Just eat less calories , that worked for me.
I’ve been drinking diet soda daily for 20 years; it does not make me hungry. But I don’t have that much of a true hunger appetite anyway.
As far as the studies’ suggesting that aspartame may DECREASE appetite, I suspect that is due more to caffeine in the drinks than the sweetener.
This goes against conventional wisdom, but it has worked really well for me. [Edited: where I stop weighing, the weigh creeps on. When I start again, it holds steady or goes down. I think this is because I’m really competitive and it’s like a daily game of solitaire rather than a Vast Lifetime Project.]
Also: eat slowly. The “full” reflex isn’t immediate. If you’re still hungry when you’ve finished your small portion, wait 10–15 minutes and see how hungry you are.
Another one that works for me: I can’t manage lighter breakfast or lunch, but I can manage a light dinner. I can fall asleep feeling a little hungry, but I can’t get through the day with that feeling.
Best advice I ever got: “Find out what your body knows, and fool it.”
It may not be true for you, but it is for me and maybe others. Strictly anecodotal, but I used to drink a lot of Diet Coke and had a raging appetite. When I decided to start being more aware of what I put in my body, I switched to unsweetened iced tea. In a few days the raging appetite was gone and has stayed away, except when I have anything with aspartame. People need to be aware and make their own decisions was my point.
I do agree on the water.
Don’t exercise to look better. Exercise for other reasons instead. I do it because it helps me stay sane. It’s the only time I get to myself from when I wake up at 5:30 until I fall asleep at 11:30. Most other times, so many people are talking to me (whether it’s kids, husband or co-workers) that I feel like I can’t even finish a thought. Exercise has become my haven, which makes me want to do it as often as I can find time to do so.
Oh, and when you try to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight, take one day a week to do the “heavy planning” so you don’t have to spend as much time thinking about food later. If you’re having willpower issues, you’re probably already obsessing about food anyway. Putting yourself in a position where you’re always planning for the next meal makes obsession an even easier trap to fall into.
this has the opposite affect on me: I start the day with carbs and I get a headache and am hungry the rest of the day.
protein first!
also: the hell with calories, eat more fiber. vegetables & more vegetables.
exercise, I mean it.
No point posting disagreement unless it’s rude as possible, eh? It’s a wonder new posters stick around here at all. :rolleyes:
Besides, she said aspartame made her hungrier. I doubt you can provide any sort of cite to prove she’s wrong.
I am NOT a breakfast person. And carbs or sugar in the morning, UGH!! Just…no. Makes me hungry and eating EVERYTHING all day long.
But my last job had a cafeteria in it, and when I started eating this little chopped chicken/green peppers/onions mix they would make, eating it at 8:30 in the morning I would be energetic and full and good to go until dinner.
So +1 on the protein in the mornings, and skip the sugars/carbs. For me, anyway.
Instead of trying to cut down on the “bad” food, instead eat more of the “good” stuff. Have a salad or big serving of vegetables with every meal, and eat them first. You’ll get full, and eat less of the other stuff, and you don’t feel like you’re depriving yourself.
I hate “me too” posts, but…me too! Toast, cold cereal, oatmeal make me feel crappy and tired the rest of the day. If I eat what I consider more lunch or dinner-type food for breakfast, I feel so much better!
Same! I even started a blog <totally unused, but there in case I get a hankering> named Soup4Breakfast, due to my preference for light, savory breakfasts rather than heavy/sweet ones. 
Missed this earlier, thanks SA. I’ll be sticking around, Ambi’s post is a love note compared to some I’ve experienced elsewhere. 
Glad to hear that. Thanks. 
I’ll again mention my mom’s diet plan: Eat ten servings a day of fruits and vegetables, and whatever else you want.
And of course, like any other diet that works in the long run, you have to stay on it for the long run. If you “go on a diet” to lose weight, then you’ll gain it back when you go off the diet.
Not precisely a diet tip, but another thing that can help a lot is incidental exercise. You don’t need to schedule going to the gym on your day planner; you can get a lot of exercise just doing things you’d do anyway. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Don’t drive somewhere if you can walk or bike there instead. Use a muscle-powered lawnmower instead of the gas one, et cetera.
Weigh and/or measure your food, especially calorie-dense food (like peanut butter). Get a kitchen scale and a set of dry measuring cups and spoons, and mete out the appropriate portion sizes that way. Don’t eyeball anything; you will always be off. I’ve been measuring my food on and off for two years, and I’ve had to learn the hard way that I simply cannot estimate accurately.
Eat smaller portions more often. That and walking is what has helped me.
Diet soda consumption can have negative effects on insulin resistance, among other things. Unsweetened tea is a much better choice.
That is all correlation and none causation. Again, no hard evidence.
Diet soda has been linked to weight gain, but not because of aspartame; rather, people think they can eat more and end up eating more calories than they did before:
Of course, the article also mentions the link between aspartame and blood sugar/insulin levels. However, consumption of other reduced calorie foods (including zero calorie fat substitutes, and even “real” foods; the latter also says that reduced fat diets are no better than reduced calorie diets) have also been linked to weight gain, so the first explanation is more likely.
But wouldn’t that only apply to people who switch to diet soda in order to help lose weight? That is not why I drink diet soda. I drink it because I find regular cola too sweet, and because I like to drink it in quantity without worrying about calorie content. I think there’s a key difference between the people who bought into the marketing strategies of the 1970s and the people who drink it today.