I know I shouldn't for all manner of reasons but I work at a computer all day and a few cups of coffee keep me sane. Not the fatty starbucks type the instant/vending machine variety.

Does it do that much harm ???

I am following the rest of the diet strictly but giving up coffee will be a struggle

Any help / advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Black coffee or using a healthy creamer has worked for others. Pauly P drinks coffee and his results speak for themselves.

Yep. Coffee and Tea are basically just water....almost no calories. The problem is when you start putting stuff in it (sugar, cream, etc.).

Thank you for your advice they are the answers I hoped for!

I drink them either black or with skimmed milk and have not had sugar in either since I was about 6 years old so good news, nearly done a week of the diet already despite being only on Day 4 so without having to drop caffeine I know I can easily survive anything the diet throws at me.

i know what you mean. i pretty much live off of water, coffee, tea or milk (usually with protein powder). i say, yeah, go for it! the trick is the sweetener and cream. i use a little skim milk and truvia in my coffee, it's awesome. i do decaf unsweet tea and add a little truvia to that before i drink it, because obviously limiting caffeine is probably a good thing. this way the tea is more guilt free. i can't NOT drink tea, I am southern! i can't do decaf coffee though. and honestly, with the low carb diet of the first 30 days especially, and overall if you go pauly p style, a little bit of caffeine from my coffee just may be what gets me to push play!

the biggest thing once you've got the sweetener and cream under control is making sure you're still taking in enough hydration. i'm not sure of the calorie count of powdered/instant coffee, do they have calories? my husband took our french press to work lol, all he does is add hot water from the break room and his coffee rocks!

since coffee and tea are diuretic, decaf helps a little with that, but make sure you replace with extra hydration and you're fine. just don't let it replace your water intake, hydration is hugely important.

You probably don't "need" to drop coffee, but there are a number of studies out there that point to the fact that it's not going to be beneficial if you are trying to lose weight or gain muscle. Some of the research points to the caffeine itself, others point the indirect effects of it (i.e. prone to eating more food, the fat that it's a diuretic).

Personally I think it's more of an issue mentally in that it becomes a dependency. i.e. The fact that you think you need it everyday. With caffeine I think it's better to ease off, rather than go cold turkey, unless you want to deal with headaches for awhile. I was a coffee addict, like "pots" of coffee most days. One day I finally said enough was enough, and I switched to "1/2 caffeine", then to decaf... then to decaf tea... then that was it. Now I just drink water and protein shakes at work. On the weekends I will usually make a pot, but that's my "something to look forward to" as opposed to automatically having it everyday. As far as a job, I'm in IT as well and either do programming, data analysis or generate reports all day long, so yes, it is possible to give it up.