Looking to enhance your focus before a session while keeping your calories in check? Dietitian Dr Paul McArdle, RD MBDA, from the British Soft Drinks Association, explains how
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You train hard. Your drinks should work just as hard. Hydration, energy and recovery can all depend on what you put in your bottle. Here’s how diet drinks (sweetened, ‘zero’ or very low calorie) can help you meet your goals, focused and ready to recover.
Liquid calories add up fast, so a big advantage of diet drinks is calorie control. Research shows that replacing full sugar drinks with low-calorie versions helps reduce overall energy intake and supports your weight management goals.
Compared with water or sugar-sweetened drinks, diet drinks can help with fat loss, which is helpful if your goal is lean muscle definition without compromising strength. It’s also good to know there’s no strong evidence that non-sugar sweeteners increase your appetite or cravings for sugar.
Enhanced focus
Diet drinks don’t provide carbs like a sports drink, but they can still have a place in your training routine. Caffeinated diet drinks or sugar-free energy drinks can give you the mental boost of caffeine without the sugar. This means you can enhance alertness, focus, and perceived effort in the gym, while keeping your calorie budget in check.
That’s especially valuable if you train in the evening or outside competition settings where rapid glycogen replacement isn’t a priority – but keep a check on your overall caffeine intake.
Recovery starts with fluids. Diet drinks are mostly water, and research shows that non-sugar sweeteners don’t impair fluid absorption, so they’ll hydrate you about the same as water. The flavoured options can also encourage you to drink more fluids, helping keep you hydrated. And when energy restriction is part of your training plan, choosing diet versions helps you maintain hydration without compromising your calorie deficit.
Diet drinks aren’t a silver bullet, but nor are they the villain they’re sometimes made out to be. When used appropriately, they can help reduce sugar intake, support your body composition goals, and some offer caffeine for performance, while contributing to hydration.
• For more information on the use of non-sugar sweeteners visit:https://www.britishsoftdrinks.com/non-sugar-sweeteners
