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What Happens When You Give Up Coffee After 40

Linda Laurena

3,904 views

Just over a month ago, I quit coffee cold turkey.

Not because someone told me to. Because I was standing in my kitchen at 7am reaching for it before I'd even thought about whether I wanted it. And I realised I wasn't choosing it anymore. It was choosing me.

I've been a dietitian for years. I've told clients about caffeine and cortisol. I've explained what coffee does on an empty stomach. But I'd never tested it on myself.

In this video I walk through it day by day — the day-one headache and dizziness, the day-two full-body muscle pain that genuinely surprised me, why days three and four felt completely flat, and what finally shifted.

I also explain why quitting feels harder in your 40s than it did in your 30s — why oestrogen and progesterone used to buffer your cortisol response to caffeine, and how a 2pm coffee is still measurably in your system at 10pm when your hormonal buffer is smaller.

After five weeks: measurably better sleep, lower resting heart rate, improved HRV, more stable energy, calmer digestion. Then I had one cup to see what would happen. I didn't enjoy it. I didn't finish it. I haven't had one since.

I'm Linda, a registered dietitian with a master's degree in nutrition. I help women 40+ understand what's actually happening in their bodies — so they can stop blaming themselves and start seeing real change.

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🔎 WORK WITH ME

If you want to look at what you're eating and drinking and understand how it's affecting your energy, sleep, and hormones — book a free 20-minute discovery call.
👉 https://cal.com/linda-laurena-cad7wr/...

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⏱ Chapters:
00:00 Quitting Coffee Story
01:28 Why I Finally Stopped
02:20 Day One
03:31 Day Two
04:34 Days Three to Six
05:09 Why Your 40s Feel Harder
06:47 Five Week Results
07:42 Trying Coffee Again
08:51 What I Drink Now
09:54 Takeaways

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👇 Do you drink coffee? Could you skip a day without feeling it? Tell me in the comments — I read every single one.

New video every Wednesday.

⚠️ This video is general nutrition education, not personal medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider before making changes to your diet or stopping any medication.

#quittingcoffee #caffeinewithdrawal #perimenopause #womenover40 #cortisol #coffeeandhormones #sleepafter40 #hormones #dietitian #caffeineandcortisol #perimenopausesymptoms #over40health #womenshealth #registereddieti tian #coffeeafter40 #greenteabenefits #caffeineandsleep #hormonesafter40

17 Comments

@LindaLaurena Creator 3 months ago Pinned

Do you drink coffee?

Can you skip a day without getting a headache? Could you stop if you wanted to? Tell me, I'm curious where people are with this.

And if you want to look at what you're eating and drinking and understand how it's affecting your energy, sleep, and hormones — my free discovery call is open:
https://cal.com/linda-laurena-cad7wr/discovery-call

@Alchoman1963 12 hours ago (edited)

63 years of age here. 35 years of consuming coffee daily without fail. Interesting reason I decided to try to quit coffee. Im U.S. retired and traveling abroad. Coffee is very much a hassle to get in foreign countries. My first month in the country of Panama I spent $135. That really shook me to the core. Needless to say im going after it. Day 2 I literally felt dead. So I forced myself to throw the backpack on and walk to the market. Felt great when I returned but the headache was noticeable. Im determined to win this battle. I like your story. This coffee addiction is a real thing. But very mainstream and accepted in modern society.

@tsm7964 3 months ago

when you stop 1) you get headaches 2) you don’t get dehydrated, which helps blood flow.

@Learning1BySeeing 3 months ago

I quit all caffeine when I
was 26. Never looked back

@Chakratracker 3 months ago

I stopped about two months ago. In my mid forties. Just felt it wasn’t needed in my life. No bad withdrawals. I drink herba mate during my work days, black tea or green tea on my off days. Sometimes I even forget to have tea. I used to say caffeine never had much affect on me, but now if I have caffeine past 3 in the afternoon, I can’t sleep at night.

@Maureen-M59 2 weeks ago

I’m quitting again after stupidly dabbling with it again. Going off completely this time including decaf. I found a couple of chicory and barley drinks I like plus rooibos tea. Headache at the moment but I know it will pass

@Michael-oo5bb 1 month ago

Was ist wenn man nie zum Kaffee Trinker geworden ist?

@ares6777 2 months ago

I had a lot of problems with coffee. 4 to 5 bowels movement a day. Brain fog and a feeling of "unreality" like I was in a very vivid dream even though I was awake and this was made worse if I put sugar in the coffee. Sleeping problems..... difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep. I was waking up in the middle of the night and had difficulty going back to sleep. And here comes the shocker....I was drinking only one cup a day, in the morning. Cutting out that one cup of coffee has made all of those problems vanish.....I am still pinching myself as I find it hard to believe that one cup of coffee was causing all those problems 😢

@OsAbliNgin911 3 months ago

Genetics plays a huge role on how people feel when they drink coffee or caffeinated drinks in general. Some people are fast metabolizers of caffeine, and some people have weird genetics where a cup of coffee is like a sleep aid to them. I am a slow metabolizer off caffeine. Depending on how much coffee I drink and the time, it is not good for my sleep. I end up staying up late and not sleeping on time.

@Muradshaker9619 1 month ago (edited)

I promise you: I'm 25 now, but I completely cut out fizzy drinks, coffee, tea, fried foods, sweets, sugars, and canned goods when I was 19. I also never drink alcohol or smoke. I'm a vegetarian, and my diet consists mainly of grilled and boiled foods. For example, I eat potatoes boiled, not fried, and the same goes for other foods. --- Thank you so much for spreading this awareness.

@dacotacraft2011 3 months ago

Cool video, Coffee and Nicotine has been an addiction of mine for a long time. I don't know which one to quit first!

@wolfgang8031 2 months ago

I don't have symptoms such as headache, dizziness etc. But without coffee I feel more hungry between meals, as coffee somehow creates satiety (at least for me). I take 3-4 days of break from coffee regularly.

@dannyvan2000 2 months ago

So would drinking tea (ceylon) be a healthy alternative?

@digginggopher 3 months ago

I quit coffee when i started doing a 2:1 ketogenic diet, i feel so wired on the ketones i dont need to use a stimulant, i still drink it once in a blue moon, i bought a pack of single serve instant coffee sachets, cause i drink it so infrequently, if i buy grounds or even a jar of instant, i get like one coffee out of it, then by the next time i want another cup it already has gone bad

what i do drink more regularly is a tulsi tea with a couple drops of stevia, tulsi tea supposed to lower stress, not sure if it works

@JaRozumiem 3 months ago

My morning coffee is such a pleasure, the smell, the taste...its a ritual for me. I'm not discounting what you say here, of course. I stopped before and had headaches for a few days, energy shifts, but then again, how much of that may have been placebo? I'm not sure. I have to decide if the pleasure I get from drinking coffee is worth any negative side effects; this is difficult to measure objectively, though.

@directajith 1 month ago

just 1 cup in morning is ok?

@user-kh9ok9ju8l 2 months ago

Coffee and alcohol are both poison , and the world is getting killed off because of them . Wake up people and take some critical thinking classes ! Nobody uses their brain anymore . A lot of brainless idiots out there .