3 month NO Coffee experiment results...

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Replies

  • gomisskellygo
    gomisskellygo Posts: 635 Member
    Coffee junkie-BUMP
  • NewLIFEstyle4ME
    NewLIFEstyle4ME Posts: 4,440 Member
    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
    cjwalker81 Posts: 189 Member
    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
    jcgrant43 Posts: 64
    @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
    NewLIFEstyle4ME Posts: 4,440 Member
    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
    littlepinkhearts Posts: 1,055 Member
    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
    NewLIFEstyle4ME Posts: 4,440 Member
    @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
    BCsurvivor1962 Posts: 78 Member
    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
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
    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
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
    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...
  • becoming_a_new_me
    becoming_a_new_me Posts: 1,860 Member
    I use a mixture of almond milk and coconut milk in my coffee. You don't want me giving up coffee as the bodies would build up around me and I would likely become an ax-weilding maniac. Good for you though for quitting!
  • NewLIFEstyle4ME
    NewLIFEstyle4ME Posts: 4,440 Member
    I use a mixture of almond milk and coconut milk in my coffee. You don't want me giving up coffee as the bodies would build up around me and I would likely become an ax-weilding maniac. Good for you though for quitting!


    :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :flowerforyou: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
  • NewLIFEstyle4ME
    NewLIFEstyle4ME Posts: 4,440 Member
    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...

    Absolutely, please do...I stole it from the internet myself :laugh:
  • thomassd1969
    thomassd1969 Posts: 564 Member
    I do not drink coffee, never have but drank loads of diet pepsi or coke. Probably around 100 oz a day. Never drank water- ever. I thought that if it had no calories it was fine. On a bet with my finacee' I stopped cold turkey in Oct 2011 like you. My energy went up, my belly bloating went down and my cravings for fast food/junk food decreased a lot. I was amazed. I drink only water now, nothing with artificial sweetners. Its amazing what we convince ourselves is ok then when we make a change our bodies react and shock us.
    Good Post
  • NewLIFEstyle4ME
    NewLIFEstyle4ME Posts: 4,440 Member
    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.


    :heart: :heart: :heart: Wow :heart: :heart: :heart: That's deep and such GOOD NEWS!!!! Yep, I had a sever ache/pain in both my hands BEFORE stopping coffee--that completely disappeared once I stopped drinking coffee...then last month, when I restarted--BAM--that pain is back:frown:
  • SofaKingRad
    SofaKingRad Posts: 1,592 Member
    Interesting study. You said you gave up other things cold turkey at the same time. What were those other things? Have you started those again too? Could those other things have an effect on your observations?

    I only ask because I've done something similar in the past but I drink my coffee black and I saw no changes due to eliminating from my diet (other than I had those horrible withdrawal symptoms :laugh: ).
  • mfp_junkie
    mfp_junkie Posts: 359
    What the.....no good can come from this thread. Must go find a Starbuck's....
  • BigMech
    BigMech Posts: 420 Member
    I stopped drinking caffeinated coffee about 4 years ago. I felt so much better afterwards. I still drink a couple of cups of decaffe a day, but I drink them black, so there is no calorie impact. I just like the hot beverage, and tea isn't my thing.

    I try to avoid caffeine in most drinks now, and feel like my energy level is much consistent because of it. I feel alert in the morning, and don't need anything other than my workout and decent nutrition to feel energized all day.
  • Joannie30
    Joannie30 Posts: 415 Member
    WOW!! Now THIS is interesting!! I drink coffee every single day in life with semi-skimmed milk. I had no idea that it has these effects!!!!!

    I think i'll give stopping a try for a bit and see what happens...
  • Brunner26_2
    Brunner26_2 Posts: 1,152
    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!!!!!!!

    I suggest rechecking your BMR and TDEE figures. In order to gain 5 pounds of body weight, you'd need to eat almost 18,000 calories more than you burned. How was the body fat % measured?
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