Diet Soda Doesn't Help Weight Loss Efforts

(Article first published as Diet Soda Shown to Hinder Weight Loss Efforts on Technorati.)

With millions of Americans crossing from the overweight to obese classification each year, it’s no wonder that so many people are looking for an aid to ensure their weight loss success. In addition to diet pills, formulas and bariatric surgery, one of the most popular tools that people use are artificially sweetened beverages.

At first glance this makes sense. After all, a 12 ounce serving of the typical sugary soft drink tips the scales around 150 calories. And most people drink more than one each day. When doing the math, sweetened beverage calories can really have a significant impact on your ability to lose weight. But are diet drinks really the answer?

Diet Drinks Lead to Calorie Misconceptions

The mind is a powerful tool to harness in your quest for weight loss success. It can also lead to failure, especially when using weight loss substitutes such as diet drinks. The problem arises when you consciously make the effort to replace a day’s worth of sweetened beverage calories with a diet alternative. Many people underestimate the number of calories they cut and eat more food thinking they can make up some of the difference.

In reality, research has shown that people take in up to 20% more calories than they eliminate from sweetened drinks. In theory, cutting calories from sugared drinks makes sense, but in reality our brain is accustomed to the extra calories and will ultimately coax you into subconsciously making up the difference. People with rock solid will power may be able to make drink substitution work, but there may still be another problem related to our body’s metabolism of sweets.

Artificial Sweeteners Trick the Brain

Humans have evolved an affinity toward eating sweet foods. From a survival perspective, sweet foods were usually a good source of high energy and helped our early ancestors thrive in an environment void of quick food sources. Today we live in a much different world with easy access to high calorie foods. Our genes are still programmed toward sweet tasting foods and manufacturers are more than willing to infuse our food and drink with massive amounts of sugar.

Artificially sweetened items have been shown to trick our body into thinking other sweet foods don’t have many calories and we are much more inclined to overeat as a consequence. The results of a study published in the International Journal of Obesity and reported on WebMD shows that when subjects are given artificially sweetened drinks over a period of 10 days, they are much more likely to overeat to compensate. Participants allowed to drink sweetened drinks registered the calories and did not overeat as a result.

Make the Switch to Black and Green Tea

Diet drinks are a popular tool used by many people trying to lose weight. Research has shown that they may be ineffective and can actually lead to weight gain. The best plan would be to substitute sugared and artificially sweetened drinks with health promoting tea. Both black and green teas are naturally low in calories and have a direct impact on lowering disease risk. Sweeten with stevia extract for a beverage that increases resting metabolism and can deliver successful weight loss results.