Diet coke

PaintedHales

Hi All,
I drink at least 2 litres of diet coke a day (pepsi max actually), it is always diet as I can't stand the full sugar stuff. I take a bottle of it in my bag everywhere and the first and last thing I do every day is have a drink of it. I know I am totally addicted to it at this point
Recently I have been reading that it can actually affect weight loss/ muscle development even though its sugar free. I am not sure why that would be the case and just wondered if anyone knew more about this?.
Incidently, I also drink 3 litres of water a day. And yes, I am constantly going to the toilet.
Thanks,

thewang

I very rarely drink any soda nowadays. I would encourage you to reduce your soda consumption, even if it's diet. My stepmom was a diet coke addict for 20 + years and never weighed more than 140 lbs. She's only in her 40's and within the last year her thyroid has failed requiring radioactive iodine treatments, she could not keep any weight on and looked like a skeleton. She also has congenital heart failure and barely functioning kidneys. Her doctors told her specifically it has all been caused by her diet coke addiction. She drinks at least a 12pk every day and rarely drinks anything else. Remember that everything is fine in moderation, but when your soda consumption is almost equal to your water consumption, that can't be healthy.

AimersBee

diet coke - has aspartame in it. the body does not know what to do with aspartame as if you were eating plastic it wouldn't know how to digest it... if im going to have a sip of coke.. it'd be the real stuff with regular sugar, because your body knows what to do with regular sugar... and I said sip, not a full can.. I have less than a cup of that stuff a month pretty much.. lol water is my drink of choice..

JennedyJLD

Here's an article about that subject: http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/diet-sodas-and-weight-gain-not-so-fast

As you can see, minds differ, but I tend to believe that diet sodas *do* boost sugar cravings. My experience has been that going from 1-2 Diet Cokes a day, to 1 or 2 a week has done a lot to eliminate my late-night cravings for fatty, sugary food.

I think we'd all agree soda (diet or regular) is a bad idea because it's full of chemicals and agents that might cause bloating and water retention. That said, I don't think having a couple every week will factor into weight loss at all - it hasn't for me, not noticeably in any regard. I've still managed to drop 60 lbs in a year.

kumanekochan

The substitute sugar in diet cokes actually causes your body to carve more sugary foods. Although it's diet, it does contain sodium, which causes your body to retain more water. The caffeine also affects your eating and mood. The carbonation hurts your intestines. There's a lot of health concerns with diet cokes and it's easy to find through some research.

If you want to cut out soda from your life, activiely track how much soda you drink for one week, the next week, cut it by half, and then the next week, cut it in half again. My friend is doing this with regular coke and she's switching from large drinks to small for her first week. I am going from 3 cans of diet coke a day, to 1 can a day then one can every other day and so forth.

What I personally try to do is drink my water intake for the meal first and if i'm still thirsty, then I can have my soda.

The Trick is, not to be gross, is your urine color, not how often you're going. If your urine is dark and smelly, that's bad! If it's light and odorless, that's a well hydrated body. You'll lose lbs just by switching from soda to water completely if weight-loss is your goal. Nothing wrong with a little soda once in a while if you truly can't give it up completely.

mrbunsrocks

That is a LOT of diet soda! I also enjoy diet pop, but I won't let myself have more than a can a day (try to avoid it though).

Could you start by buying smaller bottles? Having some club soda instead (for the bubbles). I think it would be miserable to cut it out completely, especially when you likely are quite addicted, but perhaps starting by reducing would be good?

laurieagain09

I am totally addicted too I don't think it affects my weight, but I know that it isn't healthy. Honestly I don't know how to stop drinking it, I crave it all the time I think it is partly because of the caffeine, but also because it is delicious. I am going to work hard to drink less of it. While using MFP, I have never tracked diet coke because of the 0 calories. I think that my first step in breaking my addiction is to track how much I drink. Also I do like tea, so maybe I will try drinking more of it. Good luck..

onelilndn1978

I totally understand about craving diet pop. Two years ago I decided to try to go a month without pop of any form. At the end of one month, I extended it to two and so on. I found out that I was mistaken in my thoughts that I wasn't having water weight issues. I found out that after consuming one can of pop (diet or regular) I would gain three pounds. THREE POUNDS IN ONE DAY!!!! Ugh. Now I am totally off the stuff. As a side note, my joints have stopped hurting.