If you drink black coffee or tea without milk, the only thing caffeine might do is stimulate your appetite for a cookie to go with your drink! There are almost no calories in black coffee and tea. There are also no calories in diet sodas.

However, if a double-cream frappucino is more your scene, your waistline will pay a high price for your caffeinated beverage. Of course, it's not the caffeine that's the problem, it's the sugar, cream, milk, flavored syrup and other goodies that might get added to your brew.

If you're trying to lose weight or improve your weight control, don't forget to find out how many calories you are drinking when you have a coffee, tea or soda. For some people, giving up their daily whole-milk latte and replacing it with a lower-calorie drink is enough to help them lose weight.

Here are the calories, fat and carbs in some of the most popular caffeinated beverages.

	Cals	Fat	Carbs
Coffee with 2Tbsp Half and Half and 1 packet sugar	50	5g	3.5g
Grande Latte with whole milk (Starbucks)	260	14g	21g
Grande Latte with non-fat milk (Starbucks)	160	0	20g
Grande Cappuccino with whole mik (Starbucks)	150	8g	13g
Grande Cappuccino with non-fat mik (Starbucks)	100	0	14g
Grande Latte with soy milk (Starbucks)	210	6g	28g
Chai Latte with whole milk (Tazo - Starbucks)	290	7g	50g
Grande Frappuccino Blended Coffee, caramel, with whipped cream (Starbucks)	430	16g	61g

If you decide to give up or cut down on caffeine, you may experience withdrawal symptoms including fatigue, drowsiness, headaches, body aches and irritability. These negative effects are temporary and will cease after a few days.

For heart health, and to minimize withdrawal symptoms, reduce your caffeine intake gradually rather than all at once, particularly if you usually consume a lot. Try substituting one or two of your normal drinks with herbal teas, coffee alternatives (like Kaffree Roma), caffeine free sodas, and fruit juices. Substitute one drink per week until you are below the 200 mg mark.

Decaffeinated drinks

Decaffeinated beverages may not be the healthy alternative that you're looking for. A recent study published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association found markedly elevated blood pressure and increased nervous system activity when occasional coffee drinkers drank a triple espresso, regardless of whether or not it contained caffeine.

The results suggest that some unknown ingredient or ingredients in coffee – not caffeine – is responsible for cardiovascular activation. Coffee contains several hundred different substances.

However, some people do find that if full-strength caffeine drinks affect them too adversely, decaffeinated versions can be a good alternative.