Can stopping drinking diet soda help me lose weight? Why?

Here's my take on things. No empirical evidence to back this up, but I think it makes sense.

Artificial sweeteners make us expect things to be extremely sweet, so we aren't satisfied by natural sources of sugar like fruit, which then makes us turn to processed foods like candy, cake, etc. If you phase out artificial sweeteners you'll eventually be able to get your sugar fix via whole foods like fruit, honey, etc.

Here's my take on things. No empirical evidence to back this up, but I think it makes sense.

Artificial sweeteners make us expect things to be extremely sweet, so we aren't satisfied by natural sources of sugar like fruit, which then makes us turn to processed foods like candy, cake, etc. If you phase out artificial sweeteners you'll eventually be able to get your sugar fix via whole foods like fruit, honey, etc.

I eat fruit along with diet soda daily. I've dieted many times for contests and diet soda help to keep me sane while I kept away from candy, cake, cookies etc, to it probably depends more on the person.

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Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

As with everything else, it certainly does depend on the person.

When I decided I wanted to lose weight, I went to my doctor for advice, who sent me to their weight-loss clinic. I spoke to a doctor who does nothing all day but deal with individual needs to lose weight, everything from me, who had put on some pounds but never dieted and needed advice, to people dangerously obese who needed surgery for it, etc. He gave me some strategies best suited for my lifestyle, and yes, he strongly encouraged me to give up diet soda in order to lose weight. I was horrified, by the way, being a long-time major consumer of the stuff. I tried bargaining, you know, like when you're going through the stages of grief. He was adamant. He said the mechanism for it is not yet known, but over and over he sees people who only finally lose weight once they manage to give up diet soda.

I didn't like the answer, but I consider him a better authority than any of the scoffers and calorie-counting fundamentalists here.

Here's my take on things. No empirical evidence to back this up, but I think it makes sense.

Artificial sweeteners make us expect things to be extremely sweet, so we aren't satisfied by natural sources of sugar like fruit, which then makes us turn to processed foods like candy, cake, etc. If you phase out artificial sweeteners you'll eventually be able to get your sugar fix via whole foods like fruit, honey, etc.

Why do you think that? Taste is purely a matter of determining whether something is safe to eat or not. It has no effect on digestion. Aspartame is protein, the body reacts to it like any other protein, with the same insulin response and protein enzymes that would happen had you eaten a piece of steak (just obviously on a much smaller scale.) Does chicken make you crave sugar?

And cravings are purely mental in nature, and have nothing to do with artificial sweeteners themselves.

I have a soda stream too! I love it, for the control it gives me, for the environmental aspects and for the cost control. I recommend she try lime juice! I like it even better than lemon juice.

If you are prone to retaining water, then cutting 30mg of sodium on average from your diet for every diet drink you normally consume and replacing it with water would lead to water weight being lost.

We have a strict no artificial sweeteners policy in our house because I am severely allergic to them. However, when my spouse and I met she was a diet coke junky. While cutting them out didn't cause her to lose weight, (she replaced them with regular soda) it did have a striking effect on her health. She takes several medications for an illness and had suffered for years with nearly debilitating side effects. Almost as soon as she cut out the artificial sweeteners the side effects stopped. Turns out after discussing it with her dr. and dietician the chemicals in artificial sweeteners can interact with certain medications and cause increased toxicity.

Since she was addicted to soda, mostly for the bubbles, I bought her a soda stream last year for her birthday. Best investment I ever made. It gave us total control over the amount of syrup and therefore the amount of sugar in her soda's. She has been gradually cutting back the amount of syrup each week for several months now and just recently started putting a squeeze of fresh lemon in her glass instead of syrup at all. Since it is just CO2 and tap water there is nearly no sodium that way.

Unless you distill the water, tap water has roughly the same amount of sodium, if not more, than soda does. Water is treated with sodium to soften it, and chlorine to kill germs. Most water filters don't filter sodium.

I think some people have misunderstood this. The research, and there's lots, is saying that taking artificial sweeteners (diet coke, no sugar added drinks etc etc huge list!) can effect what happens in the brain. As I understand it when we eat the reward part of the brain says thank you we've had enough calories now. However with these sweeteners the brain works out over time that it is not getting the calories to match the sweetness and turns it down or off. Therefore you crave more carbs. That can be sweets or bread etc.

Now I am a firm believer in calories in calories out and yes there are zero calories in coke zero. But if drinking it means we then go and eat someone else because we have cravings is it really zero. Why are we on MFP? Is it because we have failed to control our craving and is some of that because of these sweeteners.

I don't know the answer but I know this. This I was feeling unwell and having problems with my waterworks. I had blood tests for prostrate cancer and other tests. Whilst reading a booklet from the doctors about it one section talked about those who drink lots of diet coke etc. For two weeks I did not drink diet coke and it went away! Yes I was drinking 3 or 4 a day but even if you only drink 1 it may well be one too many. Until recently I was still drinking the odd one but not now.

After the BSE and horsemeat problems do we trust the food industry to sell us something that is good for us or for THEM! they make billions on diet drinks and you can see from the responses that people are very keen to believe that they are ok.

Have a search for artificial sweeteners, there are a few, and then see just what products you have with them in. You will be eating lots of them i'm sure, it's not just about diet drinks but everything you eat.

MFP is great because it helps to ensure you don't overeat and for most of us that will be working because of the calories in/out theory. But how many of us still crave food when we're not hungry. Why is that....................?

Our bodies have taste receptors throughout our gut and endocrine systems. These are used for (among other functions) feedback to regulate hormones in the body. Some of these receptors detect bitter, savory, or salt while still others detect sweet. The sweetness that theses cells are meant respond to is not from ingested sugars but rather other compounds resulting from metabolic processes. simple sugars in our foods will break down before reaching many of these taste receptors, however, some molecules like aspartame are long lived in our GI tract and blood stream. These molecules are not toxic and are harmless in most people except those who lack an enzyme to break down the amino acid phenylalanine, a condition called Phenylketonuria. However, since molecules like Phenylalanine dipeptide (Nutra Sweet) survive longer in our bodies than sugars, they will encounter and trigger sweet taste receptors elsewhere in our bodies and alter our hormone regulation. This may lead to weight gain or other unforeseen issues in some people, especially those consuming large amounts over long time duration.

Our bodies have taste receptors throughout our gut and endocrine systems. These are used for (among other functions) feedback to regulate hormones in the body. Some of these receptors detect bitter, savory, or salt while still others detect sweet. The sweetness that theses cells are meant respond to is not from ingested sugars but rather other compounds resulting from metabolic processes. simple sugars in our foods will break down before reaching many of these taste receptors, however, some molecules like aspartame are long lived in our GI tract and blood stream. These molecules are not toxic and are harmless in most people except those who lack an enzyme to break down the amino acid phenylalanine, a condition called Phenylketonuria. However, since molecules like Phenylalanine dipeptide (Nutra Sweet) survive longer in our bodies than sugars, they will encounter and trigger sweet taste receptors elsewhere in our bodies and alter our hormone regulation. This may lead to weight gain or other unforeseen issues in some people, especially those consuming large amounts over long time duration.

So what science journal is stating this BS? Don't tell me it's another "psychology" journal on nutrition. It's already failed at somatotyping.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition