Have you ever heard of bulletproof coffee? It’s a recent craze, particularly among paleo/low carb people to add butter and MCT (coconut) oil to coffee and blend it. Coffee lover that I am, I was intrigued about this, but never quite had the nerve to try it. However, I am certainly not afraid to try something just for the heck of it!
But first, a little backstory: I like to eat a big breakfast. It’s usually around 400 calories or a little more. I eat around 7 am. You would think that 400+ calories would be enough to last until lunchtime, right? I read blogs and things on line where people eat oatmeal or maybe a piece of toast with an egg or even just coffee with cream and a few slices of bacon and they are so full until lunchtime. How do they do it? I feel like my system is totally effed up. By 10 a.m., I am really hungry. Like blood sugar drop hungry – not mind hungry. So, I usually eat a protein bar or something like that to tide me over. Oddly enough, the only times I am not hungry before lunch are the 2 days we go out for bagels for breakfast – and there is almost always exercise involved with that by either walking or biking to breakfast. So maybe it is just calories.
I have tried a lot of different things. I normally do a carb/fat/protein balanced breakfast (oats with egg whites and nut butter, banana breakfast bread pudding, protein waffles, blintzes, etc). I’ve tried high protein with eggs and sausage. Same thing, hungry at 10 a.m. Higher carb breakfast, same thing. Like if we maked baked donuts. The only thing I hadn’t tried was a pure fat breakfast which, to be honest, sounds scary and a little gross LOL! I finally decided to try a bulletproof coffee and make it around 400 calories like a normal breakfast for my little n=1 experiment.
Now, I don’t believe any of the hype that it has to be a specific kind of coffee. The guy that ‘invented’ bulletproof coffee sells a special one, but his claims aren’t anything that the coffee industry as a whole isn’t already doing with they way they process the beans. Guru-ism at its best. Anyway, here I am ready to do the coffee.
I dropped 1.5 tablespoons of unsalted butter into a mixer cup. Please use unsalted butter. I can’t imagine how awful salted butter would taste! I do admit to looking at this and thinking am I really going to do this?
Our Magic Bullet is on the fritz, so I used a cup from it and then an immersion blender. Be careful if you do this since hot liquid and skin contact is no bueno, right? Just don’t fill the cup too full.
Then blend until it is emulsified and frothy. It looks sort of like a latte or something, doesn’t it?
For the coconut oil part, I ended up just eating a tablespoon of coconut butter, which I adore and could eat by the spoonful anyway.
Enjoying my breakfast while perusing the flower catalog:
How is the taste? Surprisingly, it’s pretty good! It is creamy, almost like coffee with milk, and the butter does not separate out, which I thought it might do. It really isn’t greasy, surprisingly. I maybe noticed a bit on my lips, but not enough that it was bothersome.The coffee flavor is more crisp and pronounced – for lack of a better term – than a cup of coffee with cream, but fat brings out the fat soluble flavors in the coffee anyway (which is why I never drink it black). If you had given me this and not said it was blended with butter, I wouldn’t know what was in it.
I had 2 of these and with the coconut butter and my ‘breakfast’ came in at 400 calories. The verdict? Fail. I was hungry around 10:30. LOL. On a side note, I had some concerns about having gastric distress from a fat breakfast, but that didn’t happen either. No issues with that. I know you all wanted to know about that. 😀
So, while that was interesting, I doubt I would deliberately make butter coffee again. If someone gave me one, I would drink it. It is good to know that if we were out of milk for some reason and I wanted a cup of coffee, I could still have one without resorting to drinking it black.
As far as the calorie thing goes, I guess if I want to last until lunch I need to increase my calories at breakfast. It just seems like 400 calories should be enough, you know? Especially when you are decreasing calories and you only get so many in the day, it is easy to eat a lot of them for breakfast. I don’t really know why I feel the need to not eat between breakfast and lunch, but maybe it is because it’s easier to over consume food if I have a snack and breakfast.
Anyway, that was my little experiment. I’m glad I finally did it so I can stop wondering 😀
Interesting! I’ve heard about bullet proof coffee for a few years and have heard him on podcasts talking about it and nutrition, etc. It didn’t sound appealing to me, so I didn’t try it but…whatever works for some people! Glad you tried it and wrote about it!
I am the same way. I used to eat around 400 calories for breakfast (tops) and then I’d have a mid-AM snack (usually fruit) because by 11am I’d be STARVING. I don’t know how people do it. Like you I have a blood sugar crash and feel shaky, irritable, hungry and nauseated.
Now that I’m pregnant I’m eating more like 500-600 calories for breakfast (and still eating my mid-AM snack of fruit, I just eat it a little bit later and push my lunch later.
I’m just going to go ahead and eat more at breakfast and see what happens. Add 100 calories to it. If I can get through to lunch, that would be good with only adding 100 calories earlier as my snack tends to be around 200 calories.
Having a bigger breakfast these days I’ve definitely noticed that I eat less later in the day. It might be something I keep doing even after the baby is here…
I’ve tried the bullet proof coffee with butter and with coconut oil. I used to drink it a lot while on Atkins. It was so so 🙂 Since counting calories now, I haven’t had it.
I am one of those who is never hungry. I can go all day until about 2:00 before I am hungry. I have to force myself to eat now. I think it is because my metabolism isn’t working efficiently. My sister has a great metabolism and she is starving as soon as she wakes up and is hungry all day long. That’s just what I think anyway 🙂
I always wonder what it is like to not be hungry LOL!
I had read about this and was a bit skeptical so thank you for sharing your experience. I too, go through the famished phase with most breakfasts after 2-3 hours and haven’t figured out a food combination that works. Well, here is to continued research!
It takes forever to figure these things out. Years later and I still play around with what I eat.
I’m glad someone who I think is sane about food tried and reported on this. I have a theory that the people who aren’t hungry in the morning eat a lot late at night so they are still digesting that when they get up. Very unscientific theory, but what the heck? Oh, also, my new theory is that sometimes older people aren’t that hungry any more. I’m not as hungry in the morning as I used to be–see there’s proof about the older people theory 🙂
I find that sometimes when I eat a big meal (like holidays), I am not hungry in the morning, but if I go on a bender of overeating, after a few days I will wake up famished after a lot of food the night before. I know it’s not supposed to be true about stretching out your stomach, but it seems like that actually happens to me.
I feel like I’m getting hungrier as I get older. It used to be a lot easier for me to keep my calories lower than it is now.
That’s exactly what happens to me! If I overeat the night before I wake up FAMISHED. Stomach growling hungry. Which has always been weird to me! Glad I’m not the only one. LOL
Very interesting. When I read “… End result. Fail.” I giggled. 😀
I’m glad you shared the details. I’ve wondered about bullet proof coffee as well.
No thank you. Sorry but it sounds gross.
I am failing at making breakfast for a couple of months now. I’m just not that hungry when I get up (and I don’t snack at night). I bring a sandwich to work and eat around 8 am. But like you I am hungry again around 10 am (it’s now 10.30 am and I want to eat something). When I’m at work I always eat fruit (going to eat an orange in a minute) but at the weekends I just ignore it and eat at lunch.
I love breakfast. It’s my favorite meal of the day, actually!
Could you eat breakfast later in the morning? 7:00 sounds so early- there’s no way I could eat then, my stomach would revolt! I eat at around 8:00 on the weekends, and on days I go to work I wait until about 9:00 (so I won’t have too many hours to get hungry before my lunch break). Could you eat later, or maybe just have coffee at 7:00 and then eat later?
I guess I could, but I am hungry for breakfast when I get up. I eat later when I exercise first, but not a lot later. I get cranky if I wait too long to eat.
Im sooo last on this bandwagon but Im also SO SO CURIOUS TO TRY IT.
It may be time 🙂
Maybe….
I have a fast metabolism, and I eat about 600 calories for breakfast. I am still hungry before lunch, and I don’t see anything wrong with that. I am a runner, and since I’ve been exercising for such a long time, at a high intensity, I think that is what causes me to have a fast metabolism.
I think it’s a good think to eat frequently, and not be locked into 3 meals a day.
Thanks for your blog, I love it.
I eat 3 meals and 2 snacks usually. My problem is I have a sedentary job and I gain weight at the drop of a hat with a poor metabolism, even with an hour of exercise a day. Guess it’s that ‘magical’ time I am entering LOL!
Thank you for putting yourself out there and trying this experiment on my behalf 😉 I’ll stick with my black coffee thank you.
What about eating more at night? I’m also curious as to when you do your exercise? I know you’re at least treadmill walking and I’m wondering if that is playing into your hunger times. Of course it could just be the time of life you are in (i.e., hormonal). So many variables!
Exercise depends a lot on how busy work is. On bagel days, currently we walk to and from breakfast (45 minutes round trip). On other days I will either exercise in the mid morning or after lunch. Sometimes in the evening. I guess I would say it is all over the place.
I think it must be hormones because what used to work 5 years ago does not work now.
I have read about that coffee for years. No desire to try it.. not a butter person first off & just well… does not appeal to me but thank you for your test! 🙂
On the food, I read about one lady with issues not staying full. She ended up cuttin back to a small portion of oatmeal with some eggs on the side too….
I stay pretty full with my toast with nut butter on it, homemade protein bar and some more nut butter. 🙂 I think it is the nut butter cause I add chia to it & of course we know that expands in the tummy! 🙂
I add a spoonful of coconut oil to my coffee or hot tea, but I have never tried unsalted butter. I had heard that the coconut oil helps metabolize the caffeine better. I normally have about a 500 calorie breakfast and it keeps me full until lunch where I will have around 300 calories because I eat a vegetable based soup (and I mean vegetables…it has carrots, celery, cabbage, onions, green beans and green peppers along with kidney beans).
The idea of putting butter in coffee always squicked me out, but I have to say, your coffee looked normal (for non-black coffee) – but still, no thank you. Glad you took one for the team; I like my coffee black anyway (except when I have lattes, but I don’t have them often).
Weirdly, if I have a couple of cups of black coffee in the morning, I’m less hungry for breakfast. Maybe you are just someone who physically needs your bigger meals at the beginning of the day, and can end the day with a lighter meal? Who knows why – our bodies are all so different.
It does seem weird to put butter in, but then what is butter but churned cream. It really was almost a normal cup of coffee. Go figure.
I do front load most of my calories in the day. I don’t like to go to bed on a full stomach, so I eat an early dinner and a small snack. Or I try for a small snack. Sometimes I get on a snack bender and overdo it LOL Damn cereal.
My daughters Coffee Shop sells something similar – and they call it “Invincible” Coffee, because after you drink it, they say you’ll have so much energy!
Like you, I tend to have a high calorie breakfast – 400-500 calories easy. The ONLY thing that keeps me full through lunch (and a lunch time workout) is getting 30 grams of protein with breakfast. Works like a charm!
I’m older and hungry all the time. Of course, I was always hungry when I was younger and middle-aged as well. 😀
I don’t drink coffee, but enjoyed reading your experiment.
Thanks for reviewing that for us 😀 It’s not just you, my breakfast is usually between 400-500 calories and I’m hungry by 10-10.30am. I still haven’t found a solution!
I’m obviously out of the loop, I didn’t know this was a “thing”. Thanks for testing it for all of us! 🙂
That sounds awful.
I’m with you. No matter what I eat for breakfast, I’m starving by mid morning. If I eat out, I’m good. I’m not sure it’s a matter of calories. Ive loaded my oatmeal up with fruit and nuts or nut butter to the tune of 500 calories, but it still doesn’t hold me.