I used to drink regular "cokes" (I'm from the south...every soft drink is coke) like they were going out of style. Switched to diet cokes to help lose some weight...which it did, but now I am totally off of soft drinks. I have a couple of cups of coffee in the morning to help get me going and then a couple of Vitamin Water Zeros through out the day. I try to drink more juices (naturally sweetened) and water. Also being from the south...I have to have my sweet tea (regular sugar).
As far as the weight lose goes, drinking diet cokes did help some. But when I stopped drinking soft drinks all together is when I really started dropping the pounds.