Can Diet Coke Make You Fat?
Soda. Coke. Pop.
Whatever you call your carbonated beverage (it’s SODA, by the way), you’re probably already aware of how terrible it is for you. Other than rotting your teeth, it’s also a huge reason there are so many overweight people in this country. Check out this crazy story posted yesterday: Caron Butler (pictured) of the Washington Wizards was so addicted Mountain Dew that when he gave it up this summer, losing 11 lbs in the process, he went through actual withdrawals:
To try and give this up was crazy for me! I was going through withdrawals. I was in the bed sweating. My wife would turn over in the bed and ask “Are you OK?” Honestly, those first two weeks without The Dew [were] the roughest two weeks of my life. I’m talking headaches, sweats and everything. Before that I drank at least six 12-ounce Mountain Dews a day.
I know if you Google “soda weight loss,” you’ll find 2 million hits on how terrible these beverages are for you…so I won’t get into it. Instead, I wanted to take a look at the effect of DIET soda on weight loss. I know there are conflicting reports on whether or not this stuff can actually make you fat.
My Initial Thoughts Before Research
Diet soda has zero calories (generally) and zero actual sugar, which means it can’t directly make you gain weight, right? A normal 20 oz. Coke, on the other hand, has 240 calories and 68 grams of sugar (holy ****), which definitely causes weight gain. Now, if diet soda doesn’t have calories, it can’t contribute to the calorie equation (calories consumed vs. calories burned), which means diet soda alone can’t make you bigger. However, is Diet Coke responsible for insulin spikes and increased appetite, which would indirectly cause weight gain? Time to put on my nerd researcher cap and see what I can track down.
Sources I Don’t Trust
If you look up “diet coke weight gain,” you’ll find all kinds of articles that say Diet Coke is the devil. Unfortunately, some of these articles site no sources and are written by people who are trying to sell their own supplements. Other sites say that Diet Coke is perfectly fine for you, as it has no calories and therefore no ill effect (I would guess these articles are written by people who chug DC by the gallon). As hopefully you’ve learned, not everything on the internet is true (shocking), and when it comes to fitness and diet our bodies are so complex that things are very rarely so black and white.
Sources I Do Trust
After reading some of the crazy extremist websites, I tried to track down some actual studies (and not hearsay) that could prove or disprove the effects of diet drinks. I came across this study from the San Antonio Heart Study, where the amount of diet soda consumed directly coincided with an increased chance of weight gain:
“On average, for each diet soft drink our participants drank per day, they were 65 percent more likely to become overweight during the next seven to eight years, and 41 percent more likely to become obese,” said Sharon Fowler, M.P.H., faculty associate in the division of clinical epidemiology in the Health Science Center’s department of medicine.”
Now, because diet studies always take place with people of various levels of health, wealth, genetics, and social standing, along with thousands of other variables that take place, I’m hesitant to place the blame squarely on Diet Coke. Maybe the people who drink Diet Coke generally don’t take into consideration what constitutes a healthy diet, while people who don’t drink it generally could be more knowledgeable about their diets and thus eat better? Maybe the heavy DC drinkers work stressful jobs (and ‘need’ the caffeine to stay alert), and the stress along with poor diet choices (from working late) is causing their weight gain? I don’t know the full reasons and more research must be done, but the strong correlation between the two has me definitely leaning towards the “Diet Coke can make you fat” camp. My defense your honor? Better safe than sorry.
I then came across this fantastic video on YouTube, already cued up to the proper part of the conversation where it talks about the effects of diet soda on your waistline. I’m no scientist, but the guy makes a lot of great points in an easy to understand fashion. Once again, I don’t have a scientific background (I was an Econ major in college), but after reading a few books on the effects of acidity and alkalinity on our diet, I would tend to agree with the makers of this video.
My Problem With Diet Soda
My big problem with Diet Coke is that I don’t know what the hell is in it. I mean, if it tastes like soda, but doesn’t have any calories at all…what the eff are they putting in there? Vin Miller over at NaturalBias.com (who is not surprisingly biased towards eating natural foods) breaks down the new ingredients in Coke Zero and Pepsi Max. I’m a big fan of Vin’s and I certainly respect his opinion, as he always tends to lean towards the healthier/safer side of things. Some of these can’t be good for you, no matter what the FDA says. Speaking of which, I’m growing less and less trusting of the FDA by the day. Check out this article where FDA scientists accuse their own administration of running the organization like the Mob. Yikes.
My Conclusion
In my personal opinion, I’d say Diet Coke is the lesser of two evils if you’re trying to lose weight. However, it’s still created in a lab with unnatural elements, and there are studies that have shown people who drink the stuff are more likely to be overweight. Whether it’s directly the cause or simply part of a larger problem still needs to be shown, but the numbers don’t lie. I think people who switch from a case of Mountain Dew a day to a case of Diet Mountain Dew are still going to have all kinds of health problems anyway…just a hunch. Regardless of what the FDA says, I’m not convinced that the stuff in Diet Coke and Coke Zero isn’t harmful, and I’m not convinced that because it has littler or no calories it can’t make you gain weight. Better safe than sorry, right?
My Recommendation
I recommend that you cut back on soda/sugary drinks as much as possible, even if they’re diet, if you’re trying to lose weight. Even if you’re not trying to lose weight, give it up! It’s not good for you. If you’re drinking soda, don’t do so at the expense of your water consumption. If you need “fuel” for a marathon session of Aion (a new MMORPG my friends are hooked on), you better be double-fisting some high-quality H20 with that diet Dew. If you think water is too boring, you have to decide what’s more important: your health or your sweet tooth.
Now It’s Your Turn
These are my thoughts and opinions, but what do I know? I’d love to hear some actual stories from you guys and how soda and diet soda has affected your weight loss and health. If you’ve given up regular soda and switched to diet and lost a lot of weight I want to know. If you’re struggling to lose weight but you can’t kick your Diet Coke habit, I want to hear about it.
Please leave your thoughts in the comments.
-Steve
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You know, I was okay with you telling me that I suck at working out (which is about a million times a billion percent true), but now you tell me that I precious, precious diet coke is bad for me? I suppose you’re going to now tell me that Santa isn’t real, too?
Go to h*ll, Steve!!!!
…Obviously, I’m kidding (because, come on, Santa HAS to be real), and you bring up some very interesting points, even w/o calories, drinking the equivalent of a lab experiment can’t be all that great for you.
I was never really a “regular soda” drinker (although I wish I was sometimes b/c if I were to quit that I’d probably lose crapload of weight), but I pretty much lived on diet coke/pepsi/sprite/whatever for a while there. I even use to be able to down a 2 liter bottle in a couple hours. I just liked the taste, and I didn’t feel bad about drinking a large diet coke while I scarfed down my large number 10 from mcdonalds w/ two double cheeseburgers on the side.
Since I’ve restarted this whole weight loss thing though, I have cut back, so WooT there, and I’m drinking a ton of water daily, double WooT. I’m finding that I’m not missing it much at all, and I like a little extra money in my checking account (soda purchases can add up!) I don’t know how this is going to effect my ability to lose weight, but like you said, better safe than sorry.
For me it seems that a Diet Coke in the middle of the day, always leaves me wanting something else that is sweet. It seems to trick my body into thinking “here comes sugar!” and then when the body does not get the sugar it thought was coming, I start to CRAVE SUGAR.
I was able to move off of diet soda all together without too much effort….however, this article has me rethinking Crystal Light.. which bums me out because how else can one person enjoy 8 glasses of water a day.
Other Steve (this going to get confusing real fast)-
Do you like lemon? Maybe add a bit of lemon juice or lemon wedge to add some flavor? Or maybe even lime juice?
I personally think it makes the water taste like dish soap, but if you like it, then there ya go. Some things on these here interwebs say it can also help clean out the insides.
Hahahahaha
I bet people think I’m just bipolar and a schizophrenic and having a big conversation with myself.
-Nerd Fitness Steve
ASPARTAME. ( “sweetener” ingredient in DC)- no good.
there are hundereds of studies that link it to serious health ailments (like brain tumors being one.) and to increased appetite. if you consume enough diet coke in one day your probably going to end up with some long-term negative health issues of some sort.
I was once told, in high enough amounts, it can rot paint coatings right off of vehicles.
i don’t think i need that in my stomach.
I can totally relate to Caron Butler’s quote – the withdrawal is from the caffeine and I’ve gone through the same thing a couple of times in the past few years. Not from soda though, but coffee… and every time I think I’ve broken free it sucks me right back in! Especially now that I’ve discovered the Aeropress – the worlds greatest coffee maker, invented by the creator of the worlds greatest frisbee. But I digress… it’s just the addiction speaking.
I’ve never been able to drink diet soda – it has a chemical aftertaste that almost makes me physically cringe. So when I decided to cut regular soda out of my diet it wasn’t really an option. I ended up settling on sparkling water instead – I actually have a mini-fridge next to my desk full of crystal geyser flavored sparkling water. It’s just water with a tiny amount of flavoring added, it has no sugar or artificial sweeteners of any kind and I get it cheap by the case at costco. I go through a couple cases a week, which means I’m drinking a lot more water than I used to. I’m sure at some point researchers will discover that carbonation rots your brain or something, but until then it’s a good alternative to soda if you’re bored by drinking plain water all the time.
Steve,
I liked your point about the FDA – it is nothing less than a complete failure. I’d definitely recommend checking out Food, Inc. when it comes out on DVD (Nov 4). The movie addresses the regulation of our food industry (completely ineffective) and how many synthetic and ultimately unhealthy products are in our food. It also delves into the “mob-like” relationships between government and the companies that run the food industry. Sickening stuff (on many levels).
Bottom line, if it isn’t natural and I don’t know where it really came from, I don’t want to eat it. If I need caffeine, there are plenty of natural teas that have additional health benefits.
diet soda to me is really good for a “treat.” obviously it’s not good to have it as a regular part of what you drink, but if i want something sweet once in awhile, i’ll treat myself to a diet whatever (sprite, dew, dr. pep). the more once in a while, the better my weight loss is generally. i try to keep it to once a week or less.
Evan – if carbonation is bad for you, we’re all screwed since I’m pretty sure it’s just CO2
My personal crack is chocolate milk. Ingredients: milk, high fructose corn syrup. I guess regular milk would probably be a better choice there.
Steve #2 – If you want to know more about the science of hunger, read chapter 15 of “Good Calories, Bad Calories” by Gary Taubes. Turns out that sugar taste probably is creating a hunger spike because of a drop in insulin production.
Thank you so much for addressing this. I’ve heard two hypotheses for why no calorie sweeteners make you gain weight. 1) When you eat no-cal sweets, sensors in your stomach say “hey we ate a bunch of sweets” and then send out a bunch of insulin and other various digestive hormones which enter the blood stream and grab up all available energy and store it as fat (so that your blood sugar doesn’t get too high). But of course there isn’t a lot of sugar in your bloodstream so then you crash. And you’re hungry. 2) When you eat calories, your body amps your metabolism to make good use of the food you eat. But a diet full of nonfoods leaves your metabolism slumping. Both of these things make some sense but also seem fairly contradictory, and maybe neither is true. But I do find it MUCH easier to lose weight when I keep “diet” products to a minimum. Unfortunately, I’m also diabetic and avoid most all naturally sweet foods, and I MISS SWEETS! But not as much as I miss shopping in regular stores versus the plus size department, so I’m going to stay with it.
@Chris – I’m actually looking forward to Food, Inc. but terrified that I’ll never be able to eat anything ever again. I’ll be stuck with almonds, lettuce, and slaughtering my own grass-fed cattle. Hahahaha
@BFitz – Yeah man, moderation is key. I think too much of ANYTHING can be water for you, and keeping the stuff that we KNOW is bad for us to a minimum is probably the best plan to go. I say treat yourself every once a while, life is worth living. I still drink beer and eat chicken wings on the weekends, so I just try to keep a healthy life going DURING the week.
@Jordan – I’m only 2 chapters and 50 pages into Good Calories, Bad Calories and I’m already blown away. Fantastic (and DENSE) book.
@B Kinch – Thanks for the comment! I think you make a good point that you need to make a decision: what’s more important, that 5 minute satisfaction from a soda or candy bar or whatever, or that lifelong satisfaction from feeling better about yourself.
-NF Steve
I think the studies that have been done are a bit misleading in terms of who they targetted. If you have a natural craving for something sweet, then I could see how drinking a diet soda may lead to wanting to eat sugary foods. And if you associate soda with certain foods, it could act as a trigger to binge.
For me, however, diet dr. pepper and coke zero make it much easier for me to lose weight. While others (including a co-worker who had to cut it out completely) feel it stimulates their appetite, for me it suppresses it. Maybe it’s the caffeine or the carbonation, but when I drink a diet soda it curbs my hunger for a snack instantly.
As far as it triggering cravings – well, as I said it curbs my hunger, but I also do not have a sweet tooth. And the foods that I would be likely to binge on are ones that don’t go well with soda (such as super-spicy buffalo wings where the carbonation just burns).
I’ve lost 66.5lbs since July by eating 1600 calories and getting at least 30 minutes of activity a day. My daily “routine” consists of an average of 3 20oz diet sodas (one with breakfast, one after lunch, and one with dinner). I also drink a lot of water in between sodas, but water unfortunately does not curb my hunger and actually will increase it.
@everyone: Internet comment discussions rarely get this good. Thank you!
My $0.02: I am a geek-turned-jock. 9 yrs ago I Googled “swordsmanship”, and now I’m a European Martial Arts instructor, traceur (parkour runner), 15th century armorer, bladesmith, kung fu student, etc.
I gave up a GURPS and Doom 2 obsession along the way, and learned these things:
When you get active, you get thirsty. Plain, cool water is the tastiest beverage when you’ve been in Houston heat running, fighting, or pounding on sheet steel.
For those of us who are not psycho, I found that a touch of 100% fruit juice helps. I love OJ, but ever since I increased my H2O intake, straight juice was too sweet. So I started cutting juice with water.
Nowadays, I cut my chilly water with about 25% juice. Stretches the dollars out, keeps your H2O intake up, and your sugar consumption down.
I also cut the sodas out after college. These were contributing factors to my 21-lb drop (from 181) over the next year.
B/c the “cut-with-water” tactic worked so well, I started cutting my diet (in the natural, non-fad sense) with other healthy stuff I liked, or found healthier versions. I made 1-2 incremental changes every couple of weeks / months.
Plus look up non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT). This basically says:
Take the stairs, not the elevator.
Park your car as soon as you pull into a lot, then walk to the store.
Stand or pace while you talk on the phone.
Use a standing workstation (like drafting tables).
Cook.
All these are activities which burn more calories (~200-250 calories / hr) than sitting at rest (~80 calories / hr). (figures est. for 165-lb person)
B/c I’ve gradually added these activities in, I can consume a relatively tasty (i.e. fatty) range of treats a few times every month with no regrets or waistline consequences:
Lamb chops
Dark chocolate (which has less sugar than milk chocolate anyway)
Flan
Haagen Dazs ice cream
I heard a “French women’s diet” book review on NPR maybe 10 yrs ago. Basically, it said that they walk to the grocery store and can often buy only what they can carry home. It was a revelation for me.
Americans literally back the truck up — they pull their SUVs up into the handicapped spot, put their hazard blinkers on, and load it up.
In a strange twist of le Methode Naturelle (where one objective is to be able to carry and move your own body through basic movements that’d be required to e.g. flee a predator or chase prey), your diet becomes necessarily more healthy if you can only carry 20-40 lbs of groceries. Parkour and blacksmithing have given me a slight edge here, but then again, I have more muscle mass (think more cylinders in a car engine, burning fuel at idle or rest) than when I played Q3 Team Arena and Dawn of War all the time. Plus it helps limit my grocery bill for the week to $40-60, even with the luxury of 1 lb of wild-caught salmon.
Other changes I’ve noticed due to weight / quality logistics:
You focus on essentials first — meat (incl. chicken, salmon, beef, and pork), dark green leafy vegetables, milk (soy or almond, b/c I’m Asian and resent teh lactose), and 100% fruit juice. Meat rations per meal go from 12-16 oz to a much healthier and reasonable 4-6 oz.
You cut out carbs, starchy stuff b/c of weight and bulk. I haven’t bought any potatoes or rice since I started carrying my groceries to my car at the far end of the parking lot.
You buy 4 oz of nice, tasty chocolate. Not a 2-lb bag of Twix.
You cut out pre-processed, packaged food, b/c it’s too bulky / sodium-heavy / expensive / untasty. My two-armed cargo capacity permits me a bag of Kettle chips every 2-3 weeks, not 2-3 bags of chips every week.
And yeah, it’s a source of motivation for me to exercise more, so I can carry more food!
For what it's worth: I don't drink soda at all, as a general rule. I'm somewhat overweight (though downright svelte compared to much of America–maybe fifteen or twenty pounds overweight. Anyway, I wear size 37 pants and I'm 5'9″.) My diet is probably better than most people's–whole-wheat bread instead of white, try to make sure I get at least some vegetables every day, avoid french fries etc. But I do have a wicked dessert jones–two or three candy bars or donuts a day.
I don't drive, so I walk everywhere–usually a couple of kilometers a day, though lately I've been working at home.
All of which is to say, I'm looking at my balance of lifestyle choices and the two that are significantly different from the majority of people out there is the not-driving and the not-drinking-soda. I have a gut feeling (ha ha) that there is something about soft drinks in particular that makes them even worse than donuts and candy bars.
Hey TJM,
Thanks for the comment. I think as long as you're happy with where you're at physically, and you're getting some actual activity by walking everywhere, more power to ya.
I hear ya on the donuts and candy bars. I think part of the issue with sodas is that a lot of people might drink 6 sodas and not think anything of it, while they know that eating 6 donuts isn't good for you. Liquid calories still count people!
-Steve
Your topics are so interesting Steve! Maybe a few months ago, I would have argued that DC is zero calories, so it is harmless. But thankfully I know better now, and can completely agree with your article. I read somewhere about an experiment where lab rats were given regular soda, and diet soda. when they took diet soda, they ate 2/3 more food afterwards, when compared to how much less they consumed after regular soda. that trial alone , sort of woke me up. I used to drink diet soda regularly, with almost every meal. Water was a rare thing in my book.
Now i have changed, it is easy to drink about 4 glasses of water just while working out, and I use crystal light (10 calories per entire container) so i can drink water with every meal. On the rare occasion i do drink diet soda, I notice how easily I crave sugar right afterwards. I just noticed, that sugar craves sugar. Just a question Steve, Is crystal light a good substitute to consume your water?
I take a container of it (10 cals), and with that one container, I drink about 30 cups of water/3 days.
TJM- if you don't mind me recommending, perhaps finding healthier substitutes for your sugar cravings? ofcourse, fruit, yogurt, nuts etc. However, I too crave chocolate and cookies, all the time, and i know how much easier it is to say than actually implement. I started buying “Skinny Cow” frozen desserts which are about 100 calories per bar, and they are filling and taste the same. Certain foods are triggers though, like for me I can't just eat one cookie, I will eat the row, so If i crave a cookie I will buy one outside at a convenience store, once in a while. So many junk food companies have 100 calorie options now.
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yes am i been drinking diet coke for a long time get alot of head aches if i dont dink me a coke i have to at least drink 5 a day evry day i wake up its 5 more please help me to get out off dirking so much pop i get head aches so bad i see black spots
Becky, sounds like you have a caffeine addiction!
Tomorrow, tell yourself that you can only drink four of them.
Next week, it can only be three.
And so on. This is going to be incredibly difficult for you, as any
addiction is brutal to get over. Unfortunately I'm not qualified to discuss
the issues of caffeine addiction, as I'm just a dude who likes fitness and
videogames!
-Steve
Becky, sounds like you have a caffeine addiction!
Tomorrow, tell yourself that you can only drink four of them.
Next week, it can only be three.
And so on. This is going to be incredibly difficult for you, as any
addiction is brutal to get over. Unfortunately I'm not qualified to discuss
the issues of caffeine addiction, as I'm just a dude who likes fitness and
videogames!
-Steve
Wow, I'm so glad I came across this. I drink about 5 diet cokes a day, and while I never get headaches when I don't drink it…I always attached diet coke to giving me zero calories, and therefore being a great soda to drink without gaining weight! I'm changing that now! I know it's not better, but I'm going to strictly drink coffee from now on for my caffeine fix!
Glad to see another WMA person out there. Were you at the competition in Houston in March held by WMAC?
I started controlling my weight more by eating better, what I called the Medieval Diet. I bought a bunch of whole grains from HomeGrown Harvest and used them in things like porridge and soup. Lowfat, tasty veggies like mushrooms, peppers, and onions also became a staple of my diet, because they're savory and tasty. And I started buying large things of lean meat from Sam's Club/Costco and breaking it up into smaller portion sizes and freezing them. Cheaper on both my checkbook and my metabolism.
I've also been learning how to fence with the dussack, which has been helping a great deal. Fencing and all the other exercise I'm doing to be not-retarded at fencing goes a long way in burning calories.