There are only very few feelings better than coming home after a long day of work or school, taking your tight socks off and relaxing while enjoying a cup of delicious Turkish coffee.
Although traditionally it’s consumed right after breakfast as a digestive aid and an excuse to chat away the morning, Turkish coffee can be had anywhere and anytime you want for up to 6 servings a day.
With all the conflicting information out there, understanding the effects of Turkish coffee on your weight can be a confusing problem and you can’t help but wonder “Is Turkish coffee fattening or not?”
Turkish coffee is very low in calories, may help with appetite control and boosting metabolism. So, it’s unlikely that you’ll gain weight by drinking unsweetened Turkish coffee.
In fact Turkish coffee might even help you burn more fat and lose weight.
If you want more details, here I’ve researched how weight gain and loss works and how a delicious cup of Turkish coffee can effect your waistline.
How do we gain weight?
Keeping your bodyweight in the healthy range is one of the most important things in leading a healthy and happy life that’s devoid of diseases such as heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and even sleep apnea.
We all want to live long and healthy lives and enjoy our time doing our favourite activities and spending quality time with our loved ones. So, when introducing a new enjoyable activity to your life such as drinking Turkish coffee, it’s normal to want to know what effects it may have on your health.
If we’re going to understand whether Turkish coffee makes you put on weight or aids in weight loss, we need to get a grasp on how weight loss and weight gain work.
From Whole30 to the Paleo diet, there are many different ways of eating that people incorporate into their lives to keep a healthy bodyweight. With countless diets and endless information out there, the science of weight loss can seem like a confusing subject.
But it all boils down to very simple principles.
The most basic scientific explanation of how we gain or lose weight has to do with calories.
Each day your body burns calories to keep its bodily functions. When you eat more calories than you burn and keep doing this over the course of many months and years, you end up with a big belly and a bunch of clothes that you can’t fit in anymore.
Although the basics of weight management is as simple as how many calories you consume on a given day, there are also many factors such as emotional eating, having a slow metabolism and disrupted sleep patterns that may contribute to your waist size.
Additives are an Important Factor
I like my coffee unsweetened. I love to feel the subtle flavours and mild bitterness in my coffee.
But since many people add sugar and many other additives such as cream and milk – and in the case of Turkish coffee, sweeteners such as mastic gum and honey, it’s important to take into account what you add in your coffee to make it more fitting to your tastes.
Considering how it effects your health negatively, it’s best to avoid sugar altogether. But if you enjoy your coffee even more with a touch of sweetness, you better know how many calories you’re adding to your favourite beverage.
- A tablespoon of sugar has 60 calories
- A tablespoon of cream has 51 calories
- A tablespoon of honey has 64 calories
Turkish Coffee is Low in Calories
If you like your coffee without sugar like me, you’re in for a treat because one serving of Turkish coffee without anything added has only 2 calories.
Because Turkish coffee is simply coffee beans mixed with water just like other types of coffee, its unsweetened version has almost no calories. And the few calories that Turkish coffee has comes from the little amount of coffee beans used to make it and it’s packed with nutrients such as vitamin B and E, magnesium, potassium, manganese and antioxidants.
If you’re on a diet and still want to enjoy Turkish coffee, indulge yourself because this delicious drink is the perfect choice for keeping your daily calorie intake low while still feeling like a king or a queen.
Turkish Coffee Helps with Satiety
The most important factor in maintaining a healthy bodyweight is keeping your appetite in check.
What controls appetite in your body is a hormone called ghrelin, or the hunger hormone. It’s a hormone produced by the gut and it signals your brain to feel hungry and eat.
Although it may sound like a useless hormone when judged by todays standards, ghrelin played a huge role in our ancestor’s lives by making them hungry and prompting them to seek out food.
Because of its caffeine content, Turkish coffee may lower appetite by reducing the amount of ghrelin in your body and aid you in feeling fuller for a longer time, therefore helping you control your bodyweight more easily.
Turkish Coffee Boosts Metabolism
Having a normal functioning metabolism is important for keeping a healthy weight easily. Some people are blessed with a lightning fast metabolism and they seem to eat whatever they want but never put on fat while others with metabolic problems that cause them to have a slow metabolism say that they put on weight just by looking at water.
Along with making you feel more alert and increasing your sense of well-being, caffeine has effects on your metabolism as well.
Caffeine is a very powerful stimulant that helps your body increase its metabolic rate. It helps you burn calories and fat more efficiently, aiding you in losing and maintaining weight more easily. (1) (2)
A serving of Turkish coffee has 60mg of caffeine and it boosts your metabolism.
Turkish Coffee May Disrupt Sleep
Getting enough sleep is important to live a healthy and happy life for many reasons.
Lacking a good night’s sleep may cause a shift in your hormones that control hunger.
One drawback of Turkish coffee is because it has caffeine in it, it can disrupt your sleep patterns and cause weight gain indirectly.
Conclusion
Although you might be confused about what makes someone gain or lose weight, it can simply be explained by daily calorie expenditure and how much we eat. If you eat more than you burn, your body stores those extra calories as fat.
Turkish coffee is a delicious and low calorie beverage that may have effects such as reducing appetite and boosting your metabolism.
It’s also super simple to make and requires very few ingredients. If you’re wondering which Turkish coffee products to get online so that you can try it out for yourself, you can check out my guides.
Even though it can cause disruption in your sleep patterns and cause weight gain due to hormonal changes like any other type of coffee, positive effects of Turkish coffee on weight loss are undeniable.
If you’ve found this post helpful or interesting, please don’t forget to share it on the social media. Help spread the enjoyment that Turkish coffee brings! 😉
