Do diet sodas make you fat?

dckim

Has anyone stopped drinking diet sodas and lost weight? I keep hearing diet sodas make you eat more. Btw I drink about 2-3 cans of diet coke a day. :drinker:

hush7hush

For some people the artificial sweetener does make them crave more food. It's all about self control.

Also people are likely to drop weight if they stop drinking it for a while because of bloat caused by carbonation.

Chastityx

they don'tadd calories, but increase your cravings for sweet foods.

rudegyal_b

apparently they still cause sugar spikes, making you hungry later

Pandorian

For me, yes!

I have diet soda and it was previously paired with chocolate bars, potato chips etc. If I didn't have the diet soda I wouldn't touch that junk either. I stopped drinking the diet soda and dropped 50 lbs in 6 months, put it back on and have been drinking the soda again, working on cutting it back out because it worked in the past for me.

SoCalSwimmerDude

I've lost 27 lbs, went from about 18 to 11% body fat, never hit a plataeu (sp?), eat EXTREMELY healthy, and have a diet coke almost every morning on the way to work. I also quit diet coke for 2 weeks about a month ago for kicks to see what effects it would have. All it did is not provide an avenue for my sweet tooth and I would want to eat more w/out it... becuase it was always kind-of a filler for me. I'm not saying its the healthiest, and I'm sure people are going to bring their studies and personal experiences, but for me... it didn't make a difference. If anything, it made things just a little worse.

Aspartane may be bad... I don't know. My wife would tell you that you'll die of brain cancer if you drink diet coke. The FDA says aspartane is fine... and you'll find a million different opinions. So you'll have to choose for yourself. For me, its fine.

dckim

I guess the word "diet" is a misnomer then. just can't win... :sad:

MaddieMii

Diet soda made me more hungry ultimately - it's full of all kinds of chemicals. I don't do soda anymore for that reason.

Soccer_chick916

I've lost 27 lbs, went from about 18 to 11% body fat, never hit a plataeu (sp?), eat EXTREMELY healthy, and have a diet coke almost every morning on the way to work. I also quit diet coke for 2 weeks about a month ago for kicks to see what effects it would have. All it did is not provide an avenue for my sweet tooth and I would want to eat more w/out it... becuase it was always kind-of a filler for me. I'm not saying its the healthiest, and I'm sure people are going to bring their studies and personal experiences, but for me... it didn't make a difference. If anything, it made things just a little worse.

Aspartane may be bad... I don't know. My wife would tell you that you'll die of brain cancer if you drink diet coke. The FDA says aspartane is fine... and you'll find a million different opinions. So you'll have to choose for yourself. For me, its fine.

I agree with you. Besides when you go to a restaurant or buy pre-made food you almost cant know if they used artificial sweeteners or not. Besides I don't see the harm in it as long as you to it in moderation.

arw060310

I don't drink soda anymore really, but when I do have the occasional diet soda, I don't get a craving for anything else. It usually just makes me feel bloated and gross about myself. But my mother drinks about 4 diet sodas a day and is in amazing health. It just depends on the person. I guess anything carbonated makes me feel icky..

Lozze

I've lost weight quicker than I normally have and I personally think the reason is because I've switched my diet soda for water. But that's anecdotal.

There is no science proving that it makes you fatter. You could try it and see how it works for you and if it speeds up your weight loss.

kardeamad

I was addicted to coca cola for 24 years. I dropped from normal to diet about 6 years ago.

I heard about diet drinks causing sugar cravings for some people and tested it for 3 weeks to see if I was affected. After every can I made sure my next drink was a coffee with one sugar. I used to drink between 8-12 cans a day! I lost weight , didn't eat any crap but my cravings seemed to be crap carbs not sugar.

I have now totally kicked the coke, withdrawing slowly via decaff as I knew from previous attempts that the caffeine withdrawal is hideous.

I now have one caffeine drink a day which as my new lifestyle is progressing I find I am enjoying less and less each day.

Tonilynn70

I am a former diet pepsi addict. I never log them bc they have no calories and no fat... but the other day (I drink one a day during the week for fhe caffiene bc I don't drink coffee, and prob 2-4 a day on the weekend...but I used to drink a 12 pack or more A DAY)...anyway, I noticed the sodium content in it. Its something like 35mg a serving.. so I drink 5-7 20 oz bottles of water a day and 1 soda... and I am retaining the water bc of the sodium.

I also feel bloated and gassy when I drink it. I don't think an occasional soda will make you GAIN weight, but it may hinder your losing.

AimingHighWeighingLow

I am a coke addict (the legal stuff!!) I am going a month without it. Personally when I drink it my stomach swells very noticeably. (In fact alcohol does the same too, so I don't drink it)

I am doing a mini detox this month in a bid to shed some half my total weight to lose! I want to give my body a kick start, no caffeine at all! Bye bye chocolate, coffee and coke)

With Diet Coke I noticed that it filled me up, but the problem is, I would go into the kitchen grab a coke and because I was in the fridge I would pull something else out of the fridge at the same time!

I will never go back to drinking as much diet coke as I did (3-7 cans a day!!!) but I will have one every now and then, as they say everything in moderation!

mlecin

I'm wondering if diet soda is responsible for the plateau I just hit. I went from losing 1-2 pounds a week since May to not losing any at all for the past 2-3 weeks. Until recently I wasn't drinking anything sweetened with nutrasweet, now I'm having soda every day or two.

SavCal71

I lost 90 pounds and drank a LOT of diet sodas during that time.

Diet sodas themselves don't make you fat. But they can mask sugar cravings, leaving you to binge on sugar later on. I combatted that by treating myself freuqently enough and in small enough portions that I didn't do sugar binges.

Are they healthy? Nope. But they're not fattening.

jmsladky

I am also a diet coke addict. I have stopped may times but never had a weight loss. They make me wanna eat less. Its weird.

Quiltmania

No, they don't. What makes you fat is moving your fork more than you move your *kitten*.

dckim

So from what I read here, diet soda IS somewhat better than regular soda. :happy:

TrishMahon

I have always hated diet soda. But I am slowly making the change from drinking coca cola to ginger ale when I am at a restaurant. At home, I drink water, sometimes with lemons, sometimes without

Scorpioangel

I have heard that also for lots of different reasons but I drank diet soda and successfully lost all the weight I wanted with no problems. One of the things I read the most of is that it increases the appetitie, which it didn't do to me.

bachooka

The making you fat aspect of diet coke is that people think that since they are having a diet coke they could eat whatever else they wanted. If you drink it in place of regular soday and just keep tracking your calories, it shouldn't be an issue.

ninerbuff

I drink 2 a day with no issues. With no calories in it, the soda itself doesn't make you fat. You need calories to do that.

Rae6503

I drink them. No, alone, diet soda has not contributed to weight gain or loss as far as I can tell.

minuu

NOOOO! THEY ARE MY BEST FREINDS! They are my meal replacement, because they make me nice and full all with ZERO calories they don't make you gain weight. they have zero calories...

pandabear_

I drink diet coke instead of eating a load of sweets or chocolate. It's zero calories and for me it's like having a treat, I only have maybe 1 small glass a day.

I don't eat a load of junk after having a glass.

maidentl

I have stopped drinking it before to test this theory and it did not hold true for me. So I still have about two a day. It's a sweet treat for me without any calories, YMMV.

adrian_indy

I think that one or two a diet sodas a day won't hurt you if you also hydrate with other fluids. I think the diet cola theories are more aimed at guys like me since I am a huge drinker during meals, 3-5 glasses. I used to drink diet pepsi, still have the occasional pepsi max, but now drink unsweet tea at restaraunts.

fitnesspirateninja

I used to drink several Diet Cokes every day. It's been almost a year since I've had one. For me personally, I noticed a huge difference in how I felt after I quit drinking diet soda - but I'm pretty sensitive to chemicals and caffeine. I lost 37 pounds pretty easily - I do believe that cutting soda out helped with that, but like another poster said, that's purely anecdotal.

You have to do what works for you. For me, it's all or nothing - either I'm drinking six sodas a day, or none at all. There's no happy medium. If you can enjoy in moderation and you enjoy diet sodas, then go for it.

fbmandy55

I've lost 27 lbs, went from about 18 to 11% body fat, never hit a plataeu (sp?), eat EXTREMELY healthy, and have a diet coke almost every morning on the way to work. I also quit diet coke for 2 weeks about a month ago for kicks to see what effects it would have. All it did is not provide an avenue for my sweet tooth and I would want to eat more w/out it... becuase it was always kind-of a filler for me. I'm not saying its the healthiest, and I'm sure people are going to bring their studies and personal experiences, but for me... it didn't make a difference. If anything, it made things just a little worse.

Aspartane may be bad... I don't know. My wife would tell you that you'll die of brain cancer if you drink diet coke. The FDA says aspartane is fine... and you'll find a million different opinions. So you'll have to choose for yourself. For me, its fine.

Thank you! I usually drink a diet coke in the am with my breakfast or on the way to work. A 12 oz can is enough. The rest of the day is usually water or the occasional iced tea. It hasn't made me crave anything sweet at all. Actually, the more I lose the less I crave sweets!

CrimsonHellkite

the diet soda doesnt directly make you fat, i can only speak for me cause everyone is different and it does not make my sugar spike(i dont see how it would it contains no glucose but its a common myth i hear/read) it fills me up so i eat less food, i drink alot of diet soda, i cant say its healthy for you but its doesnt make you fat, excess calories and lack of activity make you fat...