In maintenance - what is our attitude to high sugar dessert type foods?
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HappyGrape
Posts: 436 Member
I am not one to advocate all or nothing type of diets, but I wonder how others manage things as chocolate or cake in maintenance
Did you have same attitude towards sweets as you did during weight loss?
Do you practice moderation, little bit daily or once weekly?
Do you just include it in your daily calories?
Do you have any habits pertaining to hunger or time of the day, or location (as not eating treats unless hungry or eating them outside the home).
Did your appreciation to high sugar foods change as you no longer want to eat them?
Would love to hear how you manage treats.
Did you have same attitude towards sweets as you did during weight loss?
Do you practice moderation, little bit daily or once weekly?
Do you just include it in your daily calories?
Do you have any habits pertaining to hunger or time of the day, or location (as not eating treats unless hungry or eating them outside the home).
Did your appreciation to high sugar foods change as you no longer want to eat them?
Would love to hear how you manage treats.
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Replies
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I am going to answer myself
I am still trying to find the balance right. If you tell me I cant' have pizza ever I will straight up say no way, but not so sure about dessert type treats. I don't really love them enough and usually I end up feeling hungrier for the rest of the day when I have them but in small quantities after good dinner I find there is no really any impact. however often times I think it's probably easier for me to skip them. It's just makes maintenance easier as my daily calorie burn is good and unless I blow off my budget on something very high sugar/high calories I can be very happy within my budget.
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My attitude for any food is the same as when I was losing. I'd ask myself what calories I had left and whether the calories the food contained were worth it. If it were very high in sugar the answer would be no most of the time because I find that type of food too sweet now.5
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I am way more lenient in maintenance.
I do practice moderation. I weigh myself daily and adjust food intake to my weight trend. I can easily regulate weight by allowing and stopping treats. I don't count calories anymore, but I reckon I cut around 5% of my daily calories for a small weekly splurge.
I have recently started having an extra treat on Saturday - sweet of dinner was savory, or vice versa.
I have had occasional small impromptu treats (peanut butter+honey, or similar) for a long time; now I'm motivated to forego them so I can have a real, nice, planned treat on Saturday instead.
I plan and portion my meals to be balanced and varied. My daily diet includes naturally sweet foods - milk, fruit, vegetables; I use sugar and honey as a sweetener as needed, and all of it is tasty - I have landed on a mix of tradition and personal preference.
My daily diet does not include dessert for every dinner - only after vegetable soups. Then I will have a pot of fruit flavored yogurt, or cereal with milk, or tapioka pudding with butter and syrup.
I eat out very rarely, so I can eat anything I want, and I usually pick something I don't eat at home.
Sometimes (maybe once every three months) I make pie (cheesecake, pumpkin pie etc), and eat it over a few days as part of lunch.
I usually eat three meals a day, and I eat whenever I feel like it, and when I have time to eat. Hunger is not a problem for me.
I still enjoy all kinds of junkfood, but I have learnt to moderate intake. Working towards a more relaxed attitude, and getting in a good meal schedule, has been crucial.4 -
I have a huge sweet tooth and eat a lot of sweets. Most days I plan out my meals at the start of the day using my base calories and then use at least some of my exercise calories for extras like an ice cream, a slice of cake or a few biscuits. I don't eat the extras until I have 'earned' them and try to eat lower carb meals so that I can have high carb snacks and keep the macros that work best for me.4
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I have periods of loss followed by periods of maintenance. My attitude towards high sugar desserts is the same during loss and maintenance, except that I have more leeway to include them when I maintain if I want to so sometimes end up having them more often than during weight loss. The way I think of them is the same way I think of any higher calorie foods: will I be more hungry today if I have this? If so, do I want them enough to be hungry? How much of it would I be happy with? How would that amount affect my other foods? Would I rather spend my calories on other foods?
In short, I ask myself if it's worth it today. Sometimes the answer is yes other times is no. If it's a yes I have them, if it's a no I don't, and in both cases I feel happy and satisfied with my choice. Higher calorie foods are "can but don't have to" foods to me.4 -
Did you have same attitude towards sweets as you did during weight loss? Yes
Do you practice moderation, little bit daily or once weekly? Yes (daily)
Do you just include it in your daily calories? Yes
Do you have any habits pertaining to hunger or time of the day, or location (as not eating treats unless hungry or eating them outside the home). I do 3 meals, 1 snack, 1 dessert every day
Did your appreciation to high sugar foods change as you no longer want to eat them? I will always 'appreciate' and eat calorie dense sweet treats (cake, pie, etc etc).
Hunger in maintenance is not an issue for me, it that were the case, balancing food choices better and maybe changing meal timing is all I need to do with my diet.
I will add, I am a pre logger every single day, mostly due to my training regime and I watch calories and macros. So during the day I make sure I meet protein; this allows me to fit in goodies at the end of the day.5 -
Did you have same attitude towards sweets as you did during weight loss?
I never cut sweets or treats out when I was losing weight or during maintenance. If I want something I will plan for it and work it into my day. However, somethings are not worth the calories to me now...like packaged store-bought desserts.
Do you practice moderation, little bit daily or once weekly?
Both. Some weeks I go big and refrain for the rest of the week. Other weeks I'm okay with having 2 cookies for dessert so it depends. I am not a "have 2 bites and put it away for another day" type of person so planning and being aware of the appx calorie count is a must for me.
Do you just include it in your daily calories?
I include in my calories which I look at a weekly basis not daily. I have higher days and lower days.
Do you have any habits pertaining to hunger or time of the day, or location (as not eating treats unless hungry or eating them outside the home).
I try not to eat sugar too late or alone and I like to include fiber or protein to help slow down the sugar spike. I eat 3 meals a day with no snacks, so when I have my treat it's usually at the end of the meal.
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Did you have same attitude towards sweets as you did during weight loss?
Yes - just a food with a set of macros and micros. Nothing special, no moral good/bad feeling at all. Useful way to boost my calories, energy levels and performance during long duration exercise.
Do you practice moderation, little bit daily or once weekly?
I'm not really that partial to sweets and cakes, my treats are mostly savoury. I have at the very least one food treat every single day. I could eat more of course so I suppose there's an element of moderation but I fit in enough for enjoyment
Do you just include it in your daily calories?
I don't log food or count calories. I'm just calorie aware over an extended time period. I don't feel any need to "balance the books" on a daily basis.
Do you have any habits pertaining to hunger or time of the day, or location (as not eating treats unless hungry or eating them outside the home).
I enjoy a mid-morning snack and often a late evening snack. No arbitrary rules over location.
Did your appreciation to high sugar foods change as you no longer want to eat them?
No change - they are just a food, I eat very much the same way as before I lost weight. Probably eating more volume/calories overall though.
Would love to hear how you manage treats.
I simply enjoy them as part of my overall diet (noun). I exercise a lot and since retiring my activity level has gone up too.
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I love sweets but I need to limit them a lot. I don't have room in my calories, either during loss or maintenance, to consume hundreds of low nutritional calories and maintain the satiety and macro balance I prefer. I try to split dessert if we have it when we go out.1
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Did you have same attitude towards sweets as you did during weight loss?
While actively losing, I was more structured about indulgences of all sorts (cake, beer, hyper-cheesy stuff, whatever). I was pretty consistent about fitting things into daily calorie goal, without blowing out nutrition, unless it was a true and rare special occasion: Christmas, my birthday, that sort of thing. On those few special occasions, I'd eat pretty freely and happily, considering it worth the couple of days' delay in reaching goal weight.
Do you practice moderation, little bit daily or once weekly? Do you just include it in your daily calories?
In maintenance, I run a fairly significant daily deficit (low hundreds of calories, usually) but eat very indulgently once a week or so, so that my weekly average runs close to maintenance calories. Maintenance, a.k.a. one's permanent way of living, has to work with one's personality and foster one's happiness.
I'm not a disciplined person, so consistent every-single-day moderation is not a good fit. And I have a hedonistic streak, so periodic moderately frequent major indulgence makes me happy.
Do you have any habits pertaining to hunger or time of the day, or location (as not eating treats unless hungry or eating them outside the home).
Nope. I'm not good with rules. I just try to make conscious, rational choices, rather than acting robotically, randomly or emotionally (I don't much have emotions, anyway).
Anything really good should be actively enjoyed (and not regretted afterward). Things that aren't good aren't worth eating, no matter how "healthy". Life is too short.
Did your appreciation to high sugar foods change as you no longer want to eat them?
Before weight loss, I'd already taken steps to reduce habitual snacking on low-wonderfulness sweet so-called treats. Eating at least 3 servings of whole fruit daily had helped me reduce cravings for poor quality sweets. So, a bunch of just-sweet too-simple so-called treat foods had already become unappealing. They still are.
But the important yardstick (to me) isn't so much whether foods are "high sugar" or not, it's whether they're subjectively delicious.
Would love to hear how you manage treats.
They're just food, not a special category. (They have macros and micros.)
Food is good. So is being healthy via sound nutrition.
Balance.
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While I was losing, I avoided sweet things because honestly, they just made me hungry and it was harder to maintain a deficit because I wanted to eat ALL the food. I do/did snack, but they are all thought out, eating things that will benefit me, not lose my mind...
In maintainance, this past Friday, I had a co-worker give me a milk chocolate butter cream from a really good candy store. I calcuated the calories, logged it and ate it. Guess what? It was WAY TOO SWEET. I didn't even enjoy it.
Now, if I could only do that to salty, savory food...LOL2 -
Yes! Sweet stuff isn’t a trouble point for me. It is the savory and salty goodness that gets me! We each have our own battles to fight :-).2
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Did you have same attitude towards sweets as you did during weight loss? - - Yes...all things in moderation
Do you practice moderation, little bit daily or once weekly? - - I don't really plan sweets, but when I get a sweet tooth, I'll work them into my calorie budget
Do you just include it in your daily calories? - - Yes, for the day I eat them.
Do you have any habits pertaining to hunger or time of the day, or location (as not eating treats unless hungry or eating them outside the home). - - Sweets in general, no...if they come home, hubby often eats them before I do. Specifically soda and sweet tea I only have with lunch out once a week. Oreos...I just plan to run alot more because I know I'll eat the whole pack in three days.
Did your appreciation to high sugar foods change as you no longer want to eat them? - - Not really. I still want them when I see them...fortunately, I don't go to the store too often because that "impulse rack" at the cashier really tempts me!
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Now that I’m in maintenance, my attitude towards sweets is a little more lax. I still try to hold out for when I REALLY want them but I do indulge more than I did during weight loss and I include it in my daily calories just like anything else. I don’t crave sugar the way I used to which is why when I do, when I really, I have it. My appreciation hasn’t changed, I’m still in love with them lol. I generally want sweets for that afternoon slump…but I’ll hold out when I know I have cake at home (I’m a baker).0
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Did you have same attitude towards sweets as you did during weight loss? - I started this diet not because I had a lot of weight to lose but because one day I was telling my husband what I ate for the day and it was almost entirely chocolate bars.... and that was a normal day.
Do you practice moderation, little bit daily or once weekly? - At first I went a month with no chocolate (that's my weakness, not just sugar or sweets) just to show myself that I was strong enough to go without. After that I told myself I could have it, as long as it fit within my daily calories. It was honestly easier when I told myself I couldn't have anything. It's easier to go without than to have to moderate my consumption. A couple pieces of chocolate just isn't enough to satisfy me.
Do you just include it in your daily calories? - Yep!
Do you have any habits pertaining to hunger or time of the day, or location (as not eating treats unless hungry or eating them outside the home). - Mostly I'm hungry when I'm bored or thirsty.
Did your appreciation to high sugar foods change as you no longer want to eat them? - Eh... in a way. If I keep thinking in the back of my head that chocolate isn't an option, it doesn't bother me. The more I think about how I can squeeze sweets into my daily calorie allowance, the more I'm fixated on them. But, after my month without chocolate, I've mostly continued to pass on sweets. If I do have some sort of treat, it takes up a few hundred calories, doesn't satisfy me, then leaves me with less "real" food I get to eat later in the day. It just isn't always worth it.
The biggest help for me is finding a replacement for my craving. I make yummy homemade protein bars that are very chocolatey and chewy and I plan to have one of those every evening with a cup of tea. It tastes like a treat but it satisfies my hunger, satisfies my sweet tooth and it helps my macros.2 -
I have a tremendous sweet tooth, so desserts are a part of my daily meal plans. What I eat is determined by how many calories I have that day. I run, so frequently have a lot of calories to play with. Some days dessert is just fruit, Greek yogurt, or a cookie. Some days it's ice cream. Some days I have something sweet for lunch like ice cream, a cinnamon roll or muffin instead of a sandwich. We only do cake for birthdays. I love pie, but don't make it that often because that means four days of pie and usually I only want one.0
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Sugar calories are the same as any other kind. I eat then in moderation. Every morning for breakfast I have half a chocolate bar mixed in with three servings of plain, high protein yogurt.1
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Does delicious count as an attitude? Because that's mine.2
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HappyGrape wrote: »I am not one to advocate all or nothing type of diets, but I wonder how others manage things as chocolate or cake in maintenance
Did you have same attitude towards sweets as you did during weight loss? Yes
Do you practice moderation, little bit daily or once weekly? Yes, once or twice a week is normal for me
Do you just include it in your daily calories? I don't track but yes
Do you have any habits pertaining to hunger or time of the day, or location (as not eating treats unless hungry or eating them outside the home). I generally only have sweets on the weekends
Did your appreciation to high sugar foods change as you no longer want to eat them? No, but I ate this way even when I was gaining weight. Sweets are not much of a problem for me.
Would love to hear how you manage treats. Many of my 'treats' are not sweet, and many I have much less often than sweets.1 -
Did you have same attitude towards sweets as you did during weight loss? yes, no food forbidden or seen as being 'bad'
Do you practice moderation, little bit daily or once weekly? I am great at practising moderation so it daily for me: 1 snack sized bar and sometimes a packet of crisps, or a biscuit/cookie
Do you just include it in your daily calories? yes
Do you have any habits pertaining to hunger or time of the day, or location (as not eating treats unless hungry or eating them outside the home). oh yes, I get hungry from 9pm on even in maintenance but I've had all my calories so I sip water or sometimes diet tonic water and tell my tummy its only being silly. (mind over matter works when you practise it often enough thank goodness lol)
Did your appreciation to high sugar foods change as you no longer want to eat them? oh yes, I'm really fussy now as to how I spend my calories, if I want to eat cake, it has to be the best most delicious cake (usually only home made) or it wont pass my lips
Would love to hear how you manage treats. As I said above I have treats daily, I save 200-300 calories per day for whatever I fancy and even more at the weekend! I eat at slight deficit during the week as my Saturdays and Sundays can average 2200 calories (my average TDEE now since cutting back on exercise is 1950, yeah I can be that exact
)
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