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

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?

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.

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...

I was easily consuming 500 calories per day just by drinking coke. It's an easy thing to cut out to create a deficit.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

I quit soda with calories and booze and fast food way before I ever dieted (and when I was average weight), so I didn't have those easy fixes either. I looked at my diet and figured out where my extra calories were coming from and cut them. I also realized that one issue was that at one point I went from active to sedentary and at 5'3 and 120-125 (my comfortable weight) I can eat 2000+ and maintain if I'm active, but need more like 1500-1600 to maintain if I am not.

1500 is low, so knowing that matters -- I can either be really rigorous with my diet (including evenings out, which can add up), or I can be active. I chose the latter.

I don't drink soda - never have. I rarely drink as it gives me migranes. I am one of those people that eats chocolate etc. every day and still loses weight- thats because my meals are smaller than most people's meals. I don't have a large appetite. It's CICO. Oh I've never been one to eat junk food or go out to eat- so i don't miss it.

My big problem was juice - I would easily drink a litre of the stuff in a day of work. Now I have switched to "infused water" (aka cut up fruit - put it in water/sparkling water) at work. I've changed other habits as well so I can't put it down to that entirely, but now being much more aware of calories I'm shocked at what a big impact it had.

I get what you mean. I don't drink soda. Not really juice either. And I don't have a sweet tooth. Plus I walk a ton given where I live. Yet I am not at my ideal weight.

Turns out my portions really are just too big and it's too salty

If soda isn't your thing, it won't do you any good to cut it out. But I've seen people who stop at a convenience store every morning to buy the biggest sugary drink they can get. For them, just changing that one habit could result in weight loss.