Diet Soda May Backfire When It Comes to Weight Loss

What do you do when you want to have a refreshment? Probably, grab a can of your favorite soda or maybe diet soda if you are into fitness. It’s not just you, but many people who wish to reduce their calorie or sugar intake and enjoy the refreshment at the same time, tend to consume diet sodas.

Diet sodas are very popular and in place of sugar or artificial sweeteners, sucralose, cyclamates, aspartame, or saccharin are used to make them sweet in taste. Be it your favorite coke or Pepsi, almost every soda has a diet version. The idea behind these is to help you stay fit while enjoying a cool refreshment. But, do you really think these help?

If you think there is nothing wrong with these, think twice. Though it doesn’t contain sugar and calories, the health effects of diet sodas or drinks are often the subject of controversy. Originally crafted for diabetic individuals, these diet sodas are marketed to people who are after weight reduction or cutting down the sugar intake.

Diet Sodas are Not Healthy

Diet soda is made up of carbonated water with artificial or natural sweeteners, flavors, colors, and some other additives. Calorie-wise, these are very light but they do not offer any nutritional benefits. Not all diet sodas contain artificial sweeteners or are sugar-free. There are a few that contain sugar and sweeteners.

The recipes can vary according to the brand, there are some common ingredients that are used in diet sodas. These ingredients are listed below:

• Carbonated water: Most of the sodas are created by a mixture of carbon dioxide and water under pressure.
• Artificial or natural sweeteners: Diet sodas contain artificial sweeteners such as sucralose, aspartame, or saccharin or natural sweeteners such as stevia. These are 200-13,000 times sweeter as compared to regular sugar.
• Acids: Diet sodas are packed with citric, malic, and phosphoric acids. These acids are helpful in adding tartness to these sodas. These acids can lead to the erosion of tooth enamel.
• Flavors: To make diet sodas taste good, many artificial flavors and natural juices are used. Some of these flavors are herbs, fruits, cola, and berries.
• Artificial colors: Colors like anthocyanins, carotenoids, and caramels are some of the widely used colors in the making of a diet soda.
• Preservatives: To increase the shelf life of diet sodas, manufacturers use potassium benzoate.
• Caffeine: Many diet sodas contain caffeine. Diet sodas like Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke contain 35 mg and 46 mg caffeine respectively.

Weight Loss and Diet Sodas

Given the calorie-free nature of diet sodas, one can easily assume that these would help with weight loss. However, many research studies have a different story to tell. Many observational studies have been conducted and those studies have stated that artificial sweeteners and excessive consumption of diet soda can enhance the risk of metabolic syndrome and obesity.

Diet soda may also lead to an increase in appetite by invigorating hunger hormones, stimulating dopamine responses in your brain, and changing the sweet taste receptors. Diet soft drinks are calorie-free and these responses can lead to a higher intake of sweets or foods rich in calories that leads to weight gain.

There is another theory that states that the connection between diet soda and weight gain can be explained by individuals who have poor dietary habits and consume these drinks in excessive amounts. The weight of these individuals is due to their dietary habits and not necessarily diet soda.

How to Lose Weight Effectively?

In order to lose weight effectively, follow these simple steps:

1. Consume a healthy and balanced diet: What you eat is extremely important, no matter if you want to lose or gain weight. Consume a low-calorie diet and stay away from processed foods. Avoid eating junk foods and make healthier food choices.
2. Increase protein intake: Protein is known for being helpful in weight loss. Boost your daily protein intake by including protein-rich foods and supplements like whey protein. Consume fiber-rich foods.
3. Exercise regularly: There is no shortcut to a healthy weight loss. A strict workout routine is very important if you want to see results. Get yourself involved in moderate to intense workouts depending on the amount of weight you want to reduce.
4. Watch calories: It is extremely important to watch how many calories you take in on a daily basis. To reduce weight, you need to be on a calorie-deficit diet.
5. Consume weight loss supplements: Weight loss supplements give great results when consumed with a proper diet and regular workouts. They accelerate your metabolism and weight loss journey. 

Best Weight Loss Supplements

1. Fat burners: There are many fat burners available in the market that help in boosting your metabolism, energy, and weight loss. These supplements are often packed with ingredients like green tea & green coffee bean extracts, caffeine, garcinia Cambogia, etc. There are special fat burners for those who follow the ketogenic diet. Keto fat burners go well with this diet and accelerate the weight loss journey.
2. Caffeine: There are special caffeine supplements that help in boosting weight loss by enhancing the fat-burning capacity of your body. Caffeine is a stimulant that improves metabolism, restricts fat accumulation, boosts energy, and focus. It stimulates thermogenesis that helps your body in producing more heat and energy from digesting the food.
3. Creatine: Creatine is an amino acid that your body naturally produces. Creatine supplements are used to boost strength, recovery, and exercise performance. Creatine supplements can help in enhancing lean muscle mass. If you work out rigorously on a regular basis and are on a cutting cycle, creatine can help. A study suggested that 4 weeks of creatine supplementation helps in improving body fat percentage, strength, and performance.

If you want to build a muscular physique by putting on more muscle mass and fewer fats, mass gainers are a good choice. There are many high-protein mass gainers that fuel you with the right amount of calories and sufficient protein to support lean muscle build-up. For gaining muscles, you need sufficient calories, and a mass gainer does the job. You can choose the one as per your requirements as mass gainers do differ in calories per serving. These help in letting you gain mass without getting fat.

The Bottom Line

Losing weight can be made easy with simple changes to your routine and the right supplementation. Making healthier food choices and working out regularly is the key to lose weight and get in shape. You can switch to healthier options like protein water or other healthy drinks to quench your thirst and refresh you. Remember, your body greatly depends on the choices you make.