Diet soda is probably making you gain weight, although it takes a study for people to wake up and realize that artificial sugar replacements and slapping the word “diet” on a soda and other products doesn’t make it a healthy choice or alternative.

About 59 percent of my readers are paying close attention right now. That is the percentage of Americans who consume diet soft drinks.

This morning I was having breakfast and a cup of coffee and had Good Morning America on, where I saw an interesting segment on Can Diet Soda Make You Fat? They teased it for about an hour, so I made sure to watch it. The segment highlighted emerging studies that show people who drink diet soda, which use artificial sweetener, didn’t lose weight and actually gained weight.

Wait. Diet soda has no calories, why is this possible? There are several theories behind it, but studies show diet sodas sabotage a weight loss plan. This segment and research I have gathered over time reveal the theory behind diet soft drinks causing weight gain.

The first theory is the drink has no calories, unlike regular soda, people consciously eat more because they think they are “saving” calories. To put it another way, I’ll have a Big Mac, fries, an apple pie, and a diet soda.

The next theory is a bit more complex, dealing with your body mechanisms and how artificial sweetener found in sodas, other soft drinks, and foods interact with those mechanisms. Lately I’ve heard several ideas that your body “learns” and connects the taste of a food or drink with the calories associated - this sounds likely, just how your sense of smell can affect appetite and cravings. So when we taste and eat food or taste and drink a beverage, the body prepares for the calories. Diet soda and artificial sweetener confuses the body since the expected calories are absent. This tease now causes you to become hungry and crave food since the body still wants and expects those calories, which then makes you eat more. The studies on Good Morning America say that it only takes one 12oz can of diet soda a day to affect your metabolism. ONE diet drink a day could increase your chances of gaining weight. I don’t know any soda drinkers that only consume one can of their favorite soda a day, do you?

Worse, diet soft drinks are “the second most popular low-calorie, sugar-free products in the nation” - Calorie Control Council. Yes, there is one.

I am inclined to agree with the second theory that the body learns and relates the the flavor of beverages and foods with the associated calories, based on personal experience alone. A friend told me ten years ago that he linked feeling lethargic and mediocre workouts to drinking soda. Another “quit” soda and most other manufactured beverages all together and not only felt more balanced throughout the day, he also lost several pounds within the first month - and he is not overweight.

The calorie management debate seems endless and this blog is no stranger to this fact. No more than a week or so ago I responded to emails about two previous posts Diet versus Meal Plan with a blanket Diet versus Meal Plan Response to restate my case.

I see a theme developing from all the health and diet studies over the last several years: It’s not just the quantity of the calories you take in, but the quality of calories. Sure diet soda has no calories, but if drinking diet soft drinks makes you crave food and ultimately snack on the wrong kinds of foods, then is it really helping you?

After one of my last posts about 5 to 6 small meals a day, I got several emails asking, can’t I just cut calories?  Here is what I’ve come to understand why just cutting calories doesn’t work.  If you normally take in 2500 to 3500 calories daily and cut it to 1000 to 1250, that will work at first, but won’t last.  It will actually come back to hurt you.  By doing that, you are triggering the body’s starvation mode.  It is part of the body’s mechanism to adapt to its surroundings.  It sees food as now scarce, and slows down the metabolism to store as much as it can.  Since you are depriving yourself, you also eventually begin to crave the favorite foods you are missing.  Finally, when everything crashes, you are back to eating 3500 calories daily, but with a much slower metabolism than before and have set yourself up to gain more weight than you lost.  By going with around 300 - 400 calories 5 to 6 times a day, your body does not see a lack of food, but an abundance of food, therefore does not feel the need to store.  Your metabolism keeps burning.  Don’t forget, exercise is still important, even if it is going for a walk.  Till next time, The Average Joe.

Last time I spoke about why I think diets don’t work and why I like to go with what I call a meal plan to either lose weight or maintain.  I don’t think it is very hard to develop a meal plan.  It takes the ability to read and understand the nutrition labels as well as the ability to control portions.  Portion control is key!  By averaging 300 calories 5 to 6 times a day (depending on how much you have to lose and your current body makeup) coupled with exercise, you will kick your metabolism into overdrive.  There are some foods you can easily find in your local grocery store.  Eggs, Old Fashion Oatmeal (not the flavored packet kind that is loaded with sugar) and Peanut Butter all have parts in my Meal Plan.  Peanut Butter makes a great mid morning and mid afternoon snack.  Two tablespoons by itself does the trick for me.  People I work with make fun of me for it, but it works.  It keeps me satiated so I’m not hitting the vending machine for a bag of chips.  It is also a food that is balanced in protein, fat and carbohydrates.  But remember, portion control.  I can’t stress that enough.  The only downside to Peanut Butter is that it has unsaturated fat, so too much Peanut Butter can work against you.  You may have to cut back on the size of the portions you normally have for Lunch and Dinner.  Dinner for me is actually my smallest meal.  By that time of day, I’m not usually very hungry.  And what about the person on the go?  There is one fast food place I will recommend, and that is Subway.  I know, I know, when you hear Subway you think of Jared…please stop laughing.  But when I was developing my Meal Plan 3 years ago, I found that several of their 6″ inch sandwiches fit in perfectly and there was a Subway right around the corner from where I work.  They post all the nutritional information online, so you can see not just how many calories, but all the nutritional information.  One word of advice, be careful of the condiments, they can be a killer.  Till next time, The Average Joe

I’ve tried a lot of diets.  Low fat, low carb, counting calories, you name, I’ve probably tried it.  The problem with those is that they don’t work for the long term.  I did the low carb diet just before it became the craze and carbs became evil to everyone.  It worked.  I lost a good deal of weight.  I started at 300 pounds and got down to about 225.  Great!  The only problem was it wasn’t sustainable.  Just as I was starting to feel real good, my knees weren’t hurting and I had to buy a whole new wardrobe, I started to slip up and my weight slowly started to inch up.  There are two problems with Diets that I see: 1) They are not sustainable, and 2) People think they just have to do them for a short period of time and then can go back to eating the way they were.  That is why diets fail.  A few years back I became acquainted with one of the personal trainers at my local gym.  Through conversations with him I came to the understanding of what I like to call a Meal Plan.  It’s a way of eating and structuring meals so that you lose or maintain body weight, but also feel satiated.  By feeling satiated you don’t have any cravings and don’t feel deprived so the thoughts of “when I get off this thing…” don’t pop in your head.  For me, eating 5 - 6 small meals a day works best.  Now, I know you are going to say that seems like a lot, but remember I said small.  Portion control is key.  No more than 300 calories per meal.  Next time I’ll go into how to find foods that are easy and taste good, but also fit easily into a Meal Plan.  Thanks for reading, The Average Joe