It seems like it’s the official drink of the obese or something.
Now, this is purely anecdotal, but it seems to me that a lot of overweight people drink Diet Coke. If you want a low-cal drink, there’s a lot of options out there, but I keep seeing overweight people choosing Diet Coke.
Assuming I’m correct, I have two theories:
Overweight people tell themselves that they’re saving calories on what they drink and overindulge in other areas. Diet Coke is clearly a ‘diet’ product and so they tend to drink it for mostly psychological reasons.
Diet Coke is generally a very popular drink and I just notice overweight people drinking it because of the disconnect between a diet product and a person who is clearly not watching what they eat.
My experience is that fat people go on diets a lot. When you go on a diet, you learn to like diet soda. Once you’ve learned to like diet soda, you prefer it to regular soda - or at least would rather drink diet instead of all the empty calories. So Diet Coke, being that it’s most widely available, is what you’re going to drink when you’re out in public.
No one is thinking “Ooooh, if I have a Diet Coke I can get a side of fries!” They just like Diet Coke.
This is how it has worked for me, at least. I drank a regular soda the other day and almost passed out from the sugar rush. My body is just not used to such an injection of HFCS anymore. So, even if I’m eating at McDonalds and clearly not watching my calories, it’s still Diet Coke for me.
I switched to diet for the reason ZipperJJ gave, and though I’ve not lost my taste for regular soda, I don’t miss it and it would be pointless to drink the full calorie stuff if I like the diet variety just as well.
Yep, this one. I lost a lot of weight… from 260 to 175, and I attribute a big portion of that to cutting out regular soda. I drink a LOT of soda, so going to diet cuts a lot of calories.
Since then I’ve bounced from 180 - 215 or so, but even when I get to be towards my chubby stages I drink diet soda. I’ve gotten used to the taste and, these days, prefer it to regular soda, so why should I drink the sugared stuff? I do feel a little silly sometimes when I’m on the chubby side of things and order a diet coke, but oh well. I like it more.
so you save 46 calories drinking a Select over a Bud heavy
There are 145 calories in a 12oz Coke, and 0 in diet coke. Bigger “savings” in calories.
But it can be argued people choose both with beer and soda, for flavor over calories and end up choosing the version with less. I happen to like Budweiser but a lot of my friends think it’s gross and prefer Select or Light. I hate hate hate diet soda but some of my friends only like it, or don’t care which they drink, and none of them worry about their calorie intake enough to turn down a beer or soda.
So moderation is not allowed? A person is supposed to always be either wolfing down all the calories they possibly can, or starving themselves, presumably because just cutting back a little to keep from getting even fatter is just hopeless?
(By “allowed” of course I mean “socially acceptable”, not “allowed by law”)
I know people look at me funny when I order a Supersize meal and a large diet coke. So my reasons are:
Sugared soda does not quench my thirst nor does it really clear my palate when I am washing down food. It makes me thirstier and leaves scum on my teeth.
I hate water so I can’t drink that to quench my thirst/clean my palate. Diet soda is the only other non-calorie, sweetened option at fast food and other restaurants. At home I have Crystal Light or artificially-flavored and -sweetened carbonated water.
If I want sweet to go with my salt/savory, I will get a shake or dessert.
And yeah, I’ve switched to Amaretto and diet soda and it’s still tasty, but more refreshing that Amaretto and sugared soda/OJ/sour mix.
I read somewhere that diet sodas trigger the same type of insulin response as regular sodas. Thus, it’s not the calories in the drink that are the problem, but rather the hunger that the drink creates. Of course, I can’t seem to find the article.
Assuming that overweight people are not ‘watching what they eat’ (i.e. dieting) is like assuming that unemployed people are not looking for jobs. Clearly some aren’t trying and many aren’t succeeding, but the ‘disconnect’ is just in your imagination. If you saw an overweight person drinking slimfast for lunch would you wonder why they’re doing it, since they’re obviously not trying to lose weight?
I switched to diet sodas and now hate the regular stuff; it’s god-awfully sweet. Drinking a real Coke would not be some kind of treat or splurge - it would be an unpleasant exercise that would be endured, not enjoyed.
So I don’t: I have Diet Coke with my Quarter Pounder.
This logic seems quite straightforward to me, but in every one of these threads there seems to be somebody who just doesn’t grasp it. I suspect they are hung up on the false dichotomy that PatriotGrrrl mentions: A hybrid meal containing both calorie-laden and diet items is for some reason strange.
I’ve never met anyone who hates water. How do you hate something that has no taste/smell and it’s only purpose is to hydrate you? I’ll definitely agree sometimes I need some soda or milk or beer or something fluid with flavor, and I can understand people drinking too much soda etc and therefore not consuming much water, but I can’t fathom hating water to the point where you won’t drink it.
Agreed. I rarely drink anything but water. The idea of just hydrating myself with soda seems…wrong. Like, I guess I think of soda as a dessert type thing. Something to have after I’ve eaten as kind of a treat.
I read someone talking about hating water on another message board, though. I was also mystified.