I’m working on stopping my ridiculous 6-7 a day diet soda addiction to prepare for surgery in a month and I’m looking to see if any one had any tips or suggestions on weening yourself off to avoid experiencing the terrible withdrawal symptoms that I know are going to come. I know it’s not going to be completely avoidable, but maybe there’s a way where it won’t be so bad? Any tips or suggestions will be greatly appreciated. For some reason this is giving me lots of anxiety! I already quit smoking (going on 3 months!!!) so if I can do that I know can do this but I’m not looking forward to the headaches. Thanks in advance!

With caffeine, I quit cold turkey. The only withdrawels I had was crankiness and major headaches which I have migraines anyway. But after a few days I felt better with more energy than when drinking caffeine. I now only have caffeine with my coffee which I drink about a pot a day, but I try to stay away from diet cokes.

I was drinking only diet cokes- 5-6 a day or more. I cut back to 2 8 oz a day. Then down to 1 as a treat for myself. Now I am on water only. I’m always thirsty. I thought it would be the opposite lol. But I don’t miss the soda.

Caffeine withdrawal is real but its only a couple of days. Maybe make some posh caffeine free flat drinks whenever you want one instead, like some flavoured water with ice and a slice of lemon.

I used sparkling water when I weened off the Diet Cokes. After a few weeks of smart water sparkling I no longer liked Diet Coke. Then after the surgery, no carbonated beverages. Use Excedrin before surgery if you want a slow taper from caffeine but stop those before surgery too.

Thank you for all of your responses! I truly appreciate it!!

Your best bet is figure out how much caffeine you're consuming daily and just taper off.

If you're having 500mg a day maybe go down 100mg every 2 to 3 days or something to minimize side effects.

Caffeine withdrawal isn't the worst and is fairly quick, but it is unpleasantness

(and you don't need to drink soda to get your caffeine. Coffee, pills, pre-workout supplements are all better sources of caffeine than soda)

Edited December 22, 20187 yr by Mhy12784

6 days post OP no coffee it's hard

Giving up coffee was one of the first behavioral changes I made, because I thought it would be the toughest long term. I just weaned it down. I went from 2 cups of very strong sweet coffee a day to 1 and then herbal tea for a few days, then I went to just tea after that. I didn’t have any real side effects other than a headache and exhaustion on the first day. For you it may look different, as your ingestion is higher. But the principle is the same. Just cut it further every couple of days.

I’m doing this now! I was drinking 5-6 diet cokes per day and knew I needed to stop. I stopped buying Diet Coke altogether because if it’s in the house I will drink it. I found crystal light with caffeine and started with 3 of those at “normal strength” then started adding more water per packet and now I get the equivalent of one Diet Coke per day spread out over 64 oz of water. The flavor is very light and the caffeine content is nominal enough that I think that once I’m out of crystal light I won’t buy any more and just stick with water. It only took me a week to dial it back and I haven’t had any headaches!

On 12/26/2018 at 17:21, mrs_brontosaurus said:

I’m doing this now! I was drinking 5-6 diet cokes per day and knew I needed to stop. I stopped buying Diet Coke altogether because if it’s in the house I will drink it. I found crystal light with caffeine and started with 3 of those at “normal strength” then started adding more Water per packet and now I get the equivalent of one Diet Coke per day spread out over 64 oz of water. The flavor is very light and the caffeine content is nominal enough that I think that once I’m out of crystal light I won’t buy any more and just stick with water. It only took me a week to dial it back and I haven’t had any headaches!

What a great idea! I’m going to give this a try! Thank you so much!

I was told NO caffeine after surgery ever again. Dehydrates you and I a little concerned that getting enough water in daily will be a challenge for me.

And they are right, not worth it at all!

20 hours ago, Tina#loserinCO said:

I was told NO caffeine after surgery ever again. Dehydrates you and I a little concerned that getting enough Water in daily will be a challenge for me.

As far as im aware, this is not a thing...

As far as im aware, this is not a thing...

Caffeine is a diuretic so it can dehydrate you if you're not drinking enough water. But yeah, I haven't heard any docs say no coffee at all post op. My NUT said that drinking coffee will not deter weight loss in anyway but that I should be having an additional 16 oz of water for every cup of coffee I drink. This is in addition to the 64 oz I am supposed to be drinking without coffee. Lots of water.

With my history of ulcer production my gastroenterologist and my endoscopy surgeon have both stated no more caffeine Nd Frustr8 for you! One of the few things the two of them agree on regarding a personal plan of care. And wouldn't you just known I had bought myself a nice shiny coffee pot et cetera--- right before my surgery! Incredibly poor tuning on my part?