Opinion about my guilty pleasure

If you have the calories, drink up!
I like to use my spare calories on alcohol and taco bell. Enjoy life a little ^__^

IMHO it's better for you to drink soda & fit it into your daily calories then deny yourself for awhile, break down and drink a case of soda. No, soda isn't "healthy" for you and it's got a lot of sugar. So I'm sure you would lose more or faster if you cut it out all together. But you should enjoy your life. And hey you never know, if you stick with this you might find your taste buds change if you cut out other sweet stuff and you won't enjoy it anymore. Good luck!

I am a diet coke addict, try for moderation...... be careful, the diet soda doesn't add calories, but it has a bit of sodium and can trigger cravings for other foods.....

If that's the worst "guilty pleasure" you have, then you are doing pretty good

I suffered from the same thing and am weaning myself from it. I used to drink one or two a day before getting onto fitnesspal and logging what I eat. The problem for me does not fall in the calories category, but it completely wipes out my sugar allowance for the day. 1 can has 41 grams of sugar. I allow one a week and look forward to it every week. Just my two cents.

You have a lot to lose according to your goal so at this point the focus is on the deficit. Start by practicing meeting your deficit goal. As you get closer to your goal, you will likely notice that what you actually consume does matter more. Make small changes a few at a time. Work on weaning yourself off of it as you progress. Its a corn syrup product I believe- depends on your area. The formula is different in other countries. Your body tends to store sugar and corn syrup products and not use it up. Its best to get off of it. You might start to notice (eventually) just how good you feel when you don't drink it.

Part of my strategy to cut pop was to mix apple juice and club soda. It gave me the bite and carbonation that I really love about pepsi but it was natural sugar and fewer calories. Im down to just apple juice and water now for my evening treat beverage. Its something that worked for me.

I know this might sound stupid but try to think of this as a lifestyle change and not a diet. It helps to keep you on it. not something you can give up if it is just the way you are. Anyways, if you have the calories then help yourself. I would continue to try to find something to replace it but that is up to you and what you want. I can't drink soda anymore it kills my stomach. instead I am all about water with Lemon.

If you can fit it in to your calories without skimping on your macros, I say enjoy it!

If you're looking to cut it out, I would recommend going slow and gradual. Go from one bottle a day to one can a day of those little mini-cans a day, and by then you might be able to quit easier.

Or, you could get a hrm (for accuracy, if you don't already have one) and working off that soda every day. That may or may not make it seem worth it when you have to run for 30 minutes to "earn" your soda.

And you're right; Coca-Cola is manna from heaven. I don't have one every day - more like once a month when we go to the movies or something, but when I do I appreciate every second of it.

IIFYM then go for it but why drink your calories when you can eat them?

You sound really motivated which is great! So I'm gonna say just force yourself to drink only water. Honestly, I hated just drinking water around a month ago, so i forced myself to drink it. Now i prefer the refreshed clean feeling after drinking it rather than having a can of cola. Hope this helps

it's the Sugar, not the Calories. I don't think there really is an alternative here if you are hooked on it. Unless you can get it down to a couple times a week (or if you have a cheat day, drink it that day) instead of one a day. i was (kinda still am) addicted to diet coke, so the Sodium kills me and the soda keeps me bloated. when i stay away from it for a couple days to a week, my bloating goes down and I feel slimmer that much quicker.
weird.... i wish the bad stuff... was the good stuff. lol

It depends on your metabolism and goals. Sugar makes you put on weight, period. How much is related to how strongly your body reacts to sugar. If you are aiming to lose or maintain weight then that coke is going to play hob with your dietary and fitness goals.

You have to be very careful with sugars, particularly the highly refined ones, and cravings. The cravings are particularly hard because glucose in combination with insulin reacts in your brain chemistry similar to narcotics, it triggers a biochemical reaction that can be addictive. So that craving for soda is probably about the same as a craving for a cigarette.

Depending on your metabolism that one coke a day can cause an absolute halt to weight loss regardless of caloric deficit because it is going to do a very hard insulin push, which will shove blood sugars and nutrients into fat storage as a panic response. Your body can only have about 2-3 tablespoons of glucose in the blood stream before it becomes toxic (coma and death if it goes too high, ask a diabetic). So insulin is a panic hormone that over-rides almost every other hormone in your body to get that blood sugar down. A coke is like main-lining 14 teaspoons of sugar - it hits your blood stream fully within 5 minutes of drinking, so your insulin reaction is going to be very strong. Since insulin pushes all the nutrients out of your blood stream and into fat, not just sugar, it leads to a swing into low blood sugar and blood nutrients shortly after, which leads to feelings of hunger.

Giving up soda was one of the hardest things I did, and after three years with out it even the smell of a coke makes me feel queasy. I went through the process gradually over two months, dropping right away to one soda a day, then one every-other day, then one a week. I stayed at one a week for about a month, then stopped it all together. I had vicious cravings for about a year, and I mean absolutely vicious. Soda's were by far the hardest, and probably most important, lifestyle and health change I made.

Stay away from the artificial sweeteners, they can also play hob with your biochemistry and muck with fitness and lifestyle change goals.

Good luck, and power too you!

It should have little, if any, affect on weight loss if it fits within your calorie goal.

I decided 8 months ago when I started this diet that I would devise something that I knew I could live with long term. I made a list of the things I knew I just never wanted to give up in life and I've structured my eating to allow for these things...such as alcohol. I knew I would drink on weekends, so I adjust my calories during the week to allow for this. By continuing to have the things I love in moderation I've eliminated that feeling of "suffering" through a diet which usually resulted in a binge of some sort.

So if soda is on your lifetime list of things you don't want to live without then I say go for it! Find a way to enjoy it.

I would recommend staying away form artificial sweeteners, they can really mess up some peoples cravings (I'm one of those people!) and if you aren't already hooked on having them, I would just not even go there.

As for the soda, its my biggest vice as well. I think the approach you are on right now is best. Have one a day for a month or so, then cut yourself down to once every few days, then only on the weekends, then once a week, and just keep weaning from there. Its not so much that having a soda will ruin your diet, as it is that you will find with time you feel better and more satisfied if you eat those calories instead of drink them. I pretty much always regret when I have a soda becase it does very little to make me feel full and once I'm done I wish I had those calories back for food! I try to match my soda treat with a day where I've worked out a lot so I don't feel like I'm sacrificing food for soda.