You Can Totally Drink Coffee If You're Trying To Lose Weight—Just Be Wary Of How Much (2024)

Hot, iced, flavored, black, or decaffeinated—however you like your morning cup of joe, there's some kind of coffee out there for everyone. Whether you need it to put that extra pep in your step or you just like the ritual of making (or buying) your favorite drink every day, coffee fans know that it's essential. But if you're trying to lose weight, fitting coffee into your daily calorie intake isn't always easy, especially if you like it sweet and creamy. Plenty of diets do make room for coffee (whew!), but you may be wondering, Is coffee good for weight loss or does coffee make you gain weight?

TBH, even the scientific community is divided on this. “Preliminary research suggests there may be a connection between coffee intake and weight loss, [but] I wouldn't recommend increasing your coffee or caffeine intake based on this—or starting a caffeine habit if you don’t already have one,” says Amy Gorin, RDN, a plant-forward registered dietitian nutritionist in the New York City area.

For the most part, it's fine to indulge in one cup each morning. But if you have heart condition or concerns, you should be careful about how much you're sipping, since caffeine can increase your blood pressure, explains Monica L Capille, RD, LDN.

Luckily, there's a lot of information out there that can help set the record straight. Here’s the scoop on exactly how and where coffee fits into a healthy lifestyle.

Does drinking coffee help you lose weight?

There’s not a clear yes or no answer on whether coffee helps or hurts weight loss—or affects it at all. There have been studies supporting the idea that drinking coffee stimulates weight loss, but not enough of 'em to make it a commonly agreed upon fact. Also, there's no evidence so far that shows coffee can target fat in certain areas of your body like your stomach. Here's what some recent studies say.

Research that points to coffee aiding weight loss:

• Caffeine may stimulate brown adipose tissue, or the fat in your body that burns calories, per a 2019 study in Scientific Reports. Essentially, researchers discovered that drinking one cup of coffee increases your metabolic rate to the point that brown adipose tissue activity occurs, leading to fat burning and weight loss.
• People who drank four cups of caffeinated coffee per day saw a four percent decrease in body fat, according to 2020 research by Harvard researchers that was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The study’s authors suspect this is because drinking coffee raises a person’s metabolic rate, which means more calories burned.
• Caffeinated mate tea extract was found to reduce the incidence of weight gain and body fat accumulation in a 2020 study in rats in the Journal of Functional Foods. The same results weren’t seen with decaffeinated extract, suggesting it’s the caffeine in mate, at least, that promotes weight loss. But remember, you're not a rat! The findings in humans could be different.

Can drinking coffee make you gain weight?

Some recent studies suggest there may be negative effects of drinking coffee, which may or may not cancel out the positive effects. Here's what the research says.

Research that points to coffee hindering weight loss:

• Drinking higher amounts of caffeinated beverages, like coffee, is associated with an increase in body mass index (BMI). A 2021 study in the Food & Function journal followed 661 college students and found that those who consumed more caffeinated drinks usually slept worse—more on that in a sec—and had a higher BMI.
• Drinking caffeinated coffee has been linked to an increase in sugar cravings, meaning that your a.m. cup could be setting you up for making bad snack choices later on in your day (and preventing you from losing weight). On the other hand, a 2017 study in the Journal of Food Science showed that drinking a cup of caffeinated coffee messed with people’s taste buds, particularly their interpretation of sweetness. You may end up consuming sweeter and sweeter foods or drinks (a.k.a. more calories and carbs) because of this.
• Drinking coffee even six hours before bedtime can cause sleep disturbances, per a 2013 study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. This has a broader impact than just making you extra sleepy: Poor or insufficient sleep has been repeatedly linked to weight gain.

So, what does this mixed bag of studies mean for your health and weight loss? Basically, if you like to drink coffee, feel free to enjoy a reasonable amount. There's no conclusive evidence to support coffee for weight loss or weight gain. If your coffee habit suits you, go for it. Just don’t hang your goals on your caffeine intake because no one knows for sure whether there’s a connection.

How much coffee is okay? “I would suggest drinking the amount of coffee that you want to—assuming that it falls at or below 400 milligrams of caffeine daily,” says Gorin. “So that amount can be zero cups or up to five cups of certain types of coffee, [remembering that] other sources of caffeine, such as green tea, count toward that daily intake.”

When should you drink coffee to lose weight?

Coffee is a great way to start your morning. Drink it too late in the day, and you risk upsetting your sleep schedule. "You need to sleep around eight hours a day," Capille emphasizes—so make sure to have your last cup before 2:00 p.m. That way, the caffeine will be totally out of your system by the time you're ready to hit the hay.

It's also a good idea to pair your coffee with breakfast, says Capille. When you wake up in the morning, your cells are ready to support your body. But, they need some kind of food so they can produce energy, she explains. If you skip breakfast, your cells will turn to your fat cells and your muscle cells for food.

"You want to lose fat, but you don't want to lose it to a point where you're losing muscle also," Capille says. There's an easy fix—drink your coffee with a protein-packed breakfast, whole grains, and a healthy fat, she says. Fruits and veggies are great to add too.

One exception is intermittent fasting (IF). If your IF schedule has you skipping the typical first meal of the day, you can still have coffee, according to Capille. Just make sure the first meal you eat is balanced with everything your body needs.

What can you put in your coffee to lose weight?

The big thing is to be mindful of what you're putting in. Pouring too much cream and sugar into your brew can offset coffee's anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, Capille says, and throw your weight loss goals off track. Instead, she suggests opting for sugar-free syrups, stevia, or a similar sugar substitute.

As for what kind of coffee is best for weight loss, decaffeinated and regular both have the same nutrients. Every cup will still contain lots of beneficial niacin, potassium, magnesium, and antioxidants—so choose your favorite blend and sip away. And black and sweetened coffee are both fine, as long as you're keeping the add-ons to a minimum.

What about coffee supplements? Are those healthy?

Hate the taste of coffee? You’re not necessarily out of luck when it comes to cashing in on the potential fat-busting power of coffee thanks to something called green coffee bean extract.

A supplement available in a powder, pill or capsule, or liquid, the extract is derived from unroasted coffee beans—which allegedly maintain higher levels of chlorogenic acids, a.k.a. the antioxidant stuff in coffee typically associated with its major health benefits, than roasted beans. Green coffee bean extract is often touted as a so-called natural weight-loss supplement, which should raise flags for anyone trying to lose weight the good ol’ fashioned way because, sorry to say, there really is no such thing as a miracle drug for weight loss!

Gorin says there’s preliminary research connecting green coffee bean extract to weight loss (like this study), but there needs to be waaaay more before any responsible nutrition expert would start giving these supps their seal of approval. And whether they actually work or not, you still have to be *very* careful when considering whether or not to take them. Because they’re made from coffee beans, they do contain caffeine and will contribute to your daily intake, making it easy for you to consume way too much caffeine if you forget to add it all up.

There are also the usual concerns about supplements, which aren’t regulated by the FDA, and don’t necessarily need to do or contain what their labels claim. Gorin says that if you want to try one of these supplements, check that they should conduct third-party verification testing from an organization like NSF International and make sure they're not listed on the Federal Trade Commission’s website for fraud or contamination. But honestly, you're better off avoiding these until there's more research to back them up for weight loss.

What if I can’t have caffeine—does decaf coffee do any good for health or weight loss?

FYI, even decaf coffee contains a little bit of caffeine, so if you’re not allowed to have any caffeine at all, you should avoid decaf and regular coffee. But if you’re simply on a low-caffeine diet, the amount of caffeine in decaf (about six milligrams per eight-ounce serving, per Gorin) probably won’t hurt you...though it may not help you with your weight-loss goals much, either.

“There have been studies done on caffeine, coffee, and green tea that all tie back to weight loss,” says Gorin, “so it would appear that the benefits come from caffeinated coffee, but we can’t say that for sure yet.”

It’s possible that some of the antioxidant benefits of coffee—whether caffeinated or not—could help with weight loss. It’s also possible that drinking decaf coffee could have the same appetite-suppressing effects, meaning you may consume less calories overall. There aren’t really any studies looking at the effects of decaf coffee on weight loss, so it's still unclear what role it plays in the coffee/weight loss landscape.

The bottom line: Plain black coffee may be beneficial if you're trying to lose weight, but it's just unclear at this point—so it's not worth adding to your diet if you don't enjoy it. Either way, limit your caffeine intake to only 400 milligrams per day.