Coffee

[CoachW44]

I was skimming threads and read about someone needing to give up coffee... BLASPHEMY!!!! Other than the caffeine giving you some cravings (which does not happen to me) is there really a reason to drop it? I LOVE MY COFFEE!!!! I'd rather have that than food!!! I put 2 tbs of heavy whipping cream in it ans a little splenda and I am happy as a Lark...


what do I need to know?

[julirama723]

Well, coffee DOES contain carbs, usually 1-2 carbs per coffee cup. The caffeine causes cravings in many, and for some people, it's the actual coffee that's the addiction. It causes them to eat more, have cravings, and use more sweeteners.

I think it's best to avoid caffeine and anything that's addictive for a person, but the coffee is a "mileage may vary thing."

[Maerow]

"coffee" is fine.

I can drink it all day long, no problems.

It's what I PUT in my coffee that is the staller. Cream, packets of splenda, etc etc. The cream adds calories and the splenda bulkner for the packets adds carbs, and then what you have is a staller on your hands. >.<

I drink my coffee black now with liquid sweetners, so no bulking agents to add calories or carbs. And no, it doesn't taste as good, so I drink much less of it. I will add cream back in when I start maintaining, which I hope will be soon.

[The Procrastinatrix]

I love, love, love my morning espresso, but to begin Atkins, I wanted to decrease my dependance on it. I used to drink 6 oz caffeinated with about 3 oz of foamy half n half.

Since I make my own espresso at home, I mix 1 tbs caffeinated grounds with 2 tbs decaffeinated grounds. Then I use that to make only 3 oz of espresso. I foam two tbs of heavy cream and enjoy. Fitday calls it 2 carbs. I never use sweetener, and I've found that with all the sugar out of my diet, the heavy cream has a lovely slightly sweet taste.

I've been so lucky on this WOE because I haven't had ANY cravings for sugar or starch since I started. If I had, I would've cut the morning coffee out entirely to see if that was causing my cravings.

I love my morning coffee, but if I find it gets in the way of my health goals, I'll drop it without regret. If I can do it, anyone can!

Protrix

[Scooterjam]

Coffee Coffee Coffee Coffee Coffee! I love it. It doesn't do much to me except makes me play songs faster when I play out. My sister laughs at me and says Scooter, it's time to switch to Decafe! Actually since I'm almost done with Induction (Re-start) In a couple of weeks, I'll have a cup on the weekends with a tiny teaspon of DaVinci Hazelnut or Vanilla, and a splash of Heavy Cream. I love to get up early on a Saturday morning and sit with my wife by the fireplace and drink our coffee. Just doesn't seem the same while she drinks coffee and I chug water. Ahhhh Romance & Low Carb! haha

[sadie147]

everyone is different, it may or may not affect your weightloss. If you find your weightloss slows or stops, you can try cutting it out or switching to decaf temporarily to see if that is the cause.


I've never given up my coffee, it's never caused me issues. It's what i put in it i have to keep my eye on...i try not to drink more than two cups a day as the cream can add up.

[CoachW44]

I think people who advise us to cut out coffee may be the devil...

[julirama723]

Then that makes me the devil.

At least, I tell new people to try giving up coffee. The same with bars, shakes, soda, caffiene. All of these things affect people differently, and new Atkineers think they can consume all of this stuff just because somebody else did and still lost weight. But as we well know...each of us is different...

[zencyn]

I love coffee too. I have really cut back and try to stick to decaf, but don't always succeed. I have really cut back on what I put in it though. AND it keeps me regular!!!!

[matawguro]

The coffee question has been asked so often, it should be FAQ'd.

There was a study a couple of years ago that explain the conflicting results of various studies done on the effects of caffeine. It turns out that people are either fast or slow metabolizers of caffeine.

One of the effects of caffeine is to boost insulin reduction. This will cause your blood glucose to drop and cause cravings. This is because the main job of insulin is to turn glucose into energy and turn any excess glucose into body fat. For those of us with some sort of blood sugar imbalance, the ability of insulin to turn glucose into energy is diminished, but the ability to turn glucose into stored fat is at full strength. The result, less glucose for energy, more for storing fat.

On the other hand, caffeine is also an appetite suppressant. Atkins Accel contains 70mg of caffeine along with green tea extract and other ingredients believed to promote weight loss.

If you're a fast metabolizer of caffeine, then you probably won't experience any of the downsides of caffeine. There is currently no test to find out if you're a fast or slow caffeine metabolizer. The only way to know for sure is to observe how one reacts to caffeine. However, caffeine is an addictive substance and I doubt anybody addicted to coffee can make an objective observation.