A little while back I posted on the Food section asking about diet sodas. I asked what makes it taste so good? I received many responses that diet sodas include sacrene (spelled right?) that can pause your weight loss. Well, I decided to give this a months try. Yes, an entire month. I ate what I normally ate health wise and I also drank water. But every other day or so I would have a diet pepsi or diet coke added to my diet. Normally I would lose 2 to 3 pounds per week, but as I started adding diet pop my weight loss declined. Within two weeks of this experiment I started my menstrual cycle. During that time I gained back 4 pounds. Thinking that it would come off after my cycle stopped. Wrong. The extra pounds stayed. I continued drinking diet pop. Week by week I would step on the scale and see that I lost 0 pounds.

For this entire experiment I lost 0 pounds. It lasted from the beginning of October to the end. Now in the month of November I have taken diet cokes out of my diet and drinking water only. And since November 1st I have lost roughly 4 pounds. I was stuck at 309lbs now at 305lbs. It's no doubt that these "diet" drinks were keeping me from losing weight.

Was it worth it? Yes, I'd say it was worth it. For one it made me aware that "diet" cokes are anything but. And two I'm able to tell you all about my experience so you can make a better choice of drinks. I'm not saying that it will pause or slow your weight loss but it did for me and I want to make you all aware of that.

If you have any questions just comment and I'll get back to you.

Christina

Wow. I have been thinking about cutting diet soda out of my life - I drink almost 4 liters of it a day but I haven't yet. I keep telling myself it can't be that bad for you. Yeah right! I have such problems getting under my little plateau I am at right now, maybe doing without it will goose me back into weight loss. Thanks for reporting your experiance.

Thanks for doing this experiment and letting us know! I drink way too much diet drinks and most of it is diet pepsi, and on top of that I drink coffee so I've been concerned lately about how dependent I am on caffeine and I've been halfheartedly trying to cut down. I haven't had many issues yet in terms of stalled weight loss but who knows, it might be affecting me too. It has definitely given me pause, and more motivation to cut down at least. Thank you!

I've done a similar experiment, and had the opposite result. Eating the same, I tend to lose a little bit faster with diet sodas (maybe because they are pretty much my only source of caffeine?). They definitely are bad for some people, and not a problem for others. Lots of people start craving sweet foods after drinking them, and they can stall weight loss. I don't have any of these problems and lose just a little bit faster with them, so they work in well with my plan personally, and i still drink them. If they start causing a problem, I'll re-evaluate?

Don't know if it makes a difference, but I have very negative reactions to aspartame/saccharin, so the only sodas I drink are sweetened with Splenda.

I had found that if I drink much diet soda, that the sodium will cause me to retain fluid and I won't lose wt. either. I do notice that drinking water will not cause me to retain as much and therefore I can maintain my weight easier. I like the sugar-free crystal lights that don't have sodium (there are a few of these kind) . Luckily I never acquired much of a taste for diet soda, it still isn't that great tasting to me.

This is a great thread because it shows how important it is for all of us to be willing to experiment with our weight loss plans, rather than just taking someone else's word for what works and what doesn't.

The longer I'm here at 3FC, the more I appreciate how different everyone is and how there isn't any 'one size fits all' diet loss plan. Honestly, we all need to be willing to develop our own unique plan for life - and it will probably look different for each of us.

I'm one of those who have never been bothered by diet soda - heck, I lost 122 pounds in a year drinking two cans a day (and a pot of coffee a day!) so obviously they don't stall me. But Christina saw a big stall with diet sodas. It's not that one of us is 'right' and the other is 'wrong' ... it's just that we're all different.

If you suspect that diet soda (or coffee or peanut butter or whatever) slows down your weight loss, experiment! Cut it out and see what happens. But if you enjoy diet soda, don't feel like you need to eliminate it unless you're sure it's a problem for YOU. When it comes to weight loss, we're all our own 'laboratory of one'.

I've never had a problem with diet sodas. There are times when I don't drink any at all (simply because I forget to buy it or I just don't have the desire), and there are times when I drink 4-5 cans a day. NEither has seem to have any impact on my ability to lose weight.

hmm, unless you are already eating a ton of sodium, I would think you would have to drink a LOT of diet soda for the sodium to have much of an effect, as there's typically only 35-50mg sodium per serving, which is only 1/48th of the recommended maximum sodium per day (2400mg).

The one thing I try to be careful about is to not drink soda instead of water. I do drink soda, but it is in addition to all my water for the day. I never count soda in my water total because I've read a few times now that between the carbonation, minimal sodium, and caffeine (which acts as a mild diuretic), soda removes just as much water from your body as it may cause youto retain, so it kinda "breaks even," if that makes sense.

Meg -

I couldn't agree more.

You still lose weight, it's just that it makes you retain water so the scale doesn't budge.

Heck, no!

WOW thats really interesting... I drink maybe a cup of diet soda a day... some days more some days less (more on the weekends thats for sure) - my weight loss is pretty steady... but I wonder what would happen if I cut it back even more. I see no point in cutting it out completely because I really drink so little.... but it would be intresting to see if my weight loss picks up....

When I wasn't watching my caloric intake, I drank regular Coke like a fiend (all those calories are probably what heaped on most of the pounds!) When I'm watching my intake, like now and hopefully the rest of my life, I drink Diet Mountain Dew. I drink water too, of course, but I've never really liked drinking water with food. I don't mind drinking it with dessert or fruit, but with regular food it makes me kind of ill to drink water. Don't ask me to explain... Anyway, Diet Mtn Dew is my alternative because it's the only diet drink that doesn't taste horrific to me. Is it bad for me? Probably. Does it keep me on track with my calories without making me feel deprived? Yes, absolutely. I don't think it stalls my weight loss because I've had consistent losses every week, but as others have said, everyone is different. Oh, and I drink it with caffeine in the morning and then switch to caffeine-free at night.

Is anybody else like me with water? I don't know...when I drink it with food it grosses me out somehow. I drink it all day while I'm teaching, though, and while I'm working out, so I get plenty of it.

I was raised on regular soda, then I switched to diet, and now I only drink green tea or water. Whenever I drank diet, I craved salt and that triggered a binge of salty snacks for me. So I think I'm better off without it although I still love the taste whenever I can get it.