will giving up diet coke really help me?

I wrestle with the idea of quitting my diet mt. dew (and occasional diet dr. pepper) habit, too. I typically drink 4 cans a day. Last week I was able to cut down to 2 fairly easily. I want to stop because I know the chemicals are not good for me (although I am not sure how bad I think they are--could find out they are relatively harmless but we could find out they are horrible). I also wonder if they do encourage cravings for sweets. I personally don't think they affect your weight much, if at all, but I do wonder if they perpetuate cravings for foods that do have an affect. Soda is also expensive, so saving that money would be a good thing. On the other hand, I can justify drinking it because it is supposed to be safe, according to many studies. My goal is to switch from soda to green tea if I need caffeine. Right now I am just trying to get to one per day and go from there.

Oh, another reason I wanted to try quitting was to see if it has any affect on my sleep. I usually don't have a hard time getting to sleep, but do wake frequently (but I also have a baby) and am exhausted much of the time. I didn't know if the caffeine was causing me to have rebound fatigue or something. So far I haven't noticed much difference, but my baby has been sick so I am sleeping horribly.

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.

Evidence would be nice.

There's no harm in giving it up if you feel it will help you better meet your goals. But there is no study out there that proves that people who control their food and drink diet soft drink don't lose weight. All the studies hat have been done show that people who drink Diet soft drink tend to be overweight. They don't account for food.

I drink 1-2L a day. I ALSO drink my 9 glasses/1.5L of water a day. No issues. Make sure you get your water in and you'll be fine.

Hi

I gave up diet coke three months ago on the advice of my rheumatologist. She advised me to give up all soft drinks because they MAY contribute to bone thinning and I am already at a higher risk because of the medication I am on. She said it was my choice, but if she was in my position she would give it up. Nothing definitive, but I certainly was not ignoring her advice.

My sugar cravings at 3pm have certainly been curbed, but there has been no weight loss, but that's probably due to medication side effects.

Donna

I'm not sure. I hear coke is pretty good at slimming you down. Maybe you should also think about trying crystal meth.

Oh, wait, you said, Diet Coke? Um, i have no idea.

Hahahaha... as long as the meth doesn't put you over your calorie goal for the day.

or you can polish a penny or clean the rust off your grill with it. Sounds!

I drink diet pepsi, I love the taste and the caffeine. I do not drink coffee, so a soda in the morning is my wake up juice.

We all know water is definitely better for you. I have found that drinking more water lowers my craving for soda during the day.

Honestly all soda is bad for your body especially diet soda because of the artificial crape put in to make it diet. I am not sure if drinking it will cause you to lose less weight but if you plan on being healthier all around I urge you to give up all soda including diet. As for things to drink you could try crystal light as a treat to drink instead of water or juice. Also if you give up the diet coke your cravings will go away and instead try to get hooked on something healthier like carrots with ranch so you start having healthy cravings instead of sugar cravings.

I'm not really calling you out personally but you're just the latest to parrot this.

"Artificial"is a meaningless term and there is NOTHING in diet soda (or really any other diet drink) that causes cardiac problems or cancer. Seriously just go down the ingredient list one by one. There are no secret ingredients.

Does anyone remember that aspartame study that gave rats cancer? What the study actually did is they injected the rats with such high doses that no human could possibly ingest it. They didnt feed rats diet coke or something crazy like that. But all that gets reported is that ingredient=cancer. I studied this exact kind of stuff for a living and this kind of thinking is something to fight against at every opportunity. Most anything in high doses (crazy high, like impossible to eat that much) can cause cancer. It has no bearing on your life. Drink the diet coke if it works for you.

If it makes you feel better/have less cravings to quit it then go for it, but lets not pretend that its somehow healthier or safer.

Honestly all soda is bad for your body especially diet soda because of the artificial crape put in to make it diet. I am not sure if drinking it will cause you to lose less weight but if you plan on being healthier all around I urge you to give up all soda including diet. As for things to drink you could try crystal light as a treat to drink instead of water or juice. Also if you give up the diet coke your cravings will go away and instead try to get hooked on something healthier like carrots with ranch so you start having healthy cravings instead of sugar cravings.

Please stop.

Then you suggest CRYSTAL LIGHT. LOL!

Diet coke won't help with weight gain or loss, but it will definitely help your skin, especially if you are replacing it with water. It will clear it up, make it less dry, less oily, and the chemicals made in it really aren't that great for you.

Don't get me wrong, I still have one now and then, but like a treat rather than something that quenches my thirst. You're skin and insides will love you for it

I don't know if anyone has said this yet, because there are four pages of replies.. but I highly suggest a big YES!

Reason; the brain expects sugar when you feed it the kind of intense sweetener found in diet coke, leaving you MORE HUNGRY! Especially for the crappy food! Swap it for water

Source; Science magazines/personal research.

(the odd one isn't bad for you, but as a whole yes you're better off without!)

All I can say is that for me it has really helped with my sweet cravings. I don't know if it would have helped if that's all I gave up, but I stopped using any artificial sweeteners. I can't believe the difference it has made!!

An additional benefit, my teeth have gotten whiter since giving it up! :bigsmile:

I also notice I now crave water! We went out for dinner last night and I ordered iced tea. I drank one glass. When the server asked if I would like a refill, I requested a glass of water instead. Me??? I did that??? :noway: It was actually quite a nice little NSV for me. Not to mention that for the first time in my life I stopped eating when I was full! I actually brought home half a hamburger!

MFP needs a like button! This is awesome to hear

i was told to stay away from anything that contains citric acid as this makes you hungry. I dont know if diet coke has this in though?

I personally find that Diet Coke just makes me crave chocolate and sugar even more, but if that's not the case for you then it's far from the worst vice you could have.

I can't believe people are telling you to carry on drinking coke as if it doesn't matter. Yeah, you're losing weight? Great. That's not the only part of your journey. Don't neglect your overall HEALTH and fitness too.

Coke is empty calories. Empty calories are worthless to you and only become a detriment to your diet. Diet versions may have zero calories (due to sweetener), but if the research that it stimulates your appetite (as in, makes you hungry) is true, you're consuming additional calories indirectly through the drink. You may not even realise it, either. Someone tell me again, how is that helpful in any form? Even if the research is wrong, it has no nutritional benefit to you at all. It's an addiction. I don't know of any addiction that is healthy for you.

If you want to improve your lifestyle and overall health, you have to make sacrifices along the way. You can't be weak and your CERTAINLY shouldn't let the people here influence your decision (I'm talking about the ones telling you it's fine to carry on drinking it en masse). Try your hardest to kick the habit - it'll be hard if you have an addictive personality, but you'll feel better for it. Don't let it sit there on your mind either, otherwise you'll convince yourself to have a can. Give it up and forget it ever existed.

Listen, we all fall off the barrow at some point (but don't use this as an excuse to have a cheeky can of coke!) - it's okay, pick yourself up and get back on your path. Soon enough you'll wonder why you never tried to give it up earlier!

Let me just tell you a little about myself. 3-4 years ago I was in the worst shape of my life. I was considerably overweight and pretty unhappy. I drank coke A LOT. I'd get through a 2 ltr bottle very easy and I hardly drank water. I'm about 6f3/4" and back then I must have weighed about 127kg (280lbs). I started adjusting my diet towards the latter half of 2010 (I cut out coke and cut down on sweets, etc.) and by Christmas I must have been about >10kg lighter. I didn't miss it at all. I made it a serious New Year's resolution to sort my weight out and I slowly worked on my diet throughout 2011 and joined a gym towards the end of it. Now? As of last weigh-in, I'm sat at about 81kg (roughly 178lbs) and I'm in the best shape and fitness of my entire LIFE.

Don't let your weaknesses control you. You control them.

Good luck with whatever you do though - I'm sure you'll make the decision that's best for YOU.

If you do decide to try to give up or limit your Diet Coke drinking, I suggest going in stages.

I broke my Coke habit by replacing one Coke every day. Instead of Coke with breakfast, I drank hot tea. I discovered I love hot tea, which I've always had with milk and no sugar. I got to where I packed tea to carry into work with me, so that was replacing at least two Cokes--super exciting stuff for me, since I was eliminating so much sugar from my daily intake. From there, I was able to transition to not really drinking Coke on a regular basis at all. I still get a taste for one every once in a while, but it's no longer a part of my regular diet.