Skip Sugary Drinks To Lose Some Weight

Your health is more than just a number on a scale. But if losing a little weight is a New Year goal, skip fad diets and hard-to-maintain fitness resolutions.

- BY ALEX JANIN

Instead, nutrition experts recommend something simpler: Don't drink your calories or fancy holiday latte holiday latte Clinic Sports drinks often contain more.

Sugar tends to hide in beverages, and a happy-hour cocktail or fancy holiday latte can pack as many calories as a Big Mac.

Taking a hard look at what and how much you drink isn't just an important first step for weight loss, it is a necessary one, says Dr. Robert Lustig, a neuroendocrinologist who has written several books on obesity, sugar and nutrition science.

"Liquid calories are worse than solid calories," he says, adding that sugars found in many beverages from soda to fruit juice to energy drinks don't suppress ghrelin, the hunger hormone. "So you keep eating."

People consuming liquid calories don't reduce their later food intake as much as they do when they eat a similar amount of calories in solid food, researchers have found.