Caffeine and dieting

[yesthattom]

I want to lose about 30 pounds in the next year.
Currently I don’t eat caffeine (with the exception of chocolate, which is rare). Artificial sweeteners give me headaches.
I’m getting bored with water at work. One of the few other low-calorie drinks they have is unsweetened tea.

Would caffeine help or hurt my ability to lose weight?

Comments

[jwg.livejournal.com]

Have you considered WeightWatchers? I know quite a few people who have had excellent results with that system.

How about herbal tea as a way to avoid caffeine?

[catwithbell.livejournal.com]

I don't think caffeine affects weight loss much in itself. I found it was more difficult to drink enough water, though, which is why I cut out coffee some and soda entirely when I did my weight loss thing.

I go through phases on beverages. Right now, I'm using a small splash (~0.5oz) of cranberry cocktail in a 16-20oz glass of water. It changes the pH a little and gives a bit of flavor without being overwhelming. Citruses will have a similar effect with no calories at all.

[penk.livejournal.com]

Water bores me to tears as well. What I did was started carting around a waterbottle, but a) it's always ice water (mmm), and b) I put a tablespoon of lemonade mix in it. Makes it COMPLETELY palatable and tasty and yummy. The sugar content is very very low (Likely 20cals or so for a liter bottle). Everytime I'm hungry or snacky, I just chug down some light lemonade.

Down 30lbs from my max (270-ish, now at 240).

[digamma.livejournal.com]

There are a few good caffeine-free herbal infusions in our office. There is also one zero-calorie fruit drink in the fridge. My guess is that the fruit-infused tap water up on 8, in addition to being totally delicious and environmentally impeccable, has negligible calories.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

You could make caffeine-free iced tea... if I put 4 mint-tea bags in a pitcher of water in the fridge at work, it's good to drink the next day. Sometimes I add fennel.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

As for caffeine and weight:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/caffeine/HQ00369

[thespian.livejournal.com]

for the record, I swig caffeine like there's no tomorrow and this week have been eating pretty big meals because over the last month have been losing *too much* weight; I lost 7lbs, 6lbs, and 8lbs in the 3 weeks previous to this.

I've lost 140lbs in the last 2 years.

[tinanj.livejournal.com]

Caffeine in itself won't hinder weightloss, but it can dehydrate you and when you are using beverages with caffeine and calories (like regular soda) then it will set you back. I tend to drink a lot of water, usually a cup or two of green tea during the day at work, and I keep a pitcher of unsweetened ice tea made up in the fridge at home for the evenings. Really the whole drink 2 million gallons of water to lose weight thing is highly overrated. If you drink water or other non-caloric beverages throughout the day and eat your healthy serving of fruits and veggies (which also have a lot of water in them) you are fine. Drink more if you work out or it is really hot but don't stress about it.

Oh yeah, I have lost close to 50 lbs so far, but that is also because I run 3-4 times a week and work out with a personal trainer. You might also check out Sparkpeople.com, they are a great (free) online weight loss program that I think beats weight watchers online a million times over!

[lovingboth]

As has been said, caffeine affects how much you pee. This can have effects both ways.

Add some lemon juice to the water? I can drink that happily without extra sugar. There are also about a million flavours of herbal tea.

I presume you've seen John Walker's Hacker's Diet? Dieting at its simplest and most honest...

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

Caffeine is a mild appetite suppressant. It's also, as noted above, a diuretic: if you start drinking more of it you'll be spending much more time in the men's room. Depending on your sensitivity and how much you drink, you may also find your hands shaking a bit: it's not so good for the fine motor control.

In general, I find carbonated water to be much easier to drink than still water. Our employer has fizzy water dispensers in many but sadly not all of the kitchens. Lemon and lime flavored seltzers are pretty easy to find too, although the bottle waste makes me sad.

I don't know

[mrfantasy.livejournal.com]

But I do know it will make you feel AWESOME!

Seriously, though, I need to do the same. Perhaps we can somehow motivate each other. My current goal is to exercise more (just did a 10 mile bike ride in fact) and eat less, as part of a new budgetary management strategy. If I eat out less for lunch, and actually buy and eat less groceries, not only do I lose weight but we save money too. At least that's the theory--and that won't work for you with the endless temptation of free food at work.

[figmo.livejournal.com]

Caffeine in the form of unsweetened tea can possibly help you lose weight and definitely won't hurt your attempt. My dietician (I'm on a weight loss plan) wants me to drink as much tea as I can because it contains lots of other good things like antioxidants.

[sigje.livejournal.com]

if you drink caffeine before working out it will boost you working out a bit more so your workout will be more efficient.

[sigje.livejournal.com]

green or white tea .. green tea helps with belly fat. don't know whether white tea has the same properties

[rainbear.livejournal.com]

If you want to continue to drink water, but want to give it some flavor--check your drink mix aisle (though sometimes it's found where they keep bottles of lemon juice & such) at your supermarket for a product called True Lemon (http://www.truelemon.com/index.html). I've used it for a while, it's tasty, comes in Lemon, Lime (and apparently now Orange), has no calories or sweeteners, and tastes really really great. You can send away for free samples on their website if you want to try it before you buy it.

[ninaf.livejournal.com]

I have lost around 65-70 pounds and caffeine was one thing I never ever thought about. I would be concerned with what the caffeine was in like non-diet pop but thats about it.

[airshipjones.livejournal.com]

I dropped most caffeine from my diet a few years ago. I don't drink coffee or tea and now I only drink about one caffeinated soda a week. I have found that my energy has been more steady and in general higher since I reduced my caffeine intake. Of course, I have been going to the gym 2-3 times per week and doing yoga 2-3 times per week as well. I have dropped over 30 pounds in the last 9 months and increased my running up to about 3-4 miles at a time. I think activity has more to do with energy level than caffeine, but YMMV.

[seasings.livejournal.com]

When I'm successfully losing weight it's because I'm both exercising and limiting calories. I find I can do neither well without the other. Caffeine is both an appetite suppressant and can give you more energy for working out, but I've found it's not worth it.

[noglider.livejournal.com]

I'm hooked on caffeine, but I don't recommend it to you. Didn't you say it has bad effects on you? Anyway, I don't think it's part of a sensible, long-term weight less program.

As someone said, Weight Watchers is good. It's sensible. Eat everything good, in moderate, measured portions.

Don't drink decaffeinated tea, i.e. the type of tea that normally has caffeine and then had it removed. Instead, drink stuff that normally doesn't have any caffeine.

I trust you know that juice has tons of calories, because of all its sugar. Yes, it's nutritious, but only up to a point, because it's very easy to drink too much of it. But you can dilute it heavily, and you may find it tastes better than water. For variety, you can heat it up and call it grape tea or apple tea or whatever. Just keep trying different "flavors" in your water until you find something you like. You can get plain cranberry juice without sweetener in a big bottle if you look hard enough. It's extremely tart when straight but makes a nice tea, since it's so flavorful.

Tom

[keyne.livejournal.com]

Don't drink decaffeinated tea, i.e. the type of tea that normally has caffeine and then had it removed. Instead, drink stuff that normally doesn't have any caffeine.

Why? I drink unsweetened, decaffeinated iced tea on a regular basis. I'm still getting the health benefits of the antioxidants without adding empty calories or caffeine to my diet.

[noglider.livejournal.com]

I'm under the impression that Tom is very sensitive to caffeine, which is why I recommended against decaffeinated tea for him. I meant to say that decaffeinated tea probably has a bit of caffeine left in.

Caffeine = bad

[solenopsis6.livejournal.com]

After dropping caffeine (oh, that was a bad two weeks) my life has improved. Don't intentionally get yourself hooked. That's such a bad idea, I can't even begin..

I went to the doc, and as he took my BP (which had been "elevated") I told him that I'd cut out the caffeine a few weeks before. As he looked at my readings, he said "I know!"

Been a lot less generally stressed since then too, which could be from less caffeine, or could be from sleeping better because of less caffeine.

But the big thing is that my heart isn't trying to beat its way out of my chest anymore.

[noglider.livejournal.com]

Rather than drinking so much, I suggest you try eating fresh fruits and veggies. You get a lot of water and fiber that way, which both help to make you feel full. The more of this stuff you eat, the more you can change what you crave. Munch on grapes, carrots, etc. You can hardly go wrong!