How Your Daily Coffee Is Costing Your Waist Line (2024)

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You wake up, head over to the kitchen half asleep and somehow with some sort of miracle are able to operate the coffee maker. You begin your morning routine and comeback to that fresh pot of coffee, throw in your sweetener, milk, cream or whatever other additive to your morning coffee. You begin to consume your favourite drink of the day and start work. Couple hours go by, and you realize it’s time for another spectacular coffee! You head over to your favourite coffee shop and order another coffee and maybe treat yourself and make that coffee a little sweeter than the one you made at home first thing in the morning.

You go on and repeat this ritual Monday to Friday then begin to get frustrated by the scale not going down, or those pair of jeans you’ve been trying to squeeze into. What gives?

Let’s talk about unnecessary sugar in our daily eating.

Think about it for a second…

Cheerios in the morning? Ketchup on everything? Sriracha hot sauce? Sugar or honey with your tea? Milk in your coffee? Double whip, double pump, green tea frappuccino?

All of these are just added sugars we don’t need, and the worst part is, they are all man made. Chemically processed sugars are hidden in everything. Your favorite condiments, milk, creams, cereals, cheese, yogurts, “Fat-Free” anything, the list could go on. Sugar can also be addictive. There have been numerous studies done showing that food products with high sugar trigger a chemical reaction in the brain that physically stops the signal to your body to tell you you’ve had enough, and you need to stop.

Now imagine your daily routine getting your coffee in the morning. Most people order something like a double-double which is two sugars and two creams for their daily cup of joe. If you look at the nutritional information of the double-double at Tim Horton’s, the calories and sugar content don’t lie and is a bit alarming for someone trying to lose some weight and stay active and healthy. Numbers don’t lie and having them laid out in front of your eyes might give you the motivation and trigger to cut down your intake of milk and sugar in your daily coffee.

A small double-double coffee (two creams, two sugars) has:

• 140 calories
• 7g of fat
• 16g of sugar

A medium double-double coffee has:

• 230 calories
• 14g of fat
• 22g of sugar

A large double coffee has:

• 280 calories
• 14g of fat
• 30g of sugar

Let’s look at these stats on a weekly basis Monday to Friday if you were to consume one coffee a day. Many of us like the convenience of a drive-through and can get our coffee daily on the drive to work.

• Small coffee = 700 calories and 35g of sugar
• Medium coffee = 1150 calories and 70g of sugar
• Large coffee = 1400 calories and 150g of sugar

Your weekly coffee totals are starting to add up and you can begin to see how small things like your coffee can make a mark on your success.

If you are starting to get the picture let’s keep the numbers going and see how much you’d be consuming in one month:

• Small coffee = 2800 calories and 140g of sugar
• Medium coffee = 4600 calories and 280g of sugar
• Large coffee = 5600 calories and 600g of sugar

That’s a lot of calories the sugar! Want to put things in perspective? 3500 calories = 1lbs of fat, if you’re drinking a medium double-double coffee Monday to Friday, you’re looking at gaining one pound per month, unless you are active and have your diet in check every day of the week. That same medium double-double is equivalent to eating 28 bite brownies in one month.

But there is something I should bring up. We all know that having one coffee a day for the average person is not enough. What about our mid-morning or afternoon coffee? Just like the story told at the beginning of the blog? What are the numbers and totals for having two coffees Monday to Friday?

Two double double coffees, Monday to Friday monthly total:

• Small coffee = 5600 calories and 280g of sugar
• Medium coffee = 9200 calories and 560g of sugar
• Large coffee = 11200 calories and 1200g of sugar

With facts and numbers like these, no wonder it’s so difficult to lose weight. This is just your daily coffee, what about other bad eating habits? This blog wasn’t written to scare you, but to show you that changing one little thing could have an enormous impact on your health.

Now, many of you might be thinking to ditch your daily coffee completely. Going cold turkey is not the best approach. Some simple ways to lower your sugar and calories with your daily coffee are:

1. Going down in size– If you have a large double-double coffee each day, going down to a medium will save you a lot of calories. Using the example above, having your two daily coffees and switching to a medium would save you 2000 calories per month.
2. Cutting down to one sugar and one cream– a simple switch like this goes a long way. A medium coffee at Tim Hortons with one cream and one sugar is 105 calories with 11g of sugar which is half from the regular double-double.

Simple changes add up. Many people forget this principle and are leaving a lot on the table when it comes to their health. Weight loss and health isn’t complicated; it just takes patience and small lifestyle changes that can go a long way.

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