Soda/hunger connection

I love soda. I have never like coffee, so for me, my caffeine fix has always ALWAYS come from drinking soda. Somewhere in my teens, I switched over to diet soda, and in the last decade, it's been pretty much coke zero or diet mountain dew (the diet dew is my go to, but love the cherry coke zero too).

Was told by my surgeon that drinking diet soda in moderation is fine. No worries about stretching your sleeve or any of that junk. Just to hold off for a few months and make sure I was drinking enough water/water based liquid to compensate for the slight diuretic effects.

So still drinking away on my diet soda, around 3 cans a day. And here I am just over 2 years out from my sleeve surgery and still flirting with my goal weight. Within 10 pounds - almost single digits for heavens sake!

My exercise is on point. I just recently joined a gym, and have added in weight training to my usual walking, biking and swimming and yoga. Because I want to be strong and cut the fat down even further, I know I have to lift actual, heavy weights. SO that's what I'm doing now, and very happily too.

But I start taking a HARD look at my diet, because I'm still not seeing the fat melting off and I have points where I am a bottomless pit of hunger and that should not be happening. I track every bite and sip still, so I know my calories were fine most of the time for the amount of activity, but in the last year, I kept creeping up on the calories and stalling out on losing and carrying around a larger amount of fat since I end up eating too much often (even was eating an additional dinner a few hours after my real dinner because I felt soooo hungry). I wasn't regaining, but it definitely was happening much too often for me to ignore and I figured something had to give if I wanted to stay on track.

I decided to cut back on the soda. Partially because of the cost factors, but I also wondered if there would be any nutritional benefit to stopping the nasty chemical ****tails I was addicted to. So the last 2 weeks, I've switched to coffee (sigh) for my caffeine fix, and have had maybe 1 can of soda every 3 days. The results were shocking to me: I have to remind myself to eat again. I can sit down super hungry feeling and eat SMALL portions and feel completely full within a very short period of time. I don't want to consume junk - cravings for crappy stuff is dialed waaay back again.

It's like I got my sleeve reset to how it was in the first year. I am eating proper portions, feeling sated longer, full faster, and the cravings are reasonable and easily ignored if I don't feel like eating crap. And I can tell the difference between being hungry and being thirsty again too.

I hate that I may have to seriously watch my soda intake forever, but then again, how awesome is it that I figured out something relatively simple that I can cut back on (or cut out completely) and have great results with?

I am getting used to the coffee and in the last 2 weeks have seen gains in muscle and lost 3 pounds. I'm now 3 pounds away from my original surgery goal. And I have every confidence I'll hit it and blow right past it as long as I'm working on the weights and watching the foods. But I'm also eating foods I love in small portions and not feeling the least bit deprived or like I'm on a diet either.

Not saying this will be the same for everyone, but I was really surprised at how much of a difference it made for me, so thought I'd share and see if it can help anyone else that might be struggling. :)

My surgeon and nutritionist said that after surgery, I was never to drink soda.  

Some soda - makes me sooo hungry and makes my pouch very insensitive to full/empty signals. Other - like  brand name diet tonic (the one with aspartame as a sweetener) does not do that. 

Also- diet soda like Pepsi or Coke or Sprite zero - irritates my bladder and ..I become semi "incontinent".  stopping diet pepsi for a week - fixed the issue.... 

I may drink one (1) small diet soda a week without noticing its effect on my bladder... 

Frankies-Girl -- that's great to hear.  Congrats.  

I've had only one post-op serious "diet soda event" (drank about 32 ounces of Diet Coke in 4 hours on a road trip when I was a captive in a relative's car).  It resulted in a terrible "acid stomach" effect that took a full week to resolve.  

Not saying this happens / happened to you, but that 32 ounces of Diet Coke turned my sleeve into a vat of boiling stomach acid, producing the urge to consume anything bland to neutralize the acid -- things like bread, corn chips, crackers and anything else that's bland and slider/slurry'ish.  And I was in significant discomfort for days.   

Not a good situation for a WLS patient.  

So I don't do diet soda anymore.  :)  

#MyStoryNotYours

I'm really glad to read this, especially tonight! Tomorrow I begin a process of beginning to 'reset' and get back on track. I am also seeing a new team tomorrow and will be getting the support that I need.

I too was told that a small amount of soda was ok, however I find myself drinking more and more throughout the day. I have allergic type reactions to artificial sweeteners other than Stevia and Monkfruit, so I drink some regular stuff.

But as of tomorrow, I'm cutting down to almost nothing, AND switching to Zevia brand soda which uses stevia. I'm going to work really hard at this issue over the next couple weeks, and work towards eliminating it completely.

I still feel like I have good restriction, however I find myself really hungry every few hours and am eating a lot more. i'm POSITIVE that the soda is the cause of this. I have commented that to my husband many times this week.

Awesome news for you, hope that it is the same for me!