Carb/sugar addiction
minusmoe
Posts: 8 Member
Any suggestions on how to help break my sugar/carb addiction? It’s really bad.
7
Replies
-
How does it manifest itself and what specific behaviors do you want to adopt?2
-
More information about your daily eating habits would be helpful.
When do you turn to carbs/sugar? Are there certain circumstances?0 -
Goodluck! It's super hard and I feel your struggle. I try to fill up on foods that leave you feeling fuller for longer. More importantly, I just make sure I have them readily available so that when I do have a bad carb/sugar craving I can eat something and try to avoid the craving. Black Coffee also helps with cravings for myself.2
-
Let go of the notion that sugar/carbs are addicting. It will be a huge load off your shoulders.
Eat the things you like with an eye on nutritious foods. Stay in deficit, a slight one, until you reach your goal. Don't forget to add some exercise, it's good for you.16 -
Any suggestions on how to help break my sugar/carb addiction? It’s really bad.
When you say it's really bad, what does this mean to you? I concur with @quiksylver296 that providing more information about your daily eating habits would be helpful.1 -
When you eat something that is loaded with simple sugars and not much else you experience a sugar level spike. This results in more insulin being released into your blood. Those sugars are absorbed very quickly but additional insulin remains in the blood which sends a signal to your brain to BE HUNGRY! If you make the same mistake again the cycle keeps repeating and you can go for a very long time never satisfied while packing away more and more carbs.
If you want your sugary snack you MUST eat something with it. The usual cure? Almonds.
Now your issues may extend beyond this biology lesson but understanding what goes on under the hood never hurts.
10 -
What specifically do you mean -- what do you eat, when, what are the things you find difficult when trying not to overeat?
Carbs is a REALLY broad category -- if really craving "carbs" or even "sugar" you could try something lower cal like some berries or carrots, but my guess is you are craving or overeating specific foods.2 -
Well, I stopped buying things that triggered more eating. So I stopped bringing cookies and potato chips into my house. I drank water or hot tea to distract myself. But I'm not into total deprivation, so I found little pre-packaged sweets and had one once a day. Sometimes it was a Ritter Sport chocolate, which I savored slowly. Or I made sugar-free pudding with low-fat milk to have as a snack or desert.2
-
Don't buy something that would trigger your food binging. As a teenager, I always ate chips and coca-cola, so I told my mom to stop buying them, it was the only way for me not to eat them. Nowadays, older and much more disciplined, I am able to incorporate them in my diet, but that's because I can control my hunger which was not the case when I was a teen. It's either you become disciplined or simply not buy them at all.1
-
Think about what you are feeling when you are eating these foods and which foods you are craving. I like what @fb47 said about thinking about trigger foods. For me, I found that whenever I traveled, I would buy myself an oatmeal raisin cookie to eat on the plane...over a few months, traveling a few times a month, those 400+ calorie cookies added up. I thought about why I was choosing them and remembered my mother always made those when I was a kid, so it was clearly a comfort food. I decided to ban them--I simply won't eat them. There are other ways for me to feel comforted than cookies in this world, and I could never stop at just one bite!0
-
Duhigg’s book on Habits was a real eye opener. According to his model everyone’s triggers to overeat is different. What are your triggers?2
-
-
I've found it more helpful to focus on triggers in specific isolation rather than in sweeping categories. This or that specific food is a problem for me rather than a whole categories of foods. It made me feel more in control of my environment.
I've also focused on learning what situations lead me to be susceptible to overeating non-trigger foods and have developed mechanisms to avoid those situations, but that took me a long time to sort out.1 -
Get low sugar protein junk food. Most common examples are Quest protein bars, Halo Top ice cream, and their copy cats.
I used to consider myself a sugar addict. Turns out I just needed to swap 90% of my real junk food for the low sugar high protein versions. And I still feel hungry no matter what if I get under 30g protein by 5pm working day shift.
And if you want the real sugar stuff, try an asian grocer, preferably japanese. They have junk food in tiny, preproportioned packs that you can eat in a sitting and not do much calorie damage. They have stuff like marshmallow puffs with chocolate creme for 18-20 cal a piece (210-300/pack) and mini swirl ice creams for 85 cal a piece (510cal/pack). And the ice creams are even on a cone!0 -
I have a very sweet tooth and I love carbs. I don't cut them out completely, but I manage to keep my calories down by eating ridiculous amounts of fruit. This is what's working for me and I'm down quite a lot.
I've also found a much better if I eat high protein.
We are all different, the best thing is to try different approaches to see what works for you.
I have a diary that is open to friends, if you'd like to see it just add me as a friend.0 -
I swapped sugar for spoonable stevia extract, which the version I buy is zero calorie.
I make my own homemade sprite, lemonade and limeade.
I eat cereal (using vanilla unsweetened almond milk) and the stevia extract really helps, in simulating and replacing sugar.0 -
I found increasing protein, fruit, and exercise, while decreasing foods like baked goods and ice cream to be helpful.
I feel better when I'm closer to 30% protein than the 20% that is MFP's default. How much protein are you currently eating?
If you want something more extreme, try Bright Line Eating, which was available at my library system, so perhaps yours as well.
0 -
I love the Whole 30 for breaking eating habits, esp. sugar. I too feel that addiction... When it gets to that point I go cold turkey and follow the program for just 30 days. I feel my body begin appreciating berries and veg & fruits & craving those over my reg tastes. It lasts for long time after too, I learn to eat healthier...until I start getter no lazy & giving in... and when it breaks I do another cycle. Look into the program and see if something that interests you. For me it’s great. I feel amazing. (And I will note, I still stay within calories on program - not part of official W30 program, but see no reason can’t lose while I break habits.)4
-
1BlueAurora wrote: »Well, I stopped buying things that triggered more eating. So I stopped bringing cookies and potato chips into my house. I drank water or hot tea to distract myself. But I'm not into total deprivation, so I found little pre-packaged sweets and had one once a day. Sometimes it was a Ritter Sport chocolate, which I savored slowly. Or I made sugar-free pudding with low-fat milk to have as a snack or desert.
Potato chips and many, if not most, cookies are fats more than carbs.3 -
Taking a break from ultra-sweet foods and quick digesting carbs for about two weeks can help. Your blood sugars will get a break from the roller coaster, which causes cravings, and your taste buds will become more sensitive to natural sugars like the ones in fruit and milk. In the meantime, eat a reasonable amount of carbs, just slower digesting ones like dairy, berries, and legumes.
Don't purchase foods you have trouble moderating or have them in your house, and change your habits to avoid situations which cause you to overeat. For example, I changed the way I drive home so I don't stop at the convenience store where I used to buy icees, and I plan to have an appropriate snack for myself during TV watching instead of trying to tough it out, then giving in and grabbing a bag of chips.
When you get a handle on your eating, add back in appropriate portions of the foods you like.2 -
For me, increasing fruit helped. At first, I shot for 3 servings daily, and found that helped reduce my cravings for higher-calorie less nutrition-dense sweet treats (candy, baked goods). After a while the candy/baked goods started tasting unpleasantly simple and sweet. Doesn't work for everyone, but I'm not the only one who's reported this in other threads1
-
Keto fixed mine right up, but you might want to try some of the excellent and less drastic suggestions in this thread first. If they don’t do the trick, though, going cold turkey is an option and it works.1
-
janejellyroll wrote: »How does it manifest itself and what specific behaviors do you want to adopt?
I've been hoping for an answer to this all day. There are all kinds of things we can suggest to break food habits, but more specific information is always helpful.
I found that I did better by focusing on what I need to include in my diet instead of what to take out. Focusing less on which foods I felt I needed to cut out and instead putting my energy into getting 100 g of protein and my 5-7 servings of fruit and veg helped me make changes to my diet.0
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393.3K Introduce Yourself
- 43.8K Getting Started
- 260.2K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.9K Food and Nutrition
- 47.4K Recipes
- 232.5K Fitness and Exercise
- 424 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153K Motivation and Support
- 8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.7K MyFitnessPal Information
- 24 News and Announcements
- 1.1K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.6K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions