Thread: how much caffeine and what drinks are OK?

Eep! I have another question!

I know it's important to drink lots and lots of water during a VLCD. The one I'm likely going to do (Optifast) recommends 2 litres per day.

I've also seen notes about not having coke zero, coffee and so on. There were recommendations about having decaffinated coffee but not normal coffee.

Now I love my caffeine and I need to know whether I have to go without it in order to do VLCD. Because totally getting rid of caffeine would be another project in itself which I would understake before a VLCD.

At the moment I have about two cups - three cups a day (of coffee, diet coke, tea...etc...you know, caffeine drinks).

I'm a bit confused as I've seen conflicting messages. For instance, the Optifast diet has coffee flavour shakes and bars which it actually states contain caffeine - I'm guessing these are OK in the diet and don't kick me out of ketosis then? And is green tea OK...that has caffeine in it too. What about coffee? I'm guessing I'd have to have that black with no sugar - would an artificial sweetner be OK? Or is coffee a no-no?

The Optifast diet actually suggests making the chocolate shake into a mocha by adding a teaspoon of instant coffee so now I'm confused.

Please help, thanks

On lighter life you can have black coffee, black tea, green tea, peppermint tea, any other tea made from the leaf (but not flower teas such as camomile) as well as water. It doesn't matter if they have cafine or not. Each programme will probably have it's own rules but I drink around 3 black coffees a day with caffine and haven't had any problems.

Oh - and I should have said that diet sodas are not allowed as many of then contain citric acid - which can knock some people out of ketosis. However, Coke Zero does not contain citric acid and some people drink it - there are regular arguments about this on the lighter life forum!

Agree with Weasey on all counts. I started on the Kee diet VLCD, although the products are the same source as Slim & Save. There they allow moderate caffeine, tea and coffee. I don't overdo it but I've had caffeine every morning and occasionally afternoons - strong and black, max of 3 per day (mugs). It doesn't seem to have affected weight loss but who knows. I'm happier with it and with the losses. I've JUST begun adding an occasional coke zero with no apparent negative results. More experienced VLCDers seem to drink this too, so I would say it's ok!

You can have caffeine on the Alizonne vlcd. Black coffee in a vanilla, caramel or plain chocolate shake is one of the pleasures of this programme! So I'd do whatever suits you!

Ali

Hi there, I think most VLCD allow coffee without milk. In coke etc the main issues with diet coke and coke zero is that they can slow down your weight loss or kick you out of ketosis.

I know that caffeine has an affect on insulin levels and can destabilise blood sugar - so it can kick off cravings and make sticking to any diet more difficult which may be why they recommend decaf instead.

HTH

Thank you very much everyone, that's cleared that up really well

Hello again. I'm going to start having some coffee with my diet. Are artificial sweetners OK to use in coffee, or should I just be having it black with no sweetner at all? Thanks

On lighterlife you can have tablet sweetners but not powdered ones. No idea why!

Maybe it's worth seeing if you can get used to it without sweetener. I have found I quite like it now. The ration ale is that you are not feeding your seet tooth, and also that there is some evidence that lo calorie sweetners may screw up yr body chemistry - telling yr body to produce insulin. Some scientific research is around if you google it.

Ali

Hmmm a little confusing. I guess I should just try try kick the diet coke habit = ) Been saying I should do that for awhile now anyway. Who knows it might result in bigger loses!

Good luck with optifast. I'll keep checking back.