Diet soda has shown to actually pique hunger in some folks, which is disastrous for us big guys. I just sacrificed my daily sugar elsewhere in the day, so that the soda had minimal impact.
Cutting down on soda is good, but diet soda will not make you hungry. The idea behind what you're saying is that drinking something sweet, but without calories, will somehow trick your brain into becoming hungry. That hasn't been proven. Other rumors about aspartame causing birth defects, cancer, or other illness have not been founded. The exception is if you have phenylketonuria, but that's a rare disorder with many, many dietary restrictions.
However, it is well known that sugar in regular soda
is bad for dieting. Of course, all things in moderation. If you can still successfully diet while drinking regular soda, and you prefer the taste, go for it. I prefer diet, and drink it all the time. I'm actually on a diet right now, and have went from 199 to 187 right now, heading towards a goal of 175.
RE: Atkins vs. KETO vs. South Beach vs. whatever:
Atkins DOES allow carbs - it is not a carb free diet - nor is it an all-you-can-eat lard buffet. What we have been finding out lately is that fat reduction is not the best strategy. While it will work just as well as low-carb if you cut enough calories, for most people, it is much more difficult to be hungry (as on a low calorie diet) than to eliminate carbs (as on low carb). I prefer Atkin's because it is easier. While many will put down low carb dieting, most diets these days have copied many of the same strategies, such as eliminating desserts, breads, etc. in favor of whole grains.
Another point of interest is that if you are a low carb 'believer,' so to say, is that ultra lean meats confer no benefit over those with a higher fat content. This is because protein in the body can be converted to sugar, whereas fat cannot. There are, however, some drawbacks to eating a diet of only fatty, red meat especially for those with certain medical conditions. But this is good news to those out there who are, for example, replacing eggs with egg-whites, eating low fat cheeses, and buying only the leanest cuts of meat... you can do that if you like, but you don't
need to.
A note to those on ANY diet:
All diets will fail in the long term if you are not careful. Our bodies all have a certain 'set point' for weight. That is to say, if we eat whatever we want, whenever we want, some of us will stay at 160 pounds... and the rest of us will be 300+. So, if you're doing a low calorie diet, you need to restrict calories for the rest of your life. I know that sounds obvious to a lot of people, but just about every one of us has the temptation to start eating unhealthy when we reach our target weight... just for a day, week, or a little longer... RESIST! With low-carbing it's the same way. If you don't like calorie restriction, and prefer low carbing, then after you reach your target weight, you can have more carbs... but no big slices of cake, bowls of ice cream, etc... or limit it to 1 bad thing a day. I 'failed' the first time around because after doing Atkin's maintenance for about a year or two, I went back to 'regular' eating. Lo and behold, a few years later, I bounced back to my original weight. It really takes a lot of discipline to maintain a target weight in the long term, but it's possible.
