Do Coffee Calories Count?

There’s coffee, and then there’s “coffee”. 

A plain cup of brewed coffee has less than 5 calories, no fat, and is amazingly healthful for you. But as soon as you Caramel Macchiato that thing up, it weighs in at 250 calories! 

And you don’t have to get the full-on milkshake version of a coffee drink to pad that cup with calories:

• Sugar: 16 calories for 1 teaspoon (4 grams)
• Heavy whipping cream: 101 calories for 2 tablespoons (1 ounce, or about 30 milliliters)
• Half-and-half: 37 calories for 2 tablespoons (1 ounce, or about 30 milliliters)
• Fat-free milk: 10 calories for 2 tablespoons (1 ounce, or about 30 milliliters)

When you’re at your local coffee shop, they normally have this kind of nutrition information available. Many of those coffee drinks seriously have hundreds of calories.

Your best bet is to train your tastes to like black coffee. Little by little, pull back on the double-pump vanilla syrup, or whatever you add, until your tastes accommodate. Once they are at that new, lower calorie lower sugar level, you can enjoy one of the most healthful drinks on the planet without the burden of all those extra calories.