Having a coffee that tastes nicer than a regular Americano could be adding hundreds of calories to your daily intake, warns Emmet Rushe.

I have written before about the calories in certain special Christmas coffee treats that tend to be around at this time of year.

They are just high calorie hot chocolates that coffee houses sell and can be a dieting downfall of you overconsume on them during the week.

But I got asked a few questions about actual coffees and if they were okay when you are trying to get in shape for Christmas.

The answer as always is, it depends…..

If we look at the range of coffees on offer throughout the most popular coffee establishments, you could be forgiven for thinking that you are just having a coffee that tastes nicer than a regular americano and that the calorie difference wouldn’t be that much.

Unfortunately, with every added extra to that cup, you are usually adding calories along with it.

If we take a regular americano without milk as the baseline…

It has around 8 calories per serving and won’t make any difference to your overall daily calorie intake.

Add milk and that goes up to around 50 calories for a medium portion if you use all the milk, so again, nothing too bad there.

If we go into a Latte, which is a more popular coffee choice;

A medium latte made with whole milk comes in at 207 calories per serving.

So, a 157 calorie jump from a medium americano to a medium latte.

If we look at the next on the list for the basic coffees;

A medium cappuccino made with whole milk comes in at 168 calories.

A flat white made with whole milk comes in at 153 calories.

These are all basic coffees made with milk.

If we jump to the more flavoured coffees, the calories take a huge jump also.

A medium Mocha made with whole milk comes in at 314 calories.

A medium Salted Caramel Latte made with whole milk comes in at 352 calories.

That is if you are using just one pump of syrup, if you like to have more, you can add 17 calories per pump for the added flavour.

If you are being ‘healthy’ and going for that Medium Chai Latte with whole milk, you are still taking in 297 calories.

This isn’t about making you feel bad about your favourite drinks, it is simply to make you aware of the calories you can be taking in throughout the week without you realising you are doing it.

If you are having two of those drinks per day, 5-6 days per week the average weekly calories from them could be around 3000 weekly calories just from your daily coffee fix.

If your diet is set up for you to lose 1-2lbs per week and your weekly diet deficit is 3500 calories, you could be drinking your diet away without you even realising it.

You can always cut down on calories by having a small serving instead of a medium or large and by going for semi-skimmed milk or none at all.

But depending on how many you are having per day and what the portion size is, you still need to be aware of how many calories you could be taking in each day and each week.

So, the next time you ask why weight loss isn’t happening, look at everything you are taking in in your diet and ask yourself if your daily coffee could be the problem.
#leanin2019