Settle an argument for me... does Diet Coke make you fat?

[Getafuckinggripman]

I know it might bloat temporarily, I know it's bad for your gut and teeth. But when you step on those scales... do you think Diet Coke makes you gain weight / dress sizes? My understanding is a big fat no. In fact I'm sure I heard once that supermodels drank it in buckets?

The link is that the aspartame in diet drinks are said to make you hungrier.

You’re right, it doesn’t make you fat.

No it doesn't. Eating more calories than you use makes you gain weight. Nothing more, nothing less.

I'm currently my lightest weight ever and drink diet coke daily.

It has virtually zero calories so no.

I don't think it makes you fat on its own, but it depends on how you drink it.
I have a can every now and then as a treat, and don't think it's ever made me hungrier, but I guess cans of juice go hand in hand with crisps and sweeties for many?

No it doesn’t, the sweetener can apparently make your body crave sugar so therefore that would increase your calories if you gave in and ate something sugary I suppose.
However I don’t have a sweet-tooth so I don’t find it has that affect on me at all! In fact it’s the opposite and it satisfies that slight sweet craving but for zero calories.
It’s terrible for your bones etc apparently though

It has zero calories but some studies say that sweetners in diet food play havoc with body sugar and fullness hormones. But that’s all kinds of sugar free food that have these in bucket loads.

I think the aspartame can mess with your appetite so for some people maybe it causes them to eat more? That said I drink it daily, am drinking it right now in fact, and excluding 2 pregnancies my BMI has always been at the lower end of the healthy range. Everyone I know that’s skinny drinks the stuff. It’s definitely not healthy, it’s probably rotting my insides and I have been told off by the dentist. But it doesn’t contain any calories so at a basic level it can’t make you gain weight!

I saw a documentary about this once. It’s not straightforward at all, but the basics I can remember:

Obviously something with next to no calories is not going to make you fat, in the way that eating a block of cheese would, if you had met your calorie requirements already.
Lots of fizzy pop will fill you up though, which means you might not eat other food, but you will not get any nutrients.
Your brain thinks the artificial sweeteners are sugar and prepares your body to process the sugar. This never happens and your body is full of enzymes it doesn’t need.

The fattest, unhealthiest person I know, drinks about 12 cans of Diet Coke a day. He must be 25 stone. Not of muscle!

I suspect it’s a matter of all in moderation. I don’t like coke, but I do occasionally have a can of diet fizz to stave off hunger pangs if I am dieting.

on it's own, no.
but as pp says, it may affect your hunger.

I love my zero drink, ice cold, after a long run at the weekend though.

It can. As mentioned the sweet taste primes your digestion to expect sugar which it then doesn't get, which messes things up.

I'd say sugar free pop is less unhealthy than sugary, but it's still unhealthy.

I think it triggers a desire for sweet stuff similar to insulin.

Someone once told me that diet coke is a fat person's drink. (I have a diet coke in front of me by the way, so this is not necessarily my view).

The research suggests that it does.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892765/

@Overdueanamechange

The link is that the aspartame in diet drinks are said to make you hungrier.

There’s a theory as above. But unproven.

It’s not actually good for you though!

What i was going to post had been said. It has zero calories, so doesn't in itself, but if you drink it, your body interprets the sweet taste in your mouth that sugar /high calorie food is on its way to your stomach, and when that doesn't arrive, you crave it. This makes it harder for you to make sensible food choices.

Better to drink water if you want calorie free cold drink. Sorry, know that's boring.

I don't think it can make you lay down fat cells, but in my opinion I think it can make you put on transient weight which would be easy to get rid of just by not continuing to have it. That's my theory anyway. I think the extra weight is water which some signal caused by the sweetness causes your body to retain.
That's my theory based on absolutely no scientific knowledge, but experience borne of monitoring my weight and knowing what has an effect on weight. Having a can of diet pop is more lively to make my weight go up the next day than eating a lump of cheese. (Incidentally I don't think cheese make you put weight on - I eat tons of it and I've just lost a stone. It's the carbs that make you fat).

A lot of the studies included in the review article rely on matching, which isn’t a randomised control experiment. This question has two elements (a) all else held equal, does consumption of Diet Coke increase mass? And (b) does consumption of Diet Coke induce other complimentary behaviours that increase mass?

The answer to A is no. People with EDs, including myself in the past, have used zero calorie liquids as meal replacements to feel ‘full’ when drank in bulk with the flavour satisfying some of the food cravings. The answer to B is not entirely clear, but in some contexts - yes. When people make purposeful adjustments in diet products, that may make them seek out alternative ‘treats.’ These studies have small sample sizes, with limited internal validity, however - so more work is needed here.

I'm of healthy weight and drink full sugar. I know it's something to drink with caution and I do.

The diet product itself doesn't have the calories to put weight on, it's the metabolic response that's potentially an issue, and the "missing" calories likely to be eaten back.. Plus people are more likely to drink more diet drinks because of the lack of calories. The acidity of any fizzy drink is not great for teeth or bones anyway.

Threads about giving up diet cola habits are always interesting with the side effects. Probably the dual reaction of caffiene and sweet response withdrawl.

I'll stick with moderate consumption of full sugar, plus sweetners taste horrible and give me thumping headaches.

It might not make you gain weight but there’s plenty of other reasons why it’s not the best thing to drink. Loads of better options out there.

No it doesn’t. I drink far too much of it and still lose weight when I reduce calories and exercise. It does ruin your teeth though.

Indirectly,
Yes
It does !

I'd rather have a FF coke every so often. I used to be terribly addicted to diet coke, 3 cans a day. Went cold turkey on a low carb diet. Didn't magically make me skinny but made me reconsider what I drank and when.

Calories in v calories out.

Yes, as it mimics sugar it triggers an insulin response.

Interest12 I was JUST typing that when I actually read above, and there you were

I drank diet coke for years, regularly, like at least once a day, and I don't now and feel much better for it. Not really related to your question OP but true anyway.

It gives me spots but not fatness