Diet Soda Weight Gain
Dieters often wonder why they aren’t losing weight, and in some cases, diet soda weight gain may be the culprit. Diet foods can be misleading, like low fat food products that are high in calories because they add sugar to make them taste good. While diet soda really is low calorie, but according to research, it still may play a role in helping people gain weight!
Diet soda offers dieters a beverage with a sweet taste and low calories. It sounds like the perfect alternative for people who like regular soda pop or other sweet beverages. The Mayo Clinic says that drinking a “reasonable amount” of diet soda each day isn’t so bad. The very terminology “so bad” raises a flag if you stop to think about it. It’s not so bad, but then again it’s not so good. Some studies propose that drinking more than a single soda each day, whether it is diet or regular, may increase the risk of obesity as well as bring the health problems associated with being overweight. The Mayo Clinic recommends dieters consider healthy beverage options including water.
It seems odd that people would gain weight from drinking sweet-tasting, low calorie beverages, but recent research tends to show that if you drink a sweet-tasting beverage, including those sweetened with artificial sweeteners, it may trigger something that makes you want to eat more sweets. The result may be to eat more calories. So when you hear about diet soda weight gain, the extra pounds aren’t from the calories found in the diet beverage itself, but from the extra foods you eat to satisfy the cravings for sweets generated by consuming the diet soda.
The term weight gain may mean 10 pounds or it could mean 50 pounds. In relation to the studies on diet soda and weight gain, research from a 2005 study conducted by the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonia showed “[†] a 41 percent increase in risk of being overweight for every can or bottle of diet soft drink a person consumes each day.” Note that the risk to becoming overweight actually goes up with each diet soda you drink!
Dieters often look to diet drinks and low fat snacks as ways to cut calories from their diets while still eating what and as much as they want in diet food form. While these specialty foods help reduce calorie intake, the problem is that you still need to learn how to control how much food you’re eating. For example a serving of mashed potatoes is about the size of your fist, not half of your dinner plate even if you made them with skim milk and a low calorie butter-like spread. So, if you are only relying on specialty foods for your diet without changing the basic foods and amounts, you may gain weight.
One thing that can help is to drink plenty of water. In fact, if you are an avid soda drinker, don’t have a soda until you have consumed at least half your water for the day. If you hate water, try drinking unsweetened herbal teas. It might take a little getting used to drinking unsweetened beverages, but a fruit flavored herbal tea or something like a peppermint tea still offers bold flavor. With the large variety of teas on the market today, you’re sure to find a flavor or two that you’ll enjoy.
If you really want to lose weight, you must consume fewer calories than you take in each day. You have to create a calorie deficit if you want your body to tap into those fat stores and start using them as energy. Since studies show that drinking sweet-tasting beverages like diet soda can actually trigger your desire for sweet foods, it’s best to steer clear from them if you tend to have that weakness. Think smart, eat smart and plan ahead for success.
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