How can I avoid "sweet" cravings?

Stoshew71

If you have a sugar craving especially after a great run, sometimes it's your body reacting to a glycogen deficiency. I know after a long run over 2 hours, like an hour or 2 after my long run, I crave something very sugary. I can very easily drink an XL size of Dr. Pepper. Not very helpful if you are trying to loose weight or be in maintenance but something to think about. Maybe have an orange or banana just after your run in the morning. The glycogen uptake is huge within the first half hour or hour after your run. So glycogen replentishment will occur much faster and may help with the cravings later on in the evening.

blukitten

starznholes wrote: »

Sweets are my downfall. Something that's worked for me is dark chocolate. Not a whole candy bar obviously, but a couple pieces normally hit the spot.

Sometimes when I'm desperate and I have no chocolate, I'll get some plain Greek yogurt add 1/2 sliced banana and drizzle agave over it. Or something along those lines.

Unfortunately, I have not found a way to avoid the cravings. They are there.

This works for me too-- the dark chocolate part!

I had to not do sweets and still have to not do them now with a new diet my doc put me on with PCOS, so I would have really bad sweet cravings like you describe-- but after a few weeks they get better and easier to control-- but you have to not give in to them or subsidize them with a healthy alternative -- not an all out carb/sugar fest.. its not easy but can be done!

pplastics

Like others have said, try to plan in something sweet for yourself if it is becoming a nightly problem. I sometimes have a serving of Great Value "churned" vanilla ice cream, a few strawberries with a graham cracker crumbled on top. Works out to about 177 calories. Yummy.

If I do not plan well though, I will have a cup of herbal tea with stevia. Sweet and warm and very comforting.

365andstillalive

Pre-log something sweet or set aside a few hundred calories for something.

I love my sugary goodies, but I know that I probably don't need to be eating them on a daily basis, so I use good ol' self control and will have something more decadent like once a week (cheesecake, cinnamon rolls, ice cream, whatever) and I use healthier/more calorie efficient sweet snacks the rest of the week. Things like dark chocolate with sea salt (50 cals a square), key lime greek yogurt (100 cals, 8 grams of protein and tastes like dessert) or I'll have some frozen grapes. I also make myself healthier recipes of things I enjoy like carrot or zucchini muffins with whole wheat flour and often those serve as my sweet for the day --I'm not an icing fan, so I get to skip the extra cals from that happily haha.

EMTFreakGirl

I eat something sweet that I have pre-planned for. I allow myself one square, usually 1/4-1/3 of a good dark chocolate bar. My current fave is the Ghirardelli Intense Dark Sea Salt Soiree. I also made a huge batch of Hot Cocoa mix, low carb and low cal, that I'll enjoy a cup of at night, or I'll mix a spoonful of the cocoa mix in a small mason jar with 2 TBSP chia seeds and a cup of SO unsweetened Coconut Milk...chocolate pudding. If I can fit it in my daily macros, I'll add a small "squirt" of whipped topping, the kind from the can. (I weigh it and literally only squirt out the 15g) Portioned correctly, the stuff has minimum impact on my numbers and feels so decadent. Sweets don't have to be unhealthy, just plan ahead and choose wisely. Best of luck to you!