It is well known that in times of summer, most people go on a diet to reduce body fat to go to the beach and show off a good body. This is where one of the most recurring questions arises:coffee makes you fat? There are many myths around this.
For this reason, we are going to dedicate this article to telling you what fattening coffee really is and what its characteristics are.
Does coffee make you fat?
Coffee can make you fat or lose weight, depending on how you prepare and drink it. So, you should know that coffee alone will not make you fat, plus it has many health benefits. The problem comes when we complement the coffee with cream, milk, chocolate, sugar...
One thing to keep in mind about the caloric intake of your coffee is that it also depends on how you prepare it. 30 grams of coffee without filling provide only 2 calories, while if a sugar cube is added, this figure can reach up to 22 calories. Also, you should keep in mind that the more supplements you add, the more calories it will have, for example, if you add sugar and milk to 30 grams of coffee, it will give you about 50 calories. As you can see, if coffee is making you fat, it is due to the added supplements, but coffee itself will not make you gain weight.
Do milk and coffee make you fat?
It is very common to complement coffee with milk. As we have said before, milk can make you gain weight, or at least give you a better chance of gaining weight than not drinking coffee.
If your goal is weight control, it's best to drink black coffee, without added milk or sugar. Anyway, if you don't like the taste of black coffee, you can always opt for skim milk, since it provides fewer calories than whole milk.
So we conclude that drinking moderate amounts of coffee alone can help you lose weight, but keep in mind that excessive or sweetened coffee, sweetened whole or non-dairy milk, and even alcohol like whiskey can be fattening.
Benefits of drinking coffee to lose weight
As you probably know, coffee is often paired with something sweeter because of its bitterness. However, as we announced earlier, coffee itself has many benefits for health and weight loss:
- Speed up metabolism: Due to this quality, coffee makes fat burning faster and more intense so that your body does not burn more calories than it should.
- Reduces appetite: Due to the high amount of energy it provides, coffee reduces appetite, which is a desirable property for those trying to lose weight and looking for satisfying foods.
- Diuretic properties: All foods that contain diuretic properties are ideal for weight loss because electrolytes and water are removed from the body due to the consumption of these foods. Coffee can be a great ally if you want to avoid fluid retention.
- It provides few calories: As we explained before, coffee provides very few calories, so you will not gain weight.
As you can see, coffee has properties that can help you lose weight, but remember, if you want to lose or control your weight, it is best to incorporate a healthy diet and weekly exercise into your routine.
How much sugar can be added to coffee
For many people, drinking coffee without supplements will be unpleasant due to its bitter tasteHowever, you should know that sugar is one of the supplements that provides the most calories and one of the reasons why we gain weight dramatically, we believe that coffee makes you fat.
If you don't want to gain weight, we recommend avoiding brown sugar and added sugar, since although the latter has fewer calories, the difference is minimal. As an alternative you can use honey (300 kcal per 100g), although this food is also fattening, the good thing is that it provides a large amount of nutrients along with the most beneficial antioxidants, minerals for your body and several vitamins.
On the other hand, you can sweeten your coffee with stevia or saccharin, these two alternatives do not provide calories and while they change the flavor of your infusion, you will be able to control your weight more easily.
Calories in each type of coffee
Below, after answering the question of whether coffee is fattening, we'd like to provide a complete list of calories in each type of coffee.
- Express or regular: 2 kcal. Here is the answer to the question of whether drinking coffee alone will make you fat. Apparently no more than any other low calorie drink. Because it is only infused with select coffee beans.
- American: 2 kcal. Like black coffee, Americano is still brewed coffee, so it only contains water, but more than black coffee or espresso.
- Chopped up: about 18 calories. The calories go up or down depending on the type of milk used to prepare it.
- Milky: 72 calories. Calories increase when a higher percentage of milk is used than in cortado coffee. In addition to that, we must add that it comes in a larger capacity glass. Therefore, lattes are more likely to gain weight than simply adding milk.
- Cappuccino: 56kcal. Cappuccino is less fattening than latte because it is made with foam instead of milk. Of course, as long as other seasonings such as cocoa powder are not added.
- You come: 256 calories. The apparent increase in calories in Vienna coffee is due to the use of cocoa and cream in its preparation.
- Chocolate: 334 calories. This caloric intake is significant compared to other coffees that we can find on the menu of any cafeteria or prepared at home because it is made with condensed milk instead of normal milk.
- Mocha: 330 calories. Mocha coffee has practically the same calories as bombo coffee. Simply put, swap condensed milk for cocoa and still provide plenty of calories per cup of coffee.
- Irish: 210 calories. The increase in calories is due to the use of cream and alcohol, especially whiskey.
- carajillo: about 75 calories. In the same way, in the case of carajillo, the reduction in calories compared to Irish coffee is due to the fact that it is served in a smaller cup. Again, its caloric value will depend on the type of alcohol used.
Given this, we can conclude that coffee itself does not make you fat, only because of its supplementation. Reducing the amount of sugar, milk and even other ingredients such as cocoa or alcohol will help us consume fewer unnecessary calories and thus enjoy its flavor more.
I hope that with this information you can learn more about whether coffee really makes you fat or not.