Will Diet Soda Make me Fat? Or Will it make me Skinny?

Soda or Pop, as it is called in some areas, is high in chemicals, sodium, and artificial sugars that are harmful to the body...these dirty chemicals, the belly-fattening high fructose corn syrup, and the ton of health issues caused by this carbonated concoction that is idolized by those who could could care less about their health or body.

Since you are here at my blog reading this article it proves that you actually do care about your well being and the way you look.

Interestingly enough, many individuals mistakenly accept that “diet” soda is some how a good thing for burning fat.  In fact, I hear individuals all the time gloat about how they “eat very healthy and they only drink diet soda.”

3 Veggies that FIGHT Abdominal Fat 

So let’s get to the bottom of this once and for all…

There is ZERO reasons why drinking diet soda is healthy.  In fact, I’ve read multiple studies that determined that diet soda drinkers became even FATTER than individuals who drank regular soda.

Here’s some data from an eight year University of Texas study that I analyzed…

An excerpt from the study’s author:

"What didn't surprise us was that total soft drink use was linked to overweight and obesity," Fowler tells WebMD. "What was surprising was when we looked at people only drinking diet soft drinks, their risk of obesity was even higher."  

"There was a 41 percent increase in risk of being overweight for every can or bottle of diet soft drink a person consumes each day," Fowler says.

This gives a surprising look at why there are so many fat diet soda drinkers and now there are studies showing why that is.

There’s a lot of perplexing aspects as to why this occurs…

One idea is that the artificial sweeteners in diet sodas generate a negative hormonal response in the body that builds fat storing hormone production and boosts cravings for refined carbohydrates and more sweets in the time span after ingesting diet soda.

I've been researching more studies lately on the consequences of artificial sweeteners and one detail that appears evident is that it’s not a great idea to “trick” your body. Basically by “tricking” your body by drinking something that is artificially sweetened you don’t actually absorb sugar calories your body demands.  The end result is that your body doesn't know how to handle this kind of situation.

With artificial sweeteners, your taste buds “feel” that you consumed something very sweet, and even if you didn't eat sugar, your body will follow with an insulin response.  If you didn't know, higher insulin levels can boost cravings as well as generate increased body fat.  I am not saying that drinking regular soda is any better than diet soda, which has it’s own complications.

Another basis for weight gain from consuming diet soda is that individuals may subconsciously believe that because they are drinking diet soda, that gives them permission to eat even more food.  Of course this leads to higher calorie consumption and weight gain.

The origin for weight gain from diet soda might be a combination of both of the statements above.

Ultimately if you care about your health and body then it would be best to stay away from soda altogether, except for situations when it might be the only thing available to drink.

So now you are thinking, what is the best substitute for diet soda?

The best substitutes is drinking water with some lemon and unsweetened iced teas. There are many different kinds of iced tea out there, like green tea for example. Plus there are host of other health benefits that come with tea like antioxidants. Look for natural non-caloric sweeteners like stevia if you need to sweeten up your teas. Please share this page with your family and friends to assist them with beating their diet soda addiction.

3 Veggies that FIGHT Abdominal Fat 

A Cutting Diet That Gets Results!

Thinking of going on cut?  Don't have a clue what cutting is?  Well you came to the right place.  Cutting is dropping your calorie intake to lose weight.  Typically most individuals like to cut to burn fat off their bellies or you can use this same diet to lose excessive weight.  It works for those already fit to those that just need to shed some pounds.  In this article you will find example foods to eat, how to calculate your calories, and how to create macro-nutrient needs.

7 "fatty" foods for a flat stomach

Daily Calorie Needs

First, we need to find out what our daily calorie needs are.  We can do this by using this calorie calculator and plugging in the required information.  Once you calculate your numbers it will show you what calories you should shoot for to lose weight.  Typically a healthy weight loss target is a 500 calorie deficit per day.  You are probably wondering, how many calories is one pound of fat?  One pound of fat is around 3500 calories, so you could expect to lose a pound per week just off of dieting.  Add in cardio and strength training and you can easily lose 2-3 pounds a week.  Losing weight too quickly can be unhealthy and lead to muscle loss and loose skin.  On a cut you want to keep your weight loss around 10 pounds a month but those with a lot of weight to lose can lose a bit more and still be considered healthy.

Macro-Nutrient Needs

Protein - Protein is essential for maintaining the muscle you have while on a cutting diet.  You will want to keep your protein intake at 1g per body weight and possibly more if you are doing high intensity training.  For example, a individual that weighs 150lbs will want to take in between 150g to 160g of protein to maintain  muscle during a cut.

Fats - We are talking about healthy fats here.  Fats help keep your body healthy and maintain your sanity.  You will want to keep this at 1g to 2g per body weight or 1g is you are leaner.

Carbs - This is the one that is the hardest to calculate because it really relates to your level of activity.  If you are moderately active you should maintain 2 to 3g per pound of body weight.  If you are very active then you will need to increase this to 4g per pound.

How do I track these?

The best tool to track your calories and macros is MyFitnessPal.  You can also download it as an app for iPhone, iPad, and Android markets!  If you have a smartphone you can use the barcode scanner feature to scan everything that you eat.

This method of cutting flat out works.  It's really cut and dry; you eat at a deficit and lose weight because of it.  Throw in some cardio or strength training and boost that deficit even further to lose even more weight.  If you do this for 30 days and do no lose weight then there is something majorly wrong.  You need to make sure your calculations are correct and that you are correctly tracking everything that you eat to make sure that you are at a deficit.

Meal Planning
Breakfast:
Protein Shake or 2 Eggs
Granola Bar or Oatmeal

Lunch:
Chicken Breast
Brown Rice
Low Fat Yogurt
String Cheese
Apple or Bannana

Post Workout:
Protein Shake

Dinner:
Pasta or Rice
Lean Meat (Chicken, Fish, Turkey)
Vegetables (Broccoli, Peas, Asparagus, etc - I recommend steamer bags for quick meals)

Evening Snack:
Protein Shake or Protein Bar

Supplements:
Multi-Vitamin
Fish Oil

7 "fatty" foods for a flat stomach

Chocolate Milk After a Workout

According to two recent studies out of the University of Texas at Austin show that chocolate milk is the ideal post recovery drink after a workout.  Here you thought it was only for kids!  Though you can always claim it's for your kids when you buy it at the store.

"Serious and amateur athletes alike enjoyed physical recovery benefits when they drank low-fat chocolate milk after a vigorous workout," said Dr. John Ivy, lead researcher on the studies and chair of The University of Texas at Austin College of Education’s Department of Kinesiology and Health Education. "The advantages for the study participants were better body composition in the form of more muscle and less fat, improved times while working out and overall better physical shape than peers who consumed sports beverages that just contained carbohydrates."

It appears that the great tasting low fat chocolate milk has the right ingredients to help build muscle and burn fat.    Compared to three other leading sports drinks, chocolate milk improved maximal oxygen intake by double what other drinks provided tested athletes.  Athletes who drank the chocolate milk compared to athletes who used other sports drinks had a 3lb lean muscle advantage at the end of the study.

To maximize the potential you can mix in half a scoop of chocolate whey protein to double the effectiveness of the drink by maximizing your protein absorption, how much your body can absorb in an hour.

If you would like to read more on the study here is the University of Texas article link, http://www.utexas.edu/news/2011/06/22/milk_studies/