Diet Fizzy Drinks

yummy30
yummy30 Posts: 9 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So i drink alot of diet coke & diet 7up. I recently read that even though these drinks have little or no calories they can actually make you put on weight around the tummy as the artificial sweetners break down as sugars and stick to your belly.

Im gonna go a month without having any fizzy drinks at all but was just wondering is there any truth in this? Also has anyone given up diet fizzy drinks and noticed an improvement in their weight loss?

Replies

  • JustSomeEm
    JustSomeEm Posts: 20,269 MFP Moderator
    No, there is no truth to artificial sweetners breaking down as sugar and sticking to your belly. The only thing you need in order to lose weight is to consume fewer calories than you burn each day.

    I lost more than 70 pounds and have maintained the loss for nearly 2 years... and I drink diet soda on a semi-regular basis. :)
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1308408/why-aspartame-isnt-scary/p1
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    Thats not true. There have been some studies that suggest that diet drinks can increase appetite, but I haven't seen anything concrete.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    I don't think there is any truth to the "belly fat" claims. Due to genetics, my tendency is extra weight in my hips thighs.

    Elimination diets may help you lose weight initially, but keeping the weight off often requires lifestyle changes. I drink a moderate amount of diet soda every day.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    ive had at least one diet soda a day every day and still lost 70+ pounds.
  • MarziPanda95
    MarziPanda95 Posts: 1,326 Member
    Weight loss is all about calories. Diet drinks have no (or very few) calories, and therefore won't make any difference to weight loss.
  • blearyspecs
    blearyspecs Posts: 21 Member
    I gave up diet soft drinks and my gut tells me that it helped, but the science doesn't back it up. I've gone through a lot of the published literature and I don't think there's any scientific basis for giving them up. The only thing, as TavistockToad mentioned, is that they may increase your appetite for other sweet foods, but even that evidence is very weak.

    That said, I still don't drink them. Even when I treat myself to a soft drink it's the sugar sweetened kind.
  • misskarne
    misskarne Posts: 1,765 Member
    21lbs down and drinking diet coke every day.
  • oocdc2
    oocdc2 Posts: 1,361 Member
    I gave up diet soda because it made me cranky. If they didn't make me cranky, I'd still be drinking them.
  • elsinora
    elsinora Posts: 398 Member
    Never affected my weight loss, only thing I found is that it did make me, Erm, a bit bloaty and farty :#
  • brower47
    brower47 Posts: 16,356 Member
    yummy30 wrote: »
    So i drink alot of diet coke & diet 7up. I recently read that even though these drinks have little or no calories they can actually make you put on weight around the tummy as the artificial sweetners break down as sugars and stick to your belly.

    Im gonna go a month without having any fizzy drinks at all but was just wondering is there any truth in this? Also has anyone given up diet fizzy drinks and noticed an improvement in their weight loss?

    Zero truth to the thought that artificial sweeteners cause people to put on weight around the mid section.

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  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
    callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »
    ive had at least one diet soda a day every day and still lost 70+ pounds.

    Ditto.
  • macgurlnet
    macgurlnet Posts: 1,946 Member
    Carbonated beverages in general leave me feeling bloated if I drink them too often. I haven't paid close enough attention to figure out what "too often" is, and it's simpler to limit them.

    When I do have a soda, it's a diet one and hasn't hindered my weight loss a bit. If I'm going to drink calories, it's usually in the form of a protein shake/smoothie or a glass of milk.

    ~Lyssa
  • Merkavar
    Merkavar Posts: 3,082 Member
    Fizzy drink, don't see it called that often online.

    But yeah as far as I'm aware a lot of the ideas like artificial sugar making you fat has little or no scientific evidence to back it up.

    I have lost 65kg and drink coke zero regularly.

    Focus on your calories and macros and less on magic and voodoo that seems to surround diet fizzy drinks.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,989 Member
    I'm a 25 year+ on going experiment for diet soda. Daily with usually 2.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    9285851.png
  • desert_mom
    desert_mom Posts: 91 Member
    I just read a study that aspartame decimates your natural gut bacteria and skews you toward the gut of a fat person, meaning the bacteria extract the very most energy from your food--more energy than you'd like, if you're trying to lose weight. Here it is: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/artificial-sweeteners-may-change-our-gut-bacteria-in-dangerous-ways/

  • brower47
    brower47 Posts: 16,356 Member
    desert_mom wrote: »
    I just read a study that aspartame decimates your natural gut bacteria and skews you toward the gut of a fat person, meaning the bacteria extract the very most energy from your food--more energy than you'd like, if you're trying to lose weight. Here it is: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/artificial-sweeteners-may-change-our-gut-bacteria-in-dangerous-ways/

    Points of order:

    You read an article, not a study.

    Having only read this article, The substantive research was done on mice.

    Then they threw this info in there:

    "These patterns do not prove that the sweeteners caused the problems. Indeed, it is quite possible that overweight people are simply more likely than others to consume artificial sweeteners. But Segal's team went further, testing the association directly in a small group of lean and healthy human volunteers who normally eschewed artificial sweeteners."

    That small study was done for only five days on only seven subjects...

    "After consuming the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's maximum dose of saccharin over a period of five days, four of the seven subjects showed a reduced glucose response in addition to an abrupt change in their gut microbes. The three volunteers whose glucose tolerance did not dip showed no change in their gut microbes."

    Hardly damning and does not show anything. A larger study might come form that extremely short, extremely small study but that's all that should.

  • tomteboda
    tomteboda Posts: 2,171 Member
    @desert_mom thanks for the link.
    After consuming the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's maximum dose of saccharin over a period of five days, four of the seven subjects showed a reduced glucose response in addition to an abrupt change in their gut microbes. The three volunteers whose glucose tolerance did not dip showed no change in their gut microbes.

    Let's break this down:
    1. only saccharine was examined
    2. they gave subjects the equivalent of 250 packets of saccharine -- the equivalent of 32 cans of TAB
    3. all of this saccharine was consumed at one time.
    4. this was repeated daily for 5 days
    5. there was no control group kept in identical conditions & lacking the saccharine challenge
    6. sample size was only 7 individuals
    7. 43% of subjects had no changes
    8. statistical significance of the changes unclear

    Suez, Jotham, et al. "Non-caloric artificial sweeteners and the microbiome: findings and challenges." Gut microbes 6.2 (2015): 149-155.

    Its research worth looking at as a scientist, but in terms of making health decisions for your life, nearly useless. Particularly as a lot of their conclusions are drawn not on the microbiome itself but the association of "people who are overweight drink diet soda and they often have insulin resistance too!". Not the most convincing causal association.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
    Yum. Think I'll go get one actually.
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
    There's 0.1 gram of aspartame in 8 oz of diet coke. Even if it did turn into sugar (which it doesn't), it would not be more than 0.1 gram.
  • desert_mom
    desert_mom Posts: 91 Member
    If you find no value in the article, that's cool. Gut health is important to me for much more than weight loss. You can't always avoid things like antibiotics, which do harm your gut, but I can avoid fake sugar, so I do. Anyway, have a great night.
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
    There is no reason to avoid it.
  • brower47
    brower47 Posts: 16,356 Member
    desert_mom wrote: »
    If you find no value in the article, that's cool. Gut health is important to me for much more than weight loss. You can't always avoid things like antibiotics, which do harm your gut, but I can avoid fake sugar, so I do. Anyway, have a great night.

    The article presented no real evidence that it negatively impacts gut health in humans. If you don't want to consume it, I have zero issues with people's personal choices. Just don't cite unsubstantiated reasons for doing it and thereby extending the myth.
  • tomteboda
    tomteboda Posts: 2,171 Member
    brower47 wrote: »
    desert_mom wrote: »
    If you find no value in the article, that's cool. Gut health is important to me for much more than weight loss. You can't always avoid things like antibiotics, which do harm your gut, but I can avoid fake sugar, so I do. Anyway, have a great night.

    The article presented no real evidence that it negatively impacts gut health in humans. If you don't want to consume it, I have zero issues with people's personal choices. Just don't cite unsubstantiated reasons for doing it and thereby extending the myth.

    Ditto this.

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