3 month NO Coffee experiment results...

lisakyle_11

i love and completely enjoy my coffee. i either drink it black or with a *teeny* bit of 2& milk. that's it. cannot see how giving up coffee (AKA the actual beverage) would increase your lean tissue and decrease your fat. what is very likely happening is that you are giving up the cream and whatever else you may have in your coffee.... and/or just simply taking in less calories than you burn.:drinker:

gastankerdriver

Great thread. A big thanks to the OP!!! I quit coffee for about 2 weeks. For the first three days it was like Oh, god, I am so tired, I can't even walk, I feel so freaking blah, ugh, but then after 3 days I couldn't even tell a difference and then started getting more energy. One of the problems with coffee is that your stomach has to produce extra acid to digest it. This extra acidity in your body can have some serious side effects that include acid reflux, ulcers and bloating among many others. It wouldn't be so bad if all you drink was coffee but combined with a diet that includes things like milk, eggs, excessive quanties of meat, flour, sugar, etc, it adds up to some serious acidity that is very unhealthy. I am back on coffee again, but this thread has inspired me to take another crack at quiting. Thanks to the OP.

kprangernix07

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!

WOW> How serendipitous to find this post. I had a huge coffee this morning, and then ate an apple with peanut butter. At lunch i didnt hardly want to eat, and I just hadto choke down a smoothie to even meet my cals for the day. I've noticed this on other occasions as well.... When I'm back home, I usually replace my coffee with fresh green juice frommy jucer and I havenoticed a huugechange in how I feel. Maybe it' time to re-think my own coffee habit. Thanks for the post!

LoriInnerStrength

Thanks for posting this. I've been thinking that I need to give up coffee for a long time now, and your post is motivating me in the right direction. Coffee bloats my stomach, even though I drink it black, and also causes joint pains in my wrists and knees. I only drink about 1 to 1 1/2 cups a day but crave it all the time and know this is not good. It doesn't even give me an energy boost anymore. About 6 months ago I switched to tea and felt great, and then like you I switched back for some reason. Damn you, Starbucks! My resolve is set...time to kick the habit.

UponThisRock

sounds like the coffee is the least of your problems

autumnk921

Love love love this post...Very informative to say the least...I have went from a whole pot of coffee (sometimes more) a day down to 2 mugs of coffee each morning with cream & lots of sugar...I have reduced my sugar by half & slightly adding Stevia to get used to the taste but after reading this I really think I am going to cut out my coffee completely...I may do it gradually just in case I do get the headaches, etc. but I cannot drink coffee without the sweets in it or it is gross to me....Thank you for this post b/c now I have more incentive to quit b/c like I said I have been considering doing it anyway...I have cut out other sweets as well but sweet coffee was the last big thing for me & I have NOT been losing weight like a whole lot of people on here - I really believe that has a whole lot to do with my coffee EVERY day!! So again Thank you for this post & the interesting facts about what it has done for YOUR weightloss...I am going to try it for me to see if it helps me as well!! :flowerforyou:


ETA: Also, drinking coffee curbs my appetite as well, so I won't eat for hours after waking up...This is not helping my weightloss either in my opinion b/c from the time I go to bed until the next afternoon I do not eat anything except drink my coffee...Also, I am trying to quit smoking & in the mornings with coffee is my worst time....So, this may help with that as well...

odusgolp

I do not understand how anyone can be "loving" this post. Sorry. But the coffee in question may have nothing to do with weight loss or body fat % what-so-ever seeing as how you drastically - VERY DRASTICALLY - changed your ENTIRE diet at the same time.

Jules2Be

I do not understand how anyone can be "loving" this post. Sorry. But the coffee in question may have nothing to do with weight loss or body fat % what-so-ever seeing as how you drastically - VERY DRASTICALLY - changed your ENTIRE diet at the same time.

word.

Perisylpha

I can't believe they even sell all that high fat stuff to put in coffee, you don't get it here in the UK. It's either dried coffee whitener or milk. I would not even consider cream.

yallen8832

Very interesting thanks for sharing!

hedgiie

maybe it's a false positive for coffee as coffaine is one of the major ingredients of fat burning products not to mention a lot of articles about coffee against fat burn.

looks like your experimenting on foods and drinks, is it possible that your eating something else while about the same time that your taking coffee?

on the other hand, each person is different, i'm a believer that each person are distinct, perhaps for you, coffee can have that impact for you. which might be different for somebody else.

That_Girl

Caffeine makes my joints ache...which causes puffiness that my body puts out to protect my aching joints.

NewLIFEstyle4ME

I do not understand how anyone can be "loving" this post. Sorry. But the coffee in question may have nothing to do with weight loss or body fat % what-so-ever seeing as how you drastically - VERY DRASTICALLY - changed your ENTIRE diet at the same time.

word.

:laugh: I'm laughing because the "word" is neither of you guys must have bothered to looked at my food diary (and exercising diary for that matter) before posting this untrue statement(s). If you guys did, you would clearly SEE that I have NOT and in no way have "drastically, let alone VERY drastically changed my diet at all. Not even a little bit:laugh: UNLESS you mean drastically and VERY DRASTICALLY changing my diet meaning how I've added coffee (and/or tea) drinking daily that is

Look at my food diary and you will see that my food and exercising have been VERY consistent for my entire journey here. The only thing I've changed was eating my exercise calories back and even then, it's VERY consistent--look at my food diary and you'll see that...but then again, maybe you won't because maybe you don't want to see that. In any case, thanks for posting :flowerforyou:

delilah47

Coffee is strange. When I first started drinking coffee, I drank it the same as my mother did; with a teaspoonful of sugar. The first time I attempted to lose a few pounds, I tried replacing the sugar with saccharin, as it was the only sugar replacement on the market at the time. It tasted SO nasty, I started drinking it black without anything. It tasted so terrible! I could barely get it down and considered quitting it altogether. But, I kept drinking it black and after a while it tasted pretty good. Then, when I tried putting sugar in again, it tasted even worse. Long story short; I always drink my coffee black, since then, and love it that way. I would never add anything to my morning coffee. I do like an occasional Vanilla Latte or Frappuccino when out and about though.

determined2lose89

bump

MissMaryMac33

It's not the coffee causing the issues... its the flavored creamers

Switch to decaf -- stop adding your sugar flavored creamers and problem solved.

I use decaf black coffee and almond breeze and chocolate protein for my protein shakes... better than starbucks.
If you need some flavor, I add a little torani sugar free sypup to suit my mood -- pumpkin in fall, almond/amaretto/hazelnut etc.

If I also added flavoried cream (especially without measuring it) I could easily add another 300-400 calories a day ... thats stuff adds up fast and 1 tbsp is not much.

tbellamy1

I drink a cup of coffee every morning. i use International delights caramel machiatto skinny. about 4 tbs and no sugar. Some days I dont drink to whole cup. And only 1 cup or else I get the BG's.:blushing:

picassoadagio

this is interest. I drink my coffee black & when i switched to just drinking green tea for a while, I noticed my waist shrank a few inches, but now I'm back to drinking 2 cups of coffee a day & my waist has gone up an inch and nothing has changed diet or exercise wise. Your theory may be right.

AnninStPaul

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".

HEAR, HEAR! WELL SAID!

odusgolp

I do not understand how anyone can be "loving" this post. Sorry. But the coffee in question may have nothing to do with weight loss or body fat % what-so-ever seeing as how you drastically - VERY DRASTICALLY - changed your ENTIRE diet at the same time.

word.

:laugh: I'm laughing because the "word" is neither of you guys must have bothered to looked at my food diary (and exercising diary for that matter) before posting this untrue statement(s). If you guys did, you would clearly SEE that I have NOT and in no way have "drastically, let alone VERY drastically changed my diet at all. Not even a little bit:laugh: UNLESS you mean drastically and VERY DRASTICALLY changing my diet meaning how I've added coffee (and/or tea) drinking daily that is

Look at my food diary and you will see that my food and exercising have been VERY consistent for my entire journey here. The only thing I've changed was eating my exercise calories back and even then, it's VERY consistent--look at my food diary and you'll see that...but then again, maybe you won't because maybe you don't want to see that. In any case, thanks for posting

You cut out meat, sugar, what you deem to be "junk food", etc. at the time you cut out coffee to go from 47% to 31% body fat. That's your own statements.

Point is, this is not, as you agree, scientific evidence.

By all means, don't drink coffee if you don't want. But claiming that cutting coffee alone out of your diet reduced your body fat percentage over 15% in three months is not entirely true now is it?

That_Girl

People are so wild about what they believe! If it doesn't work for them, they think it simply doesn't work. Caffeine can cause a ton of problems on the body...maybe not YOUR body, but on other bodies.

NewLIFEstyle4ME

Coffee is strange. When I first started drinking coffee, I drank it the same as my mother did; with a teaspoonful of sugar. The first time I attempted to lose a few pounds, I tried replacing the sugar with saccharin, as it was the only sugar replacement on the market at the time. It tasted SO nasty, I started drinking it black without anything. It tasted so terrible! I could barely get it down and considered quitting it altogether. But, I kept drinking it black and after a while it tasted pretty good. Then, when I tried putting sugar in again, it tasted even worse. Long story short; I always drink my coffee black, since then, and love it that way. I would never add anything to my morning coffee. I do like an occasional Vanilla Latte or Frappuccino when out and about though.

Ya know, that's true about how you can come to like stuff that's gross to you at first. I started drinking this Hemp Protein powder stuff and at first, it was the most gross stuff I've EVER tasted. Now I really like it. So, yep...we can and do get accustomed to stuff more sure!

Asil02

I have given up coffee...well for the most part. I allow myself to have one homemade mocha frapp on Sunday mornings as a "treat". I love your post though. It's a great experiment and one I think is very telling.

GasMasterFlash

knrob

I think another thing to consider for coffee drinkers...is many of us drink several cups BEFORE we even eat anything. I'm questioning whether I should EAT something first, get my metabolism jump started, instead of waiting an hour or two after i'm up and about to touch food.

taso42

I don't like it when people blame coffee for their sugar and cream problems.

NewLIFEstyle4ME

People are so crazy about what they believe! If it doesn't work for them, they think it simply doesn't work. Caffeine can cause a ton of problems on the body...maybe not YOUR body, but on other bodies.

I don't know about calling folk crazy (even though it's true, because we're ALL crazy in one aspect or another--you know the old saying "those that say they aren't crazy are indeed the CRAZIEST ones of them--that's what I believe anyhoo all:laugh: ), but I agree with you that everyone is different--100%. I think I stated that several times too, because it's important to me when I post that I NEVER want people to feel what's good/best for me is good/best for others--because everyone is different. On that same note, I post stuff like this, because it may help others and others opinions (rather they agree with me or not) are ALWAYS helpful to me in one form or another.

slimsteelerfan

Interesting! Thanks for sharing!

theartichoke

Okay, what I'd like to do is stick my fingers in my ears and pretend I didn't hear this. BUT, I noticed a significant change going from an all day coffee (with creamer) drinker to once a day. I even let the creamer go and it wasn't until I went to once a day that my mood and weight loss changed. No change in diet or activity otherwise. I know many people refuse to give anecdotal evidence any credence but I'm not one of them. I wish coffee affected my appetite, alas, no such luck. I'm hypothyroid and pre-diabetic. I'm going to research the hormonal link as well. Fuuuuudge! I'll give it up if I need to. Thanks for sharing your story!

SmexAppeal

I gave up drinking coffee because I can't stand the taste of it black. I take my cream and sugar with a little coffee.
SO I figured I would just kick this to the curb. I don't find myself missing it. I will have a cup here and there if I just feel like it, but its been about 2 months and I've had 1 cup. I drink tea now instead and I love it. So many different types of teas and they are much better for you too!