Bad Sugar Cravings!!

[Chocobo9]

I have a massive problem. I love anything sweet. 

I would rather eat chocolate than a meal.

I never used to be like that, but over the years at uni, I started having more sweets to eat.

Obviously, that led to a weight gain. I went from 56kg (123lbs) to 68kg (149lbs) within 2 years when I changed from undergrads to postgrad probably as I now had a desk to keep all my sweets in and keep munching on them while writing/reading which you tend to do a lot of in the first couple of months. It also didn't help that I like to wear loose clothes and never really weighed myself as I never put on weight before.

So after I was at my heaviest, I decided to lose weight which went well. I was able to cut out sugar from my diet for 2 months completely to help me with the cravings. Afterwards, I also tended to eat something sweet 1-2/ week and was able to say no whenever someone offered me chocolate. 

At the same time, I started being active for the first time in my life. I used to work out 5-6days/week. Plus joining a Kickboxing club (continuing) helped me. 

I lost weight and went down to 58kg (127lbs). Then I decided to try out a 6 week Bootcamp where I became leaner and got toned though my weight went up to 62 kg (136lb) which was fine by me.

However, after my last holiday (went to Japan during Easter ), I gained 6kg 13.2lbs which I didn't realise until my clothes become tighter. The main reason for the weight gain is me going back to eating sweets and lots of it plus working out a lot less as well and stopped regularly using the scale.

Now I have tried to eat healthy again for the last 2 weeks and be more active but I'm finding it harder than the first time. I know in my mind that I can do it again but I can't resist. On my way back home from yesterday, I decided to have cookie dough with Nutella and ice cream.

Sorry for the lengthy story  

Has anyone experienced something similar? I would like to try to stop my cravings but need help. Any tips? 

Also, how do you maintain weight? That's my biggest worry. I know I'm able to lose weight but how the hell do I keep it off?

Any help is appreciated 

[GershonSurge]

@Chocobo9,

Sugar is said to be more addictive than cocaine. Even a single slip can reignite an addictive craving. The food industry knows this and adds sugar to almost all processed foods. They hide it by calling it other names ending in 'rose like sucrose, etc. They even add sugar to meat and french fries.

Fortunately, sugars in their natural state do not reignite the craving and are harmless. For instance, in fruit. It's fine if you eat the fruit, but beware of fruit juices. This is because the sugars are bound to the fiber and are released slowly. Juicing is controversial, and it's best to avoid it.

Fats, both animal and vegetable, are also addictive through a different mechanism if they exceed more than 13% of the calories eaten. 

Salt is addictive in a sneaky way. The taste buds become desensitized and it takes increasing amounts of salt to taste it. The sneaky aspect is if the food is unsalted, it doesn't taste good to most people.

Together, the harder you try to eliminate salt, fat and sugar from your diet, the stronger the craving to reintroduce them becomes. It takes from three to six months of total abstinence to eliminate them. In other words, the probability that your weight will continue to yoyo is high.

If you'd like to eliminate these cravings, I suggest reading The Pleasure Trap by Doug Lisle. The last part of the book is about fasting. Understand, he only recommends this for extreme cases and in an inpatient setting.

[UtahRider]

One day while grocery shopping, I realized every single item in my shopping cart was some form of sugar.  I had one of those WTH moments, and decided it was time for a change.  I’ve been avoiding Added Sugar for over 3 months now, and I STILL get big sugar cravings.

When it’s really bad I’ll go for the fruit.  Peaches and bananas have plenty of sugar and carbs, but they’re healthier than the processed added sugars in most snacks.  They don’t completely satisfy the cravings, but they take a lot of the edge off.

I also drink more water.  If I keep the water flowing, it makes me less hungry which really helps with the cravings.

And my fallback is to try not to think of it as a “sugar craving”.  I try to think of it as “sugar withdrawal”.  If I remind myself processed sugar is like an evil addictive drug, it makes it a lot easier for me to “just say no”.

I didn’t set out to lose weight, but simply cutting out as much sugar as possible has led to some surprising weight loss for me.  I figure as long as I can make “no sugar” my new lifestyle, a lot of the weight will hopefully stay off all by itself…

Keep up the good fight!

[Dominique]

First of all, I would disagree with the idea that sugar is addictive (agreeing with this view).

Secondly, you appear to be 171cm in height (based on this older post of yours). This means your "all-time high" of 68 kg only translates into BMI 23.3 (around the middle of the normal weight range), while your lowest weight of 56 kg translates into BMI 19.1 (close to the lower end of the normal weight range). Your weight fluctuating between 56 and 68 kg is thus hardly a "massive problem".

You are likely able to get away with a lot of bad eating habits, maybe because of good genetics, maybe because you’re still young (26-yo., as per above mentioned post), maybe because you’re very active, or a combination of all of these. If – nevertheless – you want to keep your weight closer to the lower end of the normal range (likely for esthetics reasons), you will just have to be more disciplined and make choices that align with your goals.

For me, weight management has become easier since I’ve set middle-term goals: at any given time, I’m either losing weight (focus on reducing fat), or gaining weight (focus on building muscle), or maintaining my weight (focus on establishing new sticking points). Fat loss phases are typically 12 weeks, muscle building phases 16-20 weeks and maintainance phases 4-8 weeks. When in fat loss mode, the only sugary stuff I allow myself to eat are fruits: they provide me with just enough sugar to keep me sane (I love sweet stuff like the rest of us). When in muscle building mode, I can eat "fun carbs" (ice-cream, chocolate, cookies etc.) everyday. When maintaining, it’s somewhere in between.

Oh, and ever since I got my Fitbit Aria 5 years ago, I’ve been weighing myself religiously every morning. This way, it has never come as a total surprise I’ve gained 6 kg and only discovered it because my clothes were no longer fitting.

Otherwise I’m quite similar to you (except I’m a guy and 57-yo): 174 cm, weight been fluctuating between 60 and 70 kg (BMI 19.8-23.1).

[Bill_k]

I absolutely was a chocolate junkie. When dieting I started buying low cal yogurts from grocery store sweetened with a low cal sweetener or just eating fruits like raspberries,blueberries to compensate .

They have sugar too but also fibre.

When i think about buying a chocolate bar or a dairy queen peanut buster parfait or something i  just tell myself that it only takes 20 minutes to eat this but i will regret it for hours or even a day later and the urge passes.

[plnkfloydian]

In my experience anytime I’m having cravings for sweets it’s because I’ve unknowingly consumed more sugar than I would of liked to. Every once and awhile I will get a craving out of the blue and if I absolutely must act on it I go directly to sugar free jello, it tastes great  0 carbs, 0 sugar and you can eat a giant bowl of it for just 40 calories. You can even mix in chia seeds before it sets up to get some extra nutrition. Just my 2 cents.