Anyone ever LOST weight QUITTING DIET COLA?

BarbaraCarr1981

Hello,

I was just wondering if anyone ever actually lost weight solely by giving up the Diet pop??? They say aspartame makes us want more carbs/sugar - maybe so BUT what if we quit Diet pop, does it make us want less sugary stuff? Do we lose weight or lose weight more quickly after quitting the diet pop?

Please tell ur story.
Thanks

kimosabe1

I used to be on a 6 pack a day but cut to 3 and i'm losing weight. I heard all this crazy shiot about it when I first here but hey, I cut down.......

BarbaraCarr1981

I quit it out totally. Well except when I give in and go get takeout. I will get a diet pop WAY before regular pop with my combo. And of course, since Im watching what Ieat, I don't really go get fast food much at all. Once a month maybe. I eat Subway though but don't order drink or chips. I don't consider Subway as fast food.

BarbaraCarr1981

Oh and I don't think ur losing weight because you cut back on diet pop. I think you are losing weight because u are watching what you eat and you are exercising. I don't think the cut back has anything to do with your weightloss.

FitBeto

I havent seen any weight gain while drinking it - and I have lost weight twice in my life without even thinking bout dropping the pop

Sayrawr91

Did you know diet cola is actually worse than just cola :O

ischmelle

I'm a big believer in not drinking any diet sodas, but I think you need to make that decision according to what is best for you. I think that it is entirely possible that you are losing weight because you have cut back on diet soda, but I can't say that is the only reason. I have seen studies that both support and oppose diet soda. I think the best advice is to be your own researcher and make the decision based on your own knowledge, body and calorie intake. This link isn't inclusive, but articles like this one are a jumping off point.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-08-15/features/sns-201208151100--tms--foodstylts--v-g20120815-20120815_1_diet-soda-diet-soft-drink-consumption-regular-soda

rduhlir

I only drink one soda a week, and that is on Saturdays and it is a 7.5 ounce can of Dew. I have been able to stick to that for the past 3 weeks.

tmauck4472

Yes. I started January 2012 and was still drinking diet coke, didn't give it up till June. I don't know that it made me crave sugars and carbs. But I knew I wanted to give it up, so I finally just did it. I don't regret it and I don't miss it like I thought I would.

Anthony110101111110001101

I stopped drinking diet soda last May but never lost weight by doing so. That came with diet and exercise months later. As for cravings I've never really been a sweet tooth so didn't notice an increase or decrease of the kind. The best reason in my opinion to give it up is because the less crap you put in your system the less you liver has to deal with and the more chance it has to process your fat. If it is too busy getting rid of that crap they put in diet drinks then it doesn't have as much time to process your fat and you don't get to lose as much weight. Oh and the other really good thing is you save some money!

It is the same as other "bad" food. If you are below your calories sure you will lose weight but your body will have a harder time of it then if you are eating "clean".

One other thing I found really amazing, about a week after I stopped drinking soda, I accidentally got one with my combo meal (I wasn't dieting at that stage though I should have been), anyway I took one mouthful and spat it back up cause it was so sickly sweet and terrible. I couldn't believe what just one week of not drinking it could do. That;s enough from me

meglynne1987

I quit drinking soda, in general, I used to be a Diet Coke Gal!!! Since I have quit I have lost weight BUT I think it is because soda made me crave more and more, I also associated Soda with food. I think it is all in your mind set and what and how your body reacts to trigger foods. I feel better not drinking soda and instead drinking water.

Everyone is different

umachanxo

I cut out pop completely about 3 years ago. I had never been a big drinker of it, though. It has no nutritional value and does nothing good for your body - so I just don't bother.

kristen6022

I quit all soda 2 years ago and it helped jumpstart my loss. I lost my first 10 just changing that for a month...

A friend recently quit Diet Coke (a habitual amount of it) and she lost 6.5lbs in a week and 2 days and feels incredible. She swears she didn't change anything else but that. So, even though it's "calorie free" it does indeed bloat you and you don't need all those chemicals.

LauraJo08

It was one of my conscious choices to quit diet soda and it definitely paid off for me. I ended up quitting after doing a lot of scientific research on foods that are very acidic and how that effects metabolism and body health. In general, we want to maintain as alkaline a pH as possible, because blood acidity is linked to things like diabetes, cancer, and just overall slowing of the metabolism. Consequently, I made some nutritional changes including cutting out diet sodas, switching from normal to natural peanut butter, and of course moving away from processed food as much as possible. Although I can't completely contribute cutting out soda to losing weight, it was part of an important nutritional shift.

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-5165/Alkaline-Acidic-Foods-Chart-The-pH-Spectrum.html

Roni_M

I don't drink diet soda, but I do drink flavored water (which also contains sucralose which is basically splenda) and put splenda in my coffee (I personally prefer the taste of splenda to aspartame). It hasn't effected my weight loss. I'm not saying sweeteners are "healthy" but I used to drink a lot of calories a day and have cut that back to hardly any. Drinking 0 calories will always be better for weight loss than drinking hundreds a day no matter how you get there. If drinking it makes you crave sweets than you may want to give it up. I haven't found that to be true for me... I don't care for sweets at all.

Tiddlypeeps

Most soft drinks stopped using aspartame a good while ago because of the bad press it got. There was a very dodgy paper published about the substance putting holes in rats brains, the paper was dismissed by most of the scientific community because there were no proper controls used but the conspiracy theory websites decided to run with it anyway so it's reputation was badly effected resulting in it being removed by most manufacturers.

The only negative effect attributed to diet drinks that I have read recently is a link to diabetes. Something along the lines of your body associating a sweet taste with sugar intake resulting in insuline being created that never gets used. Pretty sure that is still being debated tho.

They might not be particularly healthy but if it's a choice between having a little of what you like to save you from failing on your diet completely then I think it's a fine compromise.

I wouldn't worry too much about sweet things making you crave more sweet things because if this were the case then fruit would have the same effect. If you are eating healthy you should be eating plenty of fruit so a can of diet soda thrown into the mix shouldn't have too drastic an effect on anything.

trophywife24

My husband has. I was packing him one in his lunch every day and he'd maybe have another one later in the day.. he's made some other dietary changes but nothing major.. and has lost 8 or 9 pounds in about two weeks. Crazy.

Scoochie1

The only negative effect attributed to diet drinks that I have read recently is a link to diabetes. Something along the lines of your body associating a sweet taste with sugar intake resulting in insuline being created that never gets used. Pretty sure that is still being debated tho..

I drink 1-2 cans of diet coke daily - but only ever with a meal. So I'm hoping that insulin is being used up and not lurkng about to bite my (skinny!) *kitten* in a few decades!

Mistyblu08

Most soft drinks stopped using aspartame a good while ago because of the bad press it got. There was a very dodgy paper published about the substance putting holes in rats brains, the paper was dismissed by most of the scientific community because there were no proper controls used but the conspiracy theory websites decided to run with it anyway so it's reputation was badly effected resulting in it being removed by most manufacturers.

The only negative effect attributed to diet drinks that I have read recently is a link to diabetes. Something along the lines of your body associating a sweet taste with sugar intake resulting in insuline being created that never gets used. Pretty sure that is still being debated tho.

They might not be particularly healthy but if it's a choice between having a little of what you like to save you from failing on your diet completely then I think it's a fine compromise.

I wouldn't worry too much about sweet things making you crave more sweet things because if this were the case then fruit would have the same effect. If you are eating healthy you should be eating plenty of fruit so a can of diet soda thrown into the mix shouldn't have too drastic an effect on anything.

there is still a lot out there that uses aspartame sweeteners- the powdered flavors for water is only one of them so beware- anything thats man made isnt good for you in my humble opinion--- that being said I think its up to you to make the decision on what you want to ingest....what your triggers are- if drinking diet pop makes you want to eat more or eat bad things- cut back or cut it out altogether- I have noticed most pops diet or otherwise make me feel hungry and sick to my stomach as does coffee so I am working on cutting it all out and trying to do the green tea which they say speeds up metabolism

LauraJo08

Most soft drinks stopped using aspartame a good while ago because of the bad press it got. There was a very dodgy paper published about the substance putting holes in rats brains, the paper was dismissed by most of the scientific community because there were no proper controls used but the conspiracy theory websites decided to run with it anyway so it's reputation was badly effected resulting in it being removed by most manufacturers.

The only negative effect attributed to diet drinks that I have read recently is a link to diabetes. Something along the lines of your body associating a sweet taste with sugar intake resulting in insuline being created that never gets used. Pretty sure that is still being debated tho.

They might not be particularly healthy but if it's a choice between having a little of what you like to save you from failing on your diet completely then I think it's a fine compromise.

I wouldn't worry too much about sweet things making you crave more sweet things because if this were the case then fruit would have the same effect. If you are eating healthy you should be eating plenty of fruit so a can of diet soda thrown into the mix shouldn't have too drastic an effect on anything.

Your facts are simply not true. Look at Coke's website itself- they say that they use a mix of 4 low calorie sweeteners in their products: http://www.dietcoke.com/wellness-balance/sweeteners-and-you.jsp

tamerita48

I' quit drinking diet sodas last Monday, lost a pound! LoL

notreallytrillian

I didn't - but I'm sure you'd find that you would lose inches around your wait. Any time you quit drinking carbonated beverages you should lose an inch or two around your waist in about a week because you won't be bloated from all the bubbles!

Tiddlypeeps

there is still a lot out there that uses aspartame sweeteners- the powdered flavors for water is only one of them so beware- anything thats man made isnt good for you in my humble opinion--- that being said I think its up to you to make the decision on what you want to ingest....what your triggers are- if drinking diet pop makes you want to eat more or eat bad things- cut back or cut it out altogether- I have noticed most pops diet or otherwise make me feel hungry and sick to my stomach as does coffee so I am working on cutting it all out and trying to do the green tea which they say speeds up metabolism

Anything that's man made isn't good for you?

That's a very silly opinion to have. Do you ever go to a doctor when you are sick?

Do you only kill and cook wild animals and eat vegetation that grows wild? Because everything else is selectively bread and grown by man.

There is a reason that the average human life span has doubled in the last 200 years alone. Things made by man often are pretty damn good for you.

amdahwd

When I go without diet coke, I do not actually notice a loss on the scales as much as a loss in inches in my belly area. My clothes start to fit much better and I do not feel as bloated as I do when I am drinking them. I have tried hard to completely cut them out of my diet, but occasionally I just want one. I do not bring them into the house anymore, but if I am eating out somewhere, I will drink them then. If I go a week or so without drinking one and then get another one, I do blow up and it takes a few days to get rid of that bloat again.

Tiddlypeeps

Your facts are simply not true. Look at Coke's website itself- they say that they use a mix of 4 low calorie sweeteners in their products: http://www.dietcoke.com/wellness-balance/sweeteners-and-you.jsp

Huh, interesting. I'm almost certain there was a time when they stopped using it. It wasn't listed on their cans anyway. I haven't touched the stuff in a couple of years tho so maybe it was reintroduced at some point?

Either way I have no beef with aspartame, an overwhelming amount of studies have been done on it since the rat with holes in it's brain study and none have ever managed to reproduce that effect in a controlled environment.

elainewitch

I tried to stop all soda cold turkey almost two weeks ago. It's been a nightmare! The cravings weren't so bad but the headaches are killing me. It was so bad last night that I caved in and had a diet soda. The headache relief was totally worth 20 calories. Looks like I'll have to wean myself of diet soda now and I hope it doesn't stop my weight loss.

TheVimFuego

I drink 1-2 cans of diet coke daily - but only ever with a meal. So I'm hoping that insulin is being used up and not lurkng about to bite my (skinny!) *kitten* in a few decades!

Ah, the whole carbs = insulin = fat thing?

I remember 2012 well, what a year

For me, I don't like aspartame and I don't care what anyone else says. Too much chemical and political dodginess for my liking.

But I do like the occasional fizzy sweet(ish)?beverage so it's a guilty pleasure, even more so now there is Diet Cherry Coke Zero.

And yes, sometimes I do think the full- sugar/HFCS stuff is better for me. At least I'm not trying to kid my boy, etc.

Drink it, suck down those calories and get the sugar buzz ... party like it's 1999 ...

P05T5CRIPT

Gave up all 'fizzy' drinks including Cola in June, 6 months later I'm 70lbs lighter, obviously that wasn't all I did, but not drinking that every week has certainly helped. Water all the way now :drinker:

rotill

I tried to stop all soda cold turkey almost two weeks ago. It's been a nightmare! The cravings weren't so bad but the headaches are killing me. It was so bad last night that I caved in and had a diet soda. The headache relief was totally worth 20 calories. Looks like I'll have to wean myself of diet soda now and I hope it doesn't stop my weight loss.

This was most likely a coffeine headache, and could probably have been solved with a quick espresso or a cup of black tea.

There are a lot of problems with sweeteners, ranging from poisonings that lead to brain damage (you have to be genetically disposed for that problem) to the recently documented fact that sweeteners increases appetite: http://www.purdue.edu/uns/html4ever/2004/040629.Swithers.research.html

In that research, they show that the body has an idea about what food is satisfying, and what is not. If we drink something sweetened artificially, we react as if it contains sugar, and we produce insulin binding what little carbs we have eaten as fat. This leads to low bloodsugar, which again makes us eat more to get higher blood sugar.

What they claim is that people disturb the mechanism that tells us "hungry" or "full" by using artificial sweeteners, as well as disturbing the insulin production. It comes down to: drink water if you are thirsty, coffee if you need coffeine, eat slow carbs if your blood sugar is low. And about that: a refined carb in high concentration hits the bloodstream much faster than a carb wrapped in fiber. This is why eating an apple is better than drinking a soda with the same amount of sugar in it. The apple-carb will be released into your blood stream over time, as the fibers in the apple are broken down, and you don't get the kind of blood-sugar peaks you get from candy.

icmuse

Aspartame is pretty much as evil as evil gets.

Diet soda (pop) that has aspartame in it can actually change your hormonal/brain chemistry in such way, that is makes you hungrier in a long run. And it affects the rest of the body in many negative ways as well. Tons of articles here:

http://search.mercola.com/search/pages/Results.aspx?k=aspartame

Also watch the movie: Hungry for Change (super enlightening as far as nutrition goes)

bev40ish

After quitting drinking diet soda several months ago, I have noticed that my taste buds are more sensitive to the natural sweetness of fruits and vegetables, so they taste heavenly, and I'm completely satisfied with just a sweet potato, apple or even corn. I also noticed that I could no longer stand the taste of my chewy chocolate calcium "candy". (Ick!) Since, I'm maintaining my weight, I don't know if it would help me actually lose weight, but I think it's helping me maintain my weight loss.

However, I don't think drinking diet soda prevented me from losing weight during the 15+ years that I drank it. (I did lose wiehgt while drinking it and maintain a 60 lb loss for 3 years). But, MAYBE, it would have been easier to resist sweets if I had stopped drinking it earlier. I don't know, because I still have an addiction to sugar and can't have easy access to sweets.

Just a side note: When I quit drinking it, I went through a very bad withdrawal for about 10-14 days, and it WAS NOT caffeine withdrawal-- I drank 5-6 cans of diet 7-up every day (no caffeine). I had headaches, felt "foggy", sleepy, fatigued, and even went to the doctor to get blood work done before I realized that that it was aspartame withdrawal. (I drank one pop after the first 7 days and was immediately "cured" of my symptoms within just 1 hour.) I decided that if aspartame can cause me to feel so terrible after quitting it, I'm done with it for good and will never ingest it again.