Question regarding diet drinks

[Dash]

Switching to only diet sodas and crystal light resulted in my losing about 20-25 pounds over the course of a year. No other aspects of my lifestyle changed (particularly exercise levels) other than I tried to cut back slightly on the sweets and junk.

I lost about 10 pounds by cutting out soda completely and just drinking crystal light. I also had a chocolate milk addiction that I cut out as well. Unfortunately, I fell off the wagon so I'm having to start completely over. I've gotten off of the hard stuff and have been drinking Caffeine Free Diet Coke...next step is to stop drinking soda completely.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

I think you have to drink water to lose weight. The only time in my life I have been really successful in losing weight I was drinking 64+ ounces of water a day. I struggle with doing that, but I am working on that again. If you can get used to drinking that much water, drinking the diet soda (my vice is Diet Mt. Dew) becomes less, as well as eating as much.

[scottie]

I think you have to drink water to lose weight. The only time in my life I have been really successful in losing weight I was drinking 64+ ounces of water a day. I struggle with doing that, but I am working on that again. If you can get used to drinking that much water, drinking the diet soda (my vice is Diet Mt. Dew) becomes less, as well as eating as much.

I was drinking little to no water when I lost the pounds I referred to earlier.

http://cougaruteforum.com/showpost.p...2&postcount=27

[Dash]

I was drinking little to no water when I lost the pounds I referred to earlier.

http://cougaruteforum.com/showpost.p...2&postcount=27

Very cool. You should do an experiment...do what you did before to lose weight, but drink 8 oz of water a day (that's what's recommended, right?). I'd be interested in seeing if there's a difference to how you feel and how much more weight you lose.

[happyone]

Very cool. You should do an experiment...do what you did before to lose weight, but drink 8 oz of water a day (that's what's recommended, right?). I'd be interested in seeing if there's a difference to how you feel and how much more weight you lose.

actually from what i've read and what my doc told me it is 8 8oz glasses of water a day. that is really hard to do, believe me.

[happyone]

When I first decided I was way to fat, the first thing I gave up was soda. Between that and doing push-away exersizes (grasp table firmly and extend arms) I lost about 30 lbs.

[Gidget]

We can all compare how much weight we lost when we stopped consuming this or that, but I think it is all a lot of fluff because no one knows what weight anyone here started out at (unless specifically mentioned).

Those who are seriously over weight will likely see an obvious weight loss just by switching to diet soda. But those who are only slightly over the average weight for their height and age might see no difference what-so-ever from making the switch to diet.

As an aside: diet soda sucks, I would rather have no soda at all than drink diet. No diet drink will ever compare to Coca-Cola Classic. I feel akin to Mrs, Funk when I say that Coke Classic and me have a spiritual connection.

Though I have been off soda for a few weeks now and feel a lot less bloated and sluggish.

[marsupial]

See this Washington Times article:

Diet soda has 5 calories or fewer per serving, of course, but emerging research seems to suggest that drinking sugary-tasting beverages, even artificially sweetened ones, appears to develop a preference in the human body for a whole range of other sweet things. And when we consume sweeter cereals, snacks, breads and desserts, we tend to consume more calories, and eventually put on pounds.

A 2005 study, by Sharon P. Fowler and colleagues at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, showed that people who drink diet soda gain weight - lots of it. In fact, the research found, "There was a 41 percent increase in risk of being overweight for every can or bottle of diet soft drink a person consumes each day."