I love diet dew

Diet sodas?

May as well just go ahead and dig your grave now ..........

And no, I'm not joking (that much).

Regular soda?  Just make sure you brush your teeth a lot and have plenty of training to knock off all the calories.

I wouldn't quit cold turkey. Titrate down. 6 then 4 then 2 then none. abought 3-4 days each phase. Other wise you're going to bonk HARD. headaches, crabiness galore.

but i hope this wasn't a real question. 7?!?! PER DAY?!?!

gah!

HELLLLOOOOOO cavities!

Monday is quit day.... I am in.

I don't drink diet but the regular Dew, Coke, Pepsi I am hooked. Last year I went from Jan. 1 til mile 22 of my Ironman run on Sept. 22 pop free.

I am doing IM Arizona in 10 weeks so I NEED to quit NOW.

There's really two issues - is diet soda bad and is 7 a day bad?

Diet soda may increase cravings for sweets, but YMMV.  And there are some concerns that the phosphates in soda may affect bone density over time. Having said that, diet sodas in moderation are not in and of themselves bad. Better than regular soda (being calorie free).

But 7?!? That is a lot of liquid, a lot of caffeine, and a lot of cash. I mean, I love diet coke, but I probably have 3-4 glasses a day. Which seems like a lot to me. And I buy mostly 2 liters at a time. And I mix it up with tea and coffee and sometimes regular old water.

AND A LOT OF SUGAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

probably 10-15lbs right there.

Diet soda = no sugar.

And screw that - I don't have a lot of vices, but caffeine in the form of coffee, tea, and diet sodas is one of them.  If that's what kills me, I'll die content.

dear god man you couldn't be more wrong.

diet soda = sugar

matter of fact.... diet soda = asparteme = FAKE SUGAR = worse than real sugar

Well, not to beat a dead horse, but ...

Sugar

Not Sugar

I'm not arguing that it's better, or worse, for you than real sugar, but aspartame or saccharaine, sucralose, etc. are not sugar;  the chief differentiator in discussions about food and drink being the number of calories provided by the sugar that are conspicously absent in artifical sweeteners.

Like I said, I tend to have 1 to 2 cups of coffee or tea a day, and a couple of diet sodas - time will tell if it ends up killing me.  I'm willing to take that risk though. 

I was a one-a-day diet dr. pepper person. My trainer informed me that diet soda interfered with fat burning, which was pretty much what I was there to do. No more soda. If I want soda, it's a real one with real sugar and an extra run in the training plan.

FWIW, my MIL drinks diet soda all day long and has for years. Now she complains about how expensive her pills are to treat her bone density problem. Hmmmmm. Coulda saved double the $$, triple w/o the ciggies... won't go there though.

Correct, apsartame is not a sugar.

But it is a neural inhibitor which tells your mind that it didn't get anything, so you end up more hungry and wanting to eat more, just like MSG.

Aside from that, there are some pretty ridiculous (but not proven wrong) theories about how it can cause other really bad stuff in your body.

Even the main stream news outlests have written some articles on why you should not drink diet stuff.  It is not just crack pot alternative weirdos (said that in the nicest way since my wife is one of those).

fine. we don't have to argue about what's sugar or what is not.

But just by the post previous to this one, that is bad stuff and it should be limited.

 I hope yall win on your diet coke battles!

What do you mean "no supporting evidence"? I see people citing "my trainer," "ridiculous (but not proven wrong) theories," and articles in the "main stream news outlests."

Sheesh, some people just don't dig science.

Just like anything else, limit yourself to one a day with a meal and you will be fine. Start carrying a large cooler jug full of water and make it your goal to finish it by the end of the day. 

Now about the real problem no one is talking about...caffeine!  Caffeine is a drug and has no business being added to anything we eat or drink.  Why do you think they add it?  To get us addicted to it.  Anything that causes withdrawal symptoms is not good for your body...headaches, crankiness, tiredness, etc.  Wean yourself off the caffeine and you'll feel much better.  (tip - excedrin has caffeine in it and can really help when trying to get rid of the withdrawal headaches...but you can't take too much of it either or you'll never get off of it).  Caffeine speeds up your heart rate (can't be good over your lifetime!) and is a diauretic, which causes you to become dehydrated...this leads to being more tired and then more soda is consumed to keep that "high" going. 

I no longer eat/drink anything that has added caffeine, except in those rare cases where I am exhausted and need a pick me up.  Imagine the boost I get from one caffinated soda now!!  I can't drink one within 8hrs of going to bed or it will keep me up all night!!