Is Diet Coke bad when it comes to fasting?!

(Full Metal KETO AF) #11

Bitters and bitter herbs are a common way to stimulate appetite. Don’t you feel this when drinking bitters?

#12

Just wanted to add one more thing- if dropping the Diet Coke still doesn’t make a difference, I really do think (and so do several others based on previous replies in other if your posts) your body might be under stress from the exercise. It sounds scary but maybe try not to do any exercise other than light walking for a few weeks. Exercise and strength training aren’t bad. But they can absolutely hinder initial results because of the stress. If you were already doing that stuff it might be fine because your body is used to it. But if your body isn’t used to it, it’s just going to keep hurting your goals. FYI It took me a year of keto to see changes. I kept going because I trusted the process. There is so much going on inside your body that you can’t see.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #13

@David_Stilley Not at all. I’m suggesting a couple drops in a half liter or liter of sparkling water. That’s just enough to add a little flavour not trigger anything metabolically. Bitters have such a strong flavour that only a couple/few drops are needed to taste it. The OP suggests an addiction to sweet and I think learning to drink very dilute bitters is a way to break that. Also, Angostura Bitters are 44% alcohol, but when used in the minute quantities I suggest, that is negligible as well. I’m NOT recommending she drink Pink Gin!

(Full Metal KETO AF) #14

Of course not, the reason that I asked was that I have had problems with my 24 year old autistic son’ appetite. I researched possible things to do and that came up along with several bitter herbs. It said that the British use bitters and water as you mentioned a while before eating to stimulate appetite in people who had none. But then I just looked that up to confirm it and found this. Apparently it might do both?

Bitter Herbs Promote AND Curb Appetite

When it comes to appetite the matter of bitters seems unresolved. Do digestive bittersstimulate appetite, or do they suppress appetite? This happens to be a rare case where the real answer seems to actually be that they do both.

:cowboy_hat_face:

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #15

@David_Stilley Thanks very much for the link! Now that is very interesting, indeed. Similar the Aesop fable of the man and the satyr.

Significant timing! Eat within half an hour of consumption to stimulate appetite. Wait longer or don’t eat at all to reinforce a fast. I suspect that it probably takes more than the two or three drops in a liter of water to have either affect, but then I guess this is yet another to-be-tested assumption. I’d better start making a list before I forget.

Takeaway for @Iwanttobelieve: if you take my recommendation to drink Angostura Bitters in soda water, don’t even contemplate eating afterwards. 1000+ years of cloistered and eremitic monks and nuns must have been onto something.

To be clear, my comment about Pink Gin was facetious. :wink:

#16

I think I need to give up the Diet Coke and maybe do OMAD every other day and mix stuff up as much as possible and keep my body guessing.

I have tried just walking but no results. I just want to lose 12 more pounds and be the way I want to look and feel. It’s been so frustrating since I am working so hard to lose these last few pounds and not seeing much results.

At this point I’m just going to try varying my workouts and my eating habits and see what happens.

#17

Are you eating enough in that one meal to fuel you for the day? If you’ve only got 10-15 lbs to lose you don’t have a lot of available energy during a fasting period and cutting back on food will not make things better.
Your body needs time to rest and recover between workouts, you can’t be in constant exercise mode either.

(David) #18

Diet Coke is bad period. Not just for fasting. But yes, it does trigger metabolic processes that interfere with your fasting.

If you find yourself tempted to drink Diet Coke, what helped me was knowing how terrible it is for your body. It’s easier to avoid if you know just how horrible it is. I used to drink a 2 liter bottle of diet coke a day, sometimes more. Kicking the habit was like someone who quits smoking but then starts again months or weeks (or days) later. Finally, when I learned how truly bad it was, I was able to leave it behind for good.

When you don’t know the negative impact of a food, it’s just you and your willpower trying to restrain from the pleasure of consuming it. What’s the harm right? Go ahead and eat/drink it, no real harm done. Knowing it’s horrible for your body just gives you one more layer of armor to help fight the urge to backslide on your goals. At least, that’s how it is for me.

#19

When you say no results, how long did you wait? I don’t mean from the start of your journey. I mean from the start of your experiment of changing habit. You are a lot like me, didn’t have a whole lot to lose. it took me a YEAR to budge on the outside. I had thoughts of ”maybe it just doesn’t work for me like it does everyone else” but trust me, if you work too hard at it, or give up on elimination experiments too soon, it’s going to cause more stress and you’ll be in an endless cycle. :heart: Do it for health and try to relax, and you will see changes. Don’t do OMAD if you feel hungry during fasting windows. Eat enough during the OMAD. For me, that’s difficult to do so I split it up into 2 meals in a 4 hour window (or 8 … I switch it up).

#20

I have messed up my metabolism from years of yo yo dieting.

I would do what I’m doing now but work half as hard and be 10 lbs thinner. And this was only 4 years ago!

This time around I’ve done it all right. I eat clean and was eating twice a day up until I realized that it’s been months without the scale moving and started recently doing OMAD. I have very limited dairy. I also am so low carb so this is strange to me why I have such difficulties losing weight.

The only thing I noticed was drinking Diet Coke. I didn’t do it daily but more than I should. I’m thinking this may have to be a once a week treat.

I’m trying to go from too much cardio to more circuit training where I mix up everything maybe that’s what my body needs. I can see how your journey has been hard. Ugh mine also has not been easy. I would just be happy eating twice a day keto and having normal workouts. Im not sure why it’s so hard for some people compared to others.

#21

I meant to tag you :blush:

(Bunny) #22

To me Artificial Sweeteners are like playing with matches around an empty gasoline drum (way more dangerous than when filled with actual gasoline) or empty gasoline drum mentality?

Of Mice and Men’s Guts - National Geographic

In the new study, the team began by adding one of three FDA-approved artificial sweeteners—saccharin, sucralose, or aspartame—to the drinking water of mice. The researchers compared these groups of mice with others that drank only water. Within 11 weeks, the mice drinking sweetened water had developed glucose intolerance, most notably when saccharin was added to their diet.

To see whether the mice’s intestinal bacteria contributed to the problem, the team then used antibiotics to wipe out the mice’s intestinal bugs and found they could return the mice’s blood sugar levels to normal.

Finally, they fed fecal samples from glucose-intolerant mice to normal mice, transferring the unhealthy mice’s gut bugs. The normal mice that got these fecal samples then developed glucose intolerance within six days.

Analysis of mouse gut bacteria after the experiments found a proliferation of the bugs involved in digesting carbohydrates in the glucose-intolerant mice. (Carbohydrates are found in breads, cereals, and other foods in the human diet.)

“I think this is surprising,” Elinav says. He calls it “counterintuitive” that artificial sweeteners, which are not meant to be absorbed by the digestive tract, end up apparently altering its performance.

To see if the effect extends to humans, the team first looked at 381 people in a nutritional study headed by Segal. They found links between artificial sweetener use, symptoms of obesity and elevated blood sugar, and the kinds of altered gut bacteria seen in the mice.

In particular, the study noted a 20-fold increase in the numbers of Bacteroides fragilis bacteria, linked to inflammation in the gut.

Finally, as a proof of concept, the team enrolled five adult men and two adult women who didn’t use artificial sweeteners in a one-week experiment. In the experiment, the volunteers ate the FDA’s recommended allowance of saccharin, about 120 milligrams daily; they had their blood sugar levels checked every five minutes and underwent a daily glucose tolerance test.

“Notably, even in this short-term seven-day exposure period, most individuals (4 out of 7) developed significantly poorer glycemic [blood sugar] responses,” says the study. Normal mice fed fecal samples from the four human volunteers with glucose intolerance developed the same condition.

Along with a historical shift toward processed foods over the past century, the move toward artificial sweeteners “coincides with the dramatic increase in the obesity and diabetes epidemic,” the study concludes. “Our findings suggest that [artificial sweeteners] may have directly contributed to enhancing the exact epidemic they themselves were intended to fight.” …” …More

Just tried Erythritol for the first time
(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #23

Again @atomicspacebunny knocks it out of the ball park! Thanks a bunch.

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #24

I agree. I don’t even us a drop of stevia now in anything.

('Jackie P') #25

This is all so interesting. I had been in the habit of drinking (probably too many), vodkas with slimline tonic. Having hit a stall I have cut out the vodka, and by association, the slimline tonic! I do feel better for it and, even though the scale hasn’t moved very much, I have dropped another dress size.
In my search for an alternative drink, I have discovered bitters and soda water and I really like it. I’m trying to think if it has changed my appetite, but I’m not sure. Maybe because the vodka usually had me reaching for the nuts!
In the beginning, I used a lot of erythritol, which I assume causes the same response but is rarely cited, but there has been half a bag in the cupboard for ages!

(PSackmann) #26

I’m sorry you’re having such a hard time with the last pounds, I’m not there yet but I can relate from previous weight loss. This statement stands out to me, if your body hurts every morning it needs some recovery time. Try reducing the frequency of your strength training but increasing the intensity, a la Doug McGuff (Body by Science). The true gains of exercise happen during recovery, and if you’re pushing your muscles hard daily they don’t have the time to recover.
Also, and this may be hard, take a look at your goal weight versus your current body fat %. Many of us were told to go by the BMI and ideal weight charts to choose a goal weight, which doesn’t take into account muscle mass and bone density. If your goal weight is towards the lower end of the chart, you may be asking your body something it can’t do without sacrificing one of those. A good friend once told me, we don’t walk around with our weight on a label and it’s true. My best friend is a beast, and my inspiration for keeping a realistic weight goal. She’s 5’ 4", size 2-4, and weighs around 150-160 depending on the season. Her doctor doesn’t even bother weighing her anymore, it throws the charts off.

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #27

@Iwanttobelieve Solid advice from @goohsmom

(Tamela Robinette) #28

A light bulb just came on for me reading this thread. Wow just wow. I’m about 5 pounds from goal weight & had been making great strides in my strength training, lifting heavy and loving the changes in my body. In 2002 I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia & although I won’t go into a lot of detail, when it flares it feels like someone beat me with a baseball bat and I have zero energy. Over the years I’ve learned clean eating, exercise and quality sleep keeps the flares few and far between. Fast forward to a few weeks ago, I’ve been working a lot and practicing OMAD and decided a little extra caffeine via diet coke would help me get through my shift(s). I didn’t see any negative affect on the scales and actually felt like the coke was helping me extend my non-eating window. Guess what? My joints have been aching, my sleep quality has been drastically affected, and I’ve had no energy to workout! I feel like pooh!!! Reading this thread made me realize the only thing I’ve changed was adding the diet coke. I had given up soda for years until a few weeks ago and I feel so dumb for thinking it was ok and not realizing it is the reason why I have felt so horrible lately! That being said, you may or may not see the weight start to fall off if you you give up your diet coke, but I would just about bet money your level of soreness will improve! As of today I am once again diet soda free!

(traci simpson) #29

I CONCUR 100%!

:+1:t5::+1:t5::+1:t5::+1:t5::+1:t5::+1:t5:

(traci simpson) #30

Think about it… KETO is about real whole foods. Diet Coke/coke/soda etc is not real food. It’s factory made. Just my opinion.