Carbonated sugars

CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷDer Millionendorf- Icrontian
edited September 2007 in Fitness
The poll is only a starting point for the discussion. Personally, I've heard mixed responces, and have had a personal experience that doesn't quite make sense. I'd like to know what others think about this specific dietary issue.

The thing for me was this:

Around the new year, I decided to stop drinking regular soda in favor of diet soda. My buddy (Zanthian on teh intarwebs) had recently traded all of his soda for diet and seen a marked improvement, however his change was apccompanied by a general change in lifestyle to one that included more fitness-based activities. So, while not a scientific correlation, it made sense to me: Even though I didn't feel like changing the rest of my lifestyle at the time, I was okay with switching to diet soda. I even foud a few that I actually liked the taste of, when I tried Diet Root Beet, and Diet Code Red.

Inadvertly, I changed to diet soda as a controled experiment. I didn't change anything else about my lifestyle or dietary habits. All I did was replace regular soda with diet soda, exchanging roughtly 300-500 calories per day for what nutritionally resembled carbonated water. It seems to me that just that change, even when not combined with any other changes, should do something.

However, after waiting six months, nothing changed about my physique at all, I still weighd and looked the same as I did for the entire year previous to the change. I know that 'diet isn't everything' when it comes to weight-loss, but shouldn't it be something. Taking in fewer calories should decrease my mass over time, at least a little, right?

The thing is:

It get's even more strange, in my opinion.

This summer, I started working out more, and eating better in general, doing the more total lifestyle change that is associated with actual fitness, and it started to work, almost right away, I started to look and feel better. Around the same time, I started to get really tired of the diet sodas finally, and started drinking more regular soda again. Almost as much as I used to (1-2 cans/day), although I still drink diet some of the time (especially at home.

This hasn't effected anything, my switch back to regular soda hasn't stopped me from feeling nd lookin better on a day-to-day basis, as my fitness regimine continues.

From a scientist's point of view (although I know the study pool is too small for a real scientific study, thus the poll at the top of the htread), this seems to indicate that whether I drink regular or diet soda has no impact whatsoever on my general fitness.

How is that possible?


We already have discussions going on in other threads about the general importance of changing more than just your diet when establishing a new fitness-lifestyle, so what I'd like to discuss in this thread is specifically the difference between regular and diet soda, and what impact it has on our bodies



Edit: Well, I tried to add a poll, but apparently if you take more than five minutes to compose the poll responces, you don't get to have a poll :P Here's what it would have been:

Q: What's your experience?

  1. I don't know anyone who has switched from regular to diet soda without being part of a major lifestyle change.
  2. I know people who have switched from regular to diet soda without being part of a major lifestyle change, and I think they became healthier as a result.
  3. I know people who have switched from regular to diet soda without being part of a major lifestyle change, and I don't think their health got better as a result.
  4. I know people who have switched from regular to diet soda without being part of a major lifestyle change, but have not noticed a pattern either way.

Comments

  • LawnMMLawnMM Colorado
    edited September 2007
    You still have a lot of stuff up in the air to make the conclusions you are making. You would need a specific number of sodas, in 8 oz cans or whatever, that you drank routinely every day before you start the experiment as a baseline.

    Then cut the soda out without changing your fitness and exercise levels. 300-500 calories a day should yield you some results if you have a very controlled and well monitored diet. 300-500 calories is also insignificant enough to be derailed by seemingly small things. You grab a burger on the way home and there's your 500 calories.

    If you really want to try this, then do this:

    Set a calorie limit for yourself for the day. 2500 for example. Don't eat or drink anything that you can't count the calories on. When you hit 2500 calories you are done. Incorporate 300-500 calories worth of soda. Maintain that rigid 2500 calorie intake for 2-4 weeks. Then cut the soda out, 500 calories worth would be easy. Only ingest 2000 calories per day and I guarantee you will start dropping weight.

    In short the soda does have an effect but you're talking about a spurious relationship between your weight and soda intake. There's an effect there but there are other factors influencing the outcome. Total calories taken in, exercise levels, etc etc.
  • NomadNomad A Small Piece of Hell Icrontian
    edited September 2007
    ^^

    My guess is those calories not consumed were often replaced at a later time.
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited September 2007
    Over six-months, though? If it was only a couple weeks, I'd be willing to agree with coincidence: That I just happened to accidentally make up for 500 calories in the rest of my day, but a general trend over six-months? seems less likely it's cooincidence...

    However, that's why I want to know what others have seen/experienced: If I'm the only person who'se had this experience, then it's probaby just a huge cooincidence, but if others have seen the same trend in themselves or others, that's a different story.
  • BetsyDBetsyD Cincinnati, OH Icrontian
    edited September 2007
    Dont forget dear that about the time you cut regular soda out of your diet you started work split classes more and so would eat out one meal a day, as well as having a bowl of light ice cream when you got home at 11pm. I think that the 300-500 calories that you cut out with regular sodas were made up for in fast food and ice cream.
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited September 2007
    BetsyD wrote:
    Dont forget dear that about the time you cut regular soda out of your diet you started work split classes more and so would eat out one meal a day, as well as having a bowl of light ice cream when you got home at 11pm. I think that the 300-500 calories that you cut out with regular sodas were made up for in fast food and ice cream.

    You're exagurating, but I suppose you're allowed it.

    I was there, too. I did not change my diet so drastically as to make up for the change in soda.

    =--

    Anyway, I didn't really mean to make this thread about my personal diet (maybe I should have summarized my story more, so as not to seem like the bulk of the OP).

    What I want to to hear is other people's experience with switching, to try to find if my experience can be corrolated, or if it should be dismissed.
  • BetsyDBetsyD Cincinnati, OH Icrontian
    edited September 2007
    CB Droege wrote:
    You're exagurating, but I suppose you're allowed it.

    I was there, too. I did not change my diet so drastically as to make up for the change in soda.

    =--

    Anyway, I didn't really mean to make this thread about my personal diet (maybe I should have summarized my story more, so as not to seem like the bulk of the OP).

    What I want to to hear is other people's experience with switching, to try to find if my experience can be corrolated, or if it should be dismissed.

    As noted above you dont need to change your diet drastically inorder to get an extra 300-500 calories...

    When I switched to diet soda from regular, really the only difference I noticed was that I was less likely to reach for a soda when I wanted a sweet fix. I didnt notice a change in health attributable to the soda switch.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2007
    I attribute my switch from regular to diet pop the lynchpin that started my 60lbs loss. It was the best decision I ever made.
  • RyderRyder Kalamazoo, Mi Icrontian
    edited September 2007
    Thrax wrote:
    my 60lbs loss.
    :eek::confused::wtf:
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2007
    Yep. At the end of 2004, I weighed 217. From then until Feburary of 2007, I went down to 155. I'm now up to 163 since I started weight-training/calisthenics.
  • edited September 2007
    The best bet if you are exercising is to drop the soda completely, as well as other carbonated beverages. It has improved my endurance markedly. The crystal light to go are amazing too btw.
  • NomadNomad A Small Piece of Hell Icrontian
    edited September 2007
    Cutting out pop was fifteen of the first forty pounds I lost.
  • RADARADA Apple Valley, CA Member
    edited September 2007
    1 pound of fat = 3500 calories, or 10 sodas...

    If you cut out 300-350 calories per soda and drank 10 a day, you'd see a big difference.

    I was soda junkie (still am!) I could be the chapter president for SA.. I used to wipe out a 3 liter bottle of Pepsi during a 8 hour gaming shift.... I saw a huge difference when I annexed soda from my life, but this was probably due to the huge amount of calories my soda intake was adding to my daily totals.

    I went from 269 to 244 just from cutting out the soda, and the daily lunchtime fast food runs (which included the bladder-buster sized Soda).
  • Your-Amish-DaddyYour-Amish-Daddy The heart of Texas
    edited September 2007
    Alright, time for a psycopath's dietetic input. (Please forgive the aloofness that may be experienced, I'm writing this with a +4 to my CHA.)

    Okay, Non diet versus diet soda. The trade off is a double-edged sword. While yes you are taking in less sodium and sugars, you are taking substitutes that could possibly be LESS healthy for you than the sugars you are used to. Such as Aspertame was popular for a long time, but studies have revealed to to be a cancer-related chemical, which I refer my source to you here. Now not all sweetener alternatives are such, but I don't really feel like wasting time to dig up the chemical composition of Splenda, which in my humble opinion tastes like cardboard dipped in bees wax.

    Also, might I suggest that instead of a carbonated beverage, a fruit juice would be better for you than anything save for water. And I'm not talking a "from concentrate, I'm talking about honest-to-goodness fruit juice. A V8 is fine too, and a tasty choice to be sure. If it's a healthier lifestyle you're looking for, try to incorporate more fruit into your day than anything, since our medium length digestive tract is designed to work on a mainly fruit diet.

    But back to Diet vs Regular, you actually stand a better chance with regular soda. Your incident may be a fluke, and I hate to sound rude or condescending but you've got no real grounds to base this on, either since you're mentioning you've returned to normal soda. The temporary switch may have caused your metabolic system to jolt itself into a more normal pattern, or like I said, could just be a fluke. If you keep this up for a longer period of time, post your results. I always love a good experiment.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2007
    Studies have not proven that: The FDA has been chasing those claims for 35 years. No link has ever been found, and there's been plenty of research and time to prove it.
  • Bad_KarmaBad_Karma The Great White North
    edited September 2007
    Aspartame is definitely a chemical which will be studied more closely in the future. Let's face it. The food industry is a global industry that introduces new chemicals to our foods (mostly processed) and then sits back and sees what happens in 10 to 20 years. Short term effects maybe negligable but who really knows the long term effects.
    http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/330/7486/309-a
    Even the BMJ sights that aspartame is either non-harmful or may cause harm.

    I am a person who suffers from acid reflux disease and it is mostly caused due to my diet. Acidic drinks kill me. Pop and even fruit juice is usually off my list unless I mix water with the juice to really dilute it.

    As with all things in life too much of anything is bad for you. Moderation may be the way to go and I still enjoy a pop every once in a while. Make sure your diet includes foods and beverages from all the dietary food groups.
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