Coffee coffee coffee coffee coffee coffee...Big Mac?

So if you're not like me and your New Years Resolution (remember those? yeah, some people are still following them) is to lose weight, pay attention.

Coffee.

Yes, that's right, coffee. In 2003, the average Canadian drank 2.6 cups of coffee per day. Since no measure of how big a "cup" of coffee is really ever given, let's say for argument's sake its's a large from Tim Hortons (14 oz).

So if you drink 2.6 larges from Tims in a day, that translates to 949 cups of coffee a year. Now lets say you stick to double-doubles. How many calories could you cut back in a day/year if you went to a single-single?

For that, let's turn to the Tim Horton's nutritional calculator: your large double-double contains 230 calories (and 12 grams of fat). That means every day your coffee represents 598 calories and 31.2 grams of fat. Over a year, you've consumed 218,270 calories and 11,388 grams of fat. These numbers look scary, but remember the timeframe.

Now say you decide just to go to a single-single: your coffee is now 115 calories with 6 grams of fat. Now every day you enjoy (and save) 299 calories and 15.6 grams of fat. You consumed (and saved) 109,135 calories and 5694 grams of fat over the year.

That's a pretty good savings. Now let's go to McDonalds to reward ourselves! There are 550 calories in the Sausage/Egg/Cheese McGriddle. Get that shocked look off your face! Thanks to your coffee savings, you can eat 198 of these a year without going over your ol' double-double calorie count. If you stick to only 189 you won't overdo your old fat content either. If you wait until lunch, you can safely eat 196 Big Macs without overloading on fat (or 202 if you only worry about calories).

This also assumes that before you weren't having breakfast or lunch! In reality what this is saying is you can add the equivalent of 3.77 Big Macs per calendar week to your lunch menu and, as long as you stick to single-single coffees every day, you won't consume a single extra microjoule of energy (or microgram of fat).

Bon appetite!