Do people get fat because they drink diet soda or do they drink diet soda because they’re fat? (Or both)
I tend to consider reality TV to be fake, but I think people like this really do exist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIAFe7zaCRU
> "Our mom told us when we were younger, if we ate a sugar you drink a diet coke afterwards and it will cancel out the sugar"
> Do you believe that to be true?
> "I did when I was a kid."
People who drink diet soda gain no more weight than people who drink regular soda.
It is true, however, that people who drink diet soda or regular soda gain more weight than those who don’t drink soda at all.
Turns out diet soda does not make things better from a weight loss perspective, but it doesn’t make thing a worse either, which negates risk compensation as a theory.
Reality TV is essentially fake. Even the real parts, since by its nature it focuses on the strange, absurd, bizarre and unusual. It's not that these things don't exist, but if they were common, normal, or usual, they wouldn't be featured on reality TV.
The reasoning should be like this: "I found support for the idea that fat people think diet soda is a good alternative to dieting on reality TV, so this idea is probably uncommon, unusual and strange."
In other words, you can choose to drink soda, and make other decisions that lead to obesity - the cause of both might be the same. (You might be hinting at that by saying they "drink soda because they are overweight" but I'd suggest that's inaccurate. As in, being overweight doesn't cause soda consumption!)