My answer to Ben is “nothing”. I must presume he is telling the truth about his diet and sleep, so he does not have to do one more thing to lose weight. He has to stop doing something. He has to break free of his soda vice.

The health department says drinking one soda a day equals 50 pounds of sugar a year, which can lead to problems like obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Moreover, drinking just one diet soda per week was linked to a 70% greater risk of diabetes compared to those who didn’t drink diet soda.

Yes, you read that right, diet soda. Diet soda uses artificial sweeteners to reduce the calorie content listed on the label to make the beverage more marketable. But the truth is these chemicals actually cause additional weight gain.

Depending on one’s age, gender, overall health and lifestyle habits, diet and exercise level, stopping pop consumption may reduce your weight by 10 – 20 lbs in as little as one month. Enhance your sugar burning capacity by considering a ketogenic eating style. This eating style works but is not suited for everyone. You may want to get it checked out with your physician before getting started.

There is no such thing as "simply stopping" when it comes to sugar and in this case soda drinking. Refined cane sugar enhances the effects of sugar just as refined herbs enhance plant properties into drugs. There is controversy regarding the classification of refined sugar as a drug but no matter what side of the fence you may favor, it’s hard to deny that consuming sugar can affect mood, have negative health effects and is hard to stop using.

Most soda beverages also contain caffeine. Caffeine is addictive and difficult to stop. Studies suggest that caffeine itself is not that harmful in small doses and it stimulates the body metabolism which can aid in losing weight.

If your soda of choice also contained caffeine, it may be worth substituting a more healthy form of caffeine instead of the soda so that you may gain the benefits of the caffeine and lose the health harming affects of the soda. This should reduce or eliminate some of the more nasty side effects of soda withdrawal like headache and fatigue. Try substituting:

• Coffee or tea – use organic grown and certified mold free coffee such as Purity or Bullet Proof coffee brands or an organic black tea. Obviously do not add sugar, creamer or artificial sweeteners. Try unsweetened almond milk or a splash of cow’s mild if you must.
• Caffeinated water – this is just what it sounds like with nothing else added and can be found at your local grocery store.

These substitutes may help get you over the hump of the pop addiction and are a step in a healthier direction that will help those pounds melt away.