinking coffee, and started eating and drinking healthy stuff--BAM, the cravings for these other things disappeared as well.

I would on average drink 4-5 8+ ounces of coffee a day and at night too.

Okay, fast foward 3+ month. I restarted drinking coffee again last month. I'd have one cup per day with no where near the amount of flavored cream I used to drink--but with flavored cream. Here's what I've noted:

1.) my body fat percentage has gone up tremendously, in just one month. My body fat percentage when I first started was 44-47% consistently that high.

When I stoppped drinking coffee and started eating better, it went down in a few/2+ months from 47% to 30-31% body fat. From one month of restarting coffee drinking (still eating and exercising fabulously otherwise), my body fat percentage has gone up from a super consistent 30-31% to 32-34% IN JUST ONE MONTH:noway:

2.) this coffee is killing my appetite once again. Now, this may sound "good" on the surface--but it's HORRIBLE, because it causes me to severely under eat and a vicious cycle of starving-overeating-starving:sick:

3.) Coffee drinking for just this month is changing my "mood" I find myself "craving" coffee at night (I haven't drank any, but craving it) and find myself short tempered/more impatient than the past 3 month of kicking it to the curb.

4.) Before I started this lifestyle journey and kicking coffee, I used to have joint pain in my hands. When I kicked the coffee habit for 3 months straight, the joint pain in my hands completely disappeared...it's BACK again, now that I'm drinking a cup of coffee daily.

5.) The worse for last...I'm noticing my stomach is getting fatter again. My size 14's now still fit, but I'm having muffin top that has severely gone down since starting this journey in January and kicking coffee. BEFORE last month, my stomach has decreased something fabulous. Lost many many inches in my waist & stomach area. The UGLY FAT that remained was NOT as "squishly" or soft as it was when I was a regular coffee junkie. Now, as of today...it's (my tummy/waist area) is once again getting soft and yucky feeling again, instead of more solid as it was getting in the 3 months of NO COFFEE with CREAM:noway: :sad:

Conclusion:

#$$%^&!!@#$%^^&*()):frown: (*^^%$# :sick: COFEE :grumble: & :explode: Cream:devil:

I had a cup this morning...but after today's cup--I'm giving up coffee FOR GOOD and will not return to it like I did for this month.
Everyone is different, but I wanted to post this as an NSV and perhaps a warning...maybe some of your issues are stemming from coffee and cream/sugar consumption too--maybe not, but just FYI!

Replies

roxerella

The body fat increase is interesting. I love coffee, but I just drink one a day. I recently went to see a nutritionist about getting some hormone tests done and she advised me to drink no coffee what so ever for the month leading up to the tests. She said it doesn't affect everyone but it can cause a hormone imbalance in some people that results in the body holding onto excess fat.

angeliis02

The body fat info is fascinating.

I can't say I love coffee because though I love to drink it I generally have so much flavored creamer and sugar in it you can't really taste the coffee. I've been trying to cut back but I do have the side effects, the headaches from caffeine withdrawal are rough! I'm down to a few cups on Sunday mornings when we go out for breakfast and maybe one day of having some instant coffee crystals shook up in my protein shake (it tastes like an iced mocha.) I want to cut it completely though.

myfitnessnmhoy

I'm addicted to my coffee, but I drink it black. It may be interfering with my weight loss, but it's not something I'm willing to give up for the rest of my life, so I'm going to lose weight under the same conditions I intend to maintain the weight loss with (beer, wine, and coffee most emphatically included, though all cut back during the process in proportion with the rest of my calories).

I urge everyone to take your weight loss phase as a great opportunity to experiment with things and design your permanent lifestyle. If giving up coffee works for you and you intend to do it for life, then that's great! But understand that once you're at your goal and switch to maintenance, if you go back to your old way of eating you'll go back to your old way of weighing. You're giving up coffee for life, and that seems to work well for you.

Giving up something "while you lose weight" is generally counterproductive. I'm not saying at all that this is what YOU are doing, just warning others that during the weight loss phase you are well-served by taking the opportunity to experiment like this but also keeping in mind what you want your lifestyle to look like when on maintenance, and not to plan on some huge change between "losing weight" and "maintaining weight".

myfitnessnmhoy

The body fat info is fascinating.

I can't say I love coffee because though I love to drink it I generally have so much flavored creamer and sugar in it you can't really taste the coffee. I've been trying to cut back but I do have the side effects, the headaches from caffeine withdrawal are rough! I'm down to a few cups on Sunday mornings when we go out for breakfast and maybe one day of having some instant coffee crystals shook up in my protein shake (it tastes like an iced mocha.) I want to cut it completely though.

I've actually given up coffee several times, but keep coming back to it. I've decided that I'm off that wagon for a long time, because I love my coffee too much.

The headaches are insane, agreed. Cut back on it slowly and you'll have lower-grade headaches for a longer time, or cold-turkey it and you'll have more intense headaches for a shorter period of time. Watch out for "headache"-specific pain meds, many contain 65mg or so of caffeine, so you're just changing your source of caffeine temporarily, which is NOT helpful! Plain ibuprofen seems to work best for me, as it is in anti-inflammatory and seems to mitigate the headaches for me considerably.

If it's a flavor thing, Celestial Seasonings makes a caffeine-free tea that tastes very much like regular tea. For some reason, quitting tea is easier for me and I've heard that from several other people. So try switching from coffee to tea, then making the tea weaker and weaker, then switch to the Celestial Seasonings stuff to keep the flavor consistent. I used that technique the last time and there was almost no pain involved.

KarensCanDoIt

interesting. I too have cut down on coffee tremendously. I still have a cup at breakfast and a cup at lunch.
Have you heard anything about Tea? Does it also have a similar effect on weight ?

Nikkilynn32710

Very interesting facts of the body fat %. I drink 1-2 cups every morning with sugar free creamer and a zero calorie sweetener. I was terrible with drinking it for awhile like you as well and with the full fat flavored creamers too. A friend turned me to the sugar free and i have actually found out I like it

and I'm not drinking a whole pot like I once was. But thanks for the heads up. Its interesting to see how coffee affects everyone differently!

roxerella

interesting. I too have cut down on coffee tremendously. I still have a cup at breakfast and a cup at lunch.
Have you heard anything about Tea? Does it also have a similar effect on weight ?

According to the lady I spoke to tea does not have the same affect. She said it is not the caffeine that reacts with the hormones but something else in the coffee. That scuppered my plan of moving onto decaf!

NewLIFEstyle4ME

The body fat info is fascinating.

I can't say I love coffee because though I love to drink it I generally have so much flavored creamer and sugar in it you can't really taste the coffee. I've been trying to cut back but I do have the side effects, the headaches from caffeine withdrawal are rough! I'm down to a few cups on Sunday mornings when we go out for breakfast and maybe one day of having some instant coffee crystals shook up in my protein shake (it tastes like an iced mocha.) I want to cut it completely though.

...
***********************
The headaches are insane, agreed. Cut back on it slowly and you'll have lower-grade headaches for a longer time, or cold-turkey it and you'll have more intense headaches for a shorter period of time. Watch out for "headache"-specific pain meds, many contain 65mg or so of caffeine, so you're just changing your source of caffeine temporarily, which is NOT helpful! Plain ibuprofen seems to work best for me, as it is in anti-inflammatory and seems to mitigate the headaches for me considerably.
*********************

If it's a flavor thing, Celestial Seasonings makes a caffeine-free tea that tastes very much like regular tea. For some reason, quitting tea is easier for me and I've heard that from several other people. So try switching from coffee to tea, then making the tea weaker and weaker, then switch to the Celestial Seasonings stuff to keep the flavor consistent. I used that technique the last time and there was almost no pain involved.

THIS was my main fear in not giving up or even cutting back on coffee for years. I was terrified of the dreaded withdrawals and "headaches" because I HATE headaches with a passion! I want to emphasize that this did NOT happen to me AT ALL. I experience ZERO withdrawals, cravings or anything negative at all. So, everyone is different, but with all the coffee and cream I consumed with reckless abandon, you'd think my poor head would EXPLODE with headaches and pain...but NOPE. No negative nor painful withdrawals for me AT ALL. Just FYI.

MontagneGitane

Very interesting. I love coffee. I don't drink it sweetened, but I have definitely found that when I cut back on coffee and drink green tea instead, I lose more weight. I think you've got me intrigued enough to give it up for a month and see what happens. I hate to think of giving it up entirely, but if it's interfering with my weight loss, it's gotta go.

awandell

So funny, I recently introduced coffee back into my diet and am noticing similar side effects. Today I've begun cutting it out again. I call coffee my "gateway drug" because it seems to be the catalyst for my eating things and amounts of things I have no business eating. Hoping you'll begin to feel better and lose easier once that coffee is kicked to the curb. I guess there's no denying that it just can't be a regular part of daily life for us. I may allow it once a week or a few times a month, but the daily intake only has poor effects on my health.

jconnon

Very interesting. I love coffee. I don't drink it sweetened, but I have definitely found that when I cut back on coffee and drink green tea instead, I lose more weight. I think you've got me intrigued enough to give it up for a month and see what happens. I hate to think of giving it up entirely, but if it's interfering with my weight loss, it's gotta go.

I think I will try the same thing. I drink my coffee black but probably 6 or more cups every morning.

NewLIFEstyle4ME

interesting. I too have cut down on coffee tremendously. I still have a cup at breakfast and a cup at lunch.
Have you heard anything about Tea? Does it also have a similar effect on weight ?

When I kicked coffee to the curb I also kicked tea to the curb as well, about a few weeks before I started redrinking coffee (and like someone here said...I liked my cream with a little coffee, in other words, my coffees were loaded with flavored creams (aka sugar), so the "coffee taste" was very much hidden. Anyhoo, before I restarted drinking coffee last month, I restarted drinking teas.
Mind you, only the BEST teas. Aveda, Yogi, herbal teas--and as I think of it...I now believe my "innocent" and EXCELLENT tea drinking is what help create my desire for coffee...hmmmmmm!

I'm giving up (for LIFE) tea drinking too. For me, I see (after reading this post), that it's my "healthy restarting of drinking EXCELLENT teas" that instigated me to restart coffee. Everyone is different though--just posting my personal observations and experiences. Important Note; my restarting wonderful teas i would have plain. no sugar, honey, NO SWEETENERS nor anything AT ALL, JUST the teas.

pbl1966

Very interesting, I had pretty much also given up coffee and was drinking tea in the mornings but in the last month I found myself drinking it almost daily and had picked up 2 pounds and belly fat seems worse. I am at maintenance but don't want to be putting on 2 lbs a month! I am also putting my coffee maker away and going back to tea!

purplep41n

I've recently decided to cut the amount of coffee I drink a day. I was drinking up to 7 cups of strong instant coffee a day and it felt like I had a weird cage around my head, if you can imagine it - a cage version of when you feel like you have a wooly head.

I'm a bit imaginative by the way if that sounds even remotely weird

Brunner26_2

Has your weight increased in this time?

MotherOfTheBlade

Kinda off topic but I have been a migraine sufferer for several years ( was having approx 3 a month). I cut caffeine out of my diet and I no longer suffer from migraines (I have had one bad headache in several months). Maybe an added incentive for any migraine sufferers.

Absidey

I started drinking coffee everyday in January when my job hit a stress bubble, keeping me awake at night, and I've been on a weightloss plateau since then. (Before that, I drank coffee only when I'd stayed up way too late - once a month or less.) I've been reading some very interesting things about caffeine, cortisol and body fat (none of it good), but still skeptical about how much of a difference it'd really make. I haven't been able to kick the habit, but I think this post will help me put down the mug! Thanks for sharing!

SweatpantsRebellion

Wow. Thanks for posting. I'm going to do more reading. I didn't realize coffee could have such a huge impact on hormones. I struggled with infertility when we tried to have baby #2. I ended up having to supplement with progesterone to keep baby #2 growing. I didn't realize that my coffee could be contributing to the estrogen/progesterone imbalance in my body. Hmmmm...I've already cut back to half a pot in the morning - so I drink 5 cups now instead of 10. I might try to wean down even further. I have considered switching to mate in the past. I will have to look into that and see if there's any side effects of mate that I wouldn't want. For me it's about long-term health. Switching out of daily coffee would be hard, but if it's going to help my endocrine system function better (I'm already hypothyroid, so I need all the help I can get), it would be worth it to me to make this change and then maybe just have a latte every now and then for a treat.

NewLIFEstyle4ME

Has your weight increased in this time?

Hmmmmm, Most EXCELLENT question!

Interestingly enough (and I'm grateful I posted this, because all kinds of stuff is swimming around my head now), I was SUPER CONSISTENTLY losing scale weight (.02, 04., .06, .08) on a regular basis. Then BAM! Nothing...Nothing for about a month:mad:
I was still eating super well and exercising and doing everything the same EXCEPT...I started drinking herbal teas around that time---(SUPER hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm:frown: ). I figured I needed to up my calories and around that time...I STARTED REDRINKING THAT BLASTED COFFEE AGAIN. I did indeed gain weight, as a matter of fact, I gain 5+ pounds and attributed it to the extra calories I was eating. This is something to SELAH (pause and meditate upon) about.

Thank you for posting this question!!!!!!!

NewLIFEstyle4ME

So funny, I recently introduced coffee back into my diet and am noticing similar side effects. Today I've begun cutting it out again. I call coffee my "gateway drug" because it seems to be the catalyst for my eating things and amounts of things I have no business eating. Hoping you'll begin to feel better and lose easier once that coffee is kicked to the curb. I guess there's no denying that it just can't be a regular part of daily life for us. I may allow it once a week or a few times a month, but the daily intake only has poor effects on my health.

Hmmmmmmm..."gateway drug"--THAT'S DEEP!!!!!!!!

gomisskellygo

Coffee junkie-BUMP

NewLIFEstyle4ME

I'm addicted to my coffee, but I drink it black. It may be interfering with my weight loss, but it's not something I'm willing to give up for the rest of my life, so I'm going to lose weight under the same conditions I intend to maintain the weight loss with (beer, wine, and coffee most emphatically included, though all cut back during the process in proportion with the rest of my calories).

I urge everyone to take your weight loss phase as a great opportunity to experiment with things and design your permanent lifestyle. If giving up coffee works for you and you intend to do it for life, then that's great! But understand that once you're at your goal and switch to maintenance, if you go back to your old way of eating you'll go back to your old way of weighing. You're giving up coffee for life, and that seems to work well for you.

Giving up something "while you lose weight" is generally counterproductive. I'm not saying at all that this is what YOU are doing, just warning others that during the weight loss phase you are well-served by taking the opportunity to experiment like this but also keeping in mind what you want your lifestyle to look like when on maintenance, and not to plan on some huge change between "losing weight" and "maintaining weight".

Fabulous post and advice--Thank you!!!!! So much:flowerforyou:

cjwalker81

I usually only drink 1 - 8oz cup, sometimes 2...it does the same, curbs my appetite, but maybe its the culprit behind alot of other things. I am putting the coffee down too!!! Picking up extra water! I hope it helps me like it did you!!

jcgrant43

@OP Great post! I love people who keep records of what they've done, and what changes have occurred as a result. Isn't self experimentation a great thing? I'm a huge coffee drinker in the mornings, and green tea in the afternoons. I'm going to try switching completely to green tea for a month, just to experiment on myself.

Thanks so much for this post! :bigsmile:

NewLIFEstyle4ME

I usually only drink 1 - 8oz cup, sometimes 2...it does the same, curbs my appetite, but maybe its the culprit behind alot of other things. I am putting the coffee down too!!! Picking up extra water! I hope it helps me like it did you!!

Fabulous post--know why???????

I just thought about this as I was reading your post. I've never been a "water" fan, but substituted water for my soda, store bought juices and coffee, tea habit/fiend-dom...although I haven't had any soda since January nor store bought juice. Now that I think about it--my tea & coffee drinking has definitely interferred with my water drinking. Whereas BEFORE I restarted the coffee (and even excellent herbal teas), I would CRAVE water. Now I don't. Now I have to force myself to drink water like BEFORE I started this lifestyle change. I never thought about that, until I read your comment. THANK YOU so much, you ROCK!

littlepinkhearts

wow i'm surprised with the belly fat observation also. I quit coffee for the last 4 or 5 days, just cause my comsumption was gettin outta hand again and now that you mention it, it actually coincided with my stomach fat decreasing. Now yesterday morning I went out and got one to kill the headache I felt coming on from withdrawal. It killed the headache, but since then i'm stuck with this middle chub again. Definately looking into it further...

NewLIFEstyle4ME

@OP Great post! I love people who keep records of what they've done, and what changes have occurred as a result. Isn't self experimentation a great thing? I'm a huge coffee drinker in the mornings, and green tea in the afternoons. I'm going to try switching completely to green tea for a month, just to experiment on myself.

Thanks so much for this post! :bigsmile:

My pleasure and you're welcomed. I'm ever learning and this thread is helping me too--so THANK YOU as well:flowerforyou:

BCsurvivor1962

I have replaced my 2 cups in the morning coffee routine with fresh squeezed 1/2 lemon in 24 oz of water with 2 splenda packets. I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!

Doing this was easy and I had no cravings for coffee and no side effects

myfitnessnmhoy

interesting. I too have cut down on coffee tremendously. I still have a cup at breakfast and a cup at lunch.
Have you heard anything about Tea? Does it also have a similar effect on weight ?

According to the lady I spoke to tea does not have the same affect. She said it is not the caffeine that reacts with the hormones but something else in the coffee. That scuppered my plan of moving onto decaf!

I've heard the same thing, and I had a few friends switch to some form of caffeinated tea for their caf-fix. It did seem to work for them, more or less. So it's certainly worth a try.

myfitnessnmhoy

The body fat info is fascinating.

I can't say I love coffee because though I love to drink it I generally have so much flavored creamer and sugar in it you can't really taste the coffee. I've been trying to cut back but I do have the side effects, the headaches from caffeine withdrawal are rough! I'm down to a few cups on Sunday mornings when we go out for breakfast and maybe one day of having some instant coffee crystals shook up in my protein shake (it tastes like an iced mocha.) I want to cut it completely though.

...
***********************
The headaches are insane, agreed. Cut back on it slowly and you'll have lower-grade headaches for a longer time, or cold-turkey it and you'll have more intense headaches for a shorter period of time. Watch out for "headache"-specific pain meds, many contain 65mg or so of caffeine, so you're just changing your source of caffeine temporarily, which is NOT helpful! Plain ibuprofen seems to work best for me, as it is in anti-inflammatory and seems to mitigate the headaches for me considerably.
*********************

If it's a flavor thing, Celestial Seasonings makes a caffeine-free tea that tastes very much like regular tea. For some reason, quitting tea is easier for me and I've heard that from several other people. So try switching from coffee to tea, then making the tea weaker and weaker, then switch to the Celestial Seasonings stuff to keep the flavor consistent. I used that technique the last time and there was almost no pain involved.

THIS was my main fear in not giving up or even cutting back on coffee for years. I was terrified of the dreaded withdrawals and "headaches" because I HATE headaches with a passion! I want to emphasize that this did NOT happen to me AT ALL. I experience ZERO withdrawals, cravings or anything negative at all. So, everyone is different, but with all the coffee and cream I consumed with reckless abandon, you'd think my poor head would EXPLODE with headaches and pain...but NOPE. No negative nor painful withdrawals for me AT ALL. Just FYI.

That's good to know.

Sadly, for a lot of us, there is pain involved (hence my advice about mitigating it - because hallucinogenic headaches are absolutely no fun).

PS: I love your tagline in your ticker. "Sweat is fat crying." I might have to steal that...