Healthy Food

This might be an unpopular opinion but as someone who has tried protein powders, shakes and all kinds of additions, it's just not worth it. Flavored creamer is 30-35 calories for a tablespoon. Coffee is a joy, don't take that away from yourself. Cut somewhere else, this ain't it.

You can try sugar free syrups or creamers, spice blends like cinnamon and cardamom as others have suggested, or flavored coffee beans. Creamer won't have much protein to speak of unless you're using a dense protein shake, at that point it will just taste worse and you'll rob yourself of that little joy.

You may have to make the same mistakes I've made, hell maybe you'll enjoy protein shakes in your coffee. But what it came down to for me was, I wasn't finishing it because it was disgusting. A tbsp of oatmilk creamer "the oatmeal cookie one" with a nice coffee roast is bomb, and brings the delight and the go (and the go!) that I needed to start my day right. I use an Aeropress, it makes for a great and rapid brew, far better than drip for me, and less cleanup.

Congratulations on your commitment to fitness, it all starts with little thoughtful changes like this one. Best of luck, stranger!

I keep it black, but I get flavored coffee. This is a good time to find fun flavors. Fall flavors will be on sale, and christmas flavors are coming out. I've got a cream brulee and caramel macchiato from aldi (they also have a coffee advent calendar coming out) and a maple I picked up from food lion. You're likely to see lots of mocha, peppermint, and gingerbread out now.

Look at the ingredients of a decent coffee creamer you'll notice that it says milk and heavy cream.

So in essence coffee creamer is really just half and half. There are cheaper coffee creamers that will have some sort of plant based oil instead of heavy cream. They might not even contain any milk.

To make your own cinnamon creamer you just need half and half, ground cinnamon and some sugar.

To make a mocha creamer you need half and half, cocoa powered and sugar.

To make vanilla creamer, it's vanilla extract, half an half and sugar.

To make a chai creamer, it's half and half, ground cardamom, ground allspice, ground nutmeg, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground ginger and sugar.

To make pumpkin spice it's half and half, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground nutmeg, ground allspice, ground cloves and sugar.

Caramel creamer is just half and half and caramel. Since caramel is mostly sugar you probably don't need to add any.

If you find other flavorings you can find real extracts or the actual spices instead of preprocessed creamers.

A teaspoon of brown sugar is less than 20 calories. Milk and cream both have a little protein.

I can’t imagine anything that you could add to coffee and get significant protein without your drink turning into a coffee flavored beverage. With most protein powder you need a scoop to get about 25g which has 150 calories. Nothing wrong with trying it though, you just may like it.

Cardamom in black coffee is amazing. Just drop like 5 pods in to the French press.

Cinnamon or nutmeg work too. A little grated citrus rind. If you go to a liquor store you can usually find a range of flavoured bitters that can have a few drops added to a cup.

I actually really like putting just some cinnamon in my coffee, especially around this time of year.

But yeah I don’t know of anything that would go well in coffee in terms of protein. The powder would thicken it up far too much I imagine….maybe it would work better the other way, if you made a protein shake with coffee as a flavor

There are plenty of sugar free creamer varieties out there, International Delight makes some and I've seen brands all over the internet.

As a disclaimer, I have never used this product and don't know if it's any good.

But I've heard Walden Farms mentioned as a good source of low calorie flavor options for creamer/syrups that you may be interested in trying.

I've tried vanilla protein powder in coffee in the past and my experience it was really awful, mind you I tried frothing it.
Why not add some cold water and vanilla essence, or almond milk and vanilla essence?
I currently just do a black coffee, hot water, and ice and keep the protein powder for after exercise.

On keto, I drank lattes/cold brew coffee made with only heavy cream. Obviously, that's a bit extreme, so now I do iced breve lattes, which is a normal latte, but with half and half instead of milk. Very flavorful and rich, adds some protein, and doesn't involve nasty fake flavors.

I started using Lakanto sweetener in my coffee. You add a splash of fat free milk or hazelnut sugar free syrup. I can’t tell that I’m drinking a sugar substitute.

I don't have a solution for the protein powder dilemma, but fyi, as far as coffee creamers go, vanilla bean is FAR superior to french vanilla.