Coffee anyone?

I started as a coffee drinker around Form 3 or 4, which is about 16 years old. It started from the good image projected from those movies, novels and readings. Didn’t really like it in the first place, but as it does help to kept me awake until late night and the Chinese radio station just started to have 24 hours broadcasting and it play great songs during midnight. I would woke up all night long just listen to those songs, and the side effect is my academy result improved  :P

The same coffee mud used for 20 years.

Eventhough I am with coffee for about 20 years but I am not the choosy type of coffee drinker. I only take 3-in-1 mostly, and whatever available from the coffee venting machine in office. When the Nescafe White Coffee first introduced to our office venting machine, I was happy to have an extra verity on top of the common 3-in-1. Everyday, I took 1 cup 3-in-1 early in the morning before any activity (even before the routine running). The 2nd cup will served upon reaching the office and the 3rd cup will be after lunch. These are the minimum volume of coffee intake in a regular working day. The addiction went up together with the workload and stress factor. I could take up to 5~6 cups of white coffee in the office in a single day. On a weekend, I only take 1 cup 3-in-1 in the morning.

As I started running, the weight dropped from 80kg to 70kg, but it’s stayed at 70kg for really long time since October 2011. I though it is due to over-feasting during holiday and CNY, but that proven not to be the reason after few month. Then I tried to cut back the lunch portion, but that only reduce the weight 69kg. I really seat down and look thru my diet. I got no control over dinner (promised to take & clear anything that cook by wife, no choice), so I look into the snacks, lunch & breakfast. Then I come across this article. A point made about black coffee, led me to have search on the energy contained on my drinks.

Nescafe 3-in-1 Regular

The early morning 3-in-1 give 86kCal and each of the White Coffee throughout the day give 144kCal each, so my daily minimum energy from coffee alone is 374kCal (for comparison propose, energy from McChicken is 398kCal, or typical 5km routine run for me take about 350kCal). Looking at my normal coffee drinking rate, I will normally take in 400~600kCal in a normal working weekday. That’s actually explained the reason why I am losing 1~2kg for the week I stayed at home taking care my children in early June. I need the caffeine but not the energy. I need to do something about the coffee. I slowly let the 3-in-1 stock at home depleted without replenishment. Brought some stock for the Nescafe powder, and only take black coffee from the office’s venting machine. The black coffee will only give 2kCal per cup and I can feast them until I overdosed with caffeine.

I start to observe my weight reading dropping in June and it moving between 66~68kg now. There are two things I did differently in June compare to norm, I fell sick for almost the whole month and I cut back the coffee. My training mileage is at the 12 months low but I still lost some weights. You may comment that I lost weight because of the sickness and you may actually right. As I had no control over the sickness, I will stick with what I can control to enjoy a more sustainable weight loss. Need to nail it down at below 65kg to achieve my target BMI of 24.

BMI reference