any success stories of replacing normal drinks for water??

djreado
djreado Posts: 7 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
HI!

really hit a plateau recently and ive been advised to swap my diet cokes and fizzy drinks and drink only water.

has anyone else had any joy doing this??

any help would be so awesome! thank you

Replies

  • BigT555
    BigT555 Posts: 2,067 Member
    swapping out everything for water was the first thing i did for weight loss, and im sure it made a large difference. however if you are drinking diet beverages it wont matter much since those drinks have 0 cals to begin with, the only difference would come perhaps from a loss of water weight due to lowering your sodium intake

    but if they arent diet versions then the difference could be what is holding you back. just one can of coke a day takes out 1000 calories of your weekly deficit
  • laserturkey
    laserturkey Posts: 1,680 Member
    For me, water IS my normal drink. I do drink a Diet Dr. Pepper every day. It doesn't interfere with weight loss.
  • bazzawood30
    bazzawood30 Posts: 45 Member
    Cut out diet coke about 2 months ago, I sleep much better and have lost 4lb. The sweeteners are really bad for you, which was the main reason for cutting them out for me.
  • Fit4good85
    Fit4good85 Posts: 133
    Yes Yes and YESSS!!!! I stay away from diet sodas, and juice etc. I drink nothing but water and Almond milk in my protein shakes (after a workout). I have made my lifestyle change at the beginning of May and went from 142 to 123 as of now. Water is amazing, not only is is good for weight loss but it greatly improves your skin as well.
  • laurenthecarts
    laurenthecarts Posts: 41 Member
    I used to hate water, but now it's generally the only thing I drink (other than way too much tea and coffee). I still have diet drinks sometimes but usually buy them as a treat - when I'm in the shop thinking hmmm, the wine's on offer I'll grab a diet pepsi instead and it still seems fancy compared to water :)

    I don't know how water vs 0cal fizz would/perhaps does relate to weight loss, but it's healthier so it's gotta be a good move!
  • ScatterBrainedSpirit
    ScatterBrainedSpirit Posts: 75 Member
    I used to drink 2-4 710 ml bottles of Pepsi...a day! I quit last September by taking up coffee to ward off the caffeine withdrawal sickness and all I drink now is tea, the occasional coffee, and water. Switching things up with the flavor from the tea and coffee really helps me stay on track. I don't drink sugary beverages at all anymore!
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  • _Zardoz_
    _Zardoz_ Posts: 3,987 Member
    HI!

    really hit a plateau recently and ive been advised to swap my diet cokes and fizzy drinks and drink only water.

    has anyone else had any joy doing this??

    any help would be so awesome! thank you
    Err considering you don't seem to log your food the reason your not losing weight is your not eating at a Calorie deficit because you have no real idea of what your eating. Changing diet soda to water will have no effect because the calories are so minimal.

    Track your food eat at a deficit and you'll lose weight

    Good luck
  • Escloflowne
    Escloflowne Posts: 2,038 Member
    Water has 0 calories, so does diet soda. You're gonna get A LOT of opinions and talk of sugars and fake sugars and chemicals and toxins and how Diet Coke stole someone's land and forced them into poverty....

    The truth is, swapping a 0 calorie drink for a 0 calorie drink will have no effect on your weightloss. Fact.

    I drink diet coke all the time!
  • erockem
    erockem Posts: 278 Member
    swapping out everything for water was the first thing i did for weight loss, and I'm sure it made a large difference.

    Ditto, no liquid calories is rule #1 with me. Before this, I used to drink 5-10 diet sodas a day. I stopped as the more “sweet” you eat/drink, the more you want it. Another way to put it: when you taste sweet (even the tiny-calorie, artificial kind), you are conditioning yourself to continue wanting and even craving that same sweetness. That continued craving isn’t going to help you lose weight—ever.

    As far as diet soda, yes it has zero calories, but even if I have one the next day I'm retaining water like crazy and feel awful now.
  • suttercm
    suttercm Posts: 189 Member
    I gave up diet coke for 3 months, made no difference. Mostly I drink water or iced tea (unsweetened), now only occasionally (maybe once a week) have a diet coke.
  • b0nnyd0g
    b0nnyd0g Posts: 84 Member
    Funny this should come through now. Was reading about the health benefits of drinking more water and I am particularly bad at just drinking plain water so I have set an hourly ping on my mobile and get a glass of cold water every hour during the day and just drink it. I am not particularly cutting down on other drinks but might just naturally have less coffee and other drinks. I will be interested to see if I see any kind of benefits - to my digestion, skin, general health etc
  • JenAndSome
    JenAndSome Posts: 1,893 Member
    Lol @ "normal drinks." I drink more water now, but I still drink diet coke multiple times a day and have an occasional adult beverage. I am not sure that swapping out drinks really makes a difference if you are consuming 0 calorie drinks. Also, I have never experienced any negative side effects from the artificial sweeteners in diet coke and am pretty sure most of the myths about how bad they are for you have been debunked.
  • nachtkatze
    nachtkatze Posts: 3
    As far as switching off soda-
    It depends on what you like so much about your soda to really approach cutting it out.

    For me, I like the carbonation. So when I started switching off it, I would drink seltzer waters here and there if I was in the mood just for that bubbly/tingly. Since I personally don't enjoy that taste as much as soda, I rarely use it these days but it worked for their.

    If you just don't like water-
    try spicing it up, make it something you look forward to. Leave some cucumbers or berries sliced up in it overnight, add a splash of fresh juice- there's a ton of little additives that you can do to make drinking water something that, well, to be honest tastes better. (Without loading up on sugars and calories).

    Drinking mostly not soda now, I now can sit down and have one when I really want it. I also don't crave it the way I used to
  • kerrilucko
    kerrilucko Posts: 3,852 Member
    Water is a "normal" drink. You get used to it and then you actually start to crave it. A fizzy drink once in awhile is fine though, just make water your main beverage choice.
  • Yoshirio
    Yoshirio Posts: 242 Member
    I use to drink pepsi and coffee all day. Now I have two cups of coffee in the morning and water all day. No more pepsi for me,I can't seem to drink it in moderation like a normal person;so I just gave it up entirely. I don't even miss it and surprisingly love water now.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    You don't think eating too much might be the cause of your plateau?

    Big picture - you don't log your food so have no idea of your calorie intake.
    So instead of focussing on the tiny detail of swapping one zero calorie drink for another maybe start with the big picture?
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
    I would say you've got your title turned around. What's more normal than water?
  • contingencyplan
    contingencyplan Posts: 3,639 Member
    I have to date lost 135 lbs. I started out in phases, making little changes at a time. This was the first change I made, and I saw about 20-25 lbs of weight loss alone before I implemented the next step.
  • joanthemom8
    joanthemom8 Posts: 375 Member
    I'm not really much of a soda drinker, but what I've done for years is only order water to drink when I go out to eat. Or if it's fast food, I just get a cup for water. I sometimes have a hard time getting in my water for the day, and this helps. Also, it would bug me to pay $2 or more for a soda that's mostly ice anyway...and then I would almost never finish the drink. Even with free refills, it was a waste of $$ to me because I couldn't even finish the first serving of soda. So, my "cheapness" resulted in a healthy habit, too. Oh, and by the way, I'd only drink diet soda anyway, but that's still not healthy.
  • Iwishyouwell
    Iwishyouwell Posts: 1,888 Member
    I grew up on nothing but an endless stream of kool aide, huggies, and soda. Seriously, nobody in my house really liked water.

    Sometime in my late teens/early 20s, after losing some weight, I decided to switch to water. Can't recall why exactly, but I did. One of the best health decisions I ever made. Does wonders for the skin and your overall feeling of well being. It was tough at first, not gonna lie, but I made the transition some 10 or so years ago so it's second nature to me now. A good 95%, if not more, of what I drink now is water. I've gone years without a soda or juice at various times.
  • EatwellLivehappy
    EatwellLivehappy Posts: 34 Member
    YES. It's a great idea. Although diet coke has no calories, the chemicals in it spike your blood sugar. When it drops again, it stores sugars into fat. Also, aspartame is poison. Just stick to water.

    If it's not that easy making the initial switch, try mixing some fruit water together and slowly take out less and less fruit until you're feeling good just drinking water.

    Good luck!
  • bamawards
    bamawards Posts: 10
    Cutting out sodas is what started me on my new healthier way of living. It wasn't even related to weight. I knew I was overweight, of course, but just figured I always would be because I had tried and failed so many times. But, I was having issues with my heart rate doing some funny things - tachycardia and what felt like some dysrhythmia. Scared me so much I had an EKG done (normal ranges on everything).

    So, I decided to quit caffeine. For context, I drank only diet sodas (sometimes regular) so I would average 4-5 a day. That's a fair amount of caffeine! I quit cold turkey. After one miserable week, I felt better than I had in years. Heartrate issues - gone. Started out drinking diet caffeine free stuff, but hated the taste so I switched to water.

    I never thought I could beat my soda habit. Once I did, successfully, I started to think about what else I could do. Re-joined MFP (after a failed attempt and re-gain a year or so ago) and have lost 12 pounds since I took up logging again.

    tl:dr Giving up sodas really sparked my new healthier lifestyle. I sleep better, and feel better overall. I say it can't hurt!

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