Ok so to get this question narrowed down before it goes on too many unnecessary tangents
Yes I like the taste of Diet Coke over any other soda
Yes I drink water all day every day. Nothing else except a black coffee in the morning and water ALL DAY.
Yes I know there is no definitive proof that Diet Coke “makes you fat” but it sure seems like everyone thinks it will even if all things considered, you do everything else in your life perfectly right…
SO… My question.
Will one or two Diet Cokes A MONTH throw off my keto diet and exercise regime if it’s really one or two Diet Cokes a month?
If I’m really eating right, exercising, and drinking nothing but water all day… Will a Diet Coke once or twice a month literally ruin all the rest of my progress?
Thanks for the response… Yeah I mean this has been an ongoing thing for me… Like don’t get me wrong. I was very unhealthy all my life… And I certainly had times where I had 1 or 2 or more a day. But even when I was down to 1 or 2 a week it seemed like everyone would say that there’s no way I can ever live a healthy lifestyle and have Diet Coke at all… And honestly now that I am living a healthy lifestyle, it’s like I understand… But I also think people base their Diet soda beliefs off of studies where people are sitting there drinking a 2 liter a day haha, and it’s like man, I really find it hard to believe that if I’m doing the right thing all day every day and then instead of my “treat” once in a while being a cookie or pizza or french fries… But it’s a delicious can of aspartame haha, I can’t imagine it’s gonna be THAT bad.
I tried to give up diet Mt. Dew (which are free and cold at work all day). I made it three days before I broke down and had one. It doesn’t stall me or cause problems but if it did I would have to decide which is more important. If I’m eating well, working, exercising and remain sober then I’m going to have the stupid diet pop when I want to. Nobody is perfect.
To me, the big problem with Diet Coke (or just about any artificially sweetened can of chemicals) is the effect on the gut microbiome.
I also think one or two a month (if you can keep it to that) will not be that detrimental but, if you want to do your due diligence - I recommend some Googling of combinations of “Diet Coke”, “Splenda” and “Microbiome”.
You might talk yourself out of that one or two cans a month when you see what comes back.
To answer your question - for me personally, a Diet Coke or Coke Zero every so often have no effect on me. When I go out with friends actually, I usually opt for rum and Diet Coke (which is maybe once a month)
Having said that, have you ever heard of/tried Zevia soda? Sweetened with Stevia only.
One of the first people to really push the envelope with ketosis and the ketogenic diet was Dr. Atkins. His philosophy was as long as the drink contained no carbohydrates then it was allowed. Many of his more than 10,000 patients drank diet soft drinks and lost a lot of weight. I understand that, diet soft drinks have a ton of chemicals and that is generally what most people are opposed to.
As for whether or not diet soft drinks will knock you out of ketosis or not I think is an individual experience. From a personal standpoint, I used to drink about 6 – 8 cokes a day before I was diagnosed with diabetes. Then I changed to diet sodas. I never noticed any weight loss change from switching to diet drinks, but then I wasn’t keto. Once I went keto I simply stopped drinking diet drinks. Why? Personal preference.
After being ketogenic for more than two years, I began to do some 48 hour water fasting every 10 days or so. This allowed me to do some experimentation with many different food products to determine their effect on my ketone production. So I bought a blood ketone monitor and began to do some personal food trials to see if certain foods increased or decreased my ketone production.
For me personally, diet soft drinks make no difference in my ketone production. That is they do not knock me out of ketosis. Can I say without certainly that you will have the same results? No, but there is a high probability that you will. Yes, there are nutritional reasons why some people believe we would all be better off without diet soft drinks, and I am not going to argue that point, that is a matter or personal decision. But for me, and I suspect for you as well, that even drinking 1 – 2 diet soft drinks a day will not knock you out of ketosis.
Almost 2 1/2 years into this lifestyle, I occasionally have a diet soda. I think my last one was 6 days ago, but I do not buy them or keep them in the house. If drinking diet sodas helps you to transition to this lifestyle or makes it more bearable for you, then I say go for it. You are only accountable for yourself and your own personal experiences. If you want to know for sure, then get a blood ketone monitor and do your own experimentation. Good luck, and stay keto strong.
I have some Zevia (sweetened with stevia) soft drinks in the refrigerator for when I get a hankering for one. I can have one anytime I want one, it’s not that I restrict myself at all. But I’ve gotten to the place where I really just don’t want them all that often.
10 or 15 years ago, I could drink a 2 liter bottle of Pepsi or Mountain Dew over the course of a day or two. Or sweet tea. Not a good thing.
Replaced both with home brewed mint tea only minimally sweetened with stevia first. And then gradually, over the course of a year or two, gave that up for lemon water. So my tastes have changed over time. I still do like sweet things but don’t feel like I have to have them all the time anymore, especially sweet drinks.
Replacing a not so good thing with a better thing is easier for many than just going cold turkey. Nature abhors a vacuum.
That was the first thing I cut out. It raises my appetite and makes me over eat.
This time I am NOT bringing it back (even though I love it alot and miss it every day)
Thanks for the responses everyone. I hear where you’re all coming from. And as someone new to this and serious about it, if I feel like its impacting me or if I feel myself slipping to 1 a week or something, I will stop it 100% because I really want to reach my goals… But I’m a pretty smart guy and I’ve done a lot of reading and I just can’t believe that like the original post, 1 or 2 a month would really sabotage me if that’s really all it is. So yeah, I’m new to this group, but I’ll come back here and straight up tattle on myself if I do more haha. Today will be my first one in 2 weeks. Before that was a little over 2 weeks. And before that I had one the day before I started on this whole thing about 6 weeks ago. I’m down 14lbs so far so I think so far so good
I do hope some forums members have secured their seating before I type this. If not, please do.
I have one to two diet sodas a day. Usually the inexpensive Food Lion brand for Diet Ginger Ale and Diet Mountain Lion.
Are you back from your fainting coaches? Ketosis, schmetosis. I stick to 20 total grams of carbs a day. It all works out. Ketosis happens, I’m sure, but whether I’m in or out got old months ago.
Of course, YMMV.
So, as I say, there’s one way to find out what works for you.
I’ve actually gone some fairly long stretches (for me) avoiding all artificial sweeteners, while monitoring weight, blood sugar, exercise performance.
And honestly, it didn’t make any difference I could detect.
That said, I’m about to go off again - I’m doing an ADF experiment to get my insulin resistance down, so in December I’m going to cut back on my artificial sweetener use (basically, I drink a lot of Diet Dr. Pepper) and see if there’s a benefit - the last time I was on my usual close to zero carb diet, so maybe there will be some kind of effect with the fasting.
I, too, lived for decades on two Cokes or more a day plus whatever else sweet to drink. Gained a ton but never became diabetic. If we are what we eat then I was a Coke and a ham sandwich with potato chips.
Since going low carb I have cut back to one diet soda every other week or so — maybe 3 per month because I also have one drink of Crown Royal with Diet 7-Up per month. None have slowed my weight loss or knocked me out of ketosis. (Eating high carb and sugary treats do that just nicely.)
I also use a rare small squirt of Mio in my sparkling Perregrino water and it, too, has not hampered my Keto journey. The thing I am trying to avoid totally now is Splenda, etc., in my coffee. (All other sweetness do not taste right to me.).
— Qualifier: When I am on one of my weekly water-only EFs then everything is off the board.
I’m right there with @GentleBen. After drinking a couple diet cokes a day since college and two or three liters per study session throughout college, I’ve mostly quit. Guess I’m done being a long term test subject for artificial sweeteners. (too late?)
I haven’t noticed a difference in blood sugar or ketones when I’ve had the occasional diet soda, so I’m not going to kick myself the few times a month i do.
One bonus of going keto is that I’ve lost my taste, and craving, for sweet foods so it hasn’t too difficult to avoid artificial sweeteners except for the occasional holiday treat.
Even doing that every week would not be any kind of a big deal at all, in my opinion. Even just considering the day when the Diet Coke is consumed, there’s no guarantee of any harm - it truly is a “your mileage will vary” type of thing.
Some people have consumed large amounts of diet sodas daily, while losing huge amounts of weight. Others seem to be very sensitive to it in a bad way, having an insulin response and increased cravings as if they’d actually consumed carbohydrates.
PaulL
(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?)
#18
In that quantity, I can’t see how it could possibly hurt, unless the sweetness trigers a sugar/carb binge.
Even if you were drinking a quantity of diet Coke every day, the only potential problem I could anticipate is that the aspartame might cause your insulin to spike. From what I read on these forums, it seems that every non-nutritive sweetener causes somebody’s insulin to spike, but the reaction appears to be completely individual. You would have to test your blood sugar before and periodically for a couple of hours after drinking a diet Coke to see if it had that effect on you or not. And even so, as long as you had it with a meal, when your insulin is going to go up anyway, you could minimize the damage.
Unless you begin to think that your occasional diet soda is causing a problem, don’t worry about it, KC, and above all, KO.
I kind of love this thread and not because you guys are telling me what I want to hear haha, but because you’re approaching it from the original question of “one or two a month” … Normally I ask “Is it really that bad to have a drink with artificial sweetener in it once in a while?” and people reply “WHAT DON’T YOU EVER DRINK WATER!!!” haha. It’s so frustrating.
PaulL
(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?)
#20
