Artificial sweeteners

Can artificial sweeteners hinder your weight loss.  I have it several times a day in my coffee and tea.

There has been a lot of articles indicating yes and no.  It's so hard to know what to believe.  My advice is if you are using artificial sweeteners and losing weight without any issues then keep doing it. If you find you are not losing try and elimante them and see if that helps.

I agree with Kathy. If you are not having issues, don't worry about it. Around the 3-4 year mark my cravings were out of control. I gave up Splenda and they went away. I have not had trouble maintaining my weight since then.

I am a recovering carb monster.  So when I got ready to get my sleeve I said... self you had a lap band how is this going to be different.  We had a long battle about it and a lot of denial about the matter but my logical science brain finally won.  I love sugar, I like things sweet, I like foods that break down into sugar.  I used to just roller coaster the day with a latte, then some scones, some bread at lunch, chips in the afternoon and cookies when home.  I had to just stop.  I put my foot down and said no more sugar and no more artificial sweeteners.

I made the choice to not use artificial sweeteners based on some observations:

People who drink diet sodas don't just have one, many of them drink it all day long.  Which is not my normal with reg sugar soda.

I watched a documentary about how artificial sweeteners are much sweeter than natural sugar and eventually normal sugar isn't event sweet.  I can tell you after 10 weeks I can tell a big difference in sweetness levels.  Strawberries, and watermelon are really sweet now.

Also it's a fairly well documented that artificial sweeteners are treated similarly inside your body as sugar.  One thing sugar tells your liver is get ready to store fat, and you absorb more calories when eating more sweet foods.  

So do they make you fat or hinder your loss?  Well they say they are zero calories so at first glance it seems like no.  But on the other hand I think science is telling me that eating them is not the best choice.  I prefer to have a teaspoon of sugar in my tea if I would like one.  If I do I count it on myfitnesspal and adjust the rest of my day to accommodate.  I've been totally able to eat 30gms of carbs or less each day and the carbs I do have come from 1-2oz fruit and my one pleasure of a lightly sweetened tea on occasion.

it depends on a person, and what type and how much of it you use. 

Aspartame gives me a headache and wicked cravings. (i.e.diet soda)

Most artificial sweeteners in a packages - have dextrose added - or other fillers - dextrose = sugar.. not a lot but they can add  up. i.e. 1 packet have less than 1 gr - but 5 of them can add to 2-3 gr of sugar. 

Fillers in other packaging - also can add up...

Just saw this: http://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/04/18/artificial-sweeteners- health-obesity/ 

Thanks for posting the link. Nice to have another medical pro back up what my own docs say. I find it interesting how we tend to latch on to foods and demonize them - especially anything man made or derived. (not that I haven't been guilty of that myself!)

Don't you think Artificial Sweetners are basically in most anything we  eat or drink that is labelled Diet or sugar free?  i don't use any of the blue or pink packets..  but I do like Sobe or 0 vitamin water. 

I have been drinking a lot of beverages with artificial sweeteners since 2 days after surgery. They didn't hinder my weight loss, and they haven't hindered maintenance.