Diet Coke Support
 

Ok I am so addicted to diet coke it isnt funny. From the time I wake up til I go to bed I have a diet coke that I am drinking. Even at work.

What can i do to get off the Diet coke?


Is it true it makes you gain weight? People tell me that all the time that it will still make me gain weight.

How can a 0 calorie drink make you gain weight? It doesn't even have that much sodium in it. :?:

But -- it sounds like you're a little overboard on the Diet Coke. :) Water is best for your body, though there's certainly room for the occasional diet drink. I had two cans of diet soda a day during the year I was losing weight and can't say it stalled me. ;)

How about slowly adding in some water? I find it easiest to drink water with meals, so maybe switch to water at lunch, get into that habit, then switch at dinner etc. Until Diet Coke is a treat and not your staple drink.

Believe it or not, your body will learn to love and crave water. It's truly refreshing! Try keeping a pitcher in the frig with sliced lemons or oranges in it. It's such a clean flavor!

Don't worry, we've had diet soda addicts here before who successfully transitioned to mostly water. Just do it a little at a time!!

Good luck! :D

a couple of cans of diet cokes won't make you gain weight.
but there are sweetners in the diet cokes, and eventhough they are very low in calories, they still have them.

so if you're drinking I dunno, 4 litlers of diet coke.
U'll definetly had a couple of calories from it.( not much though)

It's true what Meg said.
Once u start drinking water regularly over the day, u get this kind of addiction and graving for the water.
I never used to drink water.
but I started drinking a Bottle of Evian everyday.. and encreased it upto 4 bottles a day( small 0,75 L bottles)..
And it made my skin look great too. :D

succes.

I've always been a fan of water (soda was prohibited since childhood and when I did have it, I hated the taste and the carbonated feel...yeah I know, I'm weird...:p). Whenever I drink soda, I feel thirstier after, so I quickly grab water. That may also be why you're "addicted" to the stuff. Try substituting water in once a day for a week, then twice a day etc. In a matter of weeks, you'll be down to a couple of cans a day.

I actually have a bottle of Coke Zero on me right now, and the label reads for a 250ml serving (half bottle) there is only 1 calorie. Trace sodium, and it tastes better (at least to me) than coffee or hot tea with milk!

I think the only problems arise when you start to read the ingredients. I only get soda once per week, so I'm not quite so bothered because I have it only on occasion, but if you're drinking it all the time, you should really take care as to how much you're consuming.

It seems to be a nutrient empty filler drink.

Dilute your diet Coke with sparkling water! Really--about half and half to start. At first it tastes weak, but when you get used to it you'll find it tastes just fine and you may be able to dilute it even more. Add lemon or lime. I don't like to drink straight cola anymore--it tastes too sweet. :p

Bob Greene was on Oprah yesterday, and one of his six foods to avoid at the beginning is soda. The reason he gave is that one needs to get away from being used to very sweet tastes.

Drinking more plain water is always a good idea, too. :)

Jay

i'm a diet coke addict also. However, if i have a glass of it, then i make myself have a full glass of water or unsweetened iced tea before i can have another.

All very good ideas listed here. I go with the try a little water at each meal. That's what I did. At lunch and dinner, I would take a couple bites of food, then a big swig of water, then a couple bites of food, big swig of water. I would try to do that until all my dinner was gone and all my water was gone.

I only have diet coke if I've already had my caffeine in the morning. I know what you mean, I hate that feeling of needing it so badly...

I used to drink it just as much as you when I still lived with my mom this past winter. It was all either of us would ever drink. I tried treating myself to fancy bottled waters for my diet attempts - like Evian and whatnot. But they'd just stay in the fridge, unopened.

One thing I reccommend is to stop getting cans. The ease of grabbing a can or small bottle even is too great, it's so simply to mindlessly just drink that all day. So only buy 2 liters, and then you have to put effort into making yourself a drink in a glass.

I also suggest devoting yourself to finding a recycling center and saving your bottles / cans (bad :P) to take in whenever they pile up. In Michigan, recycling centers are at almost every grocery store. The bottles and such pile up really REALLY fast for a soda addict and get very annoying to deal with, which is what really made me switch.

I now drink water pretty much exclusively, and I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything. I got caffeine headaches a lot at first (withdrawal?) but I just took some Advil and kept drinking my water all day. It was a somewhat gradual quit and not very easy, but I stayed on track and I feel so much better being soda-free.

It's great, because now when I get a craving for sweets or something else I shouldn't have, I can treat myself to a Diet Coke from McD's instead. It actually does satisfy when I have it very occasionally.

Well.... (as I pop open a can of Mr. Pibb.....)

I don't have that much trouble with soda or any other drink. I actually PREFER water. But every now & then, usually when I need a caffeine kick, I grab a soda (such as right now).

Diet sodas don't make you gain weight in or of themselves, but the ingredients - whether it's aspartame or whatever - can make you crave more & more. Therefore, your body is used to having it, & it creates a vicious cycle of craving other things, and THAT is what makes you gain weight.

I've never lost or gained weight on soda. I've heard of people who gave up their X-amount of sodas per day habits & lost 10 pounds without changing their diet. Not me. I used to have a major daily Mountain Dew habit. The doc told me I HAD to get off caffeine. I thought I'd DIE without my Dew!! I drank three or four 24 oz bottles a day, PLUS tea at lunch and dinner, plus another can or two of Dew before I went to bed.

Getting off it wasn't easy, but I did it. First I stopped getting the big bottles - I switched to cans. Then I eased down to five a day, then three a day, then two, then one. . . . . then NONE.

I normally don't drink diet drinks at all - if I'm going to have soda, I'm going to have the real thing. Same thing for any kind of sugar-laden product. But now I'm almost an all-water all-the-time girl. I still have a soda on occasion (today is such an occasion! and I still drink tea with dinner most nights, but water most of the time. I prefer it that way.

Good luck, Bethmart. Thank goodness I am not addicted to soda (she says as she sips coffee....).

I have learned to enjoy my water and I recommend you try it. I even bought a special insulated mug just for water (all my other mugs have the taste of coffee).

I self-regulate to the same amount of caffeine, whether it's in Diet Coke or coffee. When it's Diet Coke, I get a lot more fluids overall.

OTOH, I find that Coke Zero, which tastes like regular Coke, gives me weird food cravings. Love the stuff but it's counterproductive for me.

I was also a diet coke addict, and diet root-beer and diet Dr.Pepper, but once I started drinking 2-3 litres of water (and that was a chore in the beginning) I found that I didn't crave the soda at all. It was weird and now I find that I'll pour myself a small glass (used to drink straight from a 1L bottle) and I can't even get through it. My theory is that I wasn't really addicted to the pop, I was just super dehydrated and then when I started hydrating myself properly the feeling of "needing" the diet soda was gone. I can't even drink crystal light anymore because I'm just craving plain water all the time...any kind of sweetened beverage makes me want water that much more. I'll still have a diet soda now and then but it's gone from 1-2 Litres of diet soda a day to maybe a 500mL can once a week. I've noticed a big difference in my skin as well since kicking the diet soda.

Cheers, Tamara

wow, I guess I'm quite different here with my opinion...but I say...

If you're drinking the amount of water you should, then drink your soda. I drink soda....probably 24 ounces at least a day. I love my Diet Sprite, Coke Zero, Fresca and all those great sodas. Forget about tea, or crystal light...(not you, I mean myself)...I hate them.

But from the sounds of it, you're not drinking the water you should be drinking. I would say at first maybe replace all your soda with water and then once you get used to drinking at least 64 ounces of water, (takes 21 days to form a habit) then you can start incorporating your soda again. :) That's my solution anyways.

I limit myself to one soda a day (diet pepsi), usually with dinner so it's a treat. I stick with water otherwise, but sometimes have a diet snapple with lunch.

I don't see how diet Coke can make you gain either, BUT...I do believe it can make you RETAIN weight. There's so much speculation on the carbonation, the sodium, etc. But it IS proven that water DOES help you to lose weight.

I still have a diet soda from time-to-time. I had one this past weekend. But to break my daily habit of 4 to 6 diet sodas, I switched to flavored, carbonated waters, then to flavored non-carb waters, then to just water. Try taking it in stages.

My boyfriend just told me tonight that Diet Soda is the worst thing to drink. Now he couldn't tell me why and we went back and forth with "No it isn't, yes it is, no it's isn't" and then just aggreed to disaggree..?? I don't know what he was talking about?

I have switched to more and more water and I'm proud of myself but soda will never totally be out of my life...I love diet soda. What's different than having a coffee with artificial sweetner? I don't get it..anyone else get it?

So many great answers thanks!!

I am shamed to admit that I did NOT drink any water for the longest time. Seriously. I would just drink diet coke. Thats it. I am surprised by body didnt shut down or something.

Im at about three bottles of water a day. I am going to "try" to get more water in me.

Well I have drank only one diet coke and two waters since my last post on this thread lol

I am still drinking diet cokes but am also drinking tons of water. I really feel like I am cleaning my body out when I drink alot of water.

I'm not all that sensitive to fake sugar, so it doesn't spark food cravings for me. Can't say anything about fluid retention as I've never really paid attention. The reason why I try to stay away from Diet Coke is that I've heard few times that it interferes with the absorption of calcium. :yikes: Sorry, I don't have any studies or anything, but that was enough for me. Good job on your water-drinking!

Yay, Beth! That's terrific; you've really turned it around in just a week. :carrot:

Originally Posted by Meg:
How can a 0 calorie drink make you gain weight? It doesn't even have that much sodium in it. :?:

Its actually not a 0 calorie drink. It has something like .5calories per 100ml.

Food products with fewer than 5 calories per serving can be labeled as calorie-free in America.

Originally Posted by BabyBrownEyes:
My boyfriend just told me tonight that Diet Soda is the worst thing to drink. Now he couldn't tell me why and we went back and forth with "No it isn't, yes it is, no it's isn't" and then just aggreed to disaggree..?? I don't know what he was talking about?

I have switched to more and more water and I'm proud of myself but soda will never totally be out of my life...I love diet soda. What's different than having a coffee with artificial sweetner? I don't get it..anyone else get it?

Pop in general (diet or not) is horrible for your teeth. The acids in the pop eat away at your teeth enamel. Most diet pops contain aspartame, which is supposedly bad for you as well.

Aspartame is only bad for you in VERY high quantities..you would have to drink something like 80+ cans a day in order to have a reaction from it.

I get the acid and enamel thing....but he was saying DIET pop....wierd. I don't drink a LOT of pop compared to some people....every time I've been to the dentist they say my teeth are great. I have cut back on it a lot.

Good info here.

Raises hand.... teehee, I'm a diet coke addict too!!

Glad to see you have made such progress in the last week Beth!! Woohoo!!!!

I am limiting myself to one diet coke a day and then just drinking water as an alternative. To tell you the truth the diet coke is 'like' my binge food... without it I think I would be turning to unhealthy choices so I figure the diet coke helps to keep me on track :)

I use diet coke instead a real binge too. It makes me feel full. It tastes good and fills my sweets craving.

Originally Posted by bethmart:
I am shamed to admit that I did NOT drink any water for the longest time. Seriously. I would just drink diet coke. Thats it. I am surprised by body didnt shut down or something.

Actually, the recent research all suggests that liquid in any form hydrates you. They are finally researching caffeine and it turns out that the idea of caffeine taking hydration away from our bodies was an untested myth.

There may be lots of other reasons to drink pure water, but hydration needs can be met from all beverages. That's likely why your body didn't shut down -- it didn't need to!

I know how you feel. I really dislike water, but have determined to drink more of it. I don't think a diet coke every once in a while is too bad though. I use it to "treat" myself once I've had my 8 cups of water.

I'll be the first to say that Diet Coke sucks.

That being said, I am a Diet Pepsi addict.. lol.

My name is Elizabeth and I am a Diet Coke addict!

I too have heard that it makes you fat, makes you crave sugar, causes brain cancer etc etc etc.

I am trying to add water, so far it hasn't been too bad but I put Crystal Light in it. So, if I do that, how is that different than drinking Diet Coke?? (other than the lack of caffeine)

Okay, here is the reason that Diet Coke is bad for you:

The poison in Diet Coke is aspartame. Aspartame is uniquely and inherently unstable and breaks down in the can. It decomposes into formaldehyde, methyl alcohol, formic acid, diketopiperazine and other toxins. In a study on 7 monkeys, 5 had grand mal seizures and one died, a casualty rate of 86%.

This is an excerpt from a congressional hearing in 1985 on trying to ban aspartame in the use of beverages.

That said, everything will kill you these days. Diet Coke may not be the greatest thing, but surely it is better than when I consumed massive quantities of iced tea each day (my diabetes thanks me for quitting that one). Its a trade off. Personally, I'm sure we consume many worse things in our food and beverages that we are not even aware of. I drink about 2 cans of diet coke each day...I'm still here! LOL! :dizzy:

There is some chemical in regular Coke (Phosphoric acid?) that does all sorts of nasty things, including cleaning corroded car batteries (tried this and it works) and dirty toilets. Who knows what it does to our system. I have a list of things that it does somewhere, but I'd have to look for it. I don't know about diet.

Crystal light isn't ALL that good for you either, but whether it's better or worse I couldn't tell you. I just dilute mine and I figure that HAS to be better for me than Coke. Anything does. :)

Hmmm... I heard that aspartame will give rats seizures and kill them, but only at extremely, extremely concentrated doses. Humans would have to drink a gazillion cans. But then, if you don't want to take it all at once, just let the cancer eat you a bite at a time. :rolleyes:

I agree with bullseye, though - you have to draw your own line at what you will/won't put in your body. Everyone has to die sometime. :yikes:

The rumors about Diet Coke giving you brain cancer are bull. I've heard that it CAN give you kidney stones, though, but ****, I've been drinking diet soda for 5 years, and I used to drink much larger amounts of it... and my kidneys are just fine.

I'd LIKE to be able to swear off soda entirely, but diet soda isn't that harmful. I've heard it can make you retain water, but I'm not entirely sure how, as (beware: overshare) it makes you need to pee every 5 seconds!

this is absolutely rediculous! How long has diet soda been around? And in how many deaths has it been the cause? Common people...THINK!

All this stuff about it being so horrible for you is a bunch of BUNK! What is aweful is my Uncle dying from Pancreatic cancer a few years back DUE to drinking too much REGULAR Pepsi...the sugar overloaded his pancreas. This is awful.

I've looked and looked and can't find one single case of someone having cause of death "Diet soda"....*rolls eyes*

Okay, don't shoot the messenger, I merely posted what was published since the question was asked.

Personally, I could care less what any of the studies are. Supposedly my microwave was going to cause me to grow a 2nd head and my laptop is going to give me cancer. My aunt, who was a water guzzling, vegetarian and fitness nut died at 52...my uncle drinks, eats everything bad for you and smokes and he is still going at 84...no rhyme or reason. We all go when its our time. :(

I had, for the last couple of years or so, developed a burning sensation on my tongue. Didn't ask a doctor about it. But on the aspartame horror story websites I read that among other things, it caused that burning tongue symptom. I had been drinking about 6 cans of diet pepsi per day. I have quit since January and finally, just within the last month or two, the burning tongue symptom is gone. Could be coincidence. I also notice that my appetite has decreased since stopping the diet pepsi. I still sometimes drink a soft drink sweetened with Splenda. I don't notice that it increases my appetite the way diet pepsi did, and I don't have any weird tongue problems anymore.