Coffee, how fattening can it be?

Coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world and is part of daily life for many people in all corners of our planet. If you are someone who enjoys coffee on a regular basis then we are sure that will be interested in leaning more about the effect this drink has on your health, how much is recommended per day and if it is good for your diet.

If you want to know if coffee is fattening then it is important that you know how many calories are in each cup you consume. To do that, you must understand that there are many types and ways of drinking coffee, so the calorie intake in 1 cup can vary depending on how you prepare it or what ingredients you add as well as the size of the cup of course!

How many calories does a coffee have?

Calories in black coffee

A 200ml cup of black coffee, on it's own contains only approximately only 2 calories. This is without adding sugar or anything else such as milk, cream, cinnamon, honey or chocolate. The amount of calories in coffee alone will not vary much if you have a cup larger than 200 ml or an espresso. For sure this is the best and most healthy way to drink it. and freshly ground from beans it will taste even richer.

Based on this, we can say that drinking black coffee on it's own will not have a substantial effect on your weight or weight loss. You should however always be cautious about how much you drink since consuming too much coffee can be bad for your health.

Coffee with sugar

The number of calories in a coffee with sugar will depend on the amount of sugar you use. As a reference, in a teaspoon of sugar there are 8 grams that is equivalent to 32 calories. This means that a 200 ml single coffee with sugar contains 34 kcal.

Coffee with honey

Honey has fewer calories than sugar and you don't need to use a lot to sweeten your drink, so why not use honey as a healthy replacement. A cup of coffee with only spoon of honey has 26 kilo calories, 6 less than one with sugar, an instant benefit if you are tying for some weight loss or watch your health for reasons relating to diabetes of other factors.

Latte or Cappuccino

This type of drink contains approximately 50% coffee and 50% milk. The calories it contains will depend on the type of milk you use. For example, coffee with whole milk provides approximately 31 kcal. And if you add sugar, the calories begin to double.

Coffee with skimmed milk

Coffee with skimmed milk contains approximately 16 calories, coffee with semi-skimmed milk has about 21 calories and coffee with condensed milk is perhaps the highest in calories with 334 calories!! If you add a sugar to these types of drinks, your cup will contain 34 more calories in each one.

Cortado or a small, cut, coffee

A Cortado with whole milk has about 10 calories, whilst a the same drinks with skimmed milk contains 6. This is a good option if you like coffee with milk, but still want to continue enjoying its characteristic bitter taste.

Coffee with cream and others

A coffee with cream about has 40  calories. Likewise, there are many other types of coffee such as mocha coffee with whole milk that contains more than 400 kcal , vanilla syrup with 280 calories, weak coffee that has 90 kcal or chocolate coffee which has 25 calories.

Can coffee make you gain weight or help with weight loss?

Coffee alone is not unhealthy if you drink a sensible amount. The problem is the other ingredients that coffee shops tend to add to make the fashionable Cappuccinos, Frappuccinos,  Caramel lattes and sugar as well as chocolate and other ingredients.

When we drink coffee in its natural black form, it is healthy and has many benefits for our health, such as improving physical performance or reducing the chances of suffering from neurodegenerative diseases.

There are many varieties of coffee and each one has a different calorie content depending on the ingredients we add and size we choose, but if what you want is to opt for the healthiest, then it is best that you opt for a simple black coffee with no sugar. Enjoy!