How do I check if my loop never ran at all?

How do I check if my loop never ran at all?

This somehow looks too complicated to me:

x = _empty = object()
for x in data:
    ... # process x
if x is _empty:
    raise ValueError("Empty data iterable: {!r:100}".format(data))

Ain't there a easier solution?

The above solution is from curiousefficiency.org

Background: data can contain None items.