Coffee: Any Other Women Experience Weight Gain/Hormonal Issues From Drinking Coffee?

teenytidyhome
teenytidyhome Posts: 8 Member
edited December 20 in Health and Weight Loss
Not calorie laden additives but from actual coffee itself. I enjoy coffee, but only became a daily drinker about 2 years ago. In that time my weight has slowly but steadily gone up, and my periods have become more intense. My diet is otherwise clean, and I even dress my coffee up with collagen peptides for a bit of a protein boost, which I need. I didn't really want to admit to myself that the coffee itself was causing a problem, but I have come across occasional compelling arguments against coffee in terms of the adverse effect it can have on female hormones. Just curious to know if anyone else has had positive results once they gave up coffee. Today was the first day that I substituted roasted dandelion root tea instead, and I did get a pretty mean headache this afternoon, presumably from caffeine withdrawal, but otherwise I survived.

Replies

  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    I switched to decaf coffee in October, and didn't have any "withdrawal symptoms".

    I found I had less ups and downs in the day after that. If that's any help. I do now even notice the smaller physical effect of just the heat of the drink.

    My weight has stayed at my goal weight, but I credit that due to logging everything.

    I've never read anything scientific about coffee affecting hormones. On the other hand, strict dieting can definitely affect hormones/metabolism/hunger.

    Other things might affect your moods and periods:
    Do you drink alcohol?
    Could you be pre-menopausal?
  • teenytidyhome
    teenytidyhome Posts: 8 Member
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    Have you seen a doctor for your period-related symptoms?
    Have you been been tracking your calories (consistent logging using a food scale) to be sure you haven't been consuming more calories than you were before, and tracking your activity to be sure that hasn't declined?

    Yes to all of the above, which is what led me to deduce that coffee may be the culprit in my case. I've been googling it occasionally over the past year, just out of curiosity. The majority of information out there about coffee is positive, but I've come across blog entries, etc. written by other women who have experienced the same issue.

    It sucks because my ex-husband roasts coffee for a living, so I get really fresh amazingly good whole bean coffee for free! But I've gotta give it up for a few months and see what happens.
  • teenytidyhome
    teenytidyhome Posts: 8 Member
    Orphia wrote: »
    I switched to decaf coffee in October, and didn't have any "withdrawal symptoms".

    I found I had less ups and downs in the day after that. If that's any help. I do now even notice the smaller physical effect of just the heat of the drink.

    My weight has stayed at my goal weight, but I credit that due to logging everything.

    I've never read anything scientific about coffee affecting hormones. On the other hand, strict dieting can definitely affect hormones/metabolism/hunger.

    Other things might affect your moods and periods:
    Do you drink alcohol?
    Could you be pre-menopausal?

    I guess I should mention that I'm in healthcare myself, and definitely take all of these things well into account. I'm not pre-menopausal yet, and only drink alcohol occasionally.

    I haven't come across any peer reviewed studies on the effect of coffee on women's hormones, unfortunately. That's why I figured it wouldn't hurt to cast a wide net here and see if anyone else has experienced any issues personally. It was noticeable to me pretty quickly after making coffee a part of my daily routine, but I overrode my instincts in favor of it because of all of the great press coffee tends to get, plus I enjoy the whole morning ritual and of course the flavor of it. 😊
  • teenytidyhome
    teenytidyhome Posts: 8 Member

    Best of luck. I've only experienced coffee as an appetite suppressant, and that's the only weight/diet relate effect I've ever read about, but maybe there's some food sensitivity or genetic variant that causes a different reaction for some women. Does your husband roast any decaf? You could try that after you've done your experiment for a few months, to see if it's the caffeine or some other compound in the coffee. (I never drank decaf for years, because I thought "what's the point?" but now that I'm older, I do get to sleep a little easier if I don't have the full-octane stuff late in the day, and I've discovered that a fresh, well-roasted, well-brewed cup of decaf can be pretty darn tasty.)[/quote]

    Thank you for your input! Yes, I agree about the decaf making it easier to get to sleep at times for sure the older we get. The interesting thing is that I couldn't even drink coffee for years because it was so overstimulating that it would cause me to have anxiety, etc. Then when I got into my upper-30's I guess I was sufficiently exhausted from life that I could handle it. 😂

    Maybe you're onto something with the sensitivity thing- maybe I'm still sensitive to it, but now it's just presenting in a different way.
  • sammidelvecchio
    sammidelvecchio Posts: 791 Member
    I was listening to a podcast yesterday that was about adrenal fatigue. It's something that I don't quite think is real, but this podcast was the only time i've ever heard of coffee (caffeine in general) in a bad sense. The claim is that if you are suffering from adrenal fatigue, your body is not producing cortisol (or not enough cortisol to deal with day to day stresses) and adding caffeine can make it worse.

    The guy's name is Jason Theobald. Again - no idea if any of this is true or valid.
  • zeejane4
    zeejane4 Posts: 230 Member
    I drink 3-4 cups a day and haven't had any issues with it. I add a packet of splenda and then half&half to it.
  • airmidthehealer
    airmidthehealer Posts: 18 Member
    sammidelvecchio wrote: »
    I was listening to a podcast yesterday that was about adrenal fatigue. It's something that I don't quite think is real, but this podcast was the only time i've ever heard of coffee (caffeine in general) in a bad sense. The claim is that if you are suffering from adrenal fatigue, your body is not producing cortisol (or not enough cortisol to deal with day to day stresses) and adding caffeine can make it worse.

    The guy's name is Jason Theobald. Again - no idea if any of this is true or valid.

    I'm not sure that I believe in any of this either but if you feel your cortisol is low, there is a test.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    Have you reduced the amount of fat you consume? I would think lower fat intake would have a much larger effect on hormones than caffeine!
  • texasredreb
    texasredreb Posts: 541 Member
    I was born and raised in the PNW, where coffee is an ingrained part of the culture, similar to sweet tea in the South. I started drinking coffee, heavily laced with milk and sugar, when I was about six years old. I've been a daily (sometimes multiple cups daily) drinker since then.

    In my familial house, we woke up and put on coffee and we kept the pot going until everybody went to work/school. We came home and made coffee. That pot stayed going until we went to bed. Company comes over; we put on a fresh pot of coffee no matter what time of day or year. When I moved to Texas in 2001, it was culture shock when I wasn't offered coffee when I went to visit others. It was a huge culture shock when I ordered coffee for lunch or dinner and the restaurant didn't have any.

    My periods have always been normal. My weight was normal until some traumatic life events and subsequent depression happened in the 2000's. This was after I moved away from the PNW and my coffee habits dropped from pots/day to a cup or two in the mornings.
  • PennyP312
    PennyP312 Posts: 161 Member
    I’m an avid coffee drinker and have been for years. It has never affected my weight loss efforts in a negative way. As others have posted, if anything it helps suppress my appetite.
    But, i do have fibrocystic breasts, and caffeine in general 100% affects this condition. It causes my breasts to ache if I consume too much. This effect of caffeine was confirmed to me my ob and other “breast doctors”.
    So, point being I think caffeine can have an effect on women’s hormones, but not really sure how this play into weight loss, as that all boils down to calories in/calories out.
  • endermako
    endermako Posts: 785 Member
    i dont have issues with coffee at all. the only thing i notice is that if i go caffeine free for an extended period i feel like i have more energy than i would have with coffee
  • T1DCarnivoreRunner
    T1DCarnivoreRunner Posts: 11,502 Member
    As a type 1 diabetic, I have the fortune of seeing a lot of data related to food and metabolism rates since I watch glucose changes 24/7. Something I have observed (and other type 1's have observed the same thing) is that coffee (even black coffee) tends to increase glycogenolysis rates. Other caffeine sources do not have the same effect, so I'm not sure what it is about coffee that does this. By itself, this should not cause weight gain. But perhaps there is something else going on in relation to the same mechanism.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,302 Member
    Midwestern, I guess people can only track such data carefully if they want/need to and then observe any individual correlations.

    I drink exactly same amount of coffee now as before losing weight and has not hindered my progress at all.

    However perhaps it did cause period problems. :o When I started losing weight in 2013 I was getting regular periods.
    Have been at maitenance now since late 2013 and now no periods.

    Could be the Coffee. :*

    ( given I am now 55 years old, it could not be too ;) )
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