If you are like me, you start every morning with coffee. The first thing I do every morning, before I shower or eat breakfast, is get the coffee maker running. Without my morning Joe, I would be a zombie. To enjoy my coffee to the fullest, I use coffee creamer.
Before I became more calorie-conscious, I used to dump creamer into my morning mugs. Literally, half of my cup would be full of silky white liquid, and my coffee was sweet and delicious. I could stretch a pot out for about half a day, too. Little did I know my morning ritual was a minefield of calories.
Depending on the brand and flavor of coffee creamer you use, each tablespoon contains 25-35 calories. I usually buy Coffee-Mate’s fat free variety, which comes in at 25 calories per tablespoon. Before, when I would pour in creamer like a glass of milk, I was drinking in 200 calories per cup. 200 calories! That is nearly a meal in itself, and I was receiving little, if any traditional value. On a typical morning, I drink three cups of coffee; so before I ate any solid food, I had already consumed 600 calories, almost a third of what my daily caloric intake should be.
Today, I set my trusty tablespoon atop the coffee maker. I measure out two tablespoons per cup, and never have more than three cups of coffee in the morning. If you are a coffee creamer junkie and cannot shed the pounds you long to lose, start cutting back on the cream. The results will pleasantly surprise you.
skinnyfats 
August 10, 2012 at 3:50 AM
Great post. There are tons of hidden calories in condiments like ketchup, coffee creamer, etc. I actually put a scoop of vanilla protein powder in my coffee, in place of milk/creamer. It tastes amazing and at 110 calories for 24 grams of protein, it’s well worth it!
– K.
August 10, 2012 at 12:46 PM
I do this as well – I used to use about 4-5 tablespoons per cup, and now I only use one. If you buy quality coffee, you don’t really need to use a shit-ton of creamer for it to taste good anyway.