Depressed when cutting out sweets.
GrumpyCat80
Posts: 2 Member
My diet is fairly ok, although I should probably include more vegetables. But... My downfall is my sweet tooth; biscuits, chocolate, ice cream, cakes and the list goes on. The problem is that when I try to cut down or cut sweets out completely, I just become depressed. Life just turns grey... It is ridiculous, I'm a grown woman and I should be able to cut out this stuff, but it just seems impossible. How do you do it?
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Replies
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Can you try healthier sweets? Instead of Ice cream have a protein fluff?3
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Maybe going sugar free isn't for you. Can you get fun sized candy bars, for example, and just eat one?2
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What has worked for me (and I have quite the sweet tooth) is to allow myself one sweet treat per week (usually a pint of Halo Top or something). It gives me something to look forward to and I can easily make room in my calories for it. If I have sweet cravings on other days, I usually eat fruit.2
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How many days have you lasted with zero sugar? There is a definite "hump" to get over. Then even carrots will taste sweet. Gotta tough it out to get there though. And if you are eating pre-made processed food it has sugar added.18
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me too - though I think the cause and effect may be in the other order for me - eating sweets sooths the depression, without them it comes front and centre.
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RachelElser wrote: »Can you try healthier sweets? Instead of Ice cream have a protein fluff?
Haha...that actually looks interestingly good
Have you tried Halo Top ice cream
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I work in sweets every day to my calorie count and trust me, when you only have 1200 calories a day, you have to make it work. I buy Dove dark chocolates and Yasso fudge frozen yogurt bars and have one serving a day. I can't cut sweets. I just can't.15
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I had this problem and I used a mix of the previous commenters' suggestions. Eating fruit everyday curbs my sweet tooth by an impressive amount, but it takes about two weeks before I notice(I've fallen off my wagon a few times). Then when it's a legit craving I have just a small amount of ice cream, or I make myself a heathier treat - I can't stand a lot of the heathy treats on the market so I make my own. I suggest monk fruit, or if you have the processor to handle it you can make date paste to replace straight sugar in recipes.
I had an entire crisis of "is life even worth living if I don't get to enjoy sweets?" It is doable though, and it's not even difficult once you get control of the mental hiccup.1 -
GrumpyCat80 wrote: »My diet is fairly ok, although I should probably include more vegetables. But... My downfall is my sweet tooth; biscuits, chocolate, ice cream, cakes and the list goes on. The problem is that when I try to cut down or cut sweets out completely, I just become depressed. Life just turns grey... It is ridiculous, I'm a grown woman and I should be able to cut out this stuff, but it just seems impossible. How do you do it?
I would add to the excellent responses you've already gotten - it's possible this is more psychological than specific to the food. Comfort eating can be a powerful habit, and if you remove the comforting food without dealing with the stress or boredom or whatever it was another way, it's understandable your mood might suffer.
Try to think of a couple of simple quick things that cheer you up, like puppy videos on YT or your fave song or a friend whose texts always make you smile or a quick walk. Plan for a portioned sweet treat every day, and then any other time you feel like reaching for more, try doing one of those other things instead.
If you're a reader, check out The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. :drinker:14 -
i dont cut out anything...but i do everything i can in moderation...i like the fun size candies when i want something sweet but there are also a lot of healthier options if you want more than sweets...maybe you can make yourself some low carb goodies??? It's my mom's bday tomorrow and i m making her an italian cream cake..and it's going to be the sugar free healthy kind so i can have some too...shhhh dont tell her..:)3
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I have a sweet treat every night as I also have a strong sweet tooth. Unless you have a medical reason, there is no reason to "cut out sweets completely" as you say. You can eat whatever you'd like and still lose weight as long as you are eating within your calorie allowance! It's all about balance!
In my case, my late evening sweet treats work best in the form of something that is already made into single servings like ice cream bars. These are my favorite: (I can't have dairy)
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talkinghead86 wrote: »RachelElser wrote: »Can you try healthier sweets? Instead of Ice cream have a protein fluff?
Haha...that actually looks interestingly good
Have you tried Halo Top ice cream
I get it sometimes but it's sooooooo expensive!0 -
The new ranges of ‘thin’ biscuits are handy if you need something with your cuppa but don’t want to blow your budget.
Also sugar free boiled sweets and marshmallows.
Alpen Light bars are quite good for that sweet snack/treat and only 65cal.
Aldi & Morrison (if you’re in the UK) both do own-brand ‘Halo Top’ style high protein ice creams. 1/4 of a tub for say 75-90 calories, a nice tasty treat. Far cheaper than the branded versions.1 -
It sounds like cutting down on the sweets needs to happen, but I don't think you need to cut it out entirely. Just be smart about it. I'm sorry it has such a negative impact on your mood, but it will get better. Stay strong, you can do this.3
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I'm not personally a fan of cutting out sweets unless you a.)have difficulty controlling, b.)have a medical reason or c.)plan on never touching them again. Cutting them out for the sake of weight loss seems to backfire on people. If you can, find a way to make them work (bank calories, eat lighter that day, have a maintenance day) or find low-cal alternatives. Weight loss doesn't have to be miserable and there's no mandate that you have to cut out sweets and things you enjoy.6
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Thanks all for your replies and good advice. I will have to try and somehow get over this sugar craving. I know if I can keep my carbs around 100 and avoid the sweet stuff, the cravings are much less after just a few days, but life just looses all color... Anyone have a clue how long the sugar withdrawal depression lasts? When I was younger, I could eat sweets in moderation, if I had to, but now it seems like it's all or nothing.
And for some reason I can't stand the taste of artificial sweeteners 🙄2 -
I had a TERRIBLE sweet tooth until a friend suggested Magnesium as a supplement. I figured - what do I have to lose?!? If my body didn't need it, I'd just 'expel' it. lol It's been a God-send! I no longer have any cravings for sweets and it's been a month. Maybe this will work for someone else! HTH!3
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I have a sweet treat every night as I also have a strong sweet tooth. Unless you have a medical reason, there is no reason to "cut out sweets completely" as you say. You can eat whatever you'd like and still lose weight as long as you are eating within your calorie allowance! It's all about balance!
In my case, my late evening sweet treats work best in the form of something that is already made into single servings like ice cream bars. These are my favorite: (I can't have dairy)
Those are indeed really good! I'd choose them over lots of other treats, and I don't need non-dairy
Another moderator not abstainer here, OP. But you have to do what works for you. 100 carbs per day is fairly low. That's the point at which I start noticing a dip in energy. Maybe up that to 150 and see if you feel better.5 -
https://youtu.be/D9YdBfR299s
Similar to Brandon Wadas, I lost 80 lb and have kept it off 3 years and I've always eaten over 100 grams of sugar and 50% carbs a day, and my blood work and health are "perfect" according to multiple doctors. Disclaimer: I also walk and run a lot.
In the 80s people thought fat made you fat and went on low fat diets, but people still got fat.
Now the same thing is happening with carbs/sugar, but people still get fat.
Yes, you can lose weight both ways, but ONLY if you're happy eating that way AND if you don't eat too many or too few calories so you can stick to your diet long enough to lose the weight and not crash and burn.4 -
I find that to make this way of eating work for me (CICO), I have to be able to have some kind of chocolate and/or ice cream just about every night. It's kind of my way to wind down the evening and once I've eaten whatever treat i'm going to have, I will close out my diary. When I first started, it was half a pint (~120-130g) of Halo ice cream, about 10g of Hershey syrup and about 40-45g of banana. Now, it's an M&M chocolate ice cream sandwich at about 240 calories. I am eating about 1500-1550 calories a day and it's working for me. I'm down 98 lbs in about 13 months. Don't give up something that gives you joy and makes this process hard instead of simply a way of life - just figure out how to fit it in. Good luck!5
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I ate about two pounds of chocolate and candies a day and did so for years, in addition to cookies, pastries, ice cream, and soooo much more. All of the above, per day, folks, per day. I had a friend who was a shopping addict and would hide purchases in her trunk. I hid candy wrappers under other trash or took them to work.
What worked for me was having a naturally sweetened smoothie every night. Banana, almond milk, raw powdered cocoa (Hershey’s is better tasting than Trader Joe’s - probably because I was so accustomed to their chocolates!) and ice mix up in a Magic Bullet to have the same taste and texture as chocolate ice cream, at 155 calories for quite a big, satisfying jug that I slurp down with a spoon because a.) it makes it last longer and b.) I loved drinking chocolate milk with a spoon as a kid but was forbidden to do so. (Yay, inner child!)
Supplemented with some dry oatmeal and a tablespoon of almond butter, and it just transports me with happiness.
Other posters are right. It took a couple of weeks for me to get past the cravings, but months later, I’m finding that oranges are so sweet they make me pucker, frozen blueberries are way better than M&Ms, and OMG, do I ever have a new appreciation for cherry tomatoes. I used to eat around them, now I have to keep myself from popping them in my mouth while preparing then. It will come, but you have to start the process.
Now that you mention it, for me, the ups and downs have leveled out. You can chalk it up to the weight loss, excercise, getting out of the house, more sunshiney vitamin D, more confidence, or whatever, but my money is on getting sugar under control. I totally got sugar highs. Folks will argue it’s not addictive, but I just know how it affected me, and I hear others here who seemed to have been affected the same way. For me, it was scary and out of control. Dumping processed sugars has been a game changer for me.8 -
100 g of carbs sounds like an uncomfortable level. That’s not low enough to stay in ketosis, and not high enough to stay out of ketosis. Dipping in and out of ketosis will indeed make the whole world an ugly place. I find that for me 150g is reasonable and keeps my glucose levels normal (type 2 diabetic here.)
Everyone is different, but I’ve found that overly sweetened foods make me crave more, while naturally sweetened foods are more satisfying. It took me about two weeks to make the transition, and eating a lot of fruit helped. Now my treats are Greek yogurt with frozen berries, flavored extracts, and cacao powder, dark chocolate, and sometimes Halo Top. I also have some oatmeal cookies and cookie thins which I can have a small amount of without craving more - and sometimes I miscalculate and end up buying something which is just too tasty not to eat too much of! Then I don’t buy that item anymore.5 -
I love snacks and could eat nothing but snacks. But I found out that I don't long for snacks if
a) I'm not hungry in general. Thus food that keeps me full
b) if I'm not bored but have interesting things to do, hobbies, learn something, anything but sitting behind the telly in the evening
c) work out. While the other two things might work for many, I think this might be specifically me. But it absolutely fits into doing something instead of sitting behind the telly.
Btw, I do eat two small candy bars each day. If I want something more substantial than that then I won't have the two bars and don't go too much over my calories. If I really want a bag of crisps then I won't have dinner. The crisps also keep me full, and have quite a few more calories, but not too much relative to the dinner. As I like my dinners I don't do this too often.2 -
The sweet things I like but that also have more nutrients:
- Toast with peanut butter and smashed raspberries or banana
- Protein shake with frozen cherries, whey chocolate protein, almond or oat milk, maybe a bit of peanut butter if I fancy
- Halo top (usually half the pint, husband eats the other half)
- Pulsin raw chocolate brownies
- Some protein bars are quite tasty
- Skyr/yoghurt with micowaved/stewed apple with cinnamon, with a small sprinkle of granola for crunch. Apple pie!
- Dates filled with almonds
- Clementines, mango, various fruit
I eat these sorts of thing every day, plus sometimes I will just have the pecan tart because it looks good. Once it stopped being 'offlimits' I calmed down around things a lot. Used to not be able to have them in the house because I'd binge. Now, sometimes I'm over on fats on my macros if I eat a piece of cheesecake or whatever, but I'm usually in my calorie range so it doesn't matter. The next day I try to up the protein or whatever so it evens out.1 -
I'm a grown woman and I have not cut out sweets, simply because I don't feel they're interfering with my goals. Why would I want to introduce more limits and deprivations unnecessarily? All I need for weight loss is a calorie deficit, and I have that. For nutrition, I need a nutritionally balanced diet, and I have that. Using some of my calories for sweets when I want them and not being stressed and awkward with friends and family when sweets are involved supports my mental and social health. For me, personally, I have nothing to gain from cutting out sweets and everything to gain from managing my food intake (including sweets) in a sustainable way.7
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I bought a multipack of funsize chocolate bars and made my mum hide them and only let me have one a day. Haha. I was always big on the sugar addiction, but unfortunately I don't think there's any easy way other than just push on through it. I wouldn't cut it out completely because it's all too easy to fall off the wagon that way. I ate three chocolate bars yesterday and only went over my calories just slightly (2 were low calorie) but most days I'm either just having a little chocolate bar or fruit. I always need sugar after a meal, sadly0
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Berries, especially blueberries, and strawberries are low in calories, but also sweet. Fruit. Also, what about exercise? I regular exercise to help boost and maintain my mood.1
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Interesting, I have no intention of giving up my candy. I already gave up beer and pepsi.
I usually have 300 calories spare at the end of the day to splurge as a grown man child which is a lot of sour jelly beans.1 -
So don't cut them drastically. just pick a reasonable number to save for sweets everyday.0
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Most people that have commented already will disagree, and that is because they successfully have worked the sweets into their calories, but reading your post, it sounds to me like you need a period of complete abstaining from sweets. If you can go 3-4 months you can retrain you tastebuds and you will crave new foods, stay away from items that use calorie free sweetners as all they do is make you crave those sweet items. Like yourself I had a major sweet tooth and the everything in moderation was never going to work for me. It’s been six months, and I can now have a piece of cake without it leading to a second piece of cake. But things like Chocolate bars are still off limits, they are my cryptonite, and way to convenient and easy to pick up in day to day life and I don’t want to have that constant temptation over me all the time.
I always say we are all different, but I think for every person who is a successful moderator there are a 100 of us who aren’t, which is why yo-yo dieting is the most prevalent form of dieting. It sucks but the truth is somethimes you just have to buckle down and put the crappy foods aside and move on, if your goal is long term sustainable weight loss. There is a reason we all ended up on a site that is primarily used for weight loss, and that is we weren’t very good moderators of our food intake or type of foods. I don’t think many of us magically get good at that right away.
Whatever path you choose, I wish you the best of luck on your journey. It won’t be easy, but it will be rewarding as you work towards your goals.4
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