No Calorie Sodas and Weight

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  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
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    To drink water all day your tastebuds must be shot. Those people will eat less. That's my observation.
    Those that crave diet sodas have a craving for taste.... they like food more... they tend to weigh more.

    taste buds are shot? Seriously? Not quite....

    To be fair, If you smoke a lot, you start to lose the ability to taste and smell things. My father reached the point where he would put so much hot spice in his foods because that was the only thing that would trigger "taste" to him anymore.

    once he quit smoking after 5+ years his ability to taste did start to come back.

    While I think that can be true, I don't think it supports that argument that consuming sweets or anything else will "ruin" your taste buds.

    It's been a very long time since I smoked, so I can't remember if I experienced a taste bud awakening when I quit or not.

    I do know that I can eat or drink very sweet things and still appreciate subtle sweetness and can only stand a certain amount of hot stuff.
  • Poisonedpawn78
    Poisonedpawn78 Posts: 1,145 Member
    edited July 2017
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    I skimmed over the replies so i might have missed it.. but there is also the medical correlation that is being ignored as well for the "diet soda makes you fat" bs. people can make choices for medical reasons such as diabetes to pick that diet soda over regular. Diabetes is one of those medical issues that has an increased chance to appear in obese people.

    As I know people with Diabetes it has always bothered me to hear people say "oh look they are having a cheese burger and fries and of course a diet soda will make it all ok".
  • PaulaWallaDingDong
    PaulaWallaDingDong Posts: 4,641 Member
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    To drink water all day your tastebuds must be shot. Those people will eat less. That's my observation.
    Those that crave diet sodas have a craving for taste.... they like food more... they tend to weigh more.

    taste buds are shot? Seriously? Not quite....

    To be fair, If you smoke a lot, you start to lose the ability to taste and smell things. My father reached the point where he would put so much hot spice in his foods because that was the only thing that would trigger "taste" to him anymore.

    once he quit smoking after 5+ years his ability to taste did start to come back.

    I had a boyfriend once who was a smoker. I could barely eat his cooking. Sooooooo much heat, salt and pepper. Holy *kitten*. Gave me the worst fire hole. He later reported that he didn't do so much of that after he quit smoking and could eat like a normal person.
  • fitmom4lifemfp
    fitmom4lifemfp Posts: 1,575 Member
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    because chemicals are bad, and diet soda is fake sugar/chemicals???

    I was drinking cherry coke zero for 2 years before I figured out the "food poisoning" symptoms were really that and not the food.

    The fake sugar isn't even the worst, it also has copious amounts of dihydrogen monoxide, under chemists also known as the universal solvent. Just imagine what that can do to your intestines!

    LOL.
  • OliveGirl128
    OliveGirl128 Posts: 801 Member
    edited July 2017
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    This topic can be a little confusing because of the idea that calories are the only thing that matters, which is not the whole story. The reason behind the claim that zero calorie drinks can lead to weight gain has nothing to do with the calories; it's the sugar or artificial sweeteners that are used in the product. When sugar enters the blood stream, insulin is produced to turn sugar into energy. If you consume too much sugar, over time the body would begin to produce more insulin than needed because the body is no longer responding to a normal amount of insulin, also known as insulin resistance and eventually diabetes. Leptin, the satiety hormone, can no longer do its job or at least not as efficient because insulin stops listening to leptin, which leads to overeating because your brain is getting a delayed signal to stop eating.

    With artificial sweeteners, although some are zero calories, they can confuse the body. The taste bud receptors get a signal that sugar is coming but never receives it. This causes insulin to be produced but has nothing to bind on to, which creates the same effect as if you ate sugar. More insulin is being produced, leptin can't do its job, and you are left wanting to eat more.

    After successfully losing 50lbs, improving all my health markers including normalizing a prediabetic glucose number, and then successfully maintaining the weight loss and better health for years now- I can assure you that my body is not confused by the diet soda I drink :p I don't crave sweet food or feel the need to eat more, and I also have fasting glucose numbers in the 80s (again-former prediabetic here).
  • Colt1835
    Colt1835 Posts: 447 Member
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    To drink water all day your tastebuds must be shot. Those people will eat less. That's my observation.
    Those that crave diet sodas have a craving for taste.... they like food more... they tend to weigh more.

    taste buds are shot? Seriously? Not quite....

    To be fair, If you smoke a lot, you start to lose the ability to taste and smell things. My father reached the point where he would put so much hot spice in his foods because that was the only thing that would trigger "taste" to him anymore.

    once he quit smoking after 5+ years his ability to taste did start to come back.

    While I think that can be true, I don't think it supports that argument that consuming sweets or anything else will "ruin" your taste buds.

    It's been a very long time since I smoked, so I can't remember if I experienced a taste bud awakening when I quit or not.

    I do know that I can eat or drink very sweet things and still appreciate subtle sweetness and can only stand a certain amount of hot stuff.

    I think it's different person to person. I enjoy plain oatmeal now since I've moved my diet away from so many sweets. I assume it's because I don't eat two Little Debbie cakes a day anymore. We don't even buy table sugar anymore. To me, it seems like using a lot of sugar hides the flavor of the food.
  • mph323
    mph323 Posts: 3,565 Member
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    Well, I've been drinking diet soda since fresca first came out in the 60's <shudder> and I've been fat, thin, and everywhere in-between. I drink diet coke now, and for me it absolutely doesn't cause me to crave sweets (or anything else), and is helpful when I'm a little hungry but not ready to eat. My insulin response is just fine, I haven't grown 2 heads or a third eye, and since I recently lost about 38 lbs and have started riding metric centuries again I'm pretty sure my body is not confused about anything. And trust me, I'm not a special snowflake.
  • OliveGirl128
    OliveGirl128 Posts: 801 Member
    edited July 2017
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    Low calorie drinks do not cause weight gain, but you won't lose weight just by switching to diet soda because you will tend to eat more of other things.

    Not my experience at all.
  • OliveGirl128
    OliveGirl128 Posts: 801 Member
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    I think if you're not actively trying to lose weight, you're not really mindful about what goes into your mouth. I have a similar issue with those memes about how "if you just stop putting butter on your toast each morning, you'll lose 10 lbs a year". The problem is, when you aren't trying to lose weight, you're probably not measuring out the butter, so the amount you're taking varies. You may not be having toast every day. And in the big scheme of things, just because you've cut butter on your toast doesn't mean you're not making up those calories during the day with other stuff—because if you aren't monitoring your food intake, you're probably not eating mindfully.

    Similarly, if all you do is switch out regular for diet, yeah, you're likelier to eat more other stuff. Plus, there's the whole "I'm having diet, therefore the calories in the rest of the meal don't count" mindset.

    But if you're eating more mindfully, you're much more aware of the calories/macros/however it is you're trying to maintain a deficit and—in my experience—the 'eating more of other things' doesn't happen beyond, "Hey, by saving 240 calories here, it means I have 240 calories more, so it looks like I'm having a baked potato after all!"

    You said what I was thinking :) I switched to diet soda when I started my weight loss phase and never had an issue with eating more because of it, because I was intentional about my calorie intake.