Diet Pop..zero calories, but does it hurt weight loss
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0 calorie is a teensy bit of a lie. What it actually means is very, very low calorie, generally under 20 calories at the most. If you drink or eat lots and lots of 0 calorie items, it can add up so you still have to take care.
That said, I drink a can or two of diet root beer on pretty much a daily basis and have no problems. I find it's better than only drinking water because I will eat something sweet with more calories than the diet root beer to satisfy my sweet tooth.3 -
born_of_fire74 wrote: »0 calorie is a teensy bit of a lie. What it actually means is very, very low calorie, generally under 20 calories at the most. If you drink or eat lots and lots of 0 calorie items, it can add up so you still have to take care.
That said, I drink a can or two of diet root beer on pretty much a daily basis and have no problems. I find it's better than only drinking water because I will eat something sweet with more calories than the diet root beer to satisfy my sweet tooth.
In the US, any food item that has less than 5 calories per serving can be labeled as a zero-calorie item. If the serving size has more than 5 calories, the actual value must be listed.6 -
nutmegoreo wrote: »CarvedTones wrote: »deannalfisher wrote: »CarvedTones wrote: »This article:
http://time.com/3746047/diet-soda-weight-gain/
references two studies published in respected medical publications that found a statistical correlation with drinking diet soda and weight/fat gain but correlation does not establish causation.
Switching to personal anecdotal information, I do know people who seem to think that drinking a diet soda means they can have an extra slice of pizza or whatever. That's bad math.
I think if you are drinking diet soda while tracking calories and making sure you are in a deficit, it will cause no problem.
the one article cited (JAMA Pediatrics) is available in full-text format...the one glaring measure that they didn't include was mother calorie consumption in general...they looked at food quality, but not food quantity...i would probably put more interest in results if they controlled for that - they also identified that mothers who were obese and used Artifical sugars were more likely to have obese kids...
i think your pizza anecdote is a valuable one...people think if they have a diet soda, they are being good - so they off set it with something extra like fries or pizza which have calories - thus increasing their intake and gaining weight...
Another way to put it is even if it is true that people who drink diet soda are more likely to be overweight, it's not sneaking diet sodas that causes that...
Another question is: are people who are overweight more likely to choose diet soda, rather than diet soda causing the weight? Chicken or egg?
Exactly. And therein lies the flaw of mistaking correlation for causation. Overweight people often engage in exercise programs too - so using the same logic, one could claim that exercise makes people overweight.
As to the original question - I drink 1-2 diet sodas per day most days. It has done nothing to hinder my weight loss. Weight loss comes from consuming less calories than you expend, and a zero (or nearly zero) calorie drink is irrelevant unless you happen to be drinking hundreds of cans/bottles per day.
As far as the "chemicals" aspect of it, here's a great post written by a molecular biologist here on MFP: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1308408/why-aspartame-isnt-scary/p15 -
born_of_fire74 wrote: »0 calorie is a teensy bit of a lie. What it actually means is very, very low calorie, generally under 20 calories at the most. If you drink or eat lots and lots of 0 calorie items, it can add up so you still have to take care.
That said, I drink a can or two of diet root beer on pretty much a daily basis and have no problems. I find it's better than only drinking water because I will eat something sweet with more calories than the diet root beer to satisfy my sweet tooth.
In the US, any food item that has less than 5 calories per serving can be labeled as a zero-calorie item. If the serving size has more than 5 calories, the actual value must be listed.
Ah thank you. My search fu is weak and I didn't have much luck finding any specific guidelines, only general discussion of 0 calorie foods. My point is that this could explain that one friend people talk about who quit drinking a case of diet coke a day and lost weight as a result.
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Running_and_Coffee wrote: »Everything is chemicals. There is worse stuff in the air you're breathing than in a diet soda.
Some people say it makes them hungrier, but there's nothing in diet soda that would explain that, maybe it's psychological. I know if I'm snacky for something sweet a diet soda takes care of it with no calories.
I drink several a week, and if there was more room in my budget I'd drink one every day. I have yet to see anything remotely scientific that shows diet soda CAUSES anything. And the correlation stuff I've seen is pretty easily explained by alternate common sense causes. :drinker:
thank you!! i dont get the "i stay away from chemicals" thing... what? when you break down anything, ain't it all chemicals! lol
It's just the fact that I felt addicted to it that made me concerned. I got severe headaches if I skipped Diet Coke and just felt like I'd be better off without that quantity of chemicals in my body. I DO try to choose more natural products when I can--I think a lot of people do. Of course we can't avoid chemicals altogether, but I prefer to go for fresher foods from simpler ingredients when I can.
Caffeine withdrawal.11 -
I've lost weight while drinking diet soda and I've lost weight during long periods where I refrain from diet soda. I never noticed any difference to my weight loss, health, or general feeling between the two. What I have found is that for me personally a diet soda as part of my afternoon snack reduces my munchies and staves off my usual 3pm headache/listlessness combo. For me that's worth it. But we're all adults here so make whatever choices you want.4
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BruceHedtke wrote: »
Well, it's bad math if they think that just by drinking a diet soda, it's going to magically create more of a deficit. The diet soda won't ADD to your daily calories but it won't burn calories, either.CarvedTones wrote: »This article:
Switching to personal anecdotal information, I do know people who seem to think that drinking a diet soda means they can have an extra slice of pizza or whatever. That's bad math.
However, if they were going to drink a regular soda and decided to drink a diet soda instead, it would free up those calories for something else.
Yes, but a soft drink with sugar is probably in the 150 calorie range, so replacing it with a sugar free alternative doesn't free up enough calories to eat an extra slice of pizza that's 300-500+ calories (depending on size and toppings). That's the bad math I am talking about.3 -
I use diet lemonade more than coke for long drinks in the sunny weather. Neither has had a negative effect on my weightloss - when I do have an alcoholic drink I am not adding lots of calories with my mixer; that's a good thing to me.1
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I lose less weight if I consume a lot of Splenda, but aspartame doesn't seem to affect my weight loss. I was a diet soda addict, so I have made the choice to cut back to 1-2 cans a week, but I did this because I wanted to drink more water.9
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ObviousPanda wrote: »I don’t drink it. I feel there are too many chemicals in Coke Zero and similar drinks. It’s a personal preference. My husband drinks it and hasn’t had any issues.looney9708 wrote: »I have no scientific data or know why. But two examples of it hurting weight loss:
On the 30/10 weight loss diet program they were adamant that it stalls fat loss and it was not approved. Any chemical type drink including crystal light. La croix was okhpurtee1hp wrote: »ObviousPanda wrote: »I don’t drink it. I feel there are too many chemicals in Coke Zero and similar drinks. It’s a personal preference. My husband drinks it and hasn’t had any issues.
Yea, I agree there's a lot of chemicals I'd like to get away from!
H2O is a chemical. Everything physical is made up of chemicals.6 -
I hadn’t had coke in any quantity for 40 years, but I found I liked Coke Zero nearly a year ago. I currently drink a couple of cans a day (during hot weather).
I’ve been managing my weight for 2 1/2 years and can categorically state that Coke Zero has had zero effect on my weight or appetite. If it had, I’d see it in my data.0 -
I lost over 1/2 of my body weight drinking Diet Pepsi. Didn't hinder my weight loss one bit.
Choosing diet over regular pop saves a lot of calories for eating something else.
As long as you are eating less calories than you are burning, and have no health issues, you will lose weight.
I have been drinking diet pop since I was a teenager (I'll be 67 at the end of September, so for over 50 years) and I haven't died from the chemicals yet. BTW, another round of salmonella(drug resistant) is currently in the news here from fresh turkey products. You never really know what your are getting for sure. I live next to an apple orchard. The drift that comes from when he sprays his trees is personally, more alarming to me.
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missysippy930 wrote: »I lost over 1/2 of my body weight drinking Diet Pepsi. Didn't hinder my weight loss one bit.
Choosing diet over regular pop saves a lot of calories for eating something else.
As long as you are eating less calories than you are burning, and have no health issues, you will lose weight.
I have been drinking diet pop since I was a teenager (I'll be 67 at the end of September, so for over 50 years) and I haven't died from the chemicals yet. BTW, another round of salmonella(drug resistant) is currently in the news here from fresh turkey products. You never really know what your are getting for sure. I live next to an apple orchard. The drift that comes from when he sprays his trees is personally, more alarming to me.
High five! I'm 67 and have been drinking diet soda since I was a teen as well! My weight's gone up and down most of my life while drinking it, and at this point I'm the healthiest I've been in over 20 years, with no detectable illness that could possibly be traced to diet coke (or any artificial sweetener) consumption. My n=1, of course.
Obviously, if one 12 ounce can contains just under 5 calories, and you're drinking 10 or more cans a day, you'd want to account for those extra 50 or so calories.6 -
lynn_glenmont wrote: »ObviousPanda wrote: »I don’t drink it. I feel there are too many chemicals in Coke Zero and similar drinks. It’s a personal preference. My husband drinks it and hasn’t had any issues.looney9708 wrote: »I have no scientific data or know why. But two examples of it hurting weight loss:
On the 30/10 weight loss diet program they were adamant that it stalls fat loss and it was not approved. Any chemical type drink including crystal light. La croix was okhpurtee1hp wrote: »ObviousPanda wrote: »I don’t drink it. I feel there are too many chemicals in Coke Zero and similar drinks. It’s a personal preference. My husband drinks it and hasn’t had any issues.
Yea, I agree there's a lot of chemicals I'd like to get away from!
H2O is a chemical. Everything physical is made up of chemicals.
I was going to say the same thing, Lynn. Water is the most common liquid chemical one could think of.. chemicals in and of themselves are not bad.. what you mix them with and the quantity is important. Even too much water can kill you.1 -
Calorie countborn_of_fire74 wrote: »0 calorie is a teensy bit of a lie. What it actually means is very, very low calorie, generally under 20 calories at the most. If you drink or eat lots and lots of 0 calorie items, it can add up so you still have to take care.
What people need to understand is that there are inaccuracies in the way calorie counts are gathered for nutrition labels and other factors than the number of calories of heat generated in a calorimeter, so the numbers you see on the labels should be considered estimates:
https://www.livescience.com/26799-calorie-counts-inaccurate.html
Some things aren't worth worrying about - like the calories in diet soda, or the calories in the gelatin that covers your vitamin caps.4 -
I've eliminated so much, I might curl up and die without my vanilla coke zero. And I lost a ton of weight while still drinking it.2
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I drink 2 litres of Pepsi Max most days, I've lost over 160lb7
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200lbs lost and coke zero is my main source of liquid on a daily basis.5
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midlomel1971 wrote: »I drink them, but I want to stop because I think it makes my sweet tooth worse.
Studies show this is true for a statistically significant amount of people. Interestingly, you appear to be in the minority on MFP.
I think we all need to learn what our trigger foods are and how to manage them. For me it's easiest to just not have them in the house.0 -
I drink plenty of water but I love diet soda and have one daily. No adverse effect on weight loss and it keeps my sweet tooth well under control! I quit smoking several years ago and I don’t drink alcohol so my Diet Pepsi can be pried my from cold, dead hands haha!2
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I used to drink cokes, not a lot but one or two a day. I’m highly opposed to kids drinking soda though and my ex was letting my 6 year old drink them during his visitation. Then my son started begging me for one every time he saw me with one... so I switched to flavored sparkling water, and honestly, it made me feel better about my health choices. I still get my carbonated beverage fix but with less chemicals. I would suggest just trying it out and see how YOU feel after a week.9
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I hate flavored sparkling water. Or plain sparkling water. Always have, much as I've tried to like it. Cherry Coke Zero, if you please.2
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I hate to be the bearer of bad news but isn't Coke getting rid of coke zero?
ETA my bad, they are getting rid of the Australian version of coke zero and have replaced it withe version everyone else has and calling it coke zero sugar. Confusing!0 -
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but isn't Coke getting rid of coke zero?
Dunno. Here in Australia it's gone (well, you can still find leftover stock in some shops until they run out) but they've replaced it with "Coke No Sugar" which tastes better IMO anyway (although you'll find plenty of people online who say the opposite and that they preferred Coke Zero)0 -
Nope. Zero calories is zero calories. The only thing diet pops can affect negatively is teeth, but that's from acidity levels found in many soft drinks.0
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estherdragonbat wrote: »I hate flavored sparkling water. Or plain sparkling water. Always have, much as I've tried to like it. Cherry Coke Zero, if you please.
'Sparkling water' sounds nice, but it tastes (feels? Not really a flavor thing) gross and harsh to me. La Croix is not much better. If I'm drinking something fizzy, it had better taste sweet!0 -
I only drink 0 calorie pop and it hasn't hampered my dieting efforts!
I was shocked at work a few days ago. We had a meeting and food/drink was provided and there was a carton of orange juice so i had 3 small glasses (around 200ml size i would guess, in a small plastic cup) i checked the carton as i was about to go for my 4th cup and glanced at the calorific content and it was 70 calories per 150ml! i was so shocked! that was over 200 calories less that i had to live on that day!
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I don't think it effects weight loss. I do, however think that if you have that as an option, it stops you from drinking more water. That is me. I know if I allow it that I will drink more of that than water.1
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OrcaSaintJames wrote: »I don't think it effects weight loss. I do, however think that if you have that as an option, it stops you from drinking more water. That is me. I know if I allow it that I will drink more of that than water.
Thankfully, diet pop is almost entirely water.7 -
Fortunately since diet soda is around 95% water, it shouldn’t be an issue...OrcaSaintJames wrote: »I don't think it effects weight loss. I do, however think that if you have that as an option, it stops you from drinking more water. That is me. I know if I allow it that I will drink more of that than water.
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