A diet coke experiment

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anttismo
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A diet coke experiment

Postby anttismo » Thu May 08, 2014 10:28 am

I have heard/read a lot about the perils of diet coke, how it's full of chemicals, how it rots your teeth, how it stimulates your appetite, and so on. Personally I'm not sure any of this is a problem. But nevertheless, I'm about to find out if there may be changes due to diet coke.

In my experiment I will be ceasing to drink the stuff. The reason for doing so is just simply for the sake of it - see if I notice a difference :)

As background, I've drunk about 8 cans a day (so about 3 litres) for the last 3 to 4 years. Not only diet coke, but coke zero, pepsi max and diet pepsi. Love them all, drink them all the time. I don't drink coffee, tea, alcohol or any type, don't smoke, do any kinds of drugs, have no kinds of medications. There was only diet coke to help ease the pain. But now it seems there will only be water :)

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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby marty_one » Thu May 08, 2014 10:40 am

anttismo wrote:As background, I've drunk about 8 cans a day (so about 3 litres) for the last 3 to 4 years. Not only diet coke, but coke zero, pepsi max and diet pepsi. Love them all, drink them all the time. I don't drink coffee, tea, alcohol or any type, don't smoke, do any kinds of drugs, have no kinds of medications.
:shock:

Damn, I thought I had a problem with 1 (possibly 2) cans a day. I know I need to reduce my consumption so that I having maybe 1 or 2 a week. I would be interested to see if you have the typical headache related with drawls from not having coke/pepsi that most people I know have gone through as they gave it up.
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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby bychosis » Thu May 08, 2014 11:16 am

Ouch, that is a lot. I'm not a diet drink consumer, but do drink coke. Normally one per day, sometimes two. Every now and then I go off it and notice the difference in dropping out the caffeine with increased fatigue. I wonder, given the low dosage, how much is placebo effect for me.

Based on the experience of others with coffee withdrawal I suspect it could be significant dropping from 8cans back to none, but good luck with it.

Maybe cutting by 2 cans for a few days at a time would belies likely to cause withdrawals.
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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby lobstermash » Thu May 08, 2014 11:34 am

Be prepared for serious caffeine withdrawals. I'd be surprised if you notice anything that's not typical of a caffeine free diet. I find when I can get off the coffee I sleep better, get out of bed easier, but am really sleepy by about 8:30pm.
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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby anttismo » Thu May 08, 2014 11:53 am

Contrary to popular belief, coke has relatively little caffeine - something like 40 mg per can. 8 cans ~300mg. Sometimes I have 12 - 500 mg. I used to have more caffeine than that when I was a heavy coffee drinker. I double shot espresso can be hundreds of mg.

Anyway, yeah I expect a headache. Apparently 100mg day habit (i.e., one typical coffee) has been found to induce withdrawal symptoms in many people. Will see what happens.

Not sure about the caffeine and fatigue though. I ride in the very early mornings 1, 2 am kind of thing, always with no caffeine pre ride. When I do long rides, 150 or 200 kms, I often have no caffeine. I do occasionally have a coke on longer rides, but very rare. But, that'll be something interesting to see too :)

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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby philmart » Thu May 08, 2014 12:17 pm

Good luck to you. I used to be a heavy drinker of the same types of drinks as you - only generally in bottles. 3 x 1.25 litres per day with a couple of 600ml bottles gave me four to five litres. I would barely touch water. Like you I do not do coffee or tea.

After ten years or so of this I think I may have built up a sensitivity to caffiene (or other chemicals in the drinks). About two years ago I started getting jittery and jumpy, my sleep was broken and I felt like I was on a knife edge all the time. I gave up and symptoms went away. I went back onto it again only three monhts ago and within two months started feeling the same symptoms. I have come to the conclusion that I need to give it up as this was not a good feeling. Been off it for about a week now and the symptoms have already abated again.

The first time I gave up, headaches and irritability for a few days to a week. This time far less problems.

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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby darkelf921 » Thu May 08, 2014 12:36 pm

I used to drink similar amounts of diet coke to you. When I stopped, I found I got headaches but drank a lot if water. The result was weight loss. I found through drinking large amounts of diet coke I was not drinking enough water.
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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby Farmer Elvis » Fri May 09, 2014 9:31 pm

darkelf921 wrote:I used to drink similar amounts of diet coke to you. When I stopped, I found I got headaches but drank a lot if water. The result was weight loss. I found through drinking large amounts of diet coke I was not drinking enough water.
It definatley dries me out if I have a can of the stuff it seems to go straight thru me, I used to drink a couple of cans a day at least now not a can a week

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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby queequeg » Fri May 09, 2014 10:53 pm

anttismo wrote:I have heard/read a lot about the perils of diet coke, how it's full of chemicals, how it rots your teeth, how it stimulates your appetite, and so on. Personally I'm not sure any of this is a problem. But nevertheless, I'm about to find out if there may be changes due to diet coke.

In my experiment I will be ceasing to drink the stuff. The reason for doing so is just simply for the sake of it - see if I notice a difference :)

As background, I've drunk about 8 cans a day (so about 3 litres) for the last 3 to 4 years. Not only diet coke, but coke zero, pepsi max and diet pepsi. Love them all, drink them all the time. I don't drink coffee, tea, alcohol or any type, don't smoke, do any kinds of drugs, have no kinds of medications. There was only diet coke to help ease the pain. But now it seems there will only be water :)
Yikes, Coca-Cola (full strength) got me through a lot of all nighters at Uni, but these days I have maybe 1 or 2 a week, usually laced with something alcoholic :-) Despite having an unlimited supply of free drinks on every floor in the office, I mostly stick to the water.
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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby Sir Stinkalot » Sat May 10, 2014 10:36 am

Wow ..... I must admit that I am amazed that there are so many people drinking such large volumes of soft drink per day. 8 cans a day! It's almost as if you would never have an empty one.

I substitute the Coke for coffee :) typically it is the equivalent of 4 single shots in the morning (6 on weekends) and then another 3-4 during the day. At work I try to be good and match the coffee intake with equivalent water, but not so much at home.

If I run out of beans I don't feel the best the next day but then no problems then on. I just make sure I don't run out of beans.

Best of luck with your experiment ..... I think you would be better for it.

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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby SuperSix » Sat May 10, 2014 11:46 am

So how's it going? Feeling rubbish? Headache? If you have it up on the 8th it's probably going to be a rough weekend if you're anything like me. I was drinking just one 600ml iced coffee every day. I decided to kick all caffeine to see what would happen. Even though I was consuming fairly low dosage it hurt for 4 or 5 days. Headaches, nausea and feeling tired all day. It took about a week to really come good. But I have found I sleep much better and my head is much clearer. A bit hard to describe but the fog in my head is gone.
Sometimes I relapse for a few days but it's easier to get off it every time.
Good luck with it. Caffeine is evil.

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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby mikesbytes » Sat May 10, 2014 12:36 pm

You did it with booze, I'm sure your succeed Antii

I was drinking a tonne of softdrink and I weaned myself off by using sparkling mineral water, which eventually got replaced with water.

Makes the shopping heaps lighter, you can leave the cage at home and do the shopping with the pushie or motorbike
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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby anttismo » Sat May 10, 2014 3:34 pm

All going OKish I guess. It's only beer 2 days so not too much to report other then a headache and some feeling a bit crappy. But that was easily fixed with more caffeine :lol: Seriously, feeling pretty crappy at work yesterday after lunch so I had a cup of tea. It really fixed me up and half an hour later I felt tippy top. Really impressive actually. Felt fine for the rest of the day, but not surprising since I believe the half of life of caffeine in the system is maybe 6 hrs. Today I also felt a bit crappy by early arvo, so I had a cup of tea again an hour ago and am feeling fine again. So it does seem like a bit of caffeine withdrawal. So I guess I'm weening myself to some degree with a bit of tea, but I don't see myself continuing with that for too long.

Otherwise I slept really well last night. And have probably drank more water than usual and went to the bathroom less. Did 4 hrs on the pushie yesterday morning, climbed a few hills, felt like any other day. This morning was wet but put in 3 hrs on the elliptical trainer at a steady 250w, feeling fine. Anyway, will see how it progresses. More interested if there will be any noticeable long term changes :)

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A diet coke experiment

Postby cyclotaur » Sat May 10, 2014 4:30 pm

anttismo wrote:All going OKish I guess. It's only beer 2 days so not too much to report ..... :)
Freudian slip ?
Haven't replaced diet coke with beer have you .... ?

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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby anttismo » Sat May 10, 2014 4:53 pm

cyclotaur wrote:
anttismo wrote:All going OKish I guess. It's only beer 2 days so not too much to report ..... :)
Freudian slip ?
Haven't replaced diet coke with beer have you .... ?

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Whoops. I blame mikesbytes for mentioning beer :lol:

Diet coke actually replaced beer in my life, so I don't want to start regressing.... yet :)

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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby g-boaf » Sat May 10, 2014 5:52 pm

anttismo wrote:I have heard/read a lot about the perils of diet coke, how it's full of chemicals, how it rots your teeth, how it stimulates your appetite, and so on. Personally I'm not sure any of this is a problem. But nevertheless, I'm about to find out if there may be changes due to diet coke.

In my experiment I will be ceasing to drink the stuff. The reason for doing so is just simply for the sake of it - see if I notice a difference :)

As background, I've drunk about 8 cans a day (so about 3 litres) for the last 3 to 4 years. Not only diet coke, but coke zero, pepsi max and diet pepsi. Love them all, drink them all the time. I don't drink coffee, tea, alcohol or any type, don't smoke, do any kinds of drugs, have no kinds of medications. There was only diet coke to help ease the pain. But now it seems there will only be water :)
8 cans a day?? :shock:

The headache I'm not surprised about. I used to get that when I used to drink too much coffee (double-espressos) and stopped, that's when I'd get the headache. I went to tea as an alternative. Herbal teas are alright, peppermint is quite nice, lemon and ginger is also pretty good. :)

You've got some decent resolve so I've got no doubt you'll make it happen. 8)

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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby mikesbytes » Sun May 11, 2014 2:52 pm

Drank a coke today, didn't do anything for me. Guess I've left the stuff in the past


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A diet coke experiment

Postby cyclotaur » Sun May 11, 2014 6:16 pm

I sometimes start a ride with a glass of coke and two ibuprofen.

Hey, it's an age thing .... :)


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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby singlespeedscott » Sun May 11, 2014 8:28 pm

Man you guys have serious caffeine issues. I'm lucky to drink a can of coke in 6 months. I don't drink tea or coffee either. I do 12hr shift work and have found no need for these stimulants. They are a crutch of modern society IMO. Good on you anttismo for kicking the habit.
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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby SuperSix » Mon May 12, 2014 12:02 pm

singlespeedscott wrote: They are a crutch of modern society IMO.

+1
Try any find a teenager that doesn't start the day with a 500ml Mother or V energy drink.

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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby cyclotaur » Mon May 12, 2014 12:40 pm

^^ Well ..... I know three who don't (didn't) so that's a gross generalisation.


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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby Carrots » Mon May 12, 2014 1:54 pm

You could always take the South American thought train on Diet Coke... It makes you fat. Why? Because fat people drink it.

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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby marty_one » Wed May 14, 2014 9:28 pm

Hows it coming along?
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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby anttismo » Thu May 15, 2014 9:16 am

It's going OK. I still think I'm feeling withdrawals, so am having a the odd cup of tea or even the odd can of coke. But I'm OK with that as I should slowly get used to living on smaller doses. Just at the moment I tend to feel it by late morning / lunch time and feel better after a (small) hit of something caffeinated and feel fine for the rest of the day. Or perhaps it's just psychological...

Haven't noticed much on my morning rides, although last Sunday I did do 200kms over about 7 hrs and was feeling pretty drained and out of food with 30 kms to go. I bought a muffin and full strength coke and felt a million bucks. That may have just been a nice hit of sugar as anything else :)

Onward and upwards. Even if I feel I have to have a can a day it is a decent reduction from 8 a day :lol:

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Re: A diet coke experiment

Postby RonK » Thu May 15, 2014 11:28 am

So you drank 8 cans of Coke per day, and in another thread you say you drank 3 cases of booze per week, presumably thats 10 cans of beer per day.

That is some seriously addictive behaviour. :frown:
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