Starbucks drinks are so tasty that you could easily drink a few hundred calories in one sitting depending on what you get. Everything counts when you're trying to lose weight, so here are some tips to help you order some of your favorite Starbucks drinks with less calories and fat.
- Eliminate pumps of syrup. I know you love adding some fruity or candy flavored syrup to your latte but every pump of flavored syrup is 20 calories and 5g of sugar. In the Tall sizes, Baristas put 2 pumps of syrup which will pack on 40 calories and 10 g of sugar. In the Venti, you'll get 4 pumps for a total of 160 calories and 20g of sugar.
- There are sugar-free syrup options with 0 calories, but those syrups have artificial sweeteners in them.
- One packet of Sugar in the Raw is 20 calories. But, if you have to add some sugar you're better off with Sugar in the Raw versus the white sugar because during refining the sugar cane juice flavor filled with nutrients is removed.
- Nix the whipped creme topping. You can save from 60-110 calories and 6-11g of fat depending on the size and type of the drink. Baristas put more whipped creme on the cold drinks vs. the hot drinks.
- Switching from whole milk to non-fat milk will save you anywhere from 60-120 calories and 5-14g of fat depending on the size of the drink.
- To make a Carmel Macchiato less caloric, order it with non-fat milk and without the vanilla syrup . If you order a tall Carmel Macchiato with whole milk, you will ingest 200 calories. If you eliminate the 2 pumps of vanilla syrup (40 calories) and change to non-fat milk (60 calories), your new drink will be 100 calories and you still keep the luscious Carmel sauce.
- Starbucks offers 3 drinks that have 0 calories free of artificial sweeteners: Tall Hot Brewed Coffee, Tall Brewed Tazo Tea, and Tall Shaken Cold Tazo Iced Passion Tea (Unsweetened). And there's always water, but who goes to Starbucks for water ;-)
[More Nutritional info at Starbucks.com]
