Diet Sodas Can Help You Lose Weight?

It often seems that weight loss advice comes cheaply and easily these days. On one side, there are experts who say carbs are terrible for you, while others recommend a balanced diet that includes them.

Still others will tell you to avoid red meats and saturated fats, but there is always someone else saying that a little bit will not hurt you. Diet sodas are part of this ongoing debate. Should you drink them, as opposed to regular soda, or is water the way to go?

A recent article in the medical journal Obesity reviewed a study done by nine doctors from three separate university hospitals. They claimed that diet drinks actually helped participants lose weight. This sounds almost too good to be true, right? Well, it is. Related Read: Here’s Where To Buy Nutrisystem Frozen Food

To begin, it is important to know exactly what diet drinks are. Any beverage that contains artificial sweeteners like aspartame and saccharine, instead of real sugar, is considered a diet drink. The most common are sodas (think of your favorite name brand colas and root beers), teas, and sports drinks. These drinks are called non-nutritive because they provide no positive additions to our diet, and it was these very beverages that were studied. Related read: Can this diet help you lose weight?

In an attempt to control the testing, every person needed to strictly adhere to a water or diet drink regime as determined randomly by a computer and monitored by dieticians and psychologists. They were further asked to remain on a consistent exercise program that every member had to document- no one was allowed to exercise more or less than the others. No other restrictions were placed on participants.

Over a twelve week period, the test group that drank diet drinks showed more weight loss that the group who drank only water. These people experienced as much as a thirty-one percent greater weight reduction over their water drinking counterparts. Before you get all excited, that represented only about four pounds per participant.

Over a twelve week period, the test group that drank diet drinks showed more weight loss that the group who drank only water. These people experienced as much as a thirty-one percent greater weight reduction over their water drinking counterparts.

Upon closer inspection, the challenge with these results is that they are skewed at best. None of the participants were required to keep a detailed food journal of everything they ate during this time. There is no way of knowing that the diet drink group ate healthier, or if the water test group ate more desserts to satisfy their sweet tooth. For this reason, the entire report is suspect, and the authors of the study are inclined to agree.

Since that is the case, it is best not to believe all the hype that diet drinks are better for you. A minor four pound difference is simply not significant enough to recommend that anyone drink copious amounts of diet drinks. While a bottle or can once in a while is not that bad for you, it is still best to drink water more than anything else. Related read: Save money on Nutrisystem with these coupons

While a bottle or can once in a while is not that bad for you, it is still best to drink water more than anything else.

Cynthia Sass, a dietician and nutrition consultant for the New York Rangers NHL team, agrees with so many experts and believes that nothing compares to plain water. She and other clean food proponents say that you will always have guaranteed results with a well-balanced diet of fresh vegetables, lean proteins, very little sugar, and plenty of clean, clear H20. Be sure to couple this with regular exercise, and you are sure to keep the pounds off for good. So, shelve the diet drinks and reach for an ice cold bottle of water to quench your thirst and help you achieve a slimmer physique in the long run.

Do you prefer diet soda, regular soda, or water when you have your meals? Feel free to share your thoughts.

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