Diet pop?

I drink diet soda and tea sweetened with splenda all the time.  I've had a weight loss of about 80 pounds, and it doesn't seem to have hurt this at all.  Some people seem to feel that diet sodas are "Unnatural" and therefore bad, but I could care less about that.  They are mostly water, and do count towards your daily water total, even if they contain caffeine.

    I guess a benefit from dropping them would be that tap water is cheaper than diet soda.

According to my dentist, diet soda is even worse for your teeth than regular soda.

i've been reading up on diet soda a lot lately, and it turns out that although there has been some evidence that saccharin (ie. fake sugar) is bad for the body, there has been equal evidence proving that it does help with weight loss. 

i think, if you are drinking 3 sodas a day, it wouldn't hurt to just cut down a bit, whether you choose to drink diet or not.  like yaggablues said, its pretty bad for your teeth i think. 

I just started counting my calories a little over a month ago - and even though diet sodas have no calories I chose to cut down my consumption as it was rather ridiculous. I basically went from 3-5 cans of soda per day to 1 can in the morning (my caffeine fix) during the week and close to none over the weekends.

I wouldn't say it has helped or hurt my weight loss - but I can say that I feel better overall drinking tons of water as opposed to tons of soda.

I don't feel as bloated as I used to (probably from the lack of constant carbonation in my stomach) and the reduction in caffeine has helped in the sense that I no longer experience an "energy crash" after having a ton of it or get headaches if I go long periods with out.

Like the person above me noted, you don't have to cut it out completely, but I would definitely recommend cutting back if you can.

There are pros and cons to everything.  For me, I'm well aware of the negative effects of drinking pop (carbonated beverages are acidic after all), and also aware of the effects of consuming artificial sweeteners.  But the benefit of having a drink I enjoy that doesn't have calories outweighs that for me.  I do try to keep it to a maximum of 1 a day mainly for the sake of my teeth and bones.  And make sure you're getting lots of calcium if you're drinking a lot of pop.

I have heard that diet soda will slow your weight loss, and it leaches calcium from your bones (or prevents more from being absorbed; something like that.)  A friend of mine who is a doctor recommends anyone who drinks diet soda, esp. in excessive amounts, to take a calcium supplement.  

Of course the ideal thing would be to cut down the number you drink.  To help you cut down, try sparkling water or add some fruit juice to regular water. Use diet soda as an occasional treat.