I would like to know how people feel about diet soda when on a fat loss program. I drink it occasionally, when I want something with a little more flavor than water or as a pick me up for the caffeine.

I trie to drink less soda, but still i love to go for the pepsi light. The carbs and Kcal seem very sweet(if they dont lie about it ;) ) its about the last pleasure i have!

DONT TAKE IT AWAY! :db:

So, Adam_S over on the Dorm Food thread (http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=134)

says all soda is bad, even diet. Is this true? oh no.



I trie to drink less soda, but still i love to go for the pepsi light. The carbs and Kcal seem very sweet(if they dont lie about it ;) ) its about the last pleasure i have!

DONT TAKE IT AWAY! :db:

What is Pepsi Light?

it's ok to have it once in a while.. like a can a week.. but id avoid it all together.

but if you want a unhealthy dose of aspartame, hit it up!

Like Jono said, a can every once in a while isn't too bad, but the problem with cans is that they come in six packs, and it's really easy to just grab a can.

The biggest problem with sodas is the acids and high fructose corn syrup. The acids leach vitamins and minerals out of your body, and the HFCS adds on weight very quickly. I'd say the biggest reason the US has an obesity problem is not because of greasy fries and burgers but the 32 - 44 oz drinks that can come with the meals.

http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-001-02s05ey.html
in just 21 ounces of regular coke there are 54 grams of sugar. there's 454 grams of sugar to a pound. say you drink a sonic 44 oz coke, you just drank 1/5-1/4 pound of sugar. yum.

I myself have an occasional soda, but I wouldn't recommend drinking any kind on a regular basis--especially not if you're exercising regularly or heavily. There was a big study not to long ago about teenage female athletes, some drank soda, some didn't. The ones that drank soda had a lot more instances of athletic injuries and tendancies towards weaker bones than the others. That's because the phosphoric and carbonic acids (iirc) in sodas leach minerals out of your bodies--sucking the calcium (among other important minerals) out of your bones (to put it hyperbolically)!

Adam

What is Pepsi Light?
In some countries they use "light" instead of "diet". In sweden it's called "coca cola light", "pepsi light"... All diet products here use the term "light" as a matter of fact. :)

I drink diet vanilla pepsi about once a week, and I usually drink an ice tea with splenda with dinner and about 3-4 cups coffee a day, but other than that I just carry a bottle of water around with me everywhere and try to drink at least three liters per day.

I think i'm gonna drop the Pepsi Diet (light) after this last bottle i have lying over here. Another thing is that I really have to start drinking water more often, i usually only drink water when i'm working out :(

One new goal set on my goals list!

What about coffee? It seems like every other day there is a new study saying "coffee is good for you" or "coffee is horrible for you." I try to limit myself to two 20 oz cups per day as long as I also drink my gallon of water.

I agree...I always lose lots of weight when I stop drinking soda. Another thing to consider with diet soda is the sodium content - 40mg, I think. The daily recommended value is 500mg, so that tends to be quite a bit.

I think of it this way- diet cola tastes pretty awful, so water is an improvement. You ca always add some citrus to your water to give it a better flavor (lemon, lime, orange(?))

Yeah, I'm not going to drink the diet soda anymore, I've been sold. I was just doing it for the caffeine because I don't like coffee. Sorry, Khamikaze, didn't mean to ruin it for you.

How about other drinks? What about orange juice, apple juice, cranberry juice. Anybody know if these are bad. I always loved Nantucket Nectars fruit drinks like mango orange or pineapple orange guava, but I stopped drinking it because it has a lot sugar in it, never thought about that before. Is water really the only thing to drink?

I can't do it. I have a couple of Diet Mountain Dews every morning (morning being defined as wake-up to lunch) during the week when I'm at work. I'm a recovering smoker and I've found that I madly crave cigarettes if I cut out the caffeine completely. Of course, you have to couple that with the fact that I work a sedentary desk job and my body is constantly trying to go back to bed on me... :p

I'm cutting fine while drinking soda. Yes, it would probably be better to cut it completely, but I still get my 1.5 gallons of water in a day from about noonish until bedtime.

I stay away from all pop. If I'm not drinking water, I'm drinking diet Snapple.

Water is just about the only thing- I've heard some people mention those Sam's Choice carbonated beverage, which are just carbonated water and flavoring- doesn't sound so bad. You can also get caffinated water, if needs be.

Juice is okay, but it has tons of sugar (carbs) in it, I think

look at it this way, if you're drinking enough water, you won't be able to force down a pepsi :)

Although i have to admit, i've not dropped coffee even tho i'm drinking tons of water.

Fruit Juice is alot better than pop (I'm originally from Seattle, so sue me. hah) for vitamins and nutrients, but it is alot worse off then water because of the high amount of carbohydrates. I try to only drink either fresh juices or from concentrate. Not the commercialized ones like Ocean Spray, etc. Those are alot higher in sugars because the companies add sugar to it. I try to avoid things like apple orange tangerince nectar BLAST! (you know what I mean) because those usually have tons of artifical sweetners.

Juice for me is usually a glass of orange juice at breakfast and then water water water throughout the day.

-Scott

So, Adam_S over on the Dorm Food thread (http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=134)

says all soda is bad, even diet. Is this true? oh no.

that sucks, i love diet coke too :(

Diet 7-up and vodka or diet coke and spiced rum once a week or once every two weeks. Otherwise its whey with water, coffee, water, water, water, water, whey with water, water, whey with water in exactly that order and sometimes with an extra water in between!

Another problem with diet soda is what it does to your blood sugar. Your mouth tastes the fake sugar in it and your body says, "Cool! Sugar coming! I can burn my reserves!" and does so. When the promised sugar never arrives (since it never existed), you get hungry and/or your blood sugar crashes. This is why artificial sweetners are appetite enhancers, which, after all, is the last thing you need if you're losing weight.

That said, I will sometimes have some with food. That way my body gets the calories it was expecting, and it blunts the blow.

If you're on a diet, though, basically anything else has sugar in it. Juice is almost all sugar. I drink water, coffee (black) or tea (iced or hot, unsweetened). I miss sweet drinks, but I don't miss weighing fifty pounds more than I do now, so I deal. :)

TQ