Is diet soda really making me fat?

j1k2z3

I am trying to loose weight and I was wondering everyone's opinions on diet soda. It has zero calories, but many chemicals... Diet Coke really is my vice... Help!

Need2Exerc1se

Too many calories makes you fat. My opinion is that diet soda tastes bad so I don't drink it. But I know a lot of thin people who drink a lot of diet soda.

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld

Eating and drinking too many calories makes you fat. What you eat or drink doesn't matter. Just keep to your calories.

random255

I drink plenty of Diet Coke. My weight keeps moving down as I'd expect it to. I'd say you're fine. Drinking a decent amount of water helps too, so that your body doesn't feel the need to retain water weight. But the Diet Coke itself is just fine. Coke Zero too, for the win!

quiksylver296

No.

75in2013

Drink diet soda if you enjoy it

I think it's very important that you feel good while dieting. Don't try to deprave you of things that you like.

Since diet soda has zero calories it won't conflict with your diet goals. So it's easy to incorporate in your diet.

clh72569

I drink Diet soda all the time and have lost 50 lbs.

Jruzer

Everything you eat and drink is full of chemicals.

jeepinshawn

I must 102lbs, I did and always have frank a lot of diet soda.

100df

There are studies around the artificial sweeteners in diet sodas that say it's possible that they lead to cravings that lead to people overeating. I cut my consumption of diet sodas specifically because I think the caffeine led to not being able to go to sleep at night. Through tracking when I feel hungry, I have discovered that when I don't adhere to my "one a day" rule, I do feel hungrier.

adawson55510

I'm on a 16 week diet for a show and was craving a diet coke bad last night i actually had a dream about it lol. I just cut it for the reasons as said above chemicals and artificial sweeteners can't be optimal. But i'm sure a few a week won't do you any harm.

FabianMommy

I cut out all artificial sweeteners because I found it made my cravings for sugar worse but your mileage may vary. To answer your question, diet soda won't make you fat as it has no calories but like with everything, moderation is the way to go.

wkwebby

As others have already mentioned, the soda itself and its chemicals aren't getting you fat. The result of drinking the chemicals on your hunger signals that may be your issue. I drank many diet sodas in my life and I wasn't ever overweight until I hit my 40's when my metabolism took a nosedive. I still use a Splenda now and then, but I try not too also. Everything in moderation, I guess.

jellybaby84

Of course it won't make you fat.

Terribly unhealthy though. And I say that as a 6 can a day diet coke addict - thinning teeth, heart palpitations, nervous energy, sporadic insomnia. It's not a good thing to be addicted to if you can avoid it.

I'm quite thin though. I'll drink diet coke instead of eating or drinking something with calories so, as far as weight alone goes, it's a help not a hindrance.

kshama2001

susan100df wrote: »

There are studies around the artificial sweeteners in diet sodas that say it's possible that they lead to cravings that lead to people overeating. I cut my consumption of diet sodas specifically because I think the caffeine led to not being able to go to sleep at night. Through tracking when I feel hungry, I have discovered that when I don't adhere to my "one a day" rule, I do feel hungrier.

FabianMommy wrote: »

I cut out all artificial sweeteners because I found it made my cravings for sugar worse but your mileage may vary. To answer your question, diet soda won't make you fat as it has no calories but like with everything, moderation is the way to go.

wkwebby wrote: »

As others have already mentioned, the soda itself and its chemicals aren't getting you fat. The result of drinking the chemicals on your hunger signals that may be your issue. I drank many diet sodas in my life and I wasn't ever overweight until I hit my 40's when my metabolism took a nosedive. I still use a Splenda now and then, but I try not too also. Everything in moderation, I guess.

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CooCooPuff

Personally, I really enjoy diet cola and lost while drinking it daily.

At its worst, I consider it a luxury purchase. It would be one of the first things I look at it I need to save some money

kyrannosaurus

The soda isn't making you fat. I drink it all the time, lost weight, no problem. It is however absolutely terrible for your teeth. I work in dentistry but don't listen to my own professional advice. I can't seem to kick the habit.

I_Will_End_You

Nope. I've been drinking it for most of my life and have never been fat.

singingflutelady

Drink diet soda almost every day and I am lean and thin. I drank diet soda every day when I was anorexic and was way underweight

AnvilHead

Everything you eat or drink has 'many chemicals' - chemical compounds are what everything is composed of. Diet soda will not make you gain (or retain) weight and is not unhealthy in moderation. In the rat studies where they found adverse effects, it was fed to the rats in massive doses which would be the equivalent of a human drinking something like a case (24 cans) of diet soda per day, every day.

memo1974

I found this article on health.com. Also, to answer some of the earlier comments: being skinny or thin got nothing to do with being healthy.

The article:

When taken at face value, diet soda seems like a health-conscious choice. It saves you the 140-plus calories you'd find in a sugary soft drink while still satisfying your urge for something sweet with artificial sweeteners like aspartame, saccharin, and sucralose. But there's more to this chemical cocktail than meets the eye.

Artificial sweeteners have more intense flavor than real sugar, so over time products like diet soda dull our senses to naturally sweet foods like fruit, says Brooke Alpert, RD, author of The Sugar Detox. Even more troubling, these sugar stand-ins have been shown to have the same effect on your body as sugar. "Artificial sweeteners trigger insulin, which sends your body into fat storage mode and leads to weight gain," Alpert says.

Diet soda is calorie-free, but it won't necessarily help you lose weight. Researchers from the University of Texas found that over the course of about a decade, diet soda drinkers had a 70% greater increase in waist circumference compared with non-drinkers. And get this: participants who slurped down two or more sodas a day experienced a 500% greater increase. The way artificial sweeteners confuse the body may play a part, but another reason might be psychological, says Minnesota-based dietitian Cassie Bjork. When you know you're not consuming any liquid calories, it might be easier to justify that double cheeseburger or extra slice of pizza.

Drinking one diet soda a day was associated with a 36% increased risk of metabolic syndrome and diabetes in a University of Minnesota study. Metabolic syndrome describes a cluster of conditions (including high blood pressure, elevated glucose levels, raised cholesterol, and large waist circumference) that put people at high risk for heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, Bjork explains.

When you drink diet soda, you're not taking in any calories—but you're also not swallowing anything that does your body any good, either. The best no-calorie beverage? Plain old water, says Bjork. "Water is essential for many of our bodily processes, so replacing it with diet soda is a negative thing," she says. If it's the fizziness you crave, try sparkling water.

Excessive soda drinking could leave you looking like a Breaking Bad extra, according to a case study published in the journal General Dentistry. The research compared the mouths of a cocaine-user, a methamphetamine-user, and a habitual diet-soda drinker, and found the same level of tooth erosion in each of them. The culprit here is citric acid, which weakens and destroys tooth enamel over time.

Just one diet soft drink a day could boost your risk of having a vascular event such as stroke, heart attack, or vascular death, according to researchers from the University of Miami and Columbia University. Their study found that diet soda devotees were 43% more likely to have experienced a vascular event than those who drank none. Regular soda drinkers did not appear to have an increased risk of vascular events. Researchers say more studies need to be conducted before definitive conclusions can be made about diet soda's effects on health.

From:
http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20739512,00.html

Naomipandybaxter

I try and focus on the challenge of upping my cups of water throughout the day, I find switching from Pepsi max to water has made my skin look brighter and my digestion better, it maybe plain but you can argue with the results

BeetChew

Can you imagine a world where we would send famine victims diet soda?

"They can't lose any more weight! Quick send them some Diet Coke! That'll fatten them up!"

Coke Zero tastes better though.

ndj1979

eating too many calories makes you fat. A zero calorie drink cannot make you fat.

sandi4711

wkwebby wrote: »

I still use a Splenda now and then, but I try not too also. Everything in moderation, I guess.

These ^[/quote]

Try stevia - it's non caloric and all natural

coreyreichle

No. Consuming more calories than you burn is making you fat.

ponycyndi

I wouldn't have lost 35 lbs without my diet coke. I was tired, cranky, and crabby enough, no need to make things worse.

MNMsMonique

I drink diet soda all the time and have constantly lost weight. I think the research has said that some people overcompensate for the extra calories saved by eating more. But if you are eating right and watching calories there is nothing wrong with diet soda when trying to lose weight. I think it gets a bad rep from all of the extra stuff added in that may be unhealthy (which has nothing to do with weight).

Of_Monsters_and_Meat

Diet coke really is not zero calories. The serving size contains less than 5, so it can be reported as zero. If you drank enough it would make an impact. For instance 3600 Fl oz would be around 1200 calories.

OMP33

Diet soda does not make you gain or lose weight.

Carlos_421

Everything is a chemical. Water is a chemical.
There is nothing in diet soda that will slow your metabolism or cause you to gain fat.
Any claims to the contrary by articles, reports or other forms of media are misinformed fear mongering.

Carry on.