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Zero Sugar or Diet Sodas? Are they viable?

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Yes diet soda is perfectly fine for losing weight. It's 99% water, the other 1% might not be great for your teeth especially, but it has no calories. The whole idea that your body gets pissed off at you for trying to trick it is ludicrous and I bet the majority of people who say this also eat plenty of other artificially sweetened stuff like quest bars and the like.
Honestly it helps me prevent cravings for sweet things. If you can drink water and maintain your cut then do that, but for me that is a non starter. If I'm drinking water it is going to have some of that Mio stuff in there.
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
lmfao I love this :messenger_tears_of_joy:
drunk_elephants_marula_3_2014_05_13.jpg

Except animals soon figured out that nice sugary fermented fruit juice was so much better.
 
I moved on from drinking mostly Zero to just carbonated water a couple years back and have only had a few sodas since. For me the important part was carbonation, artificial sweeteners are not really bringing in anything I need. While I don't think Zero is particularly bad from a weight gain perspective, they do rot your teeth if you keep drinking a lot, and they don't actually quench your thirst, they make you want to drink more, which is really the point of these products. Some say the artificial sweeteners might spike insulin, but I think the main issue is simply that you get used to that sweet taste and that will always keep you wanting other sweet things and dislike anything that's not sweetened.
 

Skyr

Member
It's completely fine as long as you don't overdo it.
Diet Soda can still be really for your teeth because of the acidity, which will accumulate damage to your teeth enamal over time.

As long as you keep water as your main source you are fine.
 
I drink Coke Zero from time to time.
Needed to get used to it first off, but now I cannot drink sugared drinks anymore. Tastes really gross now.
And I lost fat all the way (not interested in losing body weight).

But like with every nutritional change, check out what works for you.
 

Malakhov

Banned
drinking soda and losing weight is like going mountain climbing with dumbbells chained to your ankles
Nah I've lost 100 pounds while still drinking diet soda in my 20s.

Most important thing is to start eating well and exercise. If you drop everything at once you will fail

So keep that diet soda until you change your eating habits and are used to it, then go the next step further.
 
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McCheese

Member
I drink tons of the stuff every day, to be fair I'm middle-age so at the "fuck it, find what you love and let it kill you" stage of life, but it doesn't leave a horrible "film" feeling over my teeth, and when I'm trying to lose weight I just drown out my hunger with the stuff. Switched to using straws a few years back, and have had no real problems with it.

Having said that, I'm also old and wise enough to know that I shouldn't be recommending folks to drink litres of Coke Zero every day, so listen to Evilore and get onto that water shit, I hear that's decent. But as an experiment, I'm still alive and kicking.
 

darkinstinct

...lacks reading comprehension.
Yeah, so I’m a heavy drinker of regular sugary ass soda and I have been trying to find alternatives that I can stick with. Water and water flavoring isn’t working for me. Neither was Gatorade Zero. Tonight I tried Cherry Coke Zero Sugar and Mountain Dew Zero Sugar and I am impressed with their flavor. I could really get used to them, but is the sodium intake a big problem if you are trying to lose weight? I’m overweight and I need to stop drinking all of the soda I’m currently drinking before it catches up to me. I intend to get back to my exercise regimen very soon (should have never stopped), but I want to know first if these zero sugar and diet sodas are viable alternatives to regular sodas. Can I drink these things and lose weight by dropping the calorie intake? Please enlighten me.

I switched to Coke Zero two years ago and lost 20 pounds. It's the most amazing soft drink ever. You need to get used to the flavor but after a week or so you are good and regular Coke starts to taste strange.
 

Malakhov

Banned
I switched to Coke Zero two years ago and lost 20 pounds. It's the most amazing soft drink ever. You need to get used to the flavor but after a week or so you are good and regular Coke starts to taste strange.
I actually prefer coke zero from the original. It's quite good. I treat myself to one can or glass a day
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
I actually prefer coke zero from the original. It's quite good. I treat myself to one can or glass a day
I actually drink the diet soda from Aldi as if the nutrition label is to be believed it has little to no sodium, which I struggle to keep low at the best of times. It tastes a little weird at first but like everything you get used to it. Regular soda tastes really syrupy to me now.
 

gela94

Member
The only ones that are trustworthy, and not going to damage your body are the stevia sweetened carbonated drinks. I don't know of any that are using monkfruit just yet, which is another safe option. Erythritol is also safe, but I've only seen that used in protein drinks, powders, and bars. Almost guaranteed, all the major brands like Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Coca Cola are either using Aspartame or Sucralose; both of which I would advise you never intake again. I believe those are harmful sweeteners. With many, it might take years to cause harm. I could feel the damage done instantly since I have an acutely sensitive body when it comes to many harmful substances, and could instantly feel homeostasis rapidly slipping away from my body whenever I would drink those oldschool whey protein powders with sucralose, or a diet coke as kid with aspartame

Those are my thoughts on the subject. Good luck with the weight loss. Tea and stevia is really good to stave off hunger too. Just make it extremely strong, preferably decaffeinated , and add stevia to your taste and it helps calm you down and feel fairly satiated for an hour maybe is what I've been experiencing
There is Cola that is using Stevia it's called "Green Cola" it tastes pretty good but a bit on the expensive side.
 
The thing is, what's the point?

If you want a sugary arse drink, have one. If there's no sugar in it, it isn't a sugary arse drink, so why bother drinking it?
 
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Malakhov

Banned
I actually drink the diet soda from Aldi as if the nutrition label is to be believed it has little to no sodium, which I struggle to keep low at the best of times. It tastes a little weird at first but like everything you get used to it. Regular soda tastes really syrupy to me now.
Yep everytime I go somewhere (like catch a movie and grab a popcorn and soda) and they don't have coke zero I take a Coca-Cola since I hate diet Coke and it's very syrupy and too sweet
 

Tesseract

Banned
Nah I've lost 100 pounds while still drinking diet soda in my 20s.

Most important thing is to start eating well and exercise. If you drop everything at once you will fail

So keep that diet soda until you change your eating habits and are used to it, then go the next step further.

you can swallow hot sewer garbage in your 20s and lose weight

hell i'm 34 and still have a rocket launcher metabolism, it's better to make the sacrifices and cut the sugar
 

Malakhov

Banned
you can swallow hot sewer garbage in your 20s and lose weight

hell i'm 34 and still have a rocket launcher metabolism, it's better to make the sacrifices and cut the sugar
The point is it won't prevent you losing weight if you drink a zero calories soda and wont make it any harder is all I'm saying

Changing your eating habits and exercise is very hard so keeping things like a diet soda will help you stay on course

Losing weight is easy, changing habits isn't so you need to take baby steps. I know for me it helped quite a lot for when I had a sugar craving. A can of zero calories soda would just get me over it

I lost all that weight and never gained it back because I changed my habits and it wasn't a diet. Don't think I would of made it if I had tried to stop everything.

I think I'm lucky though, even at 40 now I can gain 10 pounds in two weeks during holidays and lose them right back when I get back to work. I have a fast metabolism
 
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poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
you can swallow hot sewer garbage in your 20s and lose weight

hell i'm 34 and still have a rocket launcher metabolism, it's better to make the sacrifices and cut the sugar
I'm mid 40's and still can lose weight (or gain mainly the right kind of weight) while drinking diet soda.
 

FutureMD

Member
Diet drinks are good to get the sweet flavour without the calories, assuming you keep track of your calories and stay under your daily burn rate. Helped me to lose weight in the past.

I've heard many people mention how they're bad but yet I've not seen any definitive scientific proof yet, which just means people are just echoing what other people are saying without any research. But I have seen studies that show how sugar is pretty bad for you. So take from that what you will.
 

Roronoa Zoro

Gold Member
Hey surprisingly those MD energy drinks have WAY less sugar than coke or regular MD. I've cut my sugar down to like 19g a day at most if I need caffeine from one of those plus I think they taste way better than regular MD
 

eot

Banned
If drinking water makes you nauseous then I'd say that's a problem. Quit cold turkey, wean yourself off it, whatever, but you should be able to drink water IMO.
 

Airola

Member
If you want to lose weight, you have to accept at least one of these things:

1) Not getting to have a super enjoyable taste and pleasure of consuming pleasurable things so much that it really bugs and annoys you.
2) Lots of pain and struggle in your muscles. So much of that, that it will annoy you to no end, but you still have to do that.
3) Lots of heavily annoying out of breath situations where your lungs scream STOP IT but you still have to continue doing that.

At the very least one of them has to happen. Preferably all of them. If none of that happens, you will not lose weight.
Currently I'm not doing none of those and it shows.
I'm so much into hedonistic lifestyle right now that I have zero backbone for any of that. Been able to shake off gambling addiction so maybe I'll get to these other pleasures too at some point.

It's going to be one of these two things:
1) Accept pleasure now and pain later.
2) Accept pain now and pleasure later.
If you seriously want to lose weight, you have to first pick number two. And then you have to pick at least one of those three options above. If you only pick one of them, then the amount of annoyance and struggle from that has to be at its worst for it to work. If you choose all of them, you don't have to go that far but all of them must still feel annoying and painful for them to work.
 

GamingKaiju

Member
Neither. Coke like all sugary drinks should just be a once in a while treat, try water or flavoured water, fruit smoothies (real fruit not that sugar filled crap), Tea, Coffee etc
 

Punished Miku

Gold Member
Coke Zero is fine for me. I don't drink tons of it, but I usually have one a day or one every other day with lunch. Tastes about the same, but cuts out 120 calories. I also drink a ton of water, and literally show up to work with a giant backpack every day filled with about 6 large bottles of water, and carry an additional gallon for coffee.
 
I once tried diet coke and was disgusted with it.
But you need to cut on these types of drinks. Water is the best, no taste, no smell just plain refreshing. And it has no calories.
 
If you can believe sugar is poison (because it is), it may help you reduce the consumption of it.
It's great for a bulk, though. Feels like easy mode.
Diet soda is frankenfood. Try to avoid.
 
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MacReady13

Member
I'm a type 2 diabetic. Been type 2 for almost 8 years and for almost 8 years haven't had soft drinks! I drink water almost exclusively. To mix it up I have sparkling water mixed with a little low sugar cordial, and it actually tastes like a soft drink! It's a nice change from drinking water all the time.
 

Horatius

Member
Zero sugar/diet sodas are worse for you because there’s no sugar. When you drink them, you’re “tricking” your body into thinking it’s going to get real sugar, and when it doesn’t get what it needs, it makes you end up eating more so it can convert that food into sugar.

Avoid em
yeah pretty sure this is certified nonsense

body doesn't process things by the fact that they both taste sweet. it works off of chemical reactions that are set in stone. either a chemical triggers a reaction or it doesn't. artificial sweetners that aren't sugar alcohols do not cause the same metabolic reaction as sugar, and have an incredibly small amount of calories in comparison.

if you're too addicted to stop soda altogether just drink the sugar free stuff

(pepsi max tastes the best tbh)
 

DESTROYA

Member
This too is amazing. I lost so much fat and gained so much muscle because of sparkling water helping to stave off wild hunger pangs. Great mention
That’s not how it works.
You don’t gain anything drinking sparkling water , you get less calorie intake that leads to less fat = you see more of your muscle tone.
You make it sound like just by drinking sparkling soda it will make you ripped like steroids.
 

Piku_Ringo

Banned
The only ones that are trustworthy, and not going to damage your body are the stevia sweetened carbonated drinks. I don't know of any that are using monkfruit just yet, which is another safe option. Erythritol is also safe, but I've only seen that used in protein drinks, powders, and bars. Almost guaranteed, all the major brands like Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Coca Cola are either using Aspartame or Sucralose; both of which I would advise you never intake again. I believe those are harmful sweeteners. With many, it might take years to cause harm. I could feel the damage done instantly since I have an acutely sensitive body when it comes to many harmful substances, and could instantly feel homeostasis rapidly slipping away from my body whenever I would drink those oldschool whey protein powders with sucralose, or a diet coke as kid with aspartame

Those are my thoughts on the subject. Good luck with the weight loss. Tea and stevia is really good to stave off hunger too. Just make it extremely strong, preferably decaffeinated , and add stevia to your taste and it helps calm you down and feel fairly satiated for an hour maybe is what I've been experiencing
I tried to look this up buy only found something called Zevia Zero Calorie Soda, Rainbow Variety Pack
 

V4skunk

Banned
Zero and diet drinks are full of chemicals and even worse than sugar.
Honestly start drinking tea / coffee or pure fruit drinks like orange.
 
In a few weeks you are going to wonder how anyone can even drink soda. On the rare occasion, once every year or so , you end up actually drinking a can at a party or event...its going to gross you out how much it tastes like eating a bag of pure sugar and its gonna make you feel ill. You never need more sugar in your body then what fruit provides. Its ok to indulge in a desert now and again but drinking soda is like having a piece of cake alongside every meal. Forget the aspartame sodas as well..the acidic nature f them still is terrible for you.

Start drinking sparkling mineral waters if you want a change from water, a freshly opened very cold perrier is amazing. You can also buy natural juices and then water down each cup by about 75%. After a week youll start realizing how grotesquely sugary all that stuff is. Another option outside water.....a nice mineral watered down cup of wine with dinner. This is normal in Italy with dinner
 

Roronoa Zoro

Gold Member
It's strange I drink all water except that once a day soft drink of either a MD Kickstarter (19g of sugar) or bottle of coke (more sugar but less caffeine). I'm really healthy other than that one drink. Then again I only work out twice a week so probably need to up that to really see results (5 mile heavy resistance elliptical run). Problem is that my job is quite physical and doesn't end at a definite time so that throws off any workout schedule if I have a physically exhausting day and it runs late on a day when I'm supposed to work out
 

Jayjayhd34

Member
I've lost loads of weight cutting out sugar. Before I was drinking a bottle mountain dew 500ml and bottle of coke 1.5 a day. Now drink diet coke and diet 7 up.
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
There’s no substitute for drinking water. Break the addiction to sugar water first; it’ll take around two weeks of withdrawals. After that you can treat yourself to a sugar-free sweet drink on occasion, in moderation. Water will taste good and refreshing eventually, without all the gunk in it, and crap like coca-cola will seem insane afterwards.

You’ll lose a lot of weight just by doing this.
What there is actually witdhdrawal from sugar-water? How much do you have to drink it...like all day everyday? That must be really shitty feeling, I am "over sugared" even when I drink 0.5L of Coca-cola.

Anyway OP, how about start with tea and honey and cutting the "dose" as you go on? Like normal honey, not some processed shit.
 

Lupin3

Targeting terrorists with a D-Pad
Yeah, so I’m a heavy drinker of regular sugary ass soda and I have been trying to find alternatives that I can stick with. Water and water flavoring isn’t working for me. Neither was Gatorade Zero. Tonight I tried Cherry Coke Zero Sugar and Mountain Dew Zero Sugar and I am impressed with their flavor. I could really get used to them, but is the sodium intake a big problem if you are trying to lose weight? I’m overweight and I need to stop drinking all of the soda I’m currently drinking before it catches up to me. I intend to get back to my exercise regimen very soon (should have never stopped), but I want to know first if these zero sugar and diet sodas are viable alternatives to regular sodas. Can I drink these things and lose weight by dropping the calorie intake? Please enlighten me.

It works for me. As soon as I start to count the calories and keep the food/candy intake under control, I lose weight immediately even if I keep drinking Zero products like crazy. And I'm not even fat to begin with, just a little extra winter insulation going on here and there.
 
The Acids in artificially sweetened drinks are an awesome way to end up with lifelong Kidney stones. Think childbirth pains but worse (they can last up to 6 weeks), and you get to enjoy it at least once or twice a year.
 
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GymWolf

Member
Drink water. Drink twice as much as you think you should. The more hydrated and fulfilled your body feels, the less it's going to crave stupid bullshit that keeps you fat. Diet soda should be a treat at best. Reserve it for meals only if it helps.

Maintaining a healthy weight takes discipline, and an overall lifestyle adjustment. Prove that you're worthy and cut the crap. You'll thank yourself later.

Screenshot-20200329-230213-Chrome.jpg
seconded this.
i drink around 4+ liters of water everyday.
 
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