will giving up diet coke really help me?

Every time I see a study saying "diet sodas make you fatter," I think, "There's another study funded by the sugar industry."

Try Coke Zero, it's better -- in my opinion, at least. Either way, they both lack sugar and calories, so they won't keep you from losing weight. They carry the other problems of soda, though. They don't hydrate you and they make you want more. But whatever, if that's your thing. Personally, I don't like soda. I don't like the idea of it. It doesn't taste bad, but I know what it is and I don't particularly want it in me.

Water is not a bad option -- you can get 8-10 flavor packets at Walmart for less than the cost of a 12-pack. I prefer Vitamin Enhanced Grape. The "Vitamin Enhanced" thing is BS -- it has trace amounts of a couple B vitamins -- but it tastes great. Adds 20 calories to a 16.9oz. bottle, though (or a 20 oz. if you stretch it). I call it crack water. Of course water on its own is great if you can dig it.

For caffeine, find a good tea. Only cheap tea is less than stellar. Coffee has a little more caffeine, but a 16 oz. cup of black coffee with Splenda is 7 calories, where tea has none. Doesn't sound right but that's what MFP reports. And yes I know it's hot -- I drink hot coffee and tea year round.

Just for a data point, I drink litres of diet coke and coke zero and am happily losing weight. Giving up chips and bread rolls is probably a better move :-)

Yes, it would be -- those breads (what goes into your chips, and the rolls themselves) translate into sugar in your stomach, so yes, diet soda will take less away from a diet -- and not by just a little bit -- than any bread.

Coke Zero for life.

I drink a lot of water and tea, but will have 1-2 coke zeros a day.. NBD.

I rarely drink it anymore and have notice I feel less bloated. I still lost weight when I was having it daily. I just feel better drinking just water or unsweet tea.

Yes it will. I gave up diet coke and everything with aspartame. drink water, water with lemon or tea with truvia/ strevia. It will quench your thirst. When I drank diet coke , I was a junky, I drank it all day up to 8 or more 20 oz. bottles a day. I was always thirsty . Diet coke or coke with the sodium does not satisfy. I found if I got a diet coke, I got a snack at the same time. candy bar, chips , etc. I gave up the diet cokes, cokes and aspartame in Jan 2012 , I was over 250 now I am at 210.2 giving up the diet colas and sugar. When Diet coke first came out, I got off sugar colas also and lost a lot of weight , but it all came back . Do your LIVER a favor and get off the chemical. Just my opinion.

Yes, it is sugar free but do some research on the chemicals that are in and then make your decision. It isn't the
calories that affects you but the aspartame. It isn't good for you, health wise and losing weight wise, although once in awhile is fine.

Diet Coke is sugar free.

As people have already discussed, aspartame is a tricky one. It causes cancer, it's perfectly safe. It makes you susceptible to diabetes, it helps you lose weight. There's a lot of debate, lots of studies that show conflicting information, and some sources are completely contradictory.

For example, on the livestrong website, there are two completely different statements regarding the health effects of aspartame:

http://www.livestrong.com/article/355002-side-effects-of-aspartame-in-diet-soda/

http://www.livestrong.com/article/481292-what-is-more-harmful-aspartame-or-high-fructose-corn-syrup/?utm_source=popslideshow&utm_medium=a1

What I will say is this:

1) I gave up drinking soda (with sugar/HFCS) for one month, and after I did that, I stopped really craving it at all. I did initially lose some weight, but what I noticed more was that I just felt better overall. I never really had a taste for diet soda, so I never replaced it with that, but I do occasionally drink Vitamin Water Zero (sweetened with erithritol), Oogave (soda sweetened with agave) and Zevia (soda sweetened with stevia), and I know that it's not any better or healthier than diet soda, the sweetener they use doesn't bother me as much as aspartame though.

2) Chemicals are chemicals. I generally eat organic, spray free, grass fed, etc., so drinking soda is a bit of a stretch for me as it's way out of norm with the rest of my overall diet. I'm skeptical that drinking soda (diet or regular or alternatively sweetened) could in any way be considered healthy. I know people say not to drink your calories (iced coffee with rice milk is another weakness of mine), and I try to go by that. As diet soda has no calories, it would seem to not follow under that same line of reasoning, but then on the other hand, what is it that you're putting into your body? It has no nutritional value and doesn't provide your body anything that it needs. Whether it's healthy or not in the long run, that might be reason enough not to drink it.

3) Treats. We seem to still find ways to treat ourselves with food, or sweets/salts we know we shouldn't be eating. Maybe we rationalize that if we don't do it all the time that it's not a big deal. Once a month or so, maybe is fine, but every week, or every day perhaps stops being rarely. Though really it's all relative. If someone used to drink 5 sodas a day and is now down to 1-2, you could consider that progress. But I think we need to be real about our own self control. I could bypass a bakery and ex-nay on store-bought cookies, but if there's freshly made brownies or cookies in my house, they will get eaten, and I will blow my calorie count. It's compulsive. So I don't keep them in the house. I don't feel that I've solved anything though, since merely staying away from them has not helped my self-control when I am around them. I would say my own behavior mirrors a form of addiction, and simply changing my diet isn't going to solve that. If you feel addicted to diet coke in the sense that you don't want to give it up and you think you would feel anxious about it if you did, then giving it up for "health"'s sake might not be the right approach. You might need to look at it from the point of view of addiction.

When I dont drink it I dont have water retention.

I know the feeling.
My problems not really sugar rush but caffeine addiction and like you I don't drink hot drinks and struggle to drink water and all.
I agree with everyone else though. Try for a bit and see, it doesn't hurt to try, you can always go back to the way it was.

other than the fact that you have trained your body to "like" it and it now satisfies that learned behaviour, there is nothing else of value for your body. Once you have quit drinking it for even a short amount of time, taking a glass of it will be shocking and you will be able to taste it in a different and unpleasant way. (for me anyway)

I agree 100%. Coke was my only "vice" and it was hard to give it up, I was also addicted to the caffeine. I started by using the crystal-lite in my water that is + energy to get over the withdrawl-headache-crappy feeling.... and here I am, 3 months later and I haven't drank anything but water, water and propel-zero.... I dont miss Coke, in fact, its too sweet to me now.

I would rather eat my calories

When I was drinking 6 diet cokes/day I retained water and had energy problems.

I now drink 2/day, drink plenty of water, and have no issues with water retention.

People smarter than me with more time on their hands to be smarter than me say yes... Personally, ANYTHING that doesn't grow in the ground, from a tree, or eats something that grows out of the ground or from a tree (massive generalization) is going to have some factor of "not being beneficial."

http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/healthy-eating/4-health-side-effects-of-diet-soda.html

There are other articles out there too. I think you should do your own research, consider your goals, and make a decision that YOU think will give you the best chance at reaching your goals.

I drink about 3 diet pepsi a day. When I quit drinking them, I went down one jeans size, without going down in weight. I think it was all the bloating from the sodas that I lost.

I read an article that said that people that drink diet drinks regularly consume more calories than those who don't. Even though the diet is calorie free, your body gets confused. You are consuming something sweet, but there are no calories with it. Therefore, the article claimed that your body would seek out the "lost" calories elsewhere.

I still drink them, but try to stick to one a day.

I gave it up 3 weeks ago. This is the first week I feel decent (the headaches that first week were horrible) but I do feel better in the morning when I wake up -- I no longer need to drink a diet coke first thing in the morning. And the first two weeks I also did eat sweets. This week I have noticed my cravings for desserts has reduced somewhat. This is why I gave it up. My nutritionist said there was some evidence that for some people, drinking diet coke (or other atificial sweeteners) made them crave and eat other sweets.
At first I replaced it with this Trader Joe's powdered lemonade (fast flavor sticks; like Crystal Light) but now I am moving more to plain water.
Even if I give it up entirely and manage to stay off it, I really do not want to become one of those sanctimonious ex-diet-soda drinkers; but I'd say so far I'm liking it better without!

I am shocked at all the people telling you to keep drinking it! You obviously are aware of what's in it & that it is just terrible for your insides.

I used to drink a can a day & then maybe have some when I got home too. I would get home & be ready for bed almost immediately! I was okay once I got myself to the gym but I'd have to psych myself up to getting there. Now I don't drink it at all & I have so much more energy & can actually get home & enjoy my evenings. Personally, I don't see the point of drinking something with no nutritional value, that is damaging you from the inside. You are on a health & fitness journey after all. Good luck!