Who are these people who can just cut out soda, etc?

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juliebowling1
juliebowling1 Posts: 36 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I just don't understand why some people just cut out sugary drinks, fast food and maybe cut back on drinking and they lose weight. I've never been a fan of soda, I rarely eat dessert and I have had alcohol in over twenty years. Now, I readily admit I love pasta and potatoes and those have to go except for small portions now and then. But why do some people seems to lose so easily?
I don't mean to sound like such a whiner. Is it all about changing your metabolism?
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  • HardcoreP0rk
    HardcoreP0rk Posts: 936 Member
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    Well I think it's probably specific to those people. Maybe the ONLY thing that's keeping them overweight is junk food or soda or a combination of the two.
  • barbecuesauce
    barbecuesauce Posts: 1,779 Member
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    juliebowling1 wrote: »
    I just don't understand why some people just cut out sugary drinks, fast food and maybe cut back on drinking and they lose weight. I've never been a fan of soda, I rarely eat dessert and I have had alcohol in over twenty years. Now, I readily admit I love pasta and potatoes and those have to go except for small portions now and then. But why do some people seems to lose so easily?
    I don't mean to sound like such a whiner. Is it all about changing your metabolism?

    It depends on how much they're consuming. I know someone who was taking in nearly 1000 calories in cokes a day. I had a bad latte habit and probably cut 2000 calories out of my weekly diet. No telling with people who have alcohol problems.

    It's your overall diet, not just carbs. Maybe look at where your calories are coming from. Cheese? Butter? Do you weight your portions?
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
    edited August 2015
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    There was an article in the NY Times just in the last few days about a woman who lost over 100 pounds by cutting out sugar. Turns out she was drinking 4 liters of Coke each day on top of what she was eating. If anyone cuts out 1600 extraneous calories every day (more than I usually eat total!), as she did by quitting soda, they are going to lose weight.
  • oh_happy_day
    oh_happy_day Posts: 1,138 Member
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    juliebowling1 wrote: »
    I just don't understand why some people just cut out sugary drinks, fast food and maybe cut back on drinking and they lose weight. I've never been a fan of soda, I rarely eat dessert and I have had alcohol in over twenty years. Now, I readily admit I love pasta and potatoes and those have to go except for small portions now and then. But why do some people seems to lose so easily?
    I don't mean to sound like such a whiner. Is it all about changing your metabolism?

    It's not about metabolism. It's about how much they were consuming. If you eat/drink a lot of calorie dense items and then cut them it will make a big difference. And people may be consuming thousands of extra calories. For example a few glasses of wine, some non-diet cola, a small chocolate bar and a small fries could easily add an extra 1500+ calories to your day. If you cut those out, of course you'd lose easily at the beginning.
  • ryanflebbe
    ryanflebbe Posts: 188 Member
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    HardcoreP0rk wrote: »
    Well I think it's probably specific to those people. Maybe the ONLY thing that's keeping them overweight is junk food or soda or a combination of the two.

    This pretty much. They have different genetics and faster metabolisms. It took all that junk for them to get fat, take it all away and they lose weight.
  • Alluminati
    Alluminati Posts: 6,208 Member
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    It's about burning more calories than you consume, which varies from person to person. Comparing and fretting over it is a big waste of time, IMO.
  • ShandaLeaS
    ShandaLeaS Posts: 136 Member
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    I was drinking almost 1500 calories a day in sweet tea plus 2 32 ounce Cokes a day.....
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,372 Member
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    You can gain a pound a month drinking one can of soda a day above your maintenance calories. If you drink 3 or 4 and stop, you can probably lose close to 1 pound a week...
  • Kymmu
    Kymmu Posts: 1,650 Member
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    I was never allowed soda ( soft drinks) or lollies ( candy) as a child as my mum worried about our teeth. I was allowed savoury treats. Consequently I have absolutely no sweet tooth, but could easily demolish a packet of chips or salty snacks. I don't buy them. It's conditioning
  • Bshmerlie
    Bshmerlie Posts: 1,026 Member
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    I was easily consuming 500 calories per day just by drinking coke. It's an easy thing to cut out to create a deficit.
  • Yoshirio
    Yoshirio Posts: 242 Member
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    I use to drink a 2 liters a day of soda by myself. So yeah getting rid of that habit made a huge difference.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
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    i used to drink dr pepper all day long. made no difference when i stopped LOL

    i guess it depends on where your cumulative calories are coming from.
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,483 Member
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    I used to drink a couple of cans of fizzy pop a day.

    On a trip through the Mediterranean one hot summer, the easiest thing to carry and drink was 'agua mineral con gas' soda water. I never went back to fizzy pop. By the time I got home I had lost the taste for it.

    The calories not used on the pop certainly added more nutrition for the last part of my weight loss.

    Cheers, h.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,905 Member
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    juliebowling1 wrote: »
    I just don't understand why some people just cut out sugary drinks, fast food and maybe cut back on drinking and they lose weight. I've never been a fan of soda, I rarely eat dessert and I have had alcohol in over twenty years. Now, I readily admit I love pasta and potatoes and those have to go except for small portions now and then. But why do some people seems to lose so easily?
    I don't mean to sound like such a whiner. Is it all about changing your metabolism?

    Back 20-ish years ago, I worked in a donut shop. We were allowed to eat and drink whatever we wanted. So as you might imagine, I gained weight ... so much that I was in danger of having to ask my boss for the next uniform size up.

    Now, I was already active ... going to the gym just about every day, cycling, walking, etc. And outside working hours, my diet wasn't bad.

    So I decided to cut out all sugared drinks for a couple weeks to see what would happen. I still ate the donuts, and I still drank (water, black coffee, etc.).

    I lost 5 lbs in those 2 weeks.

    There are a lot of calories in sugared drinks. For example, 250 ml (1 cup) of Coca-Cola has about 110 calories. I was drinking at least a litre, sometimes closer to two, of that or other sugared soft drinks. Plus I was adding sugar to my coffee, and I was putting away a lot of coffee. Plus I had developed a liking for a particular sweetened carbonated grapefruit drink, and would put away a couple bottles of that after work.

    5 lbs is 17,500 calories ... over 14 days, that's 1250 calories per day. Yeah ... I was probably drinking that many calories.

  • Gozergirl
    Gozergirl Posts: 36 Member
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    Cutting fast food helped me a lot.
  • boogiewookie
    boogiewookie Posts: 206 Member
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    my husband just cut down on soda becase he thought he drank too much and lost 20lbs within a few months. he wasn't even trying to lose weight. we were both pretty shocked lol
  • lseed87
    lseed87 Posts: 1,110 Member
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    All about toxins. I used to only drink pepsi. Now I have tea and water, even flavored water. Sometimes I do drink some form of soda but its very rare.
  • AshleyCMoody
    AshleyCMoody Posts: 144 Member
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    I've actually never liked soda because I hate carbonated beverages. The bubbles are unpleasant to me. But cutting out all caloric drinks was a struggle. I used to drink a lot of juice until I realized I was wasting most of my calories on drinks and would still be hungry. I have now become accustomed to drinking black coffee and water, but it wasn't easy.
  • allaboutthefood
    allaboutthefood Posts: 781 Member
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    Well just in pop and kool aid in one day was about 2640 in calories, not including the 4 cups of tea I had with 2 tsp of sugar in each. So once I gave that up and starting drinking water instead, I haven't had pop or juice in 5 months and I have maybe one cup of tea a week with only 1 tsp of sugar now. So yes I saw a big weight loss at first.
  • nordlead2005
    nordlead2005 Posts: 1,303 Member
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    I used to drink 500 calories/day and was stable at 210 until last winter when I started having a donut every day when I went up to 220.

    Cutting the donuts and soda got me down to a 500 calorie deficit, so the rest came from smaller portions.

    Anytime you can cut non-filling calories it makes losing weight easier. Sugar with no fiber or any other nutritional value tends not to be very filling.

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