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!

On 12/27/2018 at 11:00 PM, Oct517 said:

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.

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Caffeine is a diuretic so yes caffeine pills would dehydrate you.

But coffee contains water and has a net hydrating gain.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/caffeinated-drinks/faq-20057965

That said I don't think anyone would suggest getting the bulk of your fluids from coffee

Something that helped me in the pre-op phase to wean off caffeine was to start buying both diet coke and caffeine free diet coke. I would start fixing 1-to-1 mixed when I drank it and slowly switched over to just caffeine free. Same with coffee (bought regular and decaf and kept mixing in the decaf as I used up the big can so by the end of it, I was ready to fully go decaf.

By then, I could switch out the soda for water, since I was off caffeine, and still have coffee, since it was decaf.

At 14 years out, I'll get a diet dr pepper as a treat sometimes and I drink half-caf coffee (I buy one can of each), but I get in all my water, so it works.

~SW: 278 CW: 165~
RNY 1/5/2005
"What got you here won't get you there."

I also have a six Diet Cokes a day habit, and I think that might be harder for me to quit than some of my favorite foods! I have gastric bypass in February 2019 and am hoping to taper off slowly until then.

I quit cold turkey right before I started my pre-op diet. I figured I would do all the hard stuff at the same time.

On 12/27/2018 at 10:42 PM, Mhy12784 said:

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

I was not aware that caffeine was off-limits after surgery either. I know that I have to detox from my severe Diet Coke addiction before surgery, but I had hoped (and planned) that I could have a cup or two of black coffee every day. I'll ask my surgeon at my next appointment, but I'd love to hear whether anyone has received direct guidance on this.

Lots to unpack in this topic. I used to drink a LOT of Diet Coke (thanks to free soda at work!)

A few things I realized, half of a real Coke would satisfy me more than 6 Diet Cokes. Real Coke wouldn't make me crave other sweets, which the artificial sweetener does to me.

But what I missed most of all was the bubbles, which were easily replaced with Talking Rains - no artificial sweetener and no calories.

Now post-op I take caffeine when I need it, sometimes in black coffee but more often in Yerba Mate beverages which give me a more pleasurable energy uptick than the jitters I get from coffee. Some of the bottled beverages have calories, but they are calories I'm happy to consume.

1 minute ago, PopsFury said:

Lots to unpack in this topic. I used to drink a LOT of Diet Coke (thanks to free soda at work!)

A few things I realized, half of a real Coke would satisfy me more than 6 Diet Cokes. Real Coke wouldn't make me crave other sweets, which the artificial sweetener does to me.

But what I missed most of all was the bubbles, which were easily replaced with Talking Rains - no artificial sweetener and no calories.

Now post-op I take caffeine when I need it, sometimes in black coffee but more often in Yerba Mate beverages which give me a more pleasurable energy uptick than the jitters I get from coffee. Some of the bottled beverages have calories, but they are calories I'm happy to consume.

Thanks for the tip on Yerba Mate. I've never heard of it but will definitely give it a try!