Zero Calorie Sweeteners
etherealanwar
Posts: 465 Member
Do zero calorie sweeteners really have no calories? I read some articles online that claim that this is untrue and that a packet contains several calories because they use bulking agents such as Maltodextrin and Dextrose which contain calories. They also say that erythritol and xylitol also contain calories. The reason I am asking is because I have recently started using quite a bit of Apriva which does contain maltodextrin and dextrose to go with my strawberries and my weight has been creeping up instead of down this past week and the only change I've made was using this sweetener and counting it as 0 calories.I weigh all my other food so that shouldn't be the problem! It may not be the cause as normal fluctuations happen but I am curious.
I'd rather not introduce something that may affect my progress.
I'd rather not introduce something that may affect my progress.
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Replies
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They have near zero calories. In most places if the calorie count is below 5, they are allowed to label it as zero calorie.
If you take diet coke as an example, it is listed as 0 calories per 355 ml, A 2 litre bottle of diet coke would then potentially have between 0 and 28 calories. You could track this if you are using excessively large amounts of diet drinks and sweeteners in baking or cooking. However it is more likely that if you are gaining weight you are eating more than you think of something else.
Check the log entries you are using for accuracy, weigh your food as accurately as possible to make sure.8 -
Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »They have near zero calories. In most places if the calorie count is below 5, they are allowed to label it as zero calorie.
If you take diet coke as an example, it is listed as 0 calories per 355 ml, A 2 litre bottle of diet coke would then potentially have between 0 and 28 calories. You could track this if you are using excessively large amounts of diet drinks and sweeteners in baking or cooking. However it is more likely that if you are gaining weight you are eating more than you think of something else.
Check the log entries you are using for accuracy, weigh your food as accurately as possible to make sure.
Well they claim its around 4-5 calories per 2 tsp and Ive had much more than a few tsps haha! Ive been eating the same items and logging them just fine for over 10 months now and have been losing as expected so it's not a logging issue. I'm not too concerned about the slight upward weight trend the past few days as it could potentially be normal fluctuations but I don't want to introduce this variable that can cause me issues.
If it has calories its not zero calorie. That's primarily what I'm trying to get at.1 -
etherealanwar wrote: »Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »They have near zero calories. In most places if the calorie count is below 5, they are allowed to label it as zero calorie.
If you take diet coke as an example, it is listed as 0 calories per 355 ml, A 2 litre bottle of diet coke would then potentially have between 0 and 28 calories. You could track this if you are using excessively large amounts of diet drinks and sweeteners in baking or cooking. However it is more likely that if you are gaining weight you are eating more than you think of something else.
Check the log entries you are using for accuracy, weigh your food as accurately as possible to make sure.
Well they claim its around 4-5 calories per 2 tsp and Ive had much more than a few tsps haha! Ive been eating the same items and logging them just fine for over 10 months now and have been losing as expected so it's not a logging issue. I'm not too concerned about the slight upward weight trend the past few days as it could potentially be normal fluctuations but I don't want to introduce this variable that can cause me issues.
If it has calories its not zero calorie. That's primarily what I'm trying to get at.
Even if you were to have 5 times that amount. so 10 tsp per day. amounting to between 20-25 calories per day, or 175 calories per week. that is still only 5% or 1/20th of a lb. So if you are talking about weight gain that is faster than 1lb every 20 weeks. It is not the sweeteners that are doing it.
They MIGHT make you enjoy the food more, in turn making you eat more strawberries ect. for perspective 100g of strawberries has 33 calories. if you are using 2 tsp of sweetener per 100g of strawberries, by the time your week is done for that 175 calories of sweetener, you ate 1155 calories in strawberries doing so.5 -
Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »etherealanwar wrote: »Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »They have near zero calories. In most places if the calorie count is below 5, they are allowed to label it as zero calorie.
If you take diet coke as an example, it is listed as 0 calories per 355 ml, A 2 litre bottle of diet coke would then potentially have between 0 and 28 calories. You could track this if you are using excessively large amounts of diet drinks and sweeteners in baking or cooking. However it is more likely that if you are gaining weight you are eating more than you think of something else.
Check the log entries you are using for accuracy, weigh your food as accurately as possible to make sure.
Well they claim its around 4-5 calories per 2 tsp and Ive had much more than a few tsps haha! Ive been eating the same items and logging them just fine for over 10 months now and have been losing as expected so it's not a logging issue. I'm not too concerned about the slight upward weight trend the past few days as it could potentially be normal fluctuations but I don't want to introduce this variable that can cause me issues.
If it has calories its not zero calorie. That's primarily what I'm trying to get at.
Even if you were to have 5 times that amount. so 10 tsp per day. amounting to between 20-25 calories per day, or 175 calories per week. that is still only 5% or 1/20th of a lb. So if you are talking about weight gain that is faster than 1lb every 20 weeks. It is not the sweeteners that are doing it.
They MIGHT make you enjoy the food more, in turn making you eat more strawberries ect. for perspective 100g of strawberries has 33 calories. if you are using 2 tsp of sweetener per 100g of strawberries, by the time your week is done for that 175 calories of sweetener, you ate 1155 calories in strawberries doing so.
Honestly its more around half a cup that I used each time (embarrassingly enough). But yeah at most it would be 60 calories if its 5 cals per 2 tsp. I wouldnt be asking if i only used a tiny amount. I'm still more curious about just whether or not they contain calories not regarding my weight.0 -
I seriously doubt it's the artificial sweetener, but anything is possible.
The solution is eliminate the sweetener and leave everything else the same and see what happens.
You could also give the current regimen a little more time. One week is hardly enough.
Presuming you're not eating too much.0 -
I seriously doubt it's the artificial sweetener, but anything is possible.
The solution is eliminate the sweetener and leave everything else the same and see what happens.
You could also give the current regimen a little more time. One week is hardly enough.
Presuming you're not eating too much.
You're probably right but I am planning on not using any just to see. I barely eat that much considering I stick to 1200-1300 calories a day.
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etherealanwar wrote: »Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »etherealanwar wrote: »Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »They have near zero calories. In most places if the calorie count is below 5, they are allowed to label it as zero calorie.
If you take diet coke as an example, it is listed as 0 calories per 355 ml, A 2 litre bottle of diet coke would then potentially have between 0 and 28 calories. You could track this if you are using excessively large amounts of diet drinks and sweeteners in baking or cooking. However it is more likely that if you are gaining weight you are eating more than you think of something else.
Check the log entries you are using for accuracy, weigh your food as accurately as possible to make sure.
Well they claim its around 4-5 calories per 2 tsp and Ive had much more than a few tsps haha! Ive been eating the same items and logging them just fine for over 10 months now and have been losing as expected so it's not a logging issue. I'm not too concerned about the slight upward weight trend the past few days as it could potentially be normal fluctuations but I don't want to introduce this variable that can cause me issues.
If it has calories its not zero calorie. That's primarily what I'm trying to get at.
Even if you were to have 5 times that amount. so 10 tsp per day. amounting to between 20-25 calories per day, or 175 calories per week. that is still only 5% or 1/20th of a lb. So if you are talking about weight gain that is faster than 1lb every 20 weeks. It is not the sweeteners that are doing it.
They MIGHT make you enjoy the food more, in turn making you eat more strawberries ect. for perspective 100g of strawberries has 33 calories. if you are using 2 tsp of sweetener per 100g of strawberries, by the time your week is done for that 175 calories of sweetener, you ate 1155 calories in strawberries doing so.
Honestly its more around half a cup that I used each time (embarrassingly enough). But yeah at most it would be 60 calories if its 5 cals per 2 tsp. I wouldnt be asking if i only used a tiny amount. I'm still more curious about just whether or not they contain calories not regarding my weight.
Yeah unfortunately politicians sold out that freedom to label things zero calories that still have a few(while under 5). Many companies abuse this as well and change their serving sizes on the box to fit into this category. Even if the reasonable amount of the product used exceeds the serving size they have listed.0 -
Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »Yeah unfortunately politicians sold out that freedom to label things zero calories that still have a few(while under 5). Many companies abuse this as well and change their serving sizes on the box to fit into this category. Even if the reasonable amount of the product used exceeds the serving size they have listed.
Yeah this is very bothersome
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etherealanwar wrote: »Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »etherealanwar wrote: »Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »They have near zero calories. In most places if the calorie count is below 5, they are allowed to label it as zero calorie.
If you take diet coke as an example, it is listed as 0 calories per 355 ml, A 2 litre bottle of diet coke would then potentially have between 0 and 28 calories. You could track this if you are using excessively large amounts of diet drinks and sweeteners in baking or cooking. However it is more likely that if you are gaining weight you are eating more than you think of something else.
Check the log entries you are using for accuracy, weigh your food as accurately as possible to make sure.
Well they claim its around 4-5 calories per 2 tsp and Ive had much more than a few tsps haha! Ive been eating the same items and logging them just fine for over 10 months now and have been losing as expected so it's not a logging issue. I'm not too concerned about the slight upward weight trend the past few days as it could potentially be normal fluctuations but I don't want to introduce this variable that can cause me issues.
If it has calories its not zero calorie. That's primarily what I'm trying to get at.
Even if you were to have 5 times that amount. so 10 tsp per day. amounting to between 20-25 calories per day, or 175 calories per week. that is still only 5% or 1/20th of a lb. So if you are talking about weight gain that is faster than 1lb every 20 weeks. It is not the sweeteners that are doing it.
They MIGHT make you enjoy the food more, in turn making you eat more strawberries ect. for perspective 100g of strawberries has 33 calories. if you are using 2 tsp of sweetener per 100g of strawberries, by the time your week is done for that 175 calories of sweetener, you ate 1155 calories in strawberries doing so.
Honestly its more around half a cup that I used each time (embarrassingly enough). But yeah at most it would be 60 calories if its 5 cals per 2 tsp. I wouldnt be asking if i only used a tiny amount. I'm still more curious about just whether or not they contain calories not regarding my weight.
Aren't you concerned about all the chemicals you are putting into your body?
Pretty sure they are starting to discover that all these artificial sweeteners are more harmful than regular sugar.
Holy cow that's a lot of sweetener.40 -
OldAssDude wrote: »Aren't you concerned about all the chemicals you are putting into your body?
Pretty sure they are starting to discover that all these artificial sweeteners are more harmful than regular sugar.
Holy cow that's a lot of sweetener.
I'm pretty sure there's more evidence that they're harmless then there is saying they're harmful. I'll be fine.
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I think most of the liquid artificial sweeteners are actually zero calorie because they don't have the bulking agents. Liquid sucralose (i.e. liquid Splenda) is my sweetener of choice.3
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etherealanwar wrote: »Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »etherealanwar wrote: »Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »They have near zero calories. In most places if the calorie count is below 5, they are allowed to label it as zero calorie.
If you take diet coke as an example, it is listed as 0 calories per 355 ml, A 2 litre bottle of diet coke would then potentially have between 0 and 28 calories. You could track this if you are using excessively large amounts of diet drinks and sweeteners in baking or cooking. However it is more likely that if you are gaining weight you are eating more than you think of something else.
Check the log entries you are using for accuracy, weigh your food as accurately as possible to make sure.
Well they claim its around 4-5 calories per 2 tsp and Ive had much more than a few tsps haha! Ive been eating the same items and logging them just fine for over 10 months now and have been losing as expected so it's not a logging issue. I'm not too concerned about the slight upward weight trend the past few days as it could potentially be normal fluctuations but I don't want to introduce this variable that can cause me issues.
If it has calories its not zero calorie. That's primarily what I'm trying to get at.
Even if you were to have 5 times that amount. so 10 tsp per day. amounting to between 20-25 calories per day, or 175 calories per week. that is still only 5% or 1/20th of a lb. So if you are talking about weight gain that is faster than 1lb every 20 weeks. It is not the sweeteners that are doing it.
They MIGHT make you enjoy the food more, in turn making you eat more strawberries ect. for perspective 100g of strawberries has 33 calories. if you are using 2 tsp of sweetener per 100g of strawberries, by the time your week is done for that 175 calories of sweetener, you ate 1155 calories in strawberries doing so.
Honestly its more around half a cup that I used each time (embarrassingly enough). But yeah at most it would be 60 calories if its 5 cals per 2 tsp. I wouldnt be asking if i only used a tiny amount. I'm still more curious about just whether or not they contain calories not regarding my weight.
If literally the only change is going from unsweetened strawberries to strawberries with a half cup of Apriva, I'd stop the Apriva and see what happens.1 -
OldAssDude wrote: »etherealanwar wrote: »Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »etherealanwar wrote: »Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »They have near zero calories. In most places if the calorie count is below 5, they are allowed to label it as zero calorie.
If you take diet coke as an example, it is listed as 0 calories per 355 ml, A 2 litre bottle of diet coke would then potentially have between 0 and 28 calories. You could track this if you are using excessively large amounts of diet drinks and sweeteners in baking or cooking. However it is more likely that if you are gaining weight you are eating more than you think of something else.
Check the log entries you are using for accuracy, weigh your food as accurately as possible to make sure.
Well they claim its around 4-5 calories per 2 tsp and Ive had much more than a few tsps haha! Ive been eating the same items and logging them just fine for over 10 months now and have been losing as expected so it's not a logging issue. I'm not too concerned about the slight upward weight trend the past few days as it could potentially be normal fluctuations but I don't want to introduce this variable that can cause me issues.
If it has calories its not zero calorie. That's primarily what I'm trying to get at.
Even if you were to have 5 times that amount. so 10 tsp per day. amounting to between 20-25 calories per day, or 175 calories per week. that is still only 5% or 1/20th of a lb. So if you are talking about weight gain that is faster than 1lb every 20 weeks. It is not the sweeteners that are doing it.
They MIGHT make you enjoy the food more, in turn making you eat more strawberries ect. for perspective 100g of strawberries has 33 calories. if you are using 2 tsp of sweetener per 100g of strawberries, by the time your week is done for that 175 calories of sweetener, you ate 1155 calories in strawberries doing so.
Honestly its more around half a cup that I used each time (embarrassingly enough). But yeah at most it would be 60 calories if its 5 cals per 2 tsp. I wouldnt be asking if i only used a tiny amount. I'm still more curious about just whether or not they contain calories not regarding my weight.
Aren't you concerned about all the chemicals you are putting into your body?
Pretty sure they are starting to discover that all these artificial sweeteners are more harmful than regular sugar.
Holy cow that's a lot of sweetener.
They're really not starting to discover that.14 -
OldAssDude wrote: »etherealanwar wrote: »Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »etherealanwar wrote: »Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »They have near zero calories. In most places if the calorie count is below 5, they are allowed to label it as zero calorie.
If you take diet coke as an example, it is listed as 0 calories per 355 ml, A 2 litre bottle of diet coke would then potentially have between 0 and 28 calories. You could track this if you are using excessively large amounts of diet drinks and sweeteners in baking or cooking. However it is more likely that if you are gaining weight you are eating more than you think of something else.
Check the log entries you are using for accuracy, weigh your food as accurately as possible to make sure.
Well they claim its around 4-5 calories per 2 tsp and Ive had much more than a few tsps haha! Ive been eating the same items and logging them just fine for over 10 months now and have been losing as expected so it's not a logging issue. I'm not too concerned about the slight upward weight trend the past few days as it could potentially be normal fluctuations but I don't want to introduce this variable that can cause me issues.
If it has calories its not zero calorie. That's primarily what I'm trying to get at.
Even if you were to have 5 times that amount. so 10 tsp per day. amounting to between 20-25 calories per day, or 175 calories per week. that is still only 5% or 1/20th of a lb. So if you are talking about weight gain that is faster than 1lb every 20 weeks. It is not the sweeteners that are doing it.
They MIGHT make you enjoy the food more, in turn making you eat more strawberries ect. for perspective 100g of strawberries has 33 calories. if you are using 2 tsp of sweetener per 100g of strawberries, by the time your week is done for that 175 calories of sweetener, you ate 1155 calories in strawberries doing so.
Honestly its more around half a cup that I used each time (embarrassingly enough). But yeah at most it would be 60 calories if its 5 cals per 2 tsp. I wouldnt be asking if i only used a tiny amount. I'm still more curious about just whether or not they contain calories not regarding my weight.
Aren't you concerned about all the chemicals you are putting into your body?
Pretty sure they are starting to discover that all these artificial sweeteners are more harmful than regular sugar.
Holy cow that's a lot of sweetener.
The only place they are 'discovering' this is on the woo peddler's web sights.
OP - If you really think you are using enough to make a difference, either cut back or switch to the liquid sweeteners that don't have all the fillers.10 -
They have calories; not many, and not likely to make you gain weight by themselves. Liquid sucralose I would consider to be zero.
People's weight fluctuates on a regular basis. Use a weight trending app. Make sure you're considering circumstances such as time of the month for women...5 -
OldAssDude wrote: »Aren't you concerned about all the chemicals you are putting into your body?
Pretty sure they are starting to discover that all these artificial sweeteners are more harmful than regular sugar.
Holy cow that's a lot of sweetener.
I've got a couple of secrets for you.
1. Everything's a chemical. Everything.
2. There is no correlation between how safe a chemical is for consumption and how hard it is to pronounce. C6H12O6 (glucose) is perfectly safe even in high doses where as C21H22N2O2 (Strychnine) even in tiny amounts is not so good.12 -
There's 1/4c of Splenda.
3 -
Unless one is using huge bucket fulls of artificial sweetener I highly doubt it has enough calories to affect weight loss.
here in Australia we do not have this "under 5 can be called zero" rule - and things like cans of diet coke (well ,everything actually) states its calorie amount in 100ml or 100g increments.
Cans of diet coke have about 4kj per can - about 1.5 calories.11 -
Warning: Splenda is NOT sucralose. Splenda contains some sucralose but is largely starch.
That being said, you'd have to use a lot of Splenda to accumulate calories. Each packet of Splenda will have about 3.5 calories. Carbohydrate for those watching your macros.1 -
pure stevia leaf extract. No Chemicals or chemically altered ingredients. Beware of some stevia products, they contain dextrose and other fillers. you can buy pure stevia leaf extract online and it takes a very small amount to sweeten anything.3
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twatson4936 wrote: »pure stevia leaf extract. No Chemicals or chemically altered ingredients. Beware of some stevia products, they contain dextrose and other fillers. you can buy pure stevia leaf extract online and it takes a very small amount to sweeten anything.
"Beware" of dextrose? Why?8 -
Artificial sweeteners are not dangerous in "regular" amounts. If you are having 3-10 packets of stevia/sucralose/whatever artificial sweetener a day then that's safe. You have to have a WHOLE lot more on a regular basis in order to reach the level of toxicity that those sweeteners have. It's like apples. They have trace amounts of cyanide in it (the seeds) but we all still eat those safely. Check out this video that explains the science of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKciZz3hfVc&t=790s 4 -
There's some talk about artificial sweeteners sabotaging people's effort to lose weight. I've heard that they're bad because they cause an insulin response by the body when no actual sugar is being consumed, and that causes weird endocrine system problems and could even lead to fat storage. Any thoughts on this?12
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sdbuckley70 wrote: »There's some talk about artificial sweeteners sabotaging people's effort to lose weight. I've heard that they're bad because they cause an insulin response by the body when no actual sugar is being consumed, and that causes weird endocrine system problems and could even lead to fat storage. Any thoughts on this?
Diabetics are advised to switch to artificial sweeteners and are constantly monitoring their blood sugar, as well as getting routine blood work to monitor insulin levels and response. If artificial sweeteners caused an insulin response and caused damage over time, this would be easily observed in diabetics. And it hasn't been.
There are a couple of ways sweeteners "could" mess with weight loss. First, some people say they increase their appetite. Second, sometimes people who feel like they saved calories using sweeteners may feel like now they have room for a treat and over do it. Neither of these would be a problem if you are accurately and consistently logging. I personally don't find an appetite increase, in fact a diet soda is a highly effective craving buster for me!13 -
etherealanwar wrote: »Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »etherealanwar wrote: »Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »They have near zero calories. In most places if the calorie count is below 5, they are allowed to label it as zero calorie.
If you take diet coke as an example, it is listed as 0 calories per 355 ml, A 2 litre bottle of diet coke would then potentially have between 0 and 28 calories. You could track this if you are using excessively large amounts of diet drinks and sweeteners in baking or cooking. However it is more likely that if you are gaining weight you are eating more than you think of something else.
Check the log entries you are using for accuracy, weigh your food as accurately as possible to make sure.
Well they claim its around 4-5 calories per 2 tsp and Ive had much more than a few tsps haha! Ive been eating the same items and logging them just fine for over 10 months now and have been losing as expected so it's not a logging issue. I'm not too concerned about the slight upward weight trend the past few days as it could potentially be normal fluctuations but I don't want to introduce this variable that can cause me issues.
If it has calories its not zero calorie. That's primarily what I'm trying to get at.
Even if you were to have 5 times that amount. so 10 tsp per day. amounting to between 20-25 calories per day, or 175 calories per week. that is still only 5% or 1/20th of a lb. So if you are talking about weight gain that is faster than 1lb every 20 weeks. It is not the sweeteners that are doing it.
They MIGHT make you enjoy the food more, in turn making you eat more strawberries ect. for perspective 100g of strawberries has 33 calories. if you are using 2 tsp of sweetener per 100g of strawberries, by the time your week is done for that 175 calories of sweetener, you ate 1155 calories in strawberries doing so.
Honestly its more around half a cup that I used each time (embarrassingly enough). But yeah at most it would be 60 calories if its 5 cals per 2 tsp. I wouldnt be asking if i only used a tiny amount. I'm still more curious about just whether or not they contain calories not regarding my weight.
Dear lady, I'm very curious to know (unrelated to your actual question)...
Are you using half a cup when baking a cake?
Or half a cup of sweetener in a cup of coffee?
As for your question, I think you're majoring in the minors.
In addition to another post of yours I saw, you might need to relax a bit. Though it looks like you don't have much weight to lose, you should look at the following:
https://blog.myfitnesspal.com/why-aiming-to-maintain-weight-can-actually-help-fat-loss-goals/
and
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/113609/relatively-light-people-trying-to-get-leaner/p1
and
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks
Best wishes, and well done for using the forums. Some really helpful and successful people give advice here.4 -
sdbuckley70 wrote: »There's some talk about artificial sweeteners sabotaging people's effort to lose weight. I've heard that they're bad because they cause an insulin response by the body when no actual sugar is being consumed, and that causes weird endocrine system problems and could even lead to fat storage. Any thoughts on this?
Yes. It's completely untrue and you should disregard it. It's nothing more than scaremongering and has no basis in fact.
It would be about like claiming you could gain fat from drinking water because the body senses a substance being taken in and stores fat as a result.
Also, there is no net fat storage from anything when in a caloric deficit.5 -
https://www.livestrong.com/article/308071-how-many-calories-are-in-1-cup-of-splenda-brand-sugar-for-baking/
I use 1/4 c in my porridge every morning, and I use up to 3/4 c per day sweetening plain Greek yogurt. It is important to log these calories.
Splenda isn't the only example of food labeled as set zero-calorie when it does, in fact, contain calories. Mustard may be labeled as zero calories per teaspoon, but it adds up to a lot in larger quantities -- a cup of yellow mustard may be over 165 cal! (And yes, I have used large enough quantities of mustard to make this matter; there's a bean soup recipe I love that uses an amazing amount of it.)1 -
Almost everything has some calories in it, even things listed as zero calorie. Diet soda has 1-2 calories, coffee has 1-5 calories, mustard, tums, mints, and gum all contain 2-10 calories per regular serving.
Perhaps the worst offenders of this that I’ve found are artificial sweeteners and cooking spray. The calories in those can really add up. 1 packet of Splenda has 6 calories! And when I use six in each coffee, that really adds up. Cooking spray has quite a bit too. It’s “zero” for a 1/3 second spray...ummm who actually does that? It’s more like 15 calories per second of spraying, and most people tend to spray for a few seconds. At that point, using plain butter I can measure is better.
In short, when it comes to things like gum, mints, diet soda, and coffee I rarely log it. Those calories are 1-2 for normal size quantities, so I don’t bother. If I’m over by 6 calories a day it won’t make much of a difference.
When it comes to things like cooking spray and Splenda, I log every bit of them, because it’s easy to go over with those. If you’re using half a cup of Splenda a day, that’s probably 100 calories or more, and can add up.
I’ve heard that the liquid sweeteners don’t have any calories, maybe give those a try or just start tracking the Splenda. I used to use Splenda but I stopped using it, and now just use smaller amounts of regular sugar. A packet of Splenda contains 6 calories...a packet of sugar is 15. Not too much of a miracle when you look at it that way.2 -
sdbuckley70 wrote: »There's some talk about artificial sweeteners sabotaging people's effort to lose weight. I've heard that they're bad because they cause an insulin response by the body when no actual sugar is being consumed, and that causes weird endocrine system problems and could even lead to fat storage. Any thoughts on this?
Yes. It's completely untrue and you should disregard it. It's nothing more than scaremongering and has no basis in fact.
It would be about like claiming you could gain fat from drinking water because the body senses a substance being taken in and stores fat as a result.
Also, there is no net fat storage from anything when in a caloric deficit.
I think there are a lot of "studies" with correlation versus causation issues out there. It's probably true that most people who use artificial sweeteners are above the "normal/healthy" range. Could it be because...
The vast majority of American adults are overweight or obese ?
Nah; couldn't be that. Must be the sweetener...4 -
etherealanwar wrote: »Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »etherealanwar wrote: »Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »They have near zero calories. In most places if the calorie count is below 5, they are allowed to label it as zero calorie.
If you take diet coke as an example, it is listed as 0 calories per 355 ml, A 2 litre bottle of diet coke would then potentially have between 0 and 28 calories. You could track this if you are using excessively large amounts of diet drinks and sweeteners in baking or cooking. However it is more likely that if you are gaining weight you are eating more than you think of something else.
Check the log entries you are using for accuracy, weigh your food as accurately as possible to make sure.
Well they claim its around 4-5 calories per 2 tsp and Ive had much more than a few tsps haha! Ive been eating the same items and logging them just fine for over 10 months now and have been losing as expected so it's not a logging issue. I'm not too concerned about the slight upward weight trend the past few days as it could potentially be normal fluctuations but I don't want to introduce this variable that can cause me issues.
If it has calories its not zero calorie. That's primarily what I'm trying to get at.
Even if you were to have 5 times that amount. so 10 tsp per day. amounting to between 20-25 calories per day, or 175 calories per week. that is still only 5% or 1/20th of a lb. So if you are talking about weight gain that is faster than 1lb every 20 weeks. It is not the sweeteners that are doing it.
They MIGHT make you enjoy the food more, in turn making you eat more strawberries ect. for perspective 100g of strawberries has 33 calories. if you are using 2 tsp of sweetener per 100g of strawberries, by the time your week is done for that 175 calories of sweetener, you ate 1155 calories in strawberries doing so.
Honestly its more around half a cup that I used each time (embarrassingly enough). But yeah at most it would be 60 calories if its 5 cals per 2 tsp. I wouldnt be asking if i only used a tiny amount. I'm still more curious about just whether or not they contain calories not regarding my weight.
Dear lady, I'm very curious to know (unrelated to your actual question)...
Are you using half a cup when baking a cake?
Or half a cup of sweetener in a cup of coffee?
...
She's using a half cup of artificial sweetener on strawberries.
See her first and third post on the first page.0
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