[dscheppke]

Has anyone noticed a correlation between using Nutrasweet and to craving carbs and not being able to lose weight?

I noticed that some "new research" has come out that says that using Nutrasweet tricks your body into thinking you are eating something loaded with sugar, (or carbs) because of the sweet taste and that causes your insulin levels to rise, which in turn, causes you to crave more carbs.

I am asking because since this information was released, I have drastically reduced how much diet pop I drank, and now my weight seems to be coming off much faster than my usual 1 lb. every two weeks. That is what happened the last several time I "dieted" with much the same as I am doing now. Only difference is reduction in diet soda and I have lost 10 lbs. this month. Also, I don't seem to have the uncontrollable sweet cravings that I usually do and that is truly awesome!

So what do you think?

[RNmomof5]

Does that only apply to nutrasweet? What about Splenda or other artificial sweetners?

[SugarHabit]

As you can tell by the name i've chosen for this forum, Sugarhabit, a sweet tooth is my main downfall and always has been with trying to lose weight. So, of course, when trying to lose weight in the past, and not really being ready to give up the sugar taste, I replaced my dependence on sugar with a dependence on artificial sweeteners. I couldn't get through a day with a couple of cans of diet soda.
Anyway, I don't claim to know whether the artificial sweetener tricks my body into believing it's getting real sugar and thus not dropping weight or anything like that BUT I can with complete certainty tell you that having all that artificially sweetened stuff, especially diet soda, meant that my sweet tooth never diminished and therefore I kept craving sweets and sabotaging my diet and often, making weight loss nearly impossible.
It was only after I decided that I needed to ween myself off of the sweet stuff and chased it mainly in things like fruit, was I able to curb my cravings for sweets significantly and was able to lose weight.
I hope that helps?

[Mrs Snark]

I've dropped diet soda from a "several in a day" habit to a "very occasional treat" and boy, can I tell the difference. I can't believe how sweet a diet soda tastes now -- the last time I had one I had to dilute it half and half with water. I'm not sure about what the research will really mean in the long run, but I figured an addition to artificial sweeteners was the last thing I needed at this point.

I'm glad to hear you had such great results dropping it!