How to Avoid Gaining 50 Pounds

Want to do yourself an enormous favor today? It’s simple: Put down that soda.

Despite links to Type-II diabetes and obesity, half of the U.S. population is consuming at least one sugar drink on any given day, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And half of those are have more than one. The worst offenders: young males.

“The American Heart Association recommends no more than 450 calories from sugar drinks per week,” says study author Cynthia Ogden, Ph.D. “And 50 percent of the [soda-drinking] population is consuming over 200 calories from sugar per day, which is more than one can of soda.”

All that sugar can take a serious toll on your weight.

Adding 140 extra calories—one can of Coke—to your daily diet can add about one pound to your weight every 25 days. If you’re part of the 5 percent of America drinking more than 4 cans a day, you’re looking at one pound every week.

If not soda, you ask, then what? Try water, unsweetened ice tea, or seltzer.

And if you can’t go cold turkey, start by weaning yourself off the sugary stuff. Julie Greenstein, Deputy Director of Health Promotion Policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, offers these helpful hints:
•Since most sugary beverages are consumed at home, focus on limiting the sugary stuff you bring into the kitchen. Instead of buying multiple 2-liter bottles, buy a 6-pack of 90-calorie cans and limit yourself to one per day. If you must have the big bottles, make sure you limit your portions by drinking from a small 6-ounce tumbler and adding a lot of ice. For alternatives, try adding sugar to your unsweetened ice tea—it’ll be way less than the sugar in soda—or a flavored seltzer.
•Cut back; instead of three cans, get your habit down to one and a half.
•Ask for healthier options at work, especially in the break room and at catered events.
•Try a low-calorie alternative. Coca-Cola and Pepsi make more than 100 no-cal/low-cal choices: diet soda, energy drinks, flavored seltzer, unsweetened tea. As a first step, switch to Diet Coke. (But please note: The Truth about Diet Soda.)
•Hang a note on your fridge with the number of teaspoons of sugar in each can of soda so you think about it every time you open the fridge.