Water - How essential? Diet soda bad?

Water is very important! Diet sodas and/or coffee do not slow weight loss; however, people love to debate the topic. LOL

I'll let someone with more knowledge fully answer your questions, but I do know that diet sodas have artificial sweeteners (among other artificial ingredients) which are bad for you.

as a used to be 200 lb girl I lost 50 pounds cutting out soda entirely from my life... I am now a50lbs and maintaining and have been soda free for 6 years... VERY important!!!!
[/quote I meant to type 150lbs instead of a50 lol

Oh thanks for the comments. Yeah, I still never get that when people say to drink water to shed water from water retention.
Why would drinking water help shed water? Wouldnt it just replace the water that is there? Or even add more water?
Is it because more water will help shed the salt that retains the water?

Think of it this way: if you're dehydrated, you're not putting enough water into your body. If you're not getting enough water, your body will retain the water that's already there. When you start hydrating your body again, it will get rid of the unnecessary water. It's basically for the same reason people tell you not to eat too few calories, because that makes your body go into starvation mode and hold onto everything it can.

I read somewhere that the artificial sweetner in Diet Soda actually makes you hungry. I haven't really drank soda since I was 11 years old so I can't say I know that to be true or false based on experience, but I have heard things about it contributing to weight gain.

Water is very important! Diet sodas and/or coffee do not slow weight loss; however, people love to debate the topic. LOL

Exactly right on everything, end of thread.

I would have to agree with you, it's the salt that the extra water is helping flush out.

yes yes TONS of water! Ice cold water aldo is great in the AM to get your blood flowing or before a work out.

I love my diet pepsi, and it hasnt mutated, casued cancer, or attacked my embrios yet.

Water = GOOD!

I have no knowledge regarding how good or bad diet sodas are. But, when I kicked the Coke habit I kicked the soda habit entirely!

With the small exception of plain old soda water with a piece of lemon.

Too each their own but as my Dad used to say "In for a penny, in for a pound".

Diet soda is extremely high in sodium. High salt intake = water retention. Water retention = added weight.

Extremely?

Most cans of diet soda have 40mg per can, that's absolutely nothing.

I once read that if you drink cold water, your body has to heat it up to use it, thus using calories to heat it up. Also drinking water helps your body to shed any water it is retaining from water retention due to salt intake. Personally for me, too much diet cola causes my hands to swell. I have to assume it probably causes the rest of my body to swell as well.

I concur!

Diet soda is extremely high in sodium. High salt intake = water retention. Water retention = added weight.

um ... no. it's not. don't just repeat wrong things just because you heard someone else say a wrong thing.

:smokin: How important do you think water is for weight loss?
And do you think diet sodas or coffee slow weight loss?

Water is hugely important. It allows your body to metabolize food better, helps clear out toxins, and higher water intake leads to lower water retention in most people, meaning you'll get a quick bonus weight loss. Drinking a lot of water also leaves less room for other less healthy drinks.

And as to the diet soda issue, there's a lot of debate on the issue. Here's what I found was true for ME, your mileage may vary.

When I was a soda drinker, I had this expectation that everything I drank had to have a flavor, and the only acceptable flavor was "sweet". So I'd sweeten my coffee, drink water with sugary "flavor packs", etc. I'd also find that I constantly craved sweet foods.

Once I went through the painful process of giving up the "sweetness in all things", I found I was craving empty sugars a lot less. I started enjoying the actual flavor of black coffee rather than covering it up with sweet, and I started finding that plain water was satisfying in and of itself. This took a while, but helped me get my sugar intake under control, which in turn allowed me to eat more sustaining foods (fats and proteins), which led to less constant hunger, which led to better food decisions.

So, whatever you choose to believe about the possibly-scary, possibly-bunk claims of the dangers of artificial or engineered sweeteners, there is a psychological component for some people (myself included) that you may want to consider.

Coffee? Depends on how you drink it. Black coffee is basically calorie-free, and the caffeine is a stimulant so you get a little metabolism boost and a drop in appetite. It's also one of the safest stimulants out there because you tend to dose yourself with it very slowly. But if you start adding sugar to it, it can rapidly become an empty calorie delivery system.

Diet soda is extremely high in sodium. High salt intake = water retention. Water retention = added weight.

Extremely?

Most cans of diet soda have 40mg per can, that's absolutely nothing.

It's enough, though...especially for a drink. That on top of whatever other sodium one eats during the day can make a difference.

It's 1-2 DV%, really... it's nothing.