Stupid Coffee!

Published on January 27, 2005 By KarmaGirl In Diet

I have been trying to drop some pounds. This is never easy, because I have a bit of a thyroid problem....well, I actually don't have a thyroid. So, losing weight is a bit more of a challenge to me than to most. That is not to say that it can't be done, because it can.

I have been really good about my diet. I have gotten back into doing Ashtanga Yoga (my daughter is now learning it). But, my weight hasn't budged.

I have a coffee addiction. When I diet, I seem to drink more coffee. I finally realized that this was bad, and this is why:

I drink about 5 mugs of coffee a day. The average mug has a Tablespoon of sugar and a Tablespoon of creamer in it. As I was staring at the container labels, it occurred to me: "holy crap, batman, that's a lot of calories!"

How many, you may ask? Well, here it is:
15 teaspoons of sugar @ 15 calories each = 225 Calories
15 teaspoons of creamer @ 10 calories each = 150 Calories
For a grand total of: 375 or 1/4 of my recommended caloric intake.

Ack.

I think I need to learn how to drink coffee black.

Comments

Zoomba

on Jan 27, 2005

I'm also starting on a diet/exercise routine... I didn't realize that my daily coffee habit was doing me so much harm too... I used to drink it black all the time, but got out of the habit recently... time to go back it seems.

Good luck losing weight!

chiprj

on Jan 27, 2005

Drinking black coffee is the only way to go. Good luck with the weight loss!

KarmaGirl

on Jan 27, 2005

Thanks for the support! I need it.

I'm starting to really analyze what I eat and drink. I wonder if there are other subtle changes that I can make that will have a big result.

Suspeckted

on Jan 27, 2005

Drinking black coffee is the only way to go. Good luck with the weight loss!

Yeah, I'm here to defend coffee. Coffee in and of itself isn't an issue for you. In fact, the caffeine increasing your heart rate may actually burn more calories for ya. Just find a better tasting coffee so you won't need all those additives. I remember reading about a "green tea" diet which required dieters to drink like 10-12 cups a day. It might as well be the water diet or the liquid diet, cause with all the tea in your stomach and all the bathroom trips you're going to have to make you'll have no room in your stomach and no time to eat.

Gute Gluck!

Suspeckted

KarmaGirl

on Jan 27, 2005

Just find a better tasting coffee so you won't need all those additives

It's habit, actually. I learned to drink coffee by my Dad putting it in my milk. So, going from creamy, sweet coffee to black is just a change. I can drink tea without anything in it, but I'm still working on the coffee.

Coffee is the only thing that keeps me alive, so I simply need to learn to drink it black LOL

Gideon MacLeish

on Jan 27, 2005

Karma,

I can't remember if heat destroys the sweetening properties of stevia or not, but you may want to look into it for a natural, calorie free sweetener.

(Incidentally, stevia has a longer history of being used as a sweetener than any of the artificials, but because aspartame and splenda have spent so much money on FDA approval, they have successfully lobbied to keep stevia from being marketed as a "sweetener" but rather as a "food additive" -- just an interesting sidenote).

scatter629

on Jan 27, 2005

For the average person, 5 mugs of coffee a day may be too much. But for you, as I understand it, with hypothyroidism, it just might be right. I do know that your efforts at dieting may not be that strenuous if your thyroid problem were addressed 'coz as you may have been told, your body is slow at burning those calories. Much as I would like to keep things natural for you, I think a visit to an endocrinologist would be very helpful. Once you start thyroid supplements,as I suspect you may need to, you'll find the craving to take in that much of coffee diminishing.

KarmaGirl

on Jan 28, 2005

Much as I would like to keep things natural for you, I think a visit to an endocrinologist would be very helpful. Once you start thyroid supplements,as I suspect you may need to, you'll find the craving to take in that much of coffee diminishing.

I don't have a thyroid. I would be dead right now if I wasn't on thyroid meds. I've been on thyroid meds for the past 15 years.

However, there is not a thyroid medicine that is currently available that my body synthesizes correctly. But, if they adjust it so that I feel "right" I become clinically "hyperthyroid" and get hypertension and sleep apnea. So, I rather have to really work at losing weight than to put my health in jeopardy.

The coffee need is to compensate for lack of sleep. I have never been great at sleeping, and I average 4-5 hours a night.

dharmagrl

on Feb 12, 2005

I've taken to drinking coffee black with 2 teaspoons of sugar in it. Sweet, but not overely so...and coffee with milk or creamer in it just tastes funny to me. I can't handle artifical sweeteners either, they leave an aftertaste and some of them make me feel ill.

I figure that I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't eat much meat....coffee with sugar in it is the only vice I have left and I'm not prepared to give it up!

AngelaMarie88

on Feb 12, 2005

Why do people drink coffee *at all* ???? Gross. How about a morning jolt via a great aerobics class.

But who am I to criticize? I'm sitting here with a package of Chewy Chips Ahoy cookies.

Also, you don't have a thyroid? Ack. That's pretty hugely major. I've never heard of such a thing. Thank God we live in this day & age. I suppose that's why there are so many people in the world right now. If not for modern medicine, most of us would probably be dead for one reason or another!

Cheers to you, Karma Girl for plugging away at a wonderfully healthy life!

island_gurl12

on Feb 13, 2005

Well i dont have any good tips for you, all i can do is offer my support. Good luck

KarmaGirl

on Feb 14, 2005

Also, you don't have a thyroid? Ack. That's pretty hugely major. I've never heard of such a thing.

Actually, come to find out, it's not that uncommon. The surgeon that did my operation (btw, always have a different Dr. that diagnoses you than the surgeon) almost exclusively does thyroid surgery.

When I was about 17 the Dr found a cyst on my thyroid, and I was also diagnosed as hyperthyroid (common for cystic goiters in the beginning). So, I started thyroid replacement treatment, but the cyst grew and they couldn't rule out cancer. So, they removed the upper left lobe (your thyroid is actually made of lobes). Well, that was fine for about 3 months, then my thyroid started to become a mass of cysts and nodules. I was diagnosed with multi-cystic, nodular goiter. Since I had over 30 cysts, there was no option but to remove the entire gland. Which, wasn't a big deal because I had already been on thyroid meds for 13 years.

However, the now 14 years of being on the meds has really taken a toll. I have the metabolism of an 80 year old, and exercise, though good for my heart and general health, doesn't seem to budge the pounds.

Oh, well, at least I'm generally healthy, and I eat a primarily Organic, vegetarian diet, so I seem to be fat and healthy....as odd as that sounds. LOL

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