I have also heard that because artificial sweeteners increase insulin levels without increasing blood glucose to the same extent that sugars would, this leads to a blood sugar drop which induces increased eating.
The idea works longterm. You take aspartame, which has a sweet taste but no energy. Your body starts all kinds of digestive functions and gets confused. After a lot of aspartame it doesn't know how to respond to sweet food anymore.
Doesn't that mean aspartame somehow contains more energy than sugar?
I mean, assuming the increased weight is fat, that is stored extra energy.