No Calorie Sodas and Weight
Options
Replies
-
TimothyFish wrote: »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.
Well yes, if you eat more other things you won't lose weight.
BUT, if you "just switch to diet soda" you will lose weight.4 -
estherdragonbat wrote: »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.
Agreed.
I also eat butter nearly every day.
Butter UP!
0 -
These kinds of studies remind me of the "tanned people are healthier, so go get a tan and lose weight" studies. Skinnier people are more likely to be tan because they're outdoors getting exercise. Has nothing to do with the tan itself.
Diet soda can cause you to crave actual sweets, but other than that, the only health issues are stomach lining and teeth corrosion. Nothing to do with weight loss.1 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »chelseahatch24 wrote: »TheWJordinWJordin wrote: »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.
I never really added sugar to things other than, you know, when making cookies or something or with a rhubarb sauce sometimes. Never added it to oats, coffee, don't like sweetened salad dressings (dislike honey mustard). However, I think that's like saying that adding spice to food hides the flavors. A bit of sugar in a BBQ sauce or dry rub has purposes beyond the flavor, there are many nice preparations of pork that involve adding a sauce with fruit (which contributes sweetness), meat sauces that involve a bit of honey, so on. This is traditional cooking. I think some people perhaps went way overboard with sugar and react by assuming that everyone who doesn't cut it all out is using extreme amounts and can't appreciate non sweet foods, but that's simply false.
My point before (and GottaBurnEm's, I think) was that it's normal and not unusual to be able to both appreciate some sweeter foods (whether it's diet soda, cookies, whatever) and still not have a messed up palate that ONLY likes sweeter items or cannot appreciate more subtle sweetness. I think something else must be going on if you cannot enjoy unsweetened foods, appreciate fruit and veg are sweet, so on, beyond just drinking some diet coke.
When I drank diet soda the most was when I considered myself a oenophile and drank a lot of wine (too much, why I don't anymore). It actually was difficult for me to learn to appreciate some of the better dessert wines and to enjoy a good German riesling with some residual sugar, because I disliked the sweet style in many popular US and widely available wines so much. My natural inclination was much more toward drier wines. And again, this is although I enjoyed diet soda, and dessert foods perfectly well.
I also enjoyed unsweetened oats and coffee (as I still do), as noted above. This idea that unless you give up added sugar you cannot I find bizarre.4 -
OliveGirl128 wrote: »estherdragonbat wrote: »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.
Yep, really good points.0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »chelseahatch24 wrote: »TheWJordinWJordin wrote: »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.
I never really added sugar to things other than, you know, when making cookies or something or with a rhubarb sauce sometimes. Never added it to oats, coffee, don't like sweetened salad dressings (dislike honey mustard). However, I think that's like saying that adding spice to food hides the flavors. A bit of sugar in a BBQ sauce or dry rub has purposes beyond the flavor, there are many nice preparations of pork that involve adding a sauce with fruit (which contributes sweetness), meat sauces that involve a bit of honey, so on. This is traditional cooking. I think some people perhaps went way overboard with sugar and react by assuming that everyone who doesn't cut it all out is using extreme amounts and can't appreciate non sweet foods, but that's simply false.
My point before (and GottaBurnEm's, I think) was that it's normal and not unusual to be able to both appreciate some sweeter foods (whether it's diet soda, cookies, whatever) and still not have a messed up palate that ONLY likes sweeter items or cannot appreciate more subtle sweetness. I think something else must be going on if you cannot enjoy unsweetened foods, appreciate fruit and veg are sweet, so on, beyond just drinking some diet coke.
When I drank diet soda the most was when I considered myself a oenophile and drank a lot of wine (too much, why I don't anymore). It actually was difficult for me to learn to appreciate some of the better dessert wines and to enjoy a good German riesling with some residual sugar, because I disliked the sweet style in many popular US and widely available wines so much. My natural inclination was much more toward drier wines. And again, this is although I enjoyed diet soda, and dessert foods perfectly well.
I also enjoyed unsweetened oats and coffee (as I still do), as noted above. This idea that unless you give up added sugar you cannot I find bizarre.
^What she said. Especially the bolded.3 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »chelseahatch24 wrote: »TheWJordinWJordin wrote: »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.
I never really added sugar to things other than, you know, when making cookies or something or with a rhubarb sauce sometimes. Never added it to oats, coffee, don't like sweetened salad dressings (dislike honey mustard). However, I think that's like saying that adding spice to food hides the flavors. A bit of sugar in a BBQ sauce or dry rub has purposes beyond the flavor, there are many nice preparations of pork that involve adding a sauce with fruit (which contributes sweetness), meat sauces that involve a bit of honey, so on. This is traditional cooking. I think some people perhaps went way overboard with sugar and react by assuming that everyone who doesn't cut it all out is using extreme amounts and can't appreciate non sweet foods, but that's simply false.
My point before (and GottaBurnEm's, I think) was that it's normal and not unusual to be able to both appreciate some sweeter foods (whether it's diet soda, cookies, whatever) and still not have a messed up palate that ONLY likes sweeter items or cannot appreciate more subtle sweetness. I think something else must be going on if you cannot enjoy unsweetened foods, appreciate fruit and veg are sweet, so on, beyond just drinking some diet coke.
When I drank diet soda the most was when I considered myself a oenophile and drank a lot of wine (too much, why I don't anymore). It actually was difficult for me to learn to appreciate some of the better dessert wines and to enjoy a good German riesling with some residual sugar, because I disliked the sweet style in many popular US and widely available wines so much. My natural inclination was much more toward drier wines. And again, this is although I enjoyed diet soda, and dessert foods perfectly well.
I also enjoyed unsweetened oats and coffee (as I still do), as noted above. This idea that unless you give up added sugar you cannot I find bizarre.
I was simple giving my personal experience. Of course, everyone is going to have different experiences with tastebuds. I'm not one of those people who thinks added sugar is bad. I don't buy it because I have no use for it, not because I'm afraid of it.
I think it's a bit strange that people have said that eating/drinking less sugar has caused them to enjoy less sweet foods more and so many people have pretty much said they are wrong about their personal experience. I mean, it's almost like if I said I hate tomatoes and somebody says I must be wrong because tomatoes taste great to them.
1 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »chelseahatch24 wrote: »TheWJordinWJordin wrote: »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.
I never really added sugar to things other than, you know, when making cookies or something or with a rhubarb sauce sometimes. Never added it to oats, coffee, don't like sweetened salad dressings (dislike honey mustard). However, I think that's like saying that adding spice to food hides the flavors. A bit of sugar in a BBQ sauce or dry rub has purposes beyond the flavor, there are many nice preparations of pork that involve adding a sauce with fruit (which contributes sweetness), meat sauces that involve a bit of honey, so on. This is traditional cooking. I think some people perhaps went way overboard with sugar and react by assuming that everyone who doesn't cut it all out is using extreme amounts and can't appreciate non sweet foods, but that's simply false.
My point before (and GottaBurnEm's, I think) was that it's normal and not unusual to be able to both appreciate some sweeter foods (whether it's diet soda, cookies, whatever) and still not have a messed up palate that ONLY likes sweeter items or cannot appreciate more subtle sweetness. I think something else must be going on if you cannot enjoy unsweetened foods, appreciate fruit and veg are sweet, so on, beyond just drinking some diet coke.
When I drank diet soda the most was when I considered myself a oenophile and drank a lot of wine (too much, why I don't anymore). It actually was difficult for me to learn to appreciate some of the better dessert wines and to enjoy a good German riesling with some residual sugar, because I disliked the sweet style in many popular US and widely available wines so much. My natural inclination was much more toward drier wines. And again, this is although I enjoyed diet soda, and dessert foods perfectly well.
I also enjoyed unsweetened oats and coffee (as I still do), as noted above. This idea that unless you give up added sugar you cannot I find bizarre.
I was simple giving my personal experience. Of course, everyone is going to have different experiences with tastebuds. I'm not one of those people who thinks added sugar is bad. I don't buy it because I have no use for it, not because I'm afraid of it.
I think it's a bit strange that people have said that eating/drinking less sugar has caused them to enjoy less sweet foods more and so many people have pretty much said they are wrong about their personal experience. I mean, it's almost like if I said I hate tomatoes and somebody says I must be wrong because tomatoes taste great to them.
The problem is that people phrase it as an absolute:
If you stop eating sugar, you will be able to appreciate fruits and veg as sweet.
If you drink diet soda, you will crave sweet foods and not enjoy fruit.
Stuff like that.
But yeah, I do think if your palate is so messed up you don't enjoy any non sweet foods it may have to do with things like lack of exposure, not eating those foods, and not simply drinking diet soda (as some have claimed) or soda in general. Sure, if you cut out sweet things you need to develop the palate, but that doesn't mean you cannot appreciate sweet foods AND non sweet foods both. Some post as if the only way one can enjoy non sweet foods is cutting out the sweet and as if the effect of eating a healthier diet overall is you stop being able to enjoy a homemade apple pie (which often is not super duper sweet anyway). I think that's a huge overstatement or at least reasonably rare, not some general rule.7 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »chelseahatch24 wrote: »TheWJordinWJordin wrote: »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.
I never really added sugar to things other than, you know, when making cookies or something or with a rhubarb sauce sometimes. Never added it to oats, coffee, don't like sweetened salad dressings (dislike honey mustard). However, I think that's like saying that adding spice to food hides the flavors. A bit of sugar in a BBQ sauce or dry rub has purposes beyond the flavor, there are many nice preparations of pork that involve adding a sauce with fruit (which contributes sweetness), meat sauces that involve a bit of honey, so on. This is traditional cooking. I think some people perhaps went way overboard with sugar and react by assuming that everyone who doesn't cut it all out is using extreme amounts and can't appreciate non sweet foods, but that's simply false.
My point before (and GottaBurnEm's, I think) was that it's normal and not unusual to be able to both appreciate some sweeter foods (whether it's diet soda, cookies, whatever) and still not have a messed up palate that ONLY likes sweeter items or cannot appreciate more subtle sweetness. I think something else must be going on if you cannot enjoy unsweetened foods, appreciate fruit and veg are sweet, so on, beyond just drinking some diet coke.
When I drank diet soda the most was when I considered myself a oenophile and drank a lot of wine (too much, why I don't anymore). It actually was difficult for me to learn to appreciate some of the better dessert wines and to enjoy a good German riesling with some residual sugar, because I disliked the sweet style in many popular US and widely available wines so much. My natural inclination was much more toward drier wines. And again, this is although I enjoyed diet soda, and dessert foods perfectly well.
I also enjoyed unsweetened oats and coffee (as I still do), as noted above. This idea that unless you give up added sugar you cannot I find bizarre.
I was simple giving my personal experience. Of course, everyone is going to have different experiences with tastebuds. I'm not one of those people who thinks added sugar is bad. I don't buy it because I have no use for it, not because I'm afraid of it.
I think it's a bit strange that people have said that eating/drinking less sugar has caused them to enjoy less sweet foods more and so many people have pretty much said they are wrong about their personal experience. I mean, it's almost like if I said I hate tomatoes and somebody says I must be wrong because tomatoes taste great to them.
The problem is that people phrase it as an absolute:
I agree that there's no absolute in this situation. I assume my experience is probably not as common as yours, but if it has worked that way for me I'm sure some folks would like to know that it's possible it could do the same for them.
I don't think your argument is with me. I'm aware that what works for me in this case will not necessarily work for others.
0 -
Sorry to burst everyone's bubble, but yes, diet soda does make some people gain weight. And there's science to back it up. https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/09/08/the-awful-truth-about-diet-soda-and-weight-gain-according-to-science/#28b10646462f
I was not happy to discover this but I read the studies and there's no going back to soda (except seltzer) for me.26 -
Sorry to burst everyone's bubble, but yes, diet soda does make some people gain weight. And there's science to back it up. https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/09/08/the-awful-truth-about-diet-soda-and-weight-gain-according-to-science/#28b10646462f
I was not happy to discover this but I read the studies and there's no going back to soda (except seltzer) for me.
I'm pretty sure that link has already been posted in this thread (but there's been several of these so I might have threads confused at the point).
And I'm reasonably sure we've already discussed all the points in there after 6 pages.
If you are accurately logging your food and controlling your intake, diet soda can't "make" you gain weight. Correlation /= causation. Insert everything else we've already said here.7 -
Sorry to burst everyone's bubble, but yes, diet soda does make some people gain weight. And there's science to back it up. https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/09/08/the-awful-truth-about-diet-soda-and-weight-gain-according-to-science/#28b10646462f
I was not happy to discover this but I read the studies and there's no going back to soda (except seltzer) for me.
Have you actually experienced this for yourself though?
I've cut out diet soda for months at a time and had absolutely nothing happen to my weight. I'm currently only drinking 1 can a day, down from 3-5 a day that I was drinking, and same thing-I'm solidly maintaining within my maintenance window. The reduction of diet soda hasn't affected my weight at all, it's just made room for all the coffee I've added 2 -
Sorry to burst everyone's bubble, but yes, diet soda does make some people gain weight. And there's science to back it up. https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/09/08/the-awful-truth-about-diet-soda-and-weight-gain-according-to-science/#28b10646462f
I was not happy to discover this but I read the studies and there's no going back to soda (except seltzer) for me.
It hasn't for me. I must be special.8 -
I'm special too! *Sips Cherry Coke Zero* I got a participation trophy and everything!4
-
estherdragonbat wrote: »I'm special too! *Sips Cherry Coke Zero* I got a participation trophy and everything!
Cheers!! :drinker:1 -
"Some people," as I said, not everyone.1
-
Sorry to burst everyone's bubble, but yes, diet soda does make some people gain weight. And there's science to back it up. https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/09/08/the-awful-truth-about-diet-soda-and-weight-gain-according-to-science/#28b10646462f
I was not happy to discover this but I read the studies and there's no going back to soda (except seltzer) for me.
If you like seltzer, try La Croix in fruit flavors. No sweeteners or anything added. I keep the pineapple-strawberry around for when I've had too much caffeine, but don't want plain infused water.0 -
-
"Some people," as I said, not everyone.
And I responded by asking if you actually had this experience yourself? Because it seems a bit silly to me to eliminate something that I enjoy, just because some study says something, that doesn't match my own, real life experience. My daughter is lactose intolerant, so for "some people" dairy reacts negatively in the body. But it would make no sense for me to cut out dairy based on this, because I haven't actually experienced any negative affects with dairy.
I've been drinking diet soda for years now and I haven't had any negative experiences with it, and in fact it's been very helpful for me. So it would make no sense for me to cut it out, based on some study out there that may or may not even be accurate.4 -
Sorry to burst everyone's bubble, but yes, diet soda does make some people gain weight. And there's science to back it up. https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/09/08/the-awful-truth-about-diet-soda-and-weight-gain-according-to-science/#28b10646462f
I was not happy to discover this but I read the studies and there's no going back to soda (except seltzer) for me.
Diet soda can't make you gain weight. It literally can't, it doesn't contain enough energy. If you personally feel hungrier or crave foods after drinking it, it still doesn't make you gain weight since it's still entirely in your power to simply not give in to the cravings, but you might want to reduce/avoid it to not have them anymore.
On an unrelated note, an economy magazine would not be my first stop when looking for medical and nutrition news.11
https://youtu.be/Z-yfuSnUz6QCategories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.4K Introduce Yourself
- 43.5K Getting Started
- 259.7K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 389 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.2K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.2K MyFitnessPal Information
- 22 News and Announcements
- 918 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions