The Weight Loss Benefits of Coffee
Can’t wake up without your morning cup of coffee? We can barely function until we get a sniff of the good stuff!
Mornings aren’t an isolated incident, though. We get that feeling throughout the day, most days, at all times of the year (don’t tell anybody…).
That isn’t a problem, believe it or not. We were talking to one of our members the other day about coffee and she said she was trying to cut it out of her daily routine to “lose weight”.
We didn’t have a problem with her giving up coffee, of course, but the thought that coffee alone was responsible for her piling on the kilos has moved us to make a public service announcement: coffee can actually help you lose weight.
The key lies in how you drink your coffee and what you have with it. If you drink six coffees a day with two sugars and full-fat milk or cream then of course you’re going to put weight on.
And most coffees from chains are completely unrecognisable from the coffee you make at home. Some contain syrups, some have other flavourings, most are full of sugar and many are topped with whipped cream.
Though tempting a lot of these coffees can equal a whopping 500+ calories. Can you really rack up a quarter of your daily calorie count just for one drink, especially when you don’t have a good weight loss plan?
There are other problems not confined just to the coffee shop, though. Having a sneaky snack with your coffee is also a sure-fire way to gain weight without realising it.
A drink at your coffee shop will usually come with a biscuit or two on the side. Are you nibbling without thinking? That small treat may lead to other sugary cravings – keep away from the counter and stick to your diet!
The same goes for when you’re at home or at the office. Does your coffee come with a biscuit or two, or a bag of chips? It’s easy to fall into small traps that all add to weight gain.
So how can coffee help you lose weight? Think of the salad conundrum; a salad in itself is healthy but gets worse when you add heavy dressings, mayonnaise, cheese…
A coffee with skim milk, soy milk, or just black can boost your metabolism to help you burn up to 100 extra calories a day. Sweetener is the perfect substitute for sugar and helps keep the calorie count in single figures.
The caffeine in coffee can help improve the body’s thermogenesis to burn calories, while the extra pep it provides can give people more energy to work harder to shed more ounces.
The most important point though is moderation. The same goes for teas – though water is preferable there’s no need to totally cut the former out of your diet.
If you’d like to know more about how to control your diet and enjoy the things you love contact us today!
