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Want to Lose Weight This Year? Start With What You Drink
Sugary drinks are sneakier than equally high-calorie foods—and even diet soda can affect your metabolism
By Alex Janin. WSJ
Jan. 1, 2025 5:30 am ET
Your health is more than just a number on a scale. But if losing a little weight is a New Year goal, skip fad diets and hard-to-maintain fitness resolutions.
Instead, nutrition experts recommend something simpler: Don’t drink your calories.
Sugar tends to hide in beverages, and a happy-hour cocktail or fancy holiday latte can pack as many calories as a Big Mac.
Taking a hard look at what and how much you drink isn’t just an important first step for weight loss, it is a necessary one, says Dr. Robert Lustig, a neuroendocrinologist who has written several books on obesity, sugar and nutrition science.
“Liquid calories are worse than solid calories,” he says, adding that sugars found in many beverages—from soda to fruit juice to energy drinks—don’t suppress ghrelin, the hunger hormone. “So you keep eating.”
People consuming liquid calories don’t reduce their later food intake as much as they do when they eat a similar amount of calories in solid food, researchers have found.
We often don’t pay attention when sipping a soda or juice, and that makes us less likely to factor beverages into our daily nutrient tally, says Katherine Zeratsky, a registered dietitian nutritionist at Mayo Clinic.
Zeratsky describes calories from beverages as “low-hanging fruit” when she is counseling patients on weight loss: “If we can eliminate 500 calories from beverages, we should see a positive change.”
There are several ways to go about it. Some of Zeratsky’s patients simply cut back, but most have better luck going cold turkey, she says. Sometimes, the habit is more important than the taste. People who love the feeling of bubbles on their tongues might be OK swapping soda for unsweetened seltzer or sparkling water.
But making a switch from sugar-sweetened drinks to diet soda might not do much to help your waistline. While some studies have found modest benefits for low-calorie sweeteners on weight loss, others show they are associated with weight gain.
People often eat more calories than they otherwise would when they make the switch, says Lustig, adding that diet sweeteners can still lead to elevated blood-insulin levels. Some evidence suggests they might even contribute to more sugar cravings.
“The sweet taste, when it hits the tongue, still generates a neural response saying sugar is coming,” he says. “Your pancreas is still primed to release excess insulin.”
Juice, alcohol and sports drinks are other culprits.
Juice packs all the sugar punch of fruit without the benefit of fiber, which can help regulate your blood sugar and make you feel fuller. Try reaching for an apple instead of apple juice, nutritionists recommend.
Alcohol is highly caloric on its own: A Long Island Iced Tea cocktail can contain up to roughly 700 calories.
And drinking can lead to eating more, says Lena Beal, a cardiovascular dietitian at Piedmont Atlanta Hospital and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Drinking suppresses the central nervous system and makes it harder to resist that late-night slice of pizza or pint of ice cream.
Sports drinks often contain more sugar than consumers realize. Besides, they are designed to replenish electrolytes that you sweat out during a workout. If you drink them recreationally, they can lead to unnecessary fluid retention and increased blood pressure, says Beal.
You don’t have to cut out all of your favorite beverages to lose weight, nutrition experts say. But if you drink something five times a week, try paring down to just weekends, Beal offers, or make a rule that you won’t drink soda or alcohol on days when you eat dessert.
Still, Zeratsky says: “Everyone could be served better by drinking just plain water.”
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