Soda, Pop, Fuzzy Drinks, Do They Make You Gain Weight?

Growing up, I was overweight. From about age 6-7, I was overweight and aware of it. I knew I was bigger than other girls my age and it wasn't until about 9-10 where other kids started making fun of me.

My dad drank soda, my grandparents drank it too so I was used to seeing it around and having a few drinks here or there. But it wasn't until high school when I had my own car and my own money from working where I started drinking it on the daily.

I started really putting on weight my freshman year of high school - there where a bunch of emotional reasons why I over ate, but I put on about 50-60 pounds my first year. Part of that was because I was drinking over 32 oz of Dr. Pepper a day. So I was drinking hundreds of calories added to mainly eating out, ramen noodles, and loads of Chez-It crackers.

Me in 2009 ~190-200 pounds 

When I started commenting on how much weight I was greeted with many theories on how I could lose weight. The main constant on all the theories was pop. How if I eliminated pop out of my diet, I would drop so much weight, so fast.
I didn't really want to give up my sweet treat after school, so I switched to Diet Dr. Pepper. I thought that would help. It would cut out all those hundreds of calories while still getting the carbonation sensation. So, of course, once I took out about 450 calories a day, I did stop gaining. I was able to kind of stabilize in a way. I wasn't gaining anymore, but I wasn't losing either.

Family and friends started commenting on how if I just cut out ALL carbonation, I would lose weight. The bubbles would "make my stomach push out, making you (me) look big". Or, "carbonation stays in your system for 7 hours, making your stomach look big for 7 hours."

No matter what though, I could not seem to give up diet soda. It was a little treat for me, something that I treated myself with everyday.
Even to this day, I usually have one pop or two a day. After almost 10 years, I still hear theories about how pop is a major cause for my own personal difficulty in losing weight. Well, I want to share what I have found and why carbonated drinks (or zero calorie carbonated drinks) are or are not making you gain weight.


It turns out, it's not the carbonation itself, but the chemicals that could cause you to crave more sweets. From the article, Is Flavored Sparkling Water Killing Your Weight-Loss Goals by Julia Malacoff, she said; "“In the study, those who drank carbonated water had ghrelin (hunger hormone) levels six times higher than those drinking regular water, and three times higher than those drinking non-carbonated sodas,” Beckerman [nutritionist] notes. That doesn’t sound great for sparkling water. “However, the study didn’t account for external factors that could have influenced weight gain such as an unhealthy diet or lack of exercise,” she says. “The research did not directly tie sparkling water to weight gain.”" [Malacoff, blog.fitnesspal.com]

They noted in the study above how carbonation could affect ghrelin levels but there are other factors to cause ghrelin levels to spike; inadequate sleep is a huge one! So make sure you get your sleep! 

In the article, MYTH: Switching to Diet Soda Will Help Me Lose Weight by Jillian Michaels,  Michaels discusses how diet sodas have a lot of artificial sweeteners. They have the capability to cause weight gain simply through the fact that some artificial sweeteners cause your body to be confused by the sweetness and want you to eat more, therefore causing you to crave more. "The study concluded that eating artificially-sweetened foods would eventually lead to greater weight gain than eating foods sweetened with regular sugar would..." [Michaels, jillianmichaels.com]. 

I can collaborate with that because I noticed that when I had a drink with artificial sweetener in it; Monsters, Diet Dr Pepper, etc., I would crave more sweet things through the day. 

In a study done by Birzeit University in Palestine, published in the peer-reviewed Obesity Research and Clinical Practice Journal, they first had four groups of rats who followed their regular diet but one group was only fed plain water, one plain carbonated water, one diet carbonated drink and one flat drink. It was found using rats that carbonated water and diet carbonated drinks ate more and gained weight. Again, the researchers found the rats had an increase in ghrelin. 
Ultimately, they discovered that a poor diet and carbonated beverages will make it very difficult for you to attain your weight loss goals. 

So in the last 3 articles I have found there is a lot of evidence that shows how carbonated beverages have the ability to cause weight gain. Have the ability to. There are other factors that can contribute to weight gain, not just if you drink a diet soda during the day. 
Like mentioned above; sleep has a huge part in weight loss. Are you getting adequate sleep?
Exercise. Are you exercising? Are you pushing yourself or just going through the motions? 
Do you have a balanced diet? Are you eating enough? Are you eating too much?
Know what your goals are, and do whatever you can to achieve them. 

I know that through my research, I was a bit astounded. The sweet drinks I have, could make me crave more sweet things? Once that was brought to my attention, I was able to be cognizant of it. In my personal opinion, you can still have diet drinks or carbonated water and reach your fitness goals. But information is power, so simply being aware of the pros and cons of things makes you more prepared and you can make an informed decision for yourself. 



Resources https://blog.myfitnesspal.com/is-flavored-sparkling-water-killing-your-weight-loss-goals/
https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/sparkling-water-causes-weight-gain
https://www.jillianmichaels.com/blog/food-and-nutrition/myth-switching-diet-soda-will-help-me-lose-weight