11 Sneaky Ways Your Coffee Habit Could Be Causing Weight Gain, According to Dietitians

Emily Laurence
·8 min read
5

Sugar isn’t the only ingredient to watch out for.

Three out of four Americans drink coffee every single day with 49 percent drinking between three and five cups a day. Clearly, we are a nation of coffee lovers, and there are all sorts of ways people like to savor it—some are purists and like it black, and then there are the latte drinkers, fancy frappuccino sippers, collagen boosters…the list goes on.

But does coffee make you gain weight? If you’re trying to lose a few pounds in a healthy way, you may be surprised to hear that your coffee habit could be working against you, making your goal harder to achieve. Coffee can be part of a healthy diet, but it isn’t always.

Related: If You Love Coffee a Latte, Here are 31 Types of Coffee—From Affogato to Vienna

11 Ways Your Coffee Habit Could Be Causing Weight Gain

1. It’s flavored

Walk into any coffee shop and you’re bound to see a list of specialty coffee drinks like mochas, vanilla lattes or salted caramel cold brew. Registered dietitian Isabel Smith, RD, CDN, says that while coffee on its own doesn’t cause weight gain, adding sugar or flavorings can. The vast majority of the time, cafes aren’t using ingredients like vanilla or lavender in their pure forms; they’re adding them to your drink in the form of sugary syrups. These additions can majorly up the calories in your drink. For example, a grande cinnamon dolce latte at Starbucks has 340 calories.

If you do want to add flavor to your coffee, registered dietitian and Foodtrainers founder Lauren Slayton, MS, RD, recommends sprinkling Ceylon cinnamon on top. Unlike cinnamon syrup (or other flavorings), it doesn’t have sugar and actually makes your coffee even healthier because of its anti-inflammatory properties and link to stabilizing blood sugar levels.

2. You’re adding artificial sweeteners

Maybe you already knew that sugar-filled flavorings can turn coffee from a healthy drink into a dessert. That’s why you use artificial sweeteners instead, like Splenda, NutraSweet, Equal or Sweet’N Low. While these ingredients have either very little or no calories, both dietitians say that are linked to causing weight gain.

“Research has shown these [sweeteners] have the potential to have a negative effect on our gut microbiomes. Plus, they are so much more concentrated in sweetness that our taste buds can adapt and crave even more sweet things,” Smith explains.

Instead, Smith suggests opting for honey, maple syrup or sweet herbs like cinnamon or a pumpkin spice blend (note, she says to use a spice blend, not a pumpkin spice syrup). “While honey and maple syrup aren’t sugar-free, they are as natural as you can get and offer various nutrients like B vitamins and minerals like zinc, manganese and more,” Smith says. “Just try to stick to a one-tablespoon serving.”

3. You’re adding MCT oil or coconut oil

The ketogenic diet remains an uber-popular eating plan and with its rise, many people adopted the habit of adding MCT oil or coconut oil to their coffee as a way to help the body stay in ketosis. Smith says there are pros and cons to boosting your coffee this way. On the one hand, she says that these ingredients can make coffee more satiating and help balance blood sugar levels. On the other hand, they do make coffee higher in calories.

While she says it’s not necessary to nix MCT oil or coconut oil completely if adding one to your coffee makes you feel good, it’s still important to remember to consider the calories it adds too.

4. Your coffee is boosted with collagen

Collagen is another ingredient many people add to their coffee as a way to add protein to their morning cup of joe. Like MCT oil and coconut oil, Smith says that collagen can help with satiety and help balance blood sugar, but it does still contain calories—just something to be aware of if you are trying to lose weight in a healthy way.

5. Lattes are more your style

Maybe instead of black coffee, you’re more of an oat milk latte or almond milk latte drinker. “In general, you aren’t getting a ton of nutrition from non-dairy milks,” Slayton shares. She also points out that many alternative milks are sweetened and contain sugar. “Sweetened nut milks hover around 20 grams of sugar per cup. That’s five teaspoons of sugar as if you’re having a couple of lollipops with your latte,” she says.

Slayton says that oat milk, in particular, has pitfalls if you’re trying to lose weight. “I know many people like its creaminess, but that [often] comes from inflammatory oils. If you have a weight loss goal, you’re getting about half a serving of carbohydrates per cup of coffee,” she says.

Her advice is to go for an unsweetened alternative milk with a short ingredients list and recommends brands such as Elmhurst 1925, Milkadamia and Malk.

Related: Is It Bad to Put Milk in Your Coffee?

6. You’re adding creamer

Creamer is another popular coffee add-in that Smith says can be a sneaky cause of weight gain if you’re adding significant amounts to your cup. Additionally, some creamers are sweetened with sugar or artificial sweeteners, which as both dietitians have pointed out, can cause weight gain.

7. Coffee is all you have for breakfast

Some people who are trying to lose weight skip breakfast in an effort to cut calories—except for that beloved cup of coffee, of course. Slayton says that this isn’t necessarily a horrible habit. “I know we’ve all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but that’s not necessarily true. In fact, having a later breakfast or skipping breakfast [as a form of intermittent fasting] can be helpful for weight management, blood sugar control and reducing inflammation,” she explains, adding that having black coffee in the morning and the first meal of the day around 11 a.m. or noon works well for many people.

However, there are exceptions. Slayton says that if you are working out in the morning, it’s important to not wait hours to refuel because exercise lowers blood sugar. And whether you work out in the morning or not, having only coffee for breakfast can lead to feeling super hungry and overeating later.

With all of this in mind, having only coffee for breakfast can be okay for some people, but not all. It depends on your individual health goals and how it makes you feel.

Related: 75 Family-Friendly Breakfast Dishes to Get Everyone Out the Door on a High Note

8. It may disrupt your hormones

If coffee is making you feel jittery, it could be impacting your body in a negative way. “Coffee on an empty stomach can disrupt your hormones by putting stress on your adrenals, actually leaving you feeling even more burnout and low energy than before—the opposite of what we want coffee to do,” Smith shares. Drinking coffee can stimulate the secretion of cortisol, which is known as the “stress hormone” and is linked to weight gain. Pay attention to how drinking coffee makes you feel. If it makes you feel anxious and jittery, it may be negatively impacting you.

9. You pair it with a pastry

A coffee and pastry pairing is a classic combo that every place with an espresso machine capitalizes on. Banana nut bread, blueberry muffins, glazed donuts…they can be hard to resist—especially if you’re in a hurry and want to eat something while you drive or walk to work. Delicious? Absolutely. But if you’re trying to lose weight, it’s important to be mindful of the calories in these sweet treats, which often have very little nutrient value. For example, a carrot cake muffin from Dunkin’ is 510 calories and has a whopping 49 grams of sugar.

10. You grab a bottled coffee drink

Buying bottled coffee drinks can be more convenient than stopping by Starbucks or Dunkin’ in the morning, but these drinks are often full of ingredients that Slayton and Smith say to minimize if you want to lose weight—namely sugar and artificial sweeteners.

11. It’s disrupting your sleep

If your coffee habit is getting in the way of your sleep, it could be contributing to weight gain. Scientific studies show that people who get less than five hours of sleep a night are more likely to gain weight than people who get at least seven hours of sleep a night.

Does Caffeine Make You Gain Weight?

While it’s important to keep all these factors in mind if weight loss is one of your health goals, both dietitians emphasize that coffee—or caffeine itself—on its own does not lead to weight gain. “Coffee on its own has health benefits, including supporting both the brain and liver,” Slayton says. In terms of weight, she says that caffeine has been scientifically linked to helping people who have lost weight maintain their weight loss.

The bottom line is that it’s not the caffeine in coffee that’s problematic; it’s other ingredients that are often added to coffee. (Unless it’s causing you to overeat later, making you jittery and disrupting your hormones, or keeping you up at night.) If you want to lose weight in a healthy way, there’s no need to part ways with coffee. Just go easy on the extras.

Next up, see a list of 16 ways to lose weight quickly and safely. 

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