I'm interested in that last statement regarding aspartame. It seems you find extremely polarized opinions on artificial sweeteners. I've often read that, regardless of the health impact (or lack thereof), artificial sweeteners are more-or-less "tricking" your body into thinking it has calories incoming, when in fact, it doesn't. Your body, feeling jipped, tries to compensate by craving more calories. But, again, this is hearsay.
Finally (N=1) I drink way more aspartame sweetened soda than any sane person should and I was relatively easily able to shred roughly 1/3 of body weight without serious hunger.