OK to replace breakast with coffee???

So this is what I've been doing............ I seriously looooove my coffe, and usually drink about half a pot each morning, over a couple hours. I use either sugar free flavored creamer, or half and half with those flavored Splenda packets. I can't stand skim milk in my coffee (although that's what I drink and use for cereal, etc.), so I can easily use 150-200 calories just in my coffee. I find I don't really get hungry for food until late morning, early afternoon. Which is ok with me, since I find evening to be the hardest time to stick to my diet, and I like to have a "calorie cushion" in case I eat a little more than I planned. Is this ok????

I have oatmeal in the morning and a cup of coffee...  later I'll have a banana and a yogart with granola in it.  Lunch a turkey sandwich applesauce and an orangejuice.... sometimes a piece of cheese.  I always want something sweet, so I eat a special K bar or another type of granola bar.  For dinner I have a salad.  I doctor it up... olives... or grapes and strawberries.. I make it yummy... Just a small salad.. then I eat a regular dinner... not going back for 2nds.  Once again... I usually want something sweet...  I'm full after dinner, but if I get hungry later.  I have a full size  cinnimon toast rice cake with peanut butter and jelly on it... I've lost 15 lbs....  I no longer crave sugar or salty chips and I don't drink pop...  (I'm not a pop drinker anyway)

How many calories are you allowed per day? 

I'm a loooooooooooooong time coffee-only-for-breakfast person, but really wanting to get my metabolism hoppin' I gave in and forced myself to eat breakfast for a few weeks.  Now I HAVE to eat in the mornings!  I still have 2-3 cups of coffee in the mornings and usually one in the afternoon (my total every day is 3-4... no more than 4).  I just figured it up and each of my cups is exactly 56 calories:  2 tsp sugar, 2 tsp coffeemate and 270 g of coffee.  And I do use a measuring spoon :-P  (I can't do artificial sweeteners so everything I have is fully leaded).  So that's 224 cals per day in beverage form -- but besides water and occassionally switching out one of those cups for a cup of green tea with honey, that's all I drink.  I can afford it, and I still get most of my cals at night.  Breakfast actually keeps me full so I can have a light lunch and not feel deprived through the day or evening.  Snacking on nuts or cottage cheese in the afternoons before dinner helps too... just kind of keeps you feeling "fuller" (By the way, breakfast for me is protein and veges or fruits with only the occassional whole grain toat or english muffin thrown in and lunch is the same, only leaning more towards the veges/fruits as the main and the protein as the secondary I save most of my grain/starch carbs for dinner)

The way my day works is I usually have 1/2 of my daily before dinner time and the other half during/after.  Even if I have to eat a bowl of cereal before bed to get my minimum up there if I wasn't quite as hungry as I thought I should be for supper... so half of my daily is 5 p.m. or later.  And that's with eating breakfast.

I even did this when I was on 1300 cals per day.  So eat yer breakfast

My calorie "goal" is 1200 per day, but I usually end up with about 1350 or so. I'm a new stay at home mom (first baby, 3 1/2 months), and I haven't started exercising yet, so I'm only burning 2100 or so a day. If I do eat breakfast, it's usually 1/2 bagel with 1 Tbsp peanut butter or a few slices of turkey. But when I do that, I'm usually hungry sooner than I would normally be.

I like to try to do the 1/2 cal. before dinner, the rest reserved for the evening thing also- night time is bad for me! I'm in the kitchen cooking anyway (I love to cook!), so I'm tempted to snack, then I sometimes get late-night sugar cravings. Usually I'm satisfied with a bowl of cereal (Corn Chex is my favorite), but I buy those miniature candy bars for my husband........ grrr.

So will eating in the AM to get my metabolism going backfire by making me hungrier sooner, or will it help me curb cravings in the PM by making me feel more satisfied?

That is the question I'm asking myself.......

 

"Only" LOL

I do exercise and only burn about 2150

Are you breast-feeding?  That will make a huge difference in what you're needing calorie wise anyway. 

The reason I start my day with more proteins instead of a bagel or cereal is because I don't have cravings if I do.  If I start with a bowl of cereal or something high carb, I will eat like a thrasher ALL FLIPPIN DAY!  And think I'm hungry while I'm doing it.  Start with an egg or egg beater, or smothered chicken (yep, I have dinner for breakfast a LOT) or tuna, cottage cheese is always good... the posibilities are pretty endless.  Sautee up some onions, peppers and mushrooms in a big batch and keep them in the fridge to use in omlets and such as needed.  Have 1/2 an apple, a banana or an orange (1/2 a grapefruit, some berries, whatever) with your breakfast and you've got a low cal, high protein breakfast with some vitamins that will keep you going hunger free for a good 2-4 hours. 

And I forgot I do drink something else.... V8's!  I have a low sodium V8 at least once per day, usually with breakfast.

For the chocolate problem, Ghirardelli makes an AWESOME dark chocolate in their Twilight Delight bar.  2 squares and I'm good to go on those days where I really think I must have a sweet.  I figured them at 67 cals per square, so not bad considering the benefits of the dark chocolate too (yep, I've even rationalized it for you already ;-) )

So keep the protein content up in the mornings and you shouldn't have any cravings through the day.  Dunno what to tell you for evenings as those are my munchie times also... I've just learned to work with them

I am rarely hungry in the morning.  If I eat, I just get hungrier by mid morning.  I have my coffee and do not eat till my body says it is ready for food.  I only drink my coffee with light soy milk, it keeps the clories down and does not upset my stomach.  Plus I get some protien from the soy milk.

Congrats on being a new mom! I too am a coffee drinker (how do people live without it?) and I am not a huge breakfast fan...but I am eating breakfast now. The reason is that I was snacking in the afternoons and it was seriously impairing my calorie intake because I was not hungry, not hungry all morning and then in the afternoon I was HUNGRY..there wasn't enough food available to satisfy my cravings. Dr. Oz (the guy on Oprah all the time) said that if you eat fiber in the morning, you will feel more satisfied in the afternoon...I tried it and darn if it didn't work! So now I have cereal (Kashi GoLean) in the morning (I get up super early...around 5:30am) and then around 9am I have a blueberry fiber cake (80 calories, 1.5 grams of fat no saturated, 13 grams of fiber) from Trader Joe's and that just seems to keep me on an even keel for the day. I find that since I don't really "get hungry" anymore I make better food choices overall. Bottom line, it is about calories in and calories out, so the time of day doesn't really matter, but what I found out is that I would not be hungry for long periods of the day and then I would be constantly hungry for the rest of the day and I was always trying to satisfy whatever feeling/craving I was having at the time...

Well, I guess I should try eating more protein in the morning- maybe have the turkey and fruit, and save the bagel for lunch. I'm probably guilty of eating too many carbohydrates- I LOVE bread, rice and pasta. I love vegetables, too, at least.  Thank you all for your comments- nice to know there are others in the same boat. Or at least on the same river. LOL....

I had a nutritionist tell me that I could count my mocha in the morning for breakfast because atleast it has some good things in it and I use sugar free flavoring.....they would prefer I had something else with it like a piece of toast and a piece of fruit but the milk in the mocha was better then nothing..........But I am like you if I eat breakfast I tend to want to eat all day long ug not prettty.

I was also a big time coffee drinker... I'd get a large iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts on my way to work and then have a hot cup or 2 around 10.  I started replacing my coffee with carnation instant breakfast, and I'll always make sure I have it regardless of hunger.  I think its around 200 cals or so w/ skim milk, but it fills me up on those days when I am starving.  I've done this for the past month, and I realize now when I hit up starbucks occasionally around mid afternoon the coffee really gets to me! I was never a believer on the effects of caffene until now.  Might want to give that a shot since the instant breakfast has a lot of other great nutrients in it, and you can continue your "routine" of still having something liquid.

If you want to try lowering the calories in your coffee in order to squeeze in breakfast, trying using nonfat powdered milk.  It has very few calories, and doesn't taste watered-down like skim milk because ... it's dehydrated.  Also, cinnamon is a great flavor for coffee that has few calories.  Also, you can add vanilla or almond extract, to cut down on calories from coffee mate.

 

everyones metabolism is different. Contrast an early bird  night owl. So if it works for you and your are within your calorie limits , it should be no worse than anybody-else's diet. I would though look at studies about caffeine and coffee-their nonbenificial effects and decide if it is good for your personal situation. if you have ethical values that make you believe in wasting money on good causes, you should look into fair trade practices and stuff like ecological sensitivity since the amount of coffee you consume on a daily basis will constitute an environmental impact over your lifespan.

Many years ago I used to drink my coffee with cream and sugar. One day I decided to drop the sugar. So I drank my coffee without sugar for one week and then dropped the cream. I have drank it blank ever since.

Every once in a while someone will give me a coffee with Cream and Sugar and I cannot stand it now.

It is easier to drink coffee black if it is fresh and you do not get the other calories and you can then eat breakfast.

 

AJ

 

 

Ok, I'm just going to weigh in with my opinion. You eat to fuel your body, I don't see how coffee for breakfast is fueling your body for a busy day. It's not a balanced nutrional meal for your body.