Coke, Soda, Pop. HELP

I loved full fat coke but managed to change to caffeine free diet coke (gold one) which I didn't like 100% at first but I just love it now. I also get flavoured sparkling water from the supermarket which is nice and refreshing. Diet Dr Pepper isn't bad either.

Is your addiction to the caffeine or the Coke itself? My drink of choice was Mtn Dew (6+ cans/day), which I quit when I decided to lose weight. I had awful caffeine withdrawals and kept relapsing to the Mtn Dew to fix them. Then I started taking caffeine pills with a glass of water and it solved the problem!

I actually cut way back on cokes before I even started logging. But when I want a coke I want a regular Coke, or a regular Sprite. I started buying the mini cans. I think they are 8 oz. and they have 90 calories. That will usually quell my craving and without being too many calories. If I just want a caffeine jolt then I drink unsweetened black tea. If you want to cut all sodas out that may be the way to go. But you don't have to cut them completely out if you don't want to.

I love Coke too. Especially McDonald's Coke, it just tastes 10x better than the rest for some reason. When I first started tracking, I switched to the mini cans because I could spare 90-100 calories. But for the last several months I've tried to only drink one or two on the weekends. I cannot tell a difference between Coke Zero and Diet Coke and I hate them both. I'd rather drink water than anything with artificial sweetener in it.

singingflutelady wrote: »

MalkinMagic71 wrote: »

Coke Zero is nectar from the gods. I drink a couple cans a day. Lost almost 200lbs. Can't do diet coke.. blech, but coke Zero is good stuff.

Yes I hate diet coke but love coke zero.

Do you rep for coke?
And if so can you get me a discount

Ready4change913 wrote: »

Okay! So, I have logged my food for 10 days now. Really to get a gist of what my daily intake is without counting. Let me tell you.....It was disgusting!!
I have a terrible addiction to Coke (the soft drink)

I used to drink anywhere from 3-6 sodas per day...usually on the higher end. It was one of the very first things I addressed diet wise. I just cut back on it...allowed myself to have one per day (usually with my lunch)...then cut that back to a few times per week...and then once per week, etc until I wasn't really drinking any.

Fast forward a little over four years and I might have a soda 3-6 times in an entire year. I do drink a lot of flavored sparkling water for the fiz...but mostly I just drink water and coffee and usually have a glass of milk in the evening (a habit since I was a kid).

savithny wrote: »

The first diet beverages were sweetened with saccharine, which had a definite different taste and aftertaste. And may have caused cancer in lab rats who ate a lot of it.

(I remember my dad explaining that you'd have to eat POUNDS of saccharine to get the amounts the cancer rats got. But then that was the olden days, when people didn't drink six quarts of pop a day, so there's that).

Then there was Nutrasweet, which tasted better but had a different aftertaste and gave some people headaches.

And then there was Splenda, which you could bake with and had less of an aftertaste but gave some people side effects.

And then there was Stevia, which was "natural" and so was totally awesome for you....

The main difference between the flavors of diet soda pop is the sweetener they use. They didn't chose to make Diet Coke taste that different - they couldn't make it taste "right" with the sweeteners available at the time.

Long story short: Diet Coke is Aspartame (NutraSweet). Coke Zero is a blend of other sweeteners that don't have the Aspartame Aftertaste.

To clarify: Coke Zero still has aspartame. They added acesulfame potassium, which differentiates it from Diet Coke.

Wynterbourne wrote: »

Doctor Oz, Good Housekeeping, The Today Show? Are you kidding me? If you 'have no idea what scientific methods if any the authors used to reach their conclusions' then I would suggest moving on and searching for another source that shows what scientific methods if any were used. I've lost 115 lbs drinking diet soda. It did not sabotage me. I do not trust my weight loss or my health to Doctor "Quacking" Oz.

cerise_noir wrote: »

Nope, nope, nope. They don't.
How can someone that lack calories cause weight gain?
Answer: It can't. Weight gain is caused be eating more calories than your TDEE.

Dr Oz? Really? As soon as I saw that, I tuned out. Did you know Dr. Oz was sued for the advice and products he promoted?

Good housekeeping. Nope.

Check this out:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1308408/why-aspartame-isnt-scary/


None of these links are based or backed by science.
All of these links are fearmongering woo. So much misinformation. DO yourself a favour and check out google scholar for scientific evidence. Diet sodas have been researched for many years.


How? Once again I ask, how can something 0 calorie cause weight gain @Trish1c ?

It's not the sodium, as diet soda contains very little.

It's not the bubbles, because we emit those..

It's not the sweeteners. Did you know aspartame is actually 2 amino acids 'fused' together. Yes, amino acids....

Did you know weight gain is caused by eating too many calories?

To lose weight, eat below your TDEE (maintenance)
To maintain weight, eat at your TDEE
To gain weight, eat above your TDEE.

It's not the diet soda. That is scientifically impossible to create energy from nothing.

You didn't lose weight because you were eating at TDEE or above.

TeaBea wrote: »

Dr. OZ......really? He's a quack. You give him enough money, he'll endorse whatever weight loss crap you are selling.

These look like magazine headlines. You know, standing in the supermarket checkout. I don't believe these any more than I believe the National Enquirer.

It shouldn't be up to me to prove your statements. You should figure out the scientific methods (if any).

The articles I initially quoted were main stream references to scientific articles, digested down to sound bites. I never said Dr. Oz was the be all end all; he's an entertainer.

That said. Here's a link to an article in the Yale Journal of Biology & Medicine: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.355.2133&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Here's another study from the Journal on Obesity. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1038/oby.2008.284/full

The artificial ingredients in diet soda are not good for you.

Drink whatever you want. I'm losing weight, even though I have had sodas while on this journey.

The OP came here to ask if he/she had to give up soda. The answer is no, not entirely, but it has to get factored into the overall calories. But since these studies link the consumption of artificial sweeteners to a continued or increased craving for sweet & do not allow the body to be fully satisfied by healthier choices like water they are in fact sabotaging weight loss efforts even without providing calories themselves.

So my advice remains: Drink the stuff at your own peril.

Given that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over & over but expecting different results, I would submit to any soda fans out there, if you continue to drink the stuff but find you aren't losing weight, something has to change. Arguing about which study is correct doesn't burn enough calories to make a difference. Eliminating what isn't working & replacing it with a better choice does result in weight loss. Food for thought.

edena001 wrote: »

I was the same, especially when I was working in a pub where the tap Coke was free so I had a lot! I don't enjoy Coke Zero and I'm not a fan of sweetners as when you weigh it out it's just as bad as sugars.

My solution was just to go cold turkey, otherwise you're so tempted for another glass etc. Start drinking a lot more water and you'll find you don't have enough liquid room to drink any more you won't want it as much!

Nothing wrong with sweeteners

I have this problem too. I love soda and I couldn't give it up as easily. I'm trying to substitute it with Ice. People argue about that though, what's everyone's opinion on flavored sparkling waters? It couldn't make you gain weight, right? Its what's keeping me same through not drinking soda lol. People say unsweetened sparkling water is for sure fine, but that stuff with no flavoring is gross. Opinions?

Ready4change913 wrote: »

sunburntgalaxy wrote: »

Ready4change913 wrote: »

Okay! So, I have logged my food for 10 days now. Really to get a gist of what my daily intake is without counting. Let me tell you.....It was disgusting!!
I have a terrible addiction to Coke (the soft drink)

I am right there with you - I used to drink tons of regular coke all the time. I would drink it because I was tired - found out I had narcolepsy and went on meds for it but that didn't stop me from drinking the coke still. I have quit cold turkey before (bad idea - felt awful for a week) and then after a year started drinking it a lot again. I finally decided to cut back again, and this time I did it gradually, and since it is really hard to *kitten* both the sugar and caffeine at the same time (not that sugar is bad - I am very pro-sugar- just I used to have a lot of it) I decided to also try to find a substitute for the caffeine. I can't stand coffee, so I went with a different option. Between that and the gradual decrease I was able to totally cut out the soda. If you don't mind the taste of diet you could try that instead (I find all diet drinks disgusting so that didn't help me) or you could gradually try to decrease your intake if you want. But it is ok to have soda if you really want it - I do, I just fit it in my calories for the day (I had one today actually because I had a headache and I find it helps). I just don't have 8 in a day anymore (and yes I did have days like that in the past). IF you decide you want to cut back or quit I hope it works out for you,

YES! This is how I am with it. I don't like coffee so I drink regular coke in the morning (usually McDonald's) because I am tired. I literally nod out sometimes! I drink a lot more throughout the day. So, as you can imagine, the calories are adding up. I have tried numerous times to quit cold turkey only to have migraine like headaches. I have tried diet and zero but my stomach doesn't agree with artificial sweetner. I'm just trying to find something that works so I can lose weight and get healthy but not go insane in the process.

The headaches are awful - that is why I did it both gradually the last time and then supplemented with a different caffeine option. I used caffeinated mints (7mg caffeine per mint, so 5 is a can of coke, and that is only about 10 calories instead of 140 in a can of coke) and between those and the gradual cutting I was able to totally quit. I do still have one every once in a while but try not to often only because I know if I did like 1 a day I would want more and more, and I would rather use the calories for food, like ice cream (130 calories in a half cup of Dean's chocolate). The brand I used was Penguin (and I got the cinnamon flavor) and I actually got them in bulk and then put a few in a small container (they are really tasty and I didn't want to go crazy so I usually bring 10 with me at a time and spread them out) but I know there are a lot of other brands out there. And most drug stores sell caffeine tablets that you can take with water too - one of the girls at work uses those instead of soda (she doesn't like coffee either) but I think they are higher in caffeine so it is harder to spread out (I like to spread it out, like if I was drinking a can over time, as opposed to chugging it all at once). Also if you do feel extremely tired all the time you can talk to your doctor - I did and that is when they sent me in for some sleep studies that determined I have narcolepsy. You probably are just the normal tired but it never hurts to mention it if you are there anyway