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Coffee and Dieting

by Michael Allen Smith

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Step 1 - Clean Up Your Coffee

Coffee by itself is perfect. It has zero calories, zero carbs, and zero fat. It even has properties that assist with fat loss. Coffee by itself isn't the problem. Lattes, mochas, iced espresso blended with sugar, whipped cream, ice cream, flavored syrups, alcohol, and caramel are just a few of things we add into our coffee. Coffee is derived from the old Arabic word "qahwah" which means "gives strength". Consuming popular coffee drinks today that are as calorically-dense as desserts has the effect of giving coffee a bad name, and changing the meaning of coffee from gives strength to gives girth.

In order to succeed on our diet, we must get back to basics. Regular coffee and straight shots of espresso are fine. As for milk, that depends upon your specific diet. An Atkins diet may allow half and half, whereas a low-fat diet would insist upon skim milk. If you must use sweeteners, at least make an effort to cut down: go from 2 packets to 1 packet.

Step 2 - Reduce Your Coffee Intake

If too much coffee can affect blood sugar then it only makes sense to reduce your caffeine intake. However, you don't want to reduce your coffee intake at the same time you are reducing your caloric intake unless you have super willpower. Less calories and less caffeine usually means a reduction in energy which could lead to binge eating. A smarter move is to reduce your coffee intake for a week prior to the diet. Once the diet starts, you can slightly increase your coffee levels. It's good to have a clear head when you've got an empty stomach.

Another idea is to space out your coffee intake. Instead of drinking 4 mugs of coffee back to back, consider spreading those 4 mugs throughout the day. One at 6am, 10am, 1pm, and 5pm. As long as you don't consume too much, caffeine can be an appetite suppressant. Spreading that effect throughout the day will not only reduce your chances of increased blood sugar, but it will also help you cope with the reduced caloric levels.

Reducing your coffee intake is important, but it can be painful. Cutting back on caffeine can cause headaches and constipation. A good article on reducing caffeine intake is Accelerated Detox by Rachel Elliot.

Step 3 - Avoid Eating Simple Carbs with Coffee

Now if you're on a low-carb diet, you'll want to avoid simple carbs completely. However, it is a wise idea not to eat simple carbs on any diet while drinking your coffee. You know the simple carbs I'm referring to: the bagels, croissants, and scones that you see in every coffee shop. Going back to the insulin argument: if caffeine could affect blood sugar negatively then the last thing you want to do is combine it with something that is certain to cause an insulin spike.

Step 4 - Exercise

It's common sense that exercise helps one lose fat on almost any diet. In the words of the The Illinois Department of Human Servies exercise ...helps the body use insulin more efficiently, and this lowers blood sugar. If exercise can help us stablize our blood sugar then maybe we don't have to get rid of our coffee in order to get lean. So lift some weights, do some aerobic activity, and keep drinking coffee. If you don't have access to a gym, you can perform body-weight exercises such as the push-up and the Hindu Squat.

The 4 Diets Revisited

People are often more fanatical about their diet choice than their religion. So far be it from me to slam or endorse any particular diet. Each of the four groups mentioned restrict food selection and the result is often a caloric reduction, which translates to fat loss. What happens behind the curtains may be different, but a combination of healthy eating and exercise has always been the secret to getting lean. Using the above steps we can keep our relationship with coffee while dieting. Even a macrobiotic diet will be successful if your only deviation is pitching the herbal coffee in favor of the real stuff.

Everybody Is Different

It is possible to try the above steps with your chosen diet and not succeed. If you find that you must decide between coffee and getting lean, that's a personal decision you should discuss with your doctor and roaster. In addition to weight training and power walking, this author followed a modified Zone Diet using the above 4 steps. The result was a body fat reduction from 18% to 9% in 4 months.

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