Whenever someone is ready to start losing weight, one of the first things they are told to do is cut out sugar and one of the biggest sources of sugar is soda pop.

For some, cutting out the fizzy drink helps dramatically with weight loss, in fact some people just cut out drinking soda and notice they immediately begin to shed the pounds.

But does cutting out soda actually make that big of a difference?

Apparently, it does.

Robert Lustig is a pediatric endocrinologist and author of numerous books about getting healthy. He explained during a video for Business Insider how soda became such a staple item for people to cut out of their diet.

First, sugar is highly addictive, this is nothing new. In fact sugar has the same affect on the brain as cocaine, and people who attempt to cut sugar out of their diet will go through sugar withdrawals.

In the video about the disturbing evolution of the growing soda sizes, Lustig says in 1915 Coca-Cola introduced their first bottle which was 6.5 ounces.

If someone consumed one of those bottles everyday for a year it would be roughly 8 pounds of fat a year, Lustig said.

Once WWII was over, in 1955 Coca-Cola introduced the 10 ounce bottle because sugar rationing was no longer required since the war was over.

By 1960 the 12 ounce can was introduced, and jump to present day we now have the standard 20 ounce bottle. But let’s not forget to mention the Big Gulp, a 44 ounce cup of pure fizzy soda pop.

If someone drinks one 44 ounce Big Gulp a day they add onto their body 57 pounds of fat a year.

So, does cutting soda out of one’s diet actually work? Absolutely! Cut out that sugar and you will immediately save your body from extra pounds.

Lustig explains that sugar is cheap and addictive, and the more people consume it, the more they want it. Now the sugar industry has an everlasting demand which they can always supply.

And that is nothing more than a good business plan.