This question comes up alot!
You are on part of a calorie controlled diet to lose weight and want to know, seen as how you like it so much, whether you can swap your fully loaded cola or other to the diet variety.
Better yet is those that have a Big Mac and have a diet soda to drink with it….big deal!
My answer is that you do not want the Diet version.
Yes it has less calories, and sugar free
In some cases there is also a version that contains no caffeine
But there is a very strong link in the risk of being overweight when you drink diet sodas (so also take that it is hard to lose weight when you continue to drink them).
Just do a google and you’ll come across a study.
And how many overweight people have you seen that also drink diet sodas?
There’s quite a lot of social proof right there.
So what are the reasons?
I believe there is three.
Firstly, there is still that sweet taste whether it contains sugar or not. The fact that it has less calories because of less to zero sugar means that this sweet taste has to be replaced by something else.
One common sweetener that is used is aspartame.
These sweeteners are known to bring on more hunger leading to further eating that may well be over and above what you require.
They may also still promote an insulin response whereby high blood sugar levels are quickly replaced by low ones, tiredness and a need to get some more fuel.
End result….more food (than necessary) and poor timing will lead to poor results.
Secondly, going back to the Big Mac and diet soda example, this is nothing other than psychological.
People think it is okay to consume more food (and in this case crap food) becasue they are drinking a soda with less calories.
It’s wrong but it happens.
The brain has been caught up in a “it has diet on it so it must be good for me” train of thought.
Finally, any soda is what you would call toxic in nature, your body is not designed to process such artificial drinks - the sweeteners and chemicals that they all contain.
So when you are active and trying to lose weight, the toxins can actually prevent you using fat tissue as energy.
While in this scenario you may not put weight on because other factors are being accounted for, it does make it a lot harder to burn the fat!
So if you want to make weight loss effective, and also have better performance and energy levels, steer clear of the diet sodas.
Alternatives?
Water, herbal teas and perhaps some fresh juice without extra sugars but watch the volumes.
And get to look, feel and perform better.
Mike
One Comment
I agree that diet soda is not the answer to weight loss, drinking nice, fresh tap water is a much better option. However, I dispute some of your reasoning and would like to see the clinical evidence that suggests artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame, boost hunger. Moreover, I am always concerned by blanket claims of toxicity whenever the word “chemical” is mentioned. Yes, diet soda contains chemicals (water and carbon dioxide, for instance), but aspartame is nothing more than two amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) stuck together with an extra carbon atom. It is added in very small amounts and regardless is broken down into the two constituent amino acids in your stomach.
People with the genetic condition phenylketonuria should avoid because they are intolerant to one of those amino acids but otherwise aspartame should not be a cause for concern.
But, I definitely agree that drinking soda (diet or otherwise) is not as good as drinking water. There are issues of acidity, and bone calcium you may wish to look into re carbonated drinks.