Drink Diet Soda and GAIN Weight!

[FabulousFoodBabe]

Yep, just like the thread title says: a new study conducted over eight years asserts that diet sodas help you gain rather than lose weight. Click for the WebMD study.

As an admitted regular consumer of Diet Coke, I'm quite stunned by this news. More iced coffee in my life, I guess!

Are there other diet soda drinkers out there who are floored by this?

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Good Lord. All this time I'm thinking that weight gain is due to eating too much and laying around and thinking about what to eat.

My husband, who is extremely fit and athletic, drinks only regular cokes, if he's going to have a soda. He can't stand the taste of artificial sweeteners. Must be all that sugary sweet tea his Mamma fed him

I'm of the "save 150 calories here, spend it on doughnuts" mindset. Just as my motto says ... To me, sugar in a coke isn't worth it. But in a glass of good wine, some cheese, a truffle, it most certainly is.

[bergerka]

My guess is, this, like everything else, is all about moderation.

If you (generic you, not specific to anyone in this thread or out of it) cut regular soda out of your diet, drink only diet soda, and decide that therefore it's ok to double or triple your ice cream consumption, you're probably gonna gain weight, yeah.

But I can't imagine that one or maybe two diet sodas a day would help or hinder weight loss in any perceptible fashion. Maybe the sodium content would encourage water retention, but if you aren't ingesting more calories, you can't gain weight*. Period.

K

*edited to add: pregnant women aside

Edited June 23, 2005 by bergerka (log)

[therese]

Fowler's team looked at seven to eight years of data on 1,550 Mexican-American and non-Hispanic white Americans aged 25 to 64. Of the 622 study participants who were of normal weight at the beginning of the study, about a third became overweight or obese.

What about the two thirds of the 622 study participants who were normal weight at the beginning of the study and didn't become overweight or obese? How much diet or regular soda did they drink?

[Andrew Fenton]

but if you aren't ingesting more calories, you can't gain weight*. Period.

*edited to add:  pregnant women aside

Surely this principle applies to pregnant women also: first law of thermodynamics, "eating for two", and all that.

[Jujubee]

but if you aren't ingesting more calories, you can't gain weight*. Period.

*edited to add:  pregnant women aside

Surely this principle applies to pregnant women also: first law of thermodynamics, "eating for two", and all that.

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Not sure what you're getting at here... that pregnant women shouldn't gain weight? That if they do they are ingesting more calories than they need? Sorry buddy, I have to argue against that. There's the obvious point that the baby itself weighs something, but pregnant women also increase their blood volume by about 1/3, the uterus itself increases in size and weight, the placenta weighs something, etc. Even if you're not ingesting extra calories (and thus storing it as fat), you're still going to gain weight. If you don't take in enough calories and nutrients, the baby will take it from your body (not just fat, but also things like leaching calcium from your bones) to get what it needs.

[Andrew Fenton]

but if you aren't ingesting more calories, you can't gain weight*. Period.

*edited to add:  pregnant women aside

Surely this principle applies to pregnant women also: first law of thermodynamics, "eating for two", and all that.

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Not sure what you're getting at here... that pregnant women shouldn't gain weight? That if they do they are ingesting more calories than they need?

Of course I'm not saying that. Rather, I'm pointing out that a pregnant woman needs more calories than a non-pregnant woman. Unless there are metabolic changes that occur during pregnancy that allow more efficient digestion of food (which I might be possible, though I've never heard of that), she'll need extra calories in order to grow a healthy baby. That energy has to come from somewhere: as I said, first law of thermodynamics.