Coffee Anyone? By itself Coffee is a very low calorie beverage, however, once people begin adding things like sugar, milk and flavorings coffee can be transformed from almost no calories to many calories very quickly. Many popular cafe's and restaurant chains have also created "gourmet" or "specialty coffees" that entice customers with their extreme use of flavors and ingredients, but they also can give the consumer a whole day's worth of calories in one drink.

For example, a cup of plain coffee has about 2 calories, but a large Lotta Caramel Latte™ shake from Cold Stone Creamery has a whopping 1790 Calories and a large Coolatta™ from Dunkin Donuts has 800 Calories! A person could easily consume hundreds of excess calories very quickly from specialty coffee drinks. Should you ever drink a decadent specialty coffee? Yes, it's OK to have one as a treat every once in awhile, but drinking them all the time could prevent you from achieving your weight loss and health goals.

Here's a table that shows the various calorie amounts of different types/brands of coffee including some of the specialty varieties from popular restaurants.