Research
Adherence
Consuming non-nutritive sweetened (NNS) beverages as part of a structured behavioral weight loss program leads to significantly greater weight loss and maintenance compared to consuming water, specifically among regular NNS users.
If you are a regular user of diet drinks, you do not need to switch to water to lose weight. In fact, sticking with diet drinks while following a structured weight loss plan may help you lose more weight than switching to water, likely because it satisfies your sweet taste preference without adding calories.
WeakSupportsHIGH confidence
NNS and water treatments were non-equivalent, with NNS treatment showing greater weight loss at the end of 1 year. At 1 year subjects receiving water had maintained a 2.45 6 5.59 kg weight loss while those receiving NNS beverages maintained a loss of 6.21 6 7.65 kg (P < 0.001 for difference).
Why this rating
Randomized clinical trial with high compliance and long-term follow-up (1 year).
Source
The effects of water and non‐nutritive sweetened beverages on weight loss and weight maintenance: A randomized clinical trial
John C. Peters et al. · Obesity · 2015
DOI 10.1002/oby.21327
rct · n=303Cited 122×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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