So as a new years resolution I decided to shed a few pounds and stop drinking so much soda. So the first day I started a diet and drank nothing but water, at around 3 in the afternoon my head began throbbing and by 8 I was in bed in the fetal position due to the agonizing headache that I had.... I finally ventured into the kitchen and grabbed a soda, the pain was gone within 10 minutes... It came back a half hour later and continued this way until I had downed about 3 soda's (diet coke to be exact).

I've tried weening myself off but I'm still getting headaches if I don't drink at least 4 throughout the day....

Has anyone else dealt with this? Whats the easiest way? Even when I quit smoking there was no aches or pain, just unease and twichiness....

I had the exact same situation about a week ago. My response has been to slow down on the caffiene but at a much slower pace than you described. I basically was drinking coffee just because it was there. I haven't organized my slow down but I have cut back considerably. Since I don't actually desire to quit completely it doesn't really bother me. Did you try taking an advil instead of a soda?

If your purpose is to lose a few pounds, then caffeine may be to your advantage. It's both a stimulant and a diuretic, so that should help your weight loss. So stick with the Diet Coke.

(I refuse to be held liable for any heart explosions or other side effects as result of this advice.)

Cut a few pounds but in general be more healthy... dark soda's from what I've heard and read aren't too good for you. But it beats the headaches... I've never had headaches like these. I'm normally the kind of guy that never gets sick, doesn't take medication of any kind and in general pretty stable but these headaches blow me away they render me completely useless...

I'll try the advil... thanks for the advice.

I've pretty much avoided caffeine for about 10 years now. I'll have iced tea or a coke on occasion, but only rarely. It really isn't that hard to live without, although I don't envy anybody trying to quit.

-Biscuits

You might also consider trying to substitute drinks will less caffeine in them. Tea, for example, has less caffeine than coffee. And, if you want, you can get just as obscure and snobby about your tea as you might about your coffee beans. Mmm... yin hao jasmine tea....

When I was a college freshmen, I was drinking way too much coffee, until one day I said "gee, I wonder why my hands are shaking?" I dropped the coffee, went with tea (no sugar or cream for me), and managed to avoid any serious withdrawl symptoms.

A few years ago, when I was getting into running, my doctor told me to drop caffeine entirely (athletes need to stay hydrated, and caffeine is a diuretic). It sucked for a while, but now I have my trusty 1 liter bottle of water next to me at work all the time and I don't really miss the caffeine. And, just think of all the money I save in restaurants not buying Coke! (Although, there's always beer.)

Tea, for example, has less caffeine than coffee.

Does it ? I have always been told that it has very similar caffeine levels.

Tea has more caffeine than most people think. I believe it is 1.5 to 2.5 times that of a Coca-Cola. I really don't know how much caffeine coffee has.

I gave up coffee about 6 months ago.
The first 3 or 4 days were tough. Mostly because of the headaches you described. But after that it got much better.
I think it just takes a few days for your body to detox.

I was only going from 2 lg coffees a day to no coffees a day.
Not sure how that measures up to your soda habit.
I still have coffee but now its only when I want to. Roughly about once or twice a week.
I get to save about 3 bucks a day too.


Z~

I guess I'm lucky: I can quit caffeine at will. I don't go through withdrawal. I don't know why. It also doesn't keep me awake, though.

I've never had issues sleeping... other than the issues my fiance has trying to wake me up in the morning (I'm a deep sleeper). Never thought I'd have issues with caffiene... til I tried to quit...

Ah, but without caffeine, do you have problems staying awake?

I have the same experience. Caffeine does little to me unless I take massive quantities.

Also, Caffeine level stats. Tea has about 1/3 to 1/2 what coffee does.

I don't know... I can't quit

Actually, when I was in the fetal position the first night... I had no problems taking a nap to try and make it go away...

I don't know what kind of tea they are using there. On the machines in the dining halls, the caffeine contents of every beverage are listed.

It has been a year since I have been there, but this is what I remember

Coke and other softdrinks are listed as having:
38-44
Tea is listed as having:
65-75

Of course, I'm doing that from memory. Still, I imagine that iced tea has different caffeine quantity than green tea, and can also vary widely based upon its strength.

-Biscuits

I was in the same boat you are. I drank 3-4 caffeinated sodas a day and never had trouble sleeping. I just decided to quit cold turkey one day, and after 2-3 days of intense caffeine headaches, they finally went away. You could either do the 'withdrawl' thing over the weekend or take an ibuprofen (something with less caffeine than the soda) to ease it down a bit.

Actually I might just switch to tea... granted higher caffeine but better for you then soda. I don't mind the addiction so much

as an American I have to reccommend the only obvious way out...sue the manufacturer for selling an addictive product that harms you in many ways. I bet they've even secretly known about its addictive qualities for decades but probably don't talk much about it.

No doubt I could win.... people sueing for burning themselve with hot coffee (who'd have thought coffee is hot?), people sueing mcdonalds for making them fat, and not to mention people sueing the cig companys for giving them cancer...

I used to drink about 6 cokes a day, I am now down to 2. You just have to slowly ween yourself off of them. By early afternoon I start getting headaches if I don't have one but then I sip it slowly all day and have another with dinner. Drinking tons of water does help you loose weight.

For me, one big part of the weight loss was getting rid of the Pepsi I usually kept stocked in my home and my office.

The problem is, I think diet colas taste like panther piss. So Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke were out.

I tried a bunch of different diet drinks, tiring of each one after a certain number of months.

I spent time with Diet Squirt, Diet Mountain Dew, and generic equivalents. Those are fine for a while, but I started to really get sick of them. I found that Diet Dr. Pepper is really good, and doesn't make me retch like Diet Coke/Pepsi. That one I drank for a very very long time.

Recently, my latest passion is Diet Peach Snapple Iced Tea. I like the diet version better than the non-diet version, which is too strong. I now buy it several 12-packs at a time so that I make sure not to run out.

I still have the problem of, when I'm out to dinner/lunch, being unable to order a drink I can tolerate because all they have is Diet Coke. So I just say "screw it" and get a real sugar drink. I don't eat out often enough for that to make a dent in my diet.

As far as the hot coffee incident, that one is blown out of proportion. The recommended temperature for coffee is, I believe, 160 degrees farenheit. McDonalds served theirs at 180 degrees. McDonalds new this was dangerous, but it saved them money since the coffee stayed fresh longer.

This particular store was serving their coffee at over 200 degrees farenheit. Not only that, the lids did not fit properly. McDonalds had been made aware that this franchise was doing this and took no action.

When the lid inevitably came off the coffee (while the lady was drinking it in her car), the lady burned her crotch area so badly that she had to get skin grafts.

Still sound as ridiculous as you made it out to be?

-Biscuits

Skin graft + crotch = hell ya I'm sueing your ass

She wasn't even going to sue until McDonalds refused to contribute to her medical bills in a very rude letter.

For me, one big part of the weight loss was getting rid of the Pepsi I usually kept stocked in my home and my office.

I found the best thing for me for getting off of soda is to drink tons of water. I have a 30+ ounce water glass at work that I fill up at least four or five times a day. If I am constantly drinking water it never seems to occur to me to go grab a soda from the fridge. Plus there are a ton of other benefits to drinking lots of water. Of course every hour or so requires a trip to the bathroom, so there is a tradeoff

Diet Squirt? What is that?!?!

- Trevor

Wierd. I've never had a caffeine withdrawal headache. Occasionally I stop drinking stuff with caffeine and all that happens is that I get sleepy slightly earlier than I would normally do. It doesn't really keep me up for much longer at night but I've decided recently to stop drinking anything with caffeine in during the evening as I'm an insomniac sometimes.

- Trevor

In reply to:

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Still sound as ridiculous as you made it out to be?

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In short: YES!

Stig

If they got more than the cost of the surgery, it's still ridiculous.

You might guess I think damage awards and "pain and suffering" are a farce.

People suffer for free every day. If you were at all complicit in your suffering, suck it up. This isn't "a large object fell and crushed my bedroom". If someone is forced to buy coffee, perhaps, but no one's forced me, yet...

Monetary damages are not simply for the plantiff, the size of the award has to punish the defendant or it isn't a deterent of the orginal action. In this case the cost of surgery would not be a large enough amount to get McDonald's attention.