Is Starbucks Coffee bad?

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  • fundamentallyfitfl
    fundamentallyfitfl Posts: 6 Member
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    If you are counting the cals and you are staying below your deficit you should be fine as far as weight loss goes, but yeah, it's not the best for your deficit. you figure you could eat like 2 1/2 salmon fillets and some broccoli, or you could have a frappucino, and the majority of a frappucino is sugar, so if you are ever trying to tone or make big muscle gains, it couldn't hurt to find a less caloric drink. best of luck to you!
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
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    The basic black coffee is bad. The candied coffee is candied.

    My 20-yo daughter has taken to making a frappucino that satisfies her to taste just like the Starbuck's packaged variety.
  • dfwesq
    dfwesq Posts: 592 Member
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    It's possible, even likely, that the actual calories in the drinks are higher than the official calorie counts. Because those drinks are so high calorie anyway, a discrepancy would probably mean you're drinking significantly more calories than you think. You might consider an iced coffee with milk or even nonfat milk, and some kind of sweetener. It would be much lower in calories, and even if the count is off, it wouldn't be off by much. Or, like @sarahlifts, have a skinny latte instead.

    Also, @fascha mentioned this, but if you're having these drinks pretty regularly it could be a poor choice. You didn't mention what size drinks you're having, how often you're drinking them, or what your calorie total for the day is, so it's hard to say for sure.
  • LowCarb4Me2016
    LowCarb4Me2016 Posts: 575 Member
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    I usually just get an iced coffee and add stevia and some half and half. Not too many calories that way. I LIKE the other drinks, but its a very, very rare thing for me to order them.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,139 Member
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    you can make your own iced coffee at work or home....just let it cool, add ice, and a little cream and/or ligh whipped cream ..that is what I do...
  • dfwesq
    dfwesq Posts: 592 Member
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    ThatLadyFromMN wrote: »
    As I sit here drinking my iced Americano... lol. If it fits why not? I used to drink the calorie bomb drinks but switched to an iced American with 2 pumps white mocha and it's only about 75 calories.
    Just wondering, can you tell the difference between iced Americano and regular iced coffee?
  • CSARdiver
    CSARdiver Posts: 6,252 Member
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    Overrated - yes, but I would not go as far to say bad. I do love their cold brews though.

    To your point no, there's no one single thing you ate that would inhibit your weight loss. This is just a lack of a caloric deficit. Take a deep dive into your diary - make sure you are weighing out everything and logging as accurately as possible. After a few days of this check to see if there were certain foods that you were underestimating.
  • gamerbabe14
    gamerbabe14 Posts: 876 Member
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    dfwesq wrote: »
    ThatLadyFromMN wrote: »
    As I sit here drinking my iced Americano... lol. If it fits why not? I used to drink the calorie bomb drinks but switched to an iced American with 2 pumps white mocha and it's only about 75 calories.
    Just wondering, can you tell the difference between iced Americano and regular iced coffee?

    I can! Love the taste of the americano vs drip coffee.
  • savithny
    savithny Posts: 1,200 Member
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    Another question is, of course, if the drinks are measured and poured correctly - are they actually skim if you order skim? Are they putting in syrup? Are they filling the cup fuller than the calorie calculations on their website suggest? Are you picking the right size of the right drink, and does it match the information on their website? There are a lot of incorrect database entries.
  • beaglebrandon
    beaglebrandon Posts: 97 Member
    edited April 2017
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    Most of the drinks I see on the Starbucks menu are 400-600 calories each. I can definitely not afford those in my diet. A whole meal of mine is less than 500 calories!!!

    I need to drink my coffee black, or with a little milk. I don't think anyone can lose weight drinking almost anything on their menu if they do it daily. You can't have 40-50% of your calorie allotment on ONE drink and expect to survive the day under calories.

    It can be a treat, or a daily thing if you're at maintenance, but not on a diet.

  • RightTrackBaby
    RightTrackBaby Posts: 35 Member
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    It's calories in vs calories out. Just remember your body is pretty much in a constant state of change (especially when you're on the road to losing weight), so you'll need to modify your intake occasionally.
  • LowCarb4Me2016
    LowCarb4Me2016 Posts: 575 Member
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    I think the first time an employee decided to make my drink however they wanted would be the last time I ordered.
  • leggup
    leggup Posts: 2,942 Member
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    No, Starbucks is not "the reason" you're not losing weight. You're not losing weight because your calorie total is too high to lose weight (if you've been plateaued for a while- with less than 10 lbs to go you should be targeting .5 lbs lost per week). You can open your diary to have us weight in (hahahaha) on why you might not be losing any more.
  • YvetteK2015
    YvetteK2015 Posts: 653 Member
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    Some of those frapps can be well over 600 calories. I LOVE them, but can't afford that as a coffee drink. I was putting on a good bit of weight because I wasn't looking at how many calories were in them, and I was drinking them at least 3x per week.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    YvetteK2015 wrote: »
    Some of those frapps can be well over 600 calories. I LOVE them, but can't afford that as a coffee drink. I was putting on a good bit of weight because I wasn't looking at how many calories were in them, and I was drinking them at least 3x per week.

    The light ones (which is what OP is ordering) have significantly less. You still need to account for them, obviously, but 110 calories for a grande (which is what a light coffee frappuccino is) is something that could fit into many plans.
  • Timshel_
    Timshel_ Posts: 22,841 Member
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    Minina567 wrote: »
    so i worked next to a Sturbucks and i love the moccha and coffee frappucchinos, i get them light but im noticing im not losing or gaining weight. im stuck. im trying to lose the last 10 lbs as they say.. but im not .. i never go past my recommended calories.. Could starbucks be the reason im not losing anymore?

    Yes and no. So yes in the sense that reducing calories from simple sugars is a good way to make deficit, but not because we can look at some numbers. Let's standardize on a Caffe Mocha.

    If you drink 1 Venti Caffe Mocha (25 milk, with Whip) a day (450 calories), 7 days per week that is 3150, or almost a pound worth of calories from sugars in your diet. Simply cutting to a Tall (290 calories) each day reduces your caloric intake by 1200 calories, which is more than one days deficit if you wanted to lose 2 pounds per week. Cut out the whipped cream and you drop another 350 calories per week, or the equivalent calories of a hour walk for the average person. Go with Almond milk instead of 2% and you drop another 420 calories per week, or one decent hamburger worth.

    So yes the additional calories factor in and can be some of the reason you are not losing weight, but you could moderate how much you have and how you have to still enjoy and reduce your calories there. The biggest thing is whatever you are eating the overall intake each day, all week, every month needs to be in deficit for the scale to budge.

    Good luck.

  • dfwesq
    dfwesq Posts: 592 Member
    edited April 2017
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    janejellyroll wrote: »
    ...The light ones (which is what OP is ordering) have significantly less. You still need to account for them, obviously, but 110 calories for a grande (which is what a light coffee frappuccino is) is something that could fit into many plans.
    Several of us have wondered whether the barista is actually making them "light". The "Coffee Light" and "Mocha Light" frappuccino drinks on the menu are low, as you say. But what she is actually getting might be different. A change here or there and the calorie count could be two or three times higher. At the very least, it's probably worth checking to make sure what she's getting is what she thinks she's getting.

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