If you use sugar-free sweeteners instead of regular sugar, they won’t spike your blood sugar or insulin right away—and if you swap sugar for them in meals, they might even help keep your blood sugar lower after eating.

If you swap sugar with sugar-free sweeteners, you’ll likely eat fewer carbs overall—mainly because you’re eating less sugar—and that might help your body manage blood sugar better.

If you swap sugary foods and drinks for ones with artificial sweeteners, you might lose about 1 kg and eat fewer calories—especially if you cut out a lot of sugar. But this only works if you’re replacing sugar, not just adding sweeteners on top.

Using sugar-free sweeteners doesn’t make you eat more fat or protein than if you used regular sugar or just drank water—so their main job is just to cut down carbs and calories.

If you swap sugar for artificial sweeteners, you’ll eat less sugar—by a lot—but if you drink water instead, you get the same low sugar intake, so the sweeteners don’t help any more than water does.

Using sugar substitutes like stevia or aspartame doesn’t make you more likely to have bad health effects than eating sugar, drinking water, or taking a fake pill—so they’re probably safe if you’re trying to lose weight.