Quitting Soda!

alyssadoss1

I stopped drinking soda 'cold Turkey' about 4 days ago. I would consume large amounts of soda, starting my day with a 44oz from the gas station and continuing to drink more when I arrived home. My question is, how many of you solely quit drinking soda and lost weight, and how quickly did you lose said amount? Simply asking from curiosity!

Iwantahealthierme30

I quit drinking regular soda - have only had 2 coke zeros in the past 33 days (since I started here) before I even started I lost 5 pounds but it's not all from the soda, I'm also in a calorie deficit of about 500-600 calories a day.

GetFit4Life2018

I know if I add soda into my regular schedule I can easily gain 1-2 lbs a week, but losing it is always different. I think it's great you can go cold turkey. Most can't. If you find it becomes impossible, just try cutting down to a 22 oz from gas station or cut your intake in 1/2 daily. I drink the Diet Pepsi's and I'm trying to get off 'diet' so I hope you are successful!!

TeaBea

If you used to consume lots of calories from soda, this should help. Let's say you cut out 500 calories a day in soda (or any other food) and you don't replace those calories with any other calories........then the weight loss = 1 pound a week.

I've never been a regular soda drinker. But, I do drink diet A&W everyday, never stopped me from losing weight. On a (somewhat) related note: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1308408/why-aspartame-isnt-scary/p1

Jayneete

It's the devil! I quit before but this time I have to all together.

GOT_Obsessed

I did the exact opposite actually. I started to drink pop. lol
In an effort to ease the "sweet" cravings I discovered Coke Zero Cherry.

laurenebargar

I havent had any soda since march. I've also lost 50 pounds since march but it wasnt soley from quitting soda.

eireokie

Congrats on deciding to ditch soda. Next step is ditch processed sugar completely. Best decision I ever made was to do exactly that. Here's a youtube video that certainly can give you insight as to why you sugar is so bad for you. Pay attention especially toward the end as it will give a science-based opinion of artificial sweeteners as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLKwiNpjLZ8

jamespatten3576

Nice work, I've never been able to quit for long. As soon as I get stressed I fall off the wagon. Never realized how bad it was until I started tracking my food. Soda was making up a third to half of my daily calories. If I could give that up, I'd almost always be under my calorie goal.

SalsaJason

Soda is my nemesis, cold turkey is best, the diet alternatives effect your body in much the same way, ultimately it is all bottled poison. Alas, it keeps drawing me back, one day I will beat it.

EreAura

Congrats! I quit drinking soda back in April, 2016 but I'm not sure how much weight I've lost from it, since I was already in a deficit and exercising, but I'm sure it helped a ton since I used to drink it every night at work (free soda for employees). I've had swigs of it once in a blue moon, but I don't miss it and it tastes weird to me now.

jkorth59

Soda is a top contributor towards obesity in the US....Theres a ton of calories in the form of simple sugar with no other nutritional benefits .....

finallyfitmommel

I am at 13 weeks soda free! I was drinking easily 40-100oz of pepsi a day. That's not all I did, cut back on calories and started working out a lot but I am down about 25 pounds already. Feels so great.

finallyfitmommel

And I'm with @EreAura - I take a sig of my husbands here and there but it just tastes weird now. Oooo McDonalds coke used to taste so sweet....now it's just bleh...

rheddmobile

Soda is the worst for me - not only does it have sugar I can't handle as a diabetic, but the sweet taste makes me crave salty foods like fries and chips, and eating those makes me crave greasy food like cheeseburgers and pizza, and it just cascades from there. If I just cut soda and nothing else, my cravings normalize. It takes about two weeks cold turkey.

rheddmobile

Re: how fast you will lose. I looked at the database and a 44 oz soda has 560 calories. So if you drank one every day, just cutting this one thing will cause you to lose more than a pound per week if everything else stays the same.

getoffin1year

Good job, OP!

Everyone else: anyone lose weight once quitting DIET soda?

aeb6551

Yes, quitting diet soda helped me lose. I was a total addict that used to scoff at the notion that I could survive a day without 6 20oz diet cokes. It was a pretty bad habit. Finally I decided Diet Coke didn’t fit my goals for keeping my habits as reasonably clean and healthy as I could. Cold turkey did not work for me. I replaced the caffeine with coffee and the carbonation with sparkling mineral water. I drank the fruit flavored sparkling waters, such as la croix, not the nutrasweet containing ones. I replaced one Coke a week, rather than all of them at once. It was not easy but it was doable. Now I only drink coffee, regular water, and tea. I occasionally buy a Diet Coke, drink a little, and realize it tastes terrible to me! I truly do not miss it!
This is completely anecdotal, but I haven’t had a migraine since I kicked my Diet Coke habit. That’s definitely a bonus for me, I hate being sidelined by migraines.
Good luck to you.

Bigbenny2037

Heavy soft drink user here.. i started a quit just other day - at the moment i am breaking it down into a phase thing. So for the first few weeks i am basically trying to reduce any soda consumption where i can + If i do drink anything at all it must be diet / zero versions.

After a few weeks i will transition to something like "1 diet / zero " per week allowed and after that ZERO allowed... i am hoping this form of method might allow for me to slowly remove soda from my diet while also allowing for some "failure".

dsboohead

I say weaning yourself off anything soda if it's a problem!
Every blue moon I will drink a diet "baby" can. I have lost my taste or desire!
The acid alone in sodas will have the enamel on your teeth thanking you if you stop!

suzfirebird

I quit drinking soda cold turkey June 2015. Had a few sips this past year and it tasted nasty. I no longer get toothaches and stomach pain (happened all the time while drinking coke). I lost 20lbs in 4 months without changing anything else.

Momepro

I never really liked the taste of full sugar sodas, exceot the occasional root beer or orange Fanta. So for me, quitting was a matter of cutting caffeine instead if calories. In my case, I actually ended up gaining, probably because of having less caffeine to keep me moving, lol.

ColoFatherOf3

I guess I'm the exception. I drink alot of diet soda each day. Didn't stop me from losing 75 pounds and I'm now maintaining at my goal weight. I still drink ALOT of diet soda each day.

TeaBea

getoffin1year wrote: »

Good job, OP!

Everyone else: anyone lose weight once quitting DIET soda?

No this wouldn't work. Weight loss is taking in fewer calories than your body expends. Because diet soda has no calories.....there is no calorie "savings" by cutting it out.

However, if you are someone that tells themselves....."Hey, I saved 200 calories by drinking this no calorie beverage, so I can have dessert" ......this might be a problem if your dessert is 300 calories. Diet soda counts as zero, but you don't earn a bonus by drinking it.

Live_life_well

I am the opposite. I exchanged juices for diet Pepsi. Was drinking 500 calories a day in juices which has gone to zero with the diet soda.

lemurcat12

I never drank a lot of sugary soda -- it was something we didn't drink a lot of when I was a kid. As a teenager I switched to diet, but at the time wasn't drinking it daily or anything. At one point in my 20s I was drinking a lot of diet, but I wasn't overweight then, and I cut back naturally before I decided to lose weight. When I lost weight I didn't drink lots of soda (and it was diet anyway), so I didn't bother cutting it out. I've gone through periods where I drank none and periods where I drank on average a can daily, and it didn't seem to make a difference -- and I wouldn't expect it to, because diet.

If you drink lots of sugary soda and can cut it out without adding in some replacement, than that's a really easy way to cut calories and I'd expect weight loss. I think many people switch to diet or cut it out and don't lose, because they have unplanned, unorganized diets and start eating more of something else to replace the whatever satisfaction was coming from the soda. (It's similar to how for many if you increase exercise without controlling your diet in some way you will end up eating more and not losing.)

lemurcat12

Although I was not drinking lots of diet soda when I decided to lose, I was drinking lots of coffee, and I specifically decided not to worry about that because I wanted to use my focus on calories and making better dietary choices, and that I had a calorie-free (or almost) treat (black coffee) I enjoyed and could substitute for, say, a snack if others were eating made it easier for me.

I'd suggest that deciding you must quit diet soda if it doesn't seem to do you any harm is similar to my coffee thing and it's worth asking yourself why you think you need to. Is it because others tell you you should?

stevencloser

eireokie wrote: »

Congrats on deciding to ditch soda. Next step is ditch processed sugar completely. Best decision I ever made was to do exactly that. Here's a youtube video that certainly can give you insight as to why you sugar is so bad for you. Pay attention especially toward the end as it will give a science-based opinion of artificial sweeteners as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLKwiNpjLZ8

Youtube videos are not science.

ZoneFive

I drink diet soda daily. I use splenda in my coffee, too. I've lost 89 lbs in a year. I have no brain fog, no sugar cravings, no issues. Artificial sweeteners are not evil, unless you have a particular medical reason to avoid them.

Nudgey02

You may find this article interesting, it came up on BBC news today - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-42542818

alyssadoss1

Update : so far I've lost 4lbs. I have been tracking my food completely and doing my best to stay in range of my calorie budget. I just joined a gym, so hopefully once I get into a regular exercise routine I'll start seeing more results! Thanks everyone for your responses so far!