The way to lose weight is to burn more energy than you take in. One way of burning energy is to maintain your temperature at a steady 37°C (98.6°F).

How much energy is required with a can of Coca-Cola? The standard formula is that the amount of energy required is:

(amount of substance) x (specific heat) x (change in temperature)

What are the numbers for a can of Coke? The can I have here says it contains 355 mL. If I were to serve it cold in a glass with melting ice, it would start off with a temperature of 0°C. I don't know the exact specific heat of Coke, but I think it's fair to assume it's in the ballpark of the specific heat of water (1 calorie per mL per degree C). Coke is mostly water, anyway. Substituting those numbers gives:

355 x 1 x 37 = 13,135 calories.

Under the Calories heading on the side of the can, I read 140. Even allowing for large differences between the physical properties of water and the physical properties of Coke, that's a tremendous difference. Every can of Coke ought to actually burn a net 12,995 calories if it's served cold. These numbers can easily be verified by anybody who wants to buy a can of Coke (Disclosure: I own a little bit of stock in the Coca-Cola Company).

Drinking Coke ought to help people lose weight like crazy. So why hasn't the Coca-Cola diet caught on?

Something of interest, even though you drink 355 ml of 0 degrees celcius water, you don't burn the full 13 calories keeping your body at 36.9 degrees celcius, unless you are standing naked somewhere lower than freezing temperature (which demands another question: why are you standing naked in an enviroment below freezing temperature?)

Thermodynamics state that some energy will flow in from the enviroment to compensate for the energy loss, so you don't actually incur the full energy loss. However, I have no idea how much the body insulates against the heat flow, so the additional heat from the enviroment might just be a tiny weeny bit.

Posted by delvin on 2003-01-15 23:17:39