Sugar Addiction

tlw7

I've been a binge eater for a while now (prob 12+yrs). I've been thinking recently and I think I have an addiction to sugar. I do so well until after dinner then it's such a craving. Anyone have experience with a sugar addiction and how to get past it?

I've had a few periods when I wasn't binging and eating the crap at night but eventually fall back into old habits. I definitely need some help!

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld

It's a habit and it tastes good. It is not an addiction.
Stop telling yourself it is and take the control back. You want it so you are eating it.
You have to get tough with yourself at times and say no. Take your mind off it.
Allow yourself a set amount and no more. Use maybe 100 calories?

Christine_72

I have dessert every night after dinner, it's a craving/habit and sweet stuff tastes good, it is not a sugar addiction. Do you also binge on fruit or spoonfuls of plain sugar?

Don't give your power and self control away by calling it an addiction.

livingleanlivingclean

You want it, you don't need it. Plan to have a bit, or learn to say no. I find moderation works better for me than complete restriction

blueeyetea

I went through the same thing myself. Me, it was donuts in mid-afternoon, and chocolate bars or chips in the evening. What got me off sugar was to switch my diet to low-carb (no more pasta, bread, white potatoes, rice, and sugary snacks), and start my day with decaf butter coffee. If I had cravings in the evening, I'd have another decaf butter coffee. It took about a week for cravings to go away.

In the meantime, if I feel like I need a treat, I found a recipe for a quick low-carb dessert that I keep in the fridge at all times.

tlw7

My last reply didn't post..

I've binged on everything from fruit to sugary snacks. Too much of even 'healthy' is still not good for you. I've just been thinking and noticed that I'm fine all day long until after dinner. Then I have such a strong pull to just keep eating. I seriously never feel full. I've also noticed that the foods I do eat have added sugar and/or are processed.

I also can't restrict! As soon as I tell myself I can't have something it's what I crave and I go way overboard.

I've had a few periods when I was able to break this but have always fallen back to old patterns. I want to break this and be free from the constant thought/pull/urge to eat so much!

kcannis

I would never call it an addiction, eating too much dessert was a bad habit. It is so true about giving up your power to choose. It is just being the boss of yourself. I am not perfect at having just the right amount of dessert, but I'm not going to obstain from desserts for the rest of my life. That's not practical and I enjoy chocolate and whip cream and ice cream in moderation. My cravings subside too when I enjoy them a couple of times of week. I'm a size 6. For a women, I think it goes along with your menstral cycle. I'm a more aware at those times of cravings and distract myself. Also, sometimes a moderate amount of fruit helps the sugar craving.

kcannis

Oh, and when you have been doing a lifetime, it not going to go away in a week or a month.

tlw7

Last Jan I started iifym and tracked until easter. Visited family and stuffed myself. It's pretty frustrating to do something for that long and fall back into old habits. I would think, I can do this... I just don't want this to be how my brain works the rest of my life. I'm 33 and want to be mentally healthy and not have this food battle going on constantly.

lemurcat12

If you are truly bingeing (and maybe even if you are not), I would consider seeing a doctor or therapist about it. It could be binge eating disorder.

Beyond that, I'd think about what eating represents for you. I know I stress eat, emotionally eat, and also have this thing where eating represents a time when I can take a time out from whatever is stressing or bothering me, and so long as I'm eating it's time out time. That led to a lot of my "can't stop eating" periods, although I never really binged.

If you think it's related to sugar (many processed foods are without sugar, this idea that all processed food has sugar is a pet peeve of mine), I'd recommend keeping whatever it is that you tend to eat after dinner out of the house. It will be hard initially to stop -- have something else planned to do to distract you, don't do whatever you did while eating, etc.

AnnPT77

+1 to the proposal to seek counseling if you're truly bingeing (i.e., uncontrollable) not just over-eating habitually.

There are a couple of things that helped me reduce cravings for simple sugars (candy, baked goods) especially in the evening.

One was making it a point to eat 3 servings of whole fruit daily. That somehow compensated, anAld I was better able to resist candy & baked goods. Eventually, the simple sugars non-nutrient-dense foods came to taste way too sweet, cloying even. I was then also able to eat less fruit (if I wanted to).

The second was experimenting with the timing & composition of my eating, to see what would make me feel less crave-y in the evening. By "timing", I mean not only time of meals/snacks, but which were larger. By "composition", I mean mix of macronutrients (within a healthy range of each).

In practice, satiation and cravings differ for each person, so you would need to experiment for yourself. For me, I found that the best result came from a solid breakfast with plenty of protein, and protein throughout the day, plus some high-volume/low-cal food (such as fibrous veggies) at some time during the day. I saved a few calories for an evening snack (such as home-popped popcorn), but not that many. Your formula would almost certainly be different.

Diary review Is a great tool. You say you're able to avoid giving into cravings sometimes. Look at your diary - not just the day of cravings (or lack), but also the day before. Is there any pattern? More/less exercise? More/less stress? Insufficient vs. adequate sleep? Under- or over-consuming some macronutrient or specific food? Letting yourself go longer while hungry? Alcohol? Boredom? Social triggers?

You may be able to identify circumstances that are a challenge for you, and "write yourself a different script" for handling them. You may be able to institute new habits, such as exercise instead of food as a stress response, or a new hobby (especially one requiring clean hands ) if boredom or habit is a factor, or a nap if lack of sleep is involved, etc.

Be a detective, be an experimenter. You can find a path that works.

Wishing you success!

reticulation

What are you eating in a day and how often do you eat? I use to eat about once a day and mostly processed foods and had the same type of problems.

I was so addicted to sugar and binged eat most nights. I've recently read some information that says getting hungry in the evening is a part of our circadian rhythm. In either case, it's a real problem I had. I was drinking two energy drinks a day and consuming some sort of sugary food on a constant daily basis.

I've only kicked the sugar cravings about a month ago, but, I will say this, I did it without trying but it did require a complete reboot on how I ate. What happened was I made the decision to eat 100% whole foods and eat 5 times a day. Chicken, beef, eggs, veggies, fruit, oatmeal, pasta is about the extent of what I eat.

I use to feel hungry all the time and never felt full. Well that dramatically changed when I went 100% whole foods. In fact, at times, eating is a chore because my portions are so damn big even eating 5x a day. That is obviously a complete reversal of binge eating. This was a new feeling. Having more food than I WANTED to eat.

Now, it didn't really hit me until about two weeks later how long it had been since I ate any sugar when I suddenly got an intense sugar craving out of no where. I almost broke, but, what I did was make a healthy fruit smoothie with some honey and a little OJ so there was a lot of natural sugar. And bam! That worked. The craving passed, I felt full, and I fueled my body with quality nutrients. I also blend greek yogurt, fruit, OJ, with a banana, freeze it and it makes a nice frozen treat that I find very satisfying.

For me, the answer was eating whole foods and eating 5 times a day. Good Luck!!!

lanelich

Read the book Brain over Binge, it will really help**

calorielogonly

I find that if I am eating sugar, I crave more sugar. Once I go without added sugar and desserts for a certain amount of time...(maybe a week or so?) ... it really does start to get easier and the sugar cravings go a way. There is some kind of addictive quality to sugar that I learned a long time ago, I can't control. I don't keep desserts or other sweets at home, haven't baked cookies or anything like that during the holidays in years, I just can't have them around because I know they are hard to stop once I get started. An example of the sort of addictive qualities of sugar is if I eat something sweet or high carb in the morning, I have trouble making it to lunch for my next meal. I'm better off eating something higher in protein, or actually even nothing in the morning, than something sweet in the morning. Maybe realizing that once you cut it out, it will be difficult at first, you will eventually stop craving it, will help. It doesn't take as long as you would think. It is difficult (for me anyway) to control what I eat while on sugar because of this addictive quality. You will be surprised after a while, things that used to taste good will seem too sweet to you, once you are out of the habit.

Gamliela

What an incredibly informative and useful thread this became.

xyrational

If it helps, I used to basically live on chocolate. For at least 5 years, my routine was get home from work, get kids to bed then all I wanted was chocolate!!!!! Then I decided to eliminate it completely. I had frequent headaches for around 2 weeks but got through it. Now I have nil cravings and haven't touched chocolate since Easter. Instead I'll have an avocado smash. I seriously believe eliminating that night chocolate is a big contributor for why I have started consistently losing weight and wake up feeling great.

I actually think I would pick fruit over chocolate now. I would have laughed at anyone who even suggested such a thing 2 months ago

Lucas2013

Sorry, but there is no such thing as an addiction to sugar. As with the usual bull floated about in the health and fitness space, it takes a keen eye to discern the truth. Undoubtedly, someone will argue this point and point to an article online where researchers show in mice that sugar activates the same pleasure reward centers in the brain as a shot of heroin, but yet again, it is all about context. For one thing, studies using mice are very often unreliable, as mice have differing carbohydrate and metabolic pathways from humans. Secondly, when is the last time you felt compelled to scarf down a whole bag of sugar? Pretty much never, right? That's because it's not the sugar, but a combination of sugar, salt, and fat that makes these high-caloric foods hard to resist. Let me explain.

Binge eating is not a recent phenomenon, nor the fault of sugar as some people claim. Binge eating is in fact hardwired into our DNA. You see, a long time ago when we were still living in caves, coming across high- calorie dense items was extremely rare. That's why when we came across some honey or anything that had a lot of energy and carbohydrate in it, the item was consumed in massive amounts. This is illustrated today with the practices of the Hazda tribe, a remote tribe in Africa that consumes massive quantities of fruit and honey whenever it can be gathered. Over time, the human brain began to associate foods high in fat or sugar with feelings of pleasure, as a large bolus of a meal would signify to the hypothalamus that the body had enough body fat to survive on through the hormone Leptin.

Cravings arise from the primitive parts of our brain which associated high-calorie dense foods with survival. This is now a really big problem because we have what can be considered an obesogenic society, a society with a large amount of highly-palatable foods and low amounts of physical activity. Efforts to curtail sugar use, however, have failed in preventing obesity from occurring because they do not address the necessary behavior changes needed to successfully maintain weight loss. If you would like to know more, I would recommend checking out "The Hungry Brain."

calorielogonly

Well....anyway, whatever you want to call it, maybe lets just call it cravings that are difficult to control. I find, with my own personal experience, if I go without added sugar and sweets for a while it gets easier after a while and maybe you will have the same experience. My experience is when I eat sugar, I have cravings for more sugar and more food in general. Maybe my observations with my own personal experience with sugar will be helpful with other people that have sugar related cravings that are difficult to control.

(I do not participate in debates on MFP, personal decision that I made for myself. I didn't think it was meant to be a debate.)

lucys1225

Many years ago, I ate so many sweets and grain. There wasn't a gummy bear, twizzler or piece of italian bread that I would ever say no to. I went on the South Beach Diet where there is no added sugar or grains for the first two weeks. At the end of the two weeks, my desire for them dissipated. In fact, I still don't eat either of them (with the exception of my favorite desert when I go to New Orleans) and do not miss them at all. Maybe if you try abstaining from them for a couple of weeks it will help with your cravings and since you will have an end date you may not feel the need to binge.

tlw7

I appreciate all the responses! Hoping I can keep things rolling..actually didn't eat anything after dinner last night! Very proud of myself. Hopefully today will be day 2..and once I get a few days down I'm much more confident and strong.

What I did tell myself yesterday. My mom has smoked all my life and has always had a terrible cough etc. I've asked her to quit before and she gets pissed. I tell her that her lungs would repair and she'd feel better. She has no desire to do this to try to extend her life. It pisses me off. If I want my mom to stop so she can live a better life..I need to do the same thing for myself. It's not a cigarette for me-it's too much food. If I expect someone who has had this habit prob almost 40ish yrs to stop..I need to be an example. I just kept reminding myself of this. I also want to set a healthy example for my children!

TeaBea

blueeyetea wrote: »

I went through the same thing myself. Me, it was donuts in mid-afternoon, and chocolate bars or chips in the evening. What got me off sugar was to switch my diet to low-carb (no more pasta, bread, white potatoes, rice, and sugary snacks), and start my day with decaf butter coffee. If I had cravings in the evening, I'd have another decaf butter coffee. It took about a week for cravings to go away.

In the meantime, if I feel like I need a treat, I found a recipe for a quick low-carb dessert that I keep in the fridge at all times.

But these are (most) often temporary changes. I can "eliminate" favorite foods (for a time) and lose weight, I've never had a problem losing weight. The bigger challenge for me is maintaining. A huge % of people regain the weight they lost.

At maintenance you can choose low carb for the rest of your life....or you can start over and learn to manage pasta, bread, white potatoes, rice, and sugary snacks.

AlabasterVerve

TeaBea wrote: »

blueeyetea wrote: »

I went through the same thing myself. Me, it was donuts in mid-afternoon, and chocolate bars or chips in the evening. What got me off sugar was to switch my diet to low-carb (no more pasta, bread, white potatoes, rice, and sugary snacks), and start my day with decaf butter coffee. If I had cravings in the evening, I'd have another decaf butter coffee. It took about a week for cravings to go away.

In the meantime, if I feel like I need a treat, I found a recipe for a quick low-carb dessert that I keep in the fridge at all times.

But these are (most) often temporary changes. I can "eliminate" favorite foods (for a time) and lose weight, I've never had a problem losing weight. The bigger challenge for me is maintaining. A huge % of people regain the weight they lost.

At maintenance you can choose low carb for the rest of your life....or you can start over and learn to manage pasta, bread, white potatoes, rice, and sugary snacks.

Low carb is no more temporary than anything else... calorie counting, everything in moderation, clean eating, fasting, paleo or anything else. Individual results will vary.

Five years later I can say I'll happily eat a low carb diet for the rest of my life as long as I still benefit from it. No cravings, compulsive or out of control eating and not constantly thinking and obsessing over food? Worth it.

TeaBea

AlabasterVerve wrote: »

TeaBea wrote: »

blueeyetea wrote: »

I went through the same thing myself. Me, it was donuts in mid-afternoon, and chocolate bars or chips in the evening. What got me off sugar was to switch my diet to low-carb (no more pasta, bread, white potatoes, rice, and sugary snacks), and start my day with decaf butter coffee. If I had cravings in the evening, I'd have another decaf butter coffee. It took about a week for cravings to go away.

In the meantime, if I feel like I need a treat, I found a recipe for a quick low-carb dessert that I keep in the fridge at all times.

But these are (most) often temporary changes. I can "eliminate" favorite foods (for a time) and lose weight, I've never had a problem losing weight. The bigger challenge for me is maintaining. A huge % of people regain the weight they lost.

At maintenance you can choose low carb for the rest of your life....or you can start over and learn to manage pasta, bread, white potatoes, rice, and sugary snacks.

Low carb is no more temporary than anything else... calorie counting, everything in moderation, clean eating, fasting, paleo or anything else. Individual results will vary.

Five years later I can say I'll happily eat a low carb diet for the rest of my life as long as I still benefit from it. No cravings, compulsive or out of control eating and not constantly thinking and obsessing over food? Worth it.

This is why I said....(most) often. Some people will be low carb forever. But the vast majority of us will not be giving up pasta, bread, white potatoes, rice, and sugary snacks forever. People with medical issues have an extra incentive to be low carb for life.

But I was pointing out (to OP) that low carb isn't a cure for her sugar "addiction." Low carb only eliminates the craving for as long as you eliminate the source of the craving.

kavahni

I totally get exactly what you're saying. Binging and sugar addiction. Yes, I believe it's an addiction. I had very good luck getting off sugar using a book called "I Quit Sugar." As with any book about dietary change, it has its pros and cons. But, for the most part she has a lot of really good information and help. It's an eight week program that slowly week by week works you off of sugar, and at the end of eight weeks The idea is to reassess how you feel about sugar and how much you can re-introduced to your diet. Taking on her entire program as a forever, wholelife kind of thing, is not a particularly good idea for people like me, who are a compulsive over eaters, because she does recommend eating whole foods, as in whole milk, chicken skin, etc. and she is a very skinny person.
The thing that worked for me about her program is that she explains a lot of the science behind how sugar and sugar substitutes work in our bodies, using real science, much of which I already knew, but some of which I did not. It was gentle, and her recipes are really good.I think if sugar is a real issue in your life it would be worth it to give this a sho--even though it's higher calori--just to get off the sugar and then do as I did which was to re-introduce the lower calorie versions of foods.
I got to say, when I initially did this, I was menopausal, and suffering from terrible hot flashes. My hot flashes went away. Even though I have re-introduced sugar into my diet, they haven't returned. For that, it was totally worth it!

Wtn_Gurl

i stopped eating refined sugars and actually complex carb sugars and the cravings went away. i also learned not to use food as anything but fuel. so yeah i COULD have something if i wanted but i chose not to. that is the way i overcame cravings for sugar. but haha i noticed something, the other day i went to a fair and i had 3 teeny pieces of fudge that someone made, they were like the size of a dime. and i noticed that i enjoyed the taste as if i never stopped. so because my cravings for sugar were under control, thats all that satisfied me - that little tiny bit. but if i had continued to induldge every day, then probably the cravings and drive to eat sugary foods would return. i now see the calories/carb count of that stuff and its so not worth it because i have other more important goals that i want more. so you have to decide what you want more and then you will have the inner strength to do it. even to say no if necessary.

Wtn_Gurl

also, when you stop eating sugars, and then you eat something like a carrot, you can really taste the sugars that the carrot has. and this was only a few weeks into my 0 sugar eating. amazing! when you change your food choices, the tastes of the real food really shines thru.

lpina2mi

Another MFPer recommended this video. Although the focus is on carbs v fat, midway through there is a brain scan that is quite enlightening. https://proteinpower.com/drmike/2017/03/11/dr-david-ludwig-high-carb-vs-low-carb-vs-slow-carb-diets/

J72FIT

What foods to you gravitate towards when the craving hits?

senorajoselina

Cold turkey. White knuckle it for a while and the cravings will go away. (I've done it. Twice!)

tlw7

I tend to want..food. Seriously I just crave eating. Typically things with sugar. I don't keep candy cookies or ice cream I my house. So I'll turn to dried fruits, chobani, popcorn, dried cereal etc. Sometimes fruit snacks if I have some for my kids. It's just food that I want. And it's just right after dinner. I do so well all day long.

nvmomketo

TeaBea wrote: »

AlabasterVerve wrote: »

TeaBea wrote: »

blueeyetea wrote: »

I went through the same thing myself. Me, it was donuts in mid-afternoon, and chocolate bars or chips in the evening. What got me off sugar was to switch my diet to low-carb (no more pasta, bread, white potatoes, rice, and sugary snacks), and start my day with decaf butter coffee. If I had cravings in the evening, I'd have another decaf butter coffee. It took about a week for cravings to go away.

In the meantime, if I feel like I need a treat, I found a recipe for a quick low-carb dessert that I keep in the fridge at all times.

But these are (most) often temporary changes. I can "eliminate" favorite foods (for a time) and lose weight, I've never had a problem losing weight. The bigger challenge for me is maintaining. A huge % of people regain the weight they lost.

At maintenance you can choose low carb for the rest of your life....or you can start over and learn to manage pasta, bread, white potatoes, rice, and sugary snacks.

Low carb is no more temporary than anything else... calorie counting, everything in moderation, clean eating, fasting, paleo or anything else. Individual results will vary.

Five years later I can say I'll happily eat a low carb diet for the rest of my life as long as I still benefit from it. No cravings, compulsive or out of control eating and not constantly thinking and obsessing over food? Worth it.

This is why I said....(most) often. Some people will be low carb forever. But the vast majority of us will not be giving up pasta, bread, white potatoes, rice, and sugary snacks forever. People with medical issues have an extra incentive to be low carb for life.

But I was pointing out (to OP) that low carb isn't a cure for her sugar "addiction." Low carb only eliminates the craving for as long as you eliminate the source of the craving.

Yep. I think that's why people think of sugar as addiction-like. As soon as you bring that food back (sugar or carb heavier diets) it is a problem again. Like a mild addiction.

OP, I've been very low carb for most of two years. Eliminating carbs, which are just sugars in digestion, really helps me with my cravings. LVHF, or ketogenic diets, may be something that could help you.