Waistline watchers beware: drinking diet soda won't help you lose weight. According to data presented to the American Diabetes Association (ADA) Scientific Sessions diet soda may actually contribute to weight gain and Type 2 diabetes.

Researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio discovered that diet soda actually contributed to 70 per cent greater increase in waistline growth than non- diet soda drinkers. The researchers compared the drinking habits of the participants and discovered this startling fact. Frequent diet soda drinkers who drank more than one can of diet soda a day had their waistlines grow 500% more than non-drinkers. Other contributing factors such as physical activity levels and age were adjusted for.

The data didn't exactly say why diet soda seemed to be doing the exact opposite of what it's supposed to do but previous research indicate that this is probably because the brain is fooled by the taste of artificial sugars and their lack of calories. The brain compensates for the lack of calories by needing to eat more and actually triggering the body to store calories as fat.

Another study presented at the ADA meeting researchers found that feeding mice with aspartame, an artificial sweetener actually resulted in elevated fasting glucose levels, an indication of a diabetic of pre-diabetic condition, according to Time Magazine report.

The researchers may have used mice but the study could still be applicable to humans. According to Dr. Gabriel Fernandez, a University of Texas professor said that: "These results suggest that heavy aspartame exposure might potentially directly contribute to increased blood glucose levels, and thus contribute to the associations observed between diet soda consumption and the risk of diabetes in humans."

Diet soda drinkers will have to rethink their nutrition plans. It seems that you really can't have your cake and eat it too, in this case drinking diet soda and losing weight. For a foolproof beverage without any calories, try water.