Quick one today because I know some of you have literally been fighting about this in group chats for years. A new study found diet fizzy drinks work just as well as water for weight loss. Not slightly worse. Not "okay but water's still better." Same results.

If you've ever sworn off diet soda because some guy at the gym told you it "makes you hold onto fat" or "tricks your body into craving sugar," this one's for you.

For context on how often I get this question: I ran on energy drinks through most of my twenties, and when I finally started cleaning up my act everyone assumed I'd go full water-only purist. Didn't happen. I swapped to diet soda and I've been waiting years for somebody to prove me wrong. Still waiting apparently.

The study compared diet fizzy drinks with water for weight loss and the diet drink crowd did just as well. I can't tell you exactly how the researchers ran it because the write-up I've seen doesn't get into the weeds on design. But the headline finding is the headline finding. Comparable results between the two.

My mom, who has to hear about my beverage habits every single Thanksgiving, puts it simply: a zero-calorie drink doesn't add calories to your day, and calories are the thing that moves the scale. That's her take as a general principle, not something this particular study tested, to be clear. It's also why the result doesn't surprise her one bit.

Now the usual caveats, because I'm not going to pretend this makes diet soda a health food. Weight loss is one outcome and this is one study. The write-up doesn't say what else the researchers measured or didn't measure, so I won't guess. My own general rule stands no matter what any single study says: if you're drinking two liters of anything a day, cola zero included, maybe don't.

But if your actual question is "can I keep my diet Dr Pepper while cutting weight," the answer this study points to is yes. You don't have to white-knuckle plain water like it's some kind of penance. And I keep saying this because it keeps being true: the best diet is the one you don't quit in three weeks. If a can of something fizzy and sweet gets you through the afternoon without hitting the vending machine, that's a tool, not a failure.

No shame if water's your thing too. I drink plenty of it. But the guilt-tripping around diet drinks has always been more vibes than evidence, and this study is another data point on that side of the ledger.