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Lose Weight without the Soda!!

During your OPTIFAST weight loss program in New Jersey, say “good-bye!” to the soda.

Lose Weight without the SodaSoda has gotten a pretty bad reputation over the past couple of years. What started as a sweet treat for children and adults to enjoy occasionally is now a staple of the American diet. The carbonated, sugar-packed beverage is easily found anywhere in the country. Food stores, restaurants, cafés, toy stores and gas stations sell soda by the liter to anyone willing to drink it.

Drinking soda can severely interfere with your ability to lose weight, even during an optifast weight loss program. The beverage is high in calories, loaded with sugar and doesn’t do a darn thing to fill you up. The result is an overabundance of empty calories that are going to give you a brief boost of energy before causing you to crash, ultimately driving you to consume more soda.

Soda and your Weight

Losing weight will require you to consume fewer calories than you are able to burn through physical activity. Soda is a high calorie beverage that lacks all nutritional benefit. The calories and sugar consumed while you down a bottle of soda doesn’t help your body in any way and won’t help you resist hunger. They serve you no nutritional purpose, but could be drastically impacting your ability to lose weight.

Aside from impacting your weight loss efforts, soda is bad for your dental health, can decrease the strength of your bones and is even linked to chronic kidney disease. Drinking soda is associated with an increased risk for many obesity-related diseases, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease and osteoporosis.

Unfortunately diet soda isn’t much better than the regular stuff. While the diet drinks are low in calories, they are heavy in artificial sweeteners that have been linked by several studies to increased appetites and impeded weight loss efforts.

Ultimately, soda is a poor choice for your health—especially as you are hoping to lose weight. To easily cut several hundred (or even a thousand!) calories out of your daily diet try switching to water instead of soda. No-calorie beverages like water, black coffee and unsweetened tea are great beverage choices for your weight loss program. For more advice on what you should be consuming as you lose weight consult with your weight loss doctor.