Splenda and weight struggles

[penny10]

Hello,

Can using too much splenda cause weight gain? Not the cravings it causes to eat more of other things, but the ingestion of splenda itself. Should It be counted in my calories usage if keeping food diary?  Thanks

[Barb135]

Splenda has no calories, so there's nothing to count.  Please be aware though that there are those who believe that splenda is not good for you.  Research is still being done to determine long term side effects.  

You might want to think about switching to stevia, which is a natural sweetener.  It used to be mostly available in health food stores, but now I notice that some grocery stores are beginning to carry it.  

[penny10]

Hi Barb,

Yes ive heard of the risks, I was just wondering about the calories because when entering my food diaries, I made a mistake and put 60 packets of splenda in the ammount section, and it said it was something like 140 calories.
I wonder why that was. I use the stevia too, :)
Thanks

[Barb135]

Not sure about the food diary since splenda has no calories........I can try to check into it for you if you like?

[penny10]

That would be great, It sort of worries me :)

[Barb135]

The easiest way to do it would be to click on "enter your own food", then enter the data (calories, fat, carbs, protein, etc) from your package of spenda.  Then each time you want to enter splenda in your food diary, that would be the one you would click on. That way you would be guaranteed to get the correct one, showing no calories.  

[tigerlilly5909]

The box of Splenda I have says that 1 packet has 0 calories but it is only a "free" food up to 4 packets. I think because it has less than one carb per packet. When I was on the Atkins Diet 1 packet of Splenda was considered 1 net carb. And be careful if you get Stevia that it doesn't have anything added to it. A lot of them have Dextrose in them( to help with flavor) which is in Splenda.

[Ranaesheart]

Penny10 - Thank you for the excellent question and you have received some wonderful responses.  Hope you will stay involved in the community; we're thrilled you are here.

The Food Diary shows "Splenda No Calorie Sweetener, 1 x tsp 0 Calories".  Each person has to decide what their best "sweetener" to use is.  I personally like Splenda (yellow) .. although there is Stevia, Equal (blue), the pink one (can't remember the name).  

Splenda also has a new product that is half brown sugar and half Splenda which I use now when baking my acorn squash.

I have not found Splenda to increase my weight at all, in fact, it is a great help to provide the sweeter taste without adding the calories, thus avoiding weight gain.  As my journey has been a long one so far, I have found that the further I go, the less sweetener I require as my taste buds now taste the natural sweetness in almost everything.

There is also natural sweeteners such as 1 tsp brown sugar for 17.48 calories, granulated sugar 1 tsp for 16.25 (although I think that is a little low ... I believe it is more around 25) or honey 1 tsp for approximately 21 calories.

PS - You can always delete a Food Diary entry and then reenter to proper quantity. If you need assistance. just shout out and someone will help you.

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