Young and lost :0

mentalstrenght

Hello everyone please read on if you have time. For the past 2 years I've been fighting strong cravings for sugar, especially during my period. They truthfully become insane to where I consume mostly bakery products all day long. I'm a tall 18-year-old girl, on the verge of becoming overweight. My attachment to sugar is unhealthily linked with childhood memories as well as celebration and good times. Because I love myself and I'm aware of the damage it can cause, I read some books and navigated through interesting nutrition articles. But I need clarification for a few things:

1. Gary Taubes "Why we get fat"
This book exemplifies that calories in/out is not the ultimate solution for fat loss. Taubes supports his observations with scientific evidence; such as universal studies, historical experiments, genetics in animals and the science behind gaining fat. He proves carbohydrates are the reason; that the less carbs we consume, the more fat we'll burn.

If this is true... then how could

2. Freelee, the banana girl, eat fruit (carbs) in such high quantities (51 bananas a day) and remain lean? Her theory contradicts Taube's references for fat loss. At least it makes sense that raw natural foods can't be damaging/fattening to the human body, but what about

3. Mark Haub's Twinkie Diet? The professor who lost 27 lbs and lowered his LDL (by 20%) with a variety of processed foods (Oreos, sugary cereal, Doritos...) just by tracking calories. He only consumed 1800 cals to succeed in his experiment.

4. What should I do? After I read Taubes' book, I felt really inspired to eat protein and fat unlimitedly. It's like the Atkins Plan, although you can only eat about 20g of leafy green veggies. I honestly tried it and it worked for a few days until my body and mind were yelling: "Give me sugar already!! If so many people lost weight eating sugar you can do it too!!" I work out so hard constantly and end up bingeing on cookies. I feel I've lost my motivation to get fit because of sugar and all the different guidelines that end up contradicting each other. I don't know what to believe and I certainly can't eat "bad foods" in moderation. What would you do? What do you think?

kgeyser

I would toss the Taubes book, eat foods I enjoy in moderation (carbs, fat, protein), and make the necessary behavioral changes to stop binging, working with a therapist if necessary to develop coping strategies and form new habits.

bonniejo

From what I've been learning in school (I'm getting my masters in nutrition) whole foods are the way to go. If you crave sugar, have some fruit. It is pretty easy to eat 500 calories of cookies, but 500 calories of peaches? Pretty tough. If you can't deal with cookies etc in moderation, then don't eat them. Try it for a month, and I bet the craving will have lessened.

Anyway, from what I've learned, it seems like making your own food from the basics is the best way to stay healthy. Can you lose weight eating most anything as long as you have a caloric deficit? Yes. But it doesn't sound like that would work for you. Try no processed sweets for a month, and then maybe after that try ones you make yourself. Look at chocolate covered katie's blog for some good ideas. I hope that was at least a little helpful!

Edit: also I want to note that I had trouble with sweets once too. I went to Europe for a semester where they add much less sugar to desserts and it was much easier to eat less. I still can't eat as much sugary desserts as other people

TheRealNoodlette

Hi there and welcome!

What works for some people may not work for others. This site is very anti-low carb and pro-calories in calories out. I find that low carb works for me, but I am pre-diabetic and can't handle sugars well. I don't know if a young and growing healthy 18 year old SHOULD do a low-carb diet (a la Taube). I would recommend you journal your food intake and exercise for a week and see what you're eating too much of, too little of, and ways you can improve your diet (we ALL can improve our diets!). Calories-in-calories-out works but seriously, if someone is filling his caloric intake with potato chips, soda, and ice cream, that's not a healthy diet. I'm not saying you are doing that! Eat whole foods, lots of fruits and vegetables, leafy greens, get good fats and proteins in an appropriate amount and you will be great!

MelodyandBarbells

We could discuss some options for eating sugar in moderation if you're willing to discuss them. For example, how did you gain access to so many cookies, did you or someone else buy a large container to keep in the house? Personally I'd eat ALL the cookies if they were in my house too, so I buy smaller packs when I'm craving them

mentalstrenght

Thank you what do you eat on a daily basis? You look stunning

mentalstrenght

When I moved to LA from Spain I discovered Hershey's and kit kats :0 I had an allowance of $20 a week so after school I would go to Ralph's and buy all my favorite sweets. I found it so comforting that it became a habit, especially since I only live with my dad and he's very strict. All my family is in Spain.. I think I use sugar as love and comfort.. it's scary

mentalstrenght

Can I have starches and whole wheat? Can you assure that the law of thermodynamics works? Thank you for the reply

mentalstrenght

I completely agree. Europeans are much healthier.. goodness American food is addictive.
I was stable eating whole foods until I read how carbs will make you retain weight no matter how natural they are. I love legumes but of course, all books say they won't help you lose fat. Thank you for the reply.

Patttience

I used to be a sugar binger. But when i say sugar i mean refined sugar, not fruit. I agree with everything bonnyjo says. I've also read part of the Taubes book.

I think there is a good lesson in the low carb idea. It is that fat is not the enemy but of course you still have to eat fat in moderation.

But you don't need to go low carb. You just need to cut out refined sugars. Here's my rules. I have been living with it all year and its been great. But first there is something else you need to look into and consider.

When we are tired through lack of sleep, stressed, depressed, anxious, fatigued, we will crave sugar or refined carbs. So you need to learn how to manage those things and avoid them as much as possible. So always get plenty of sleep. If you are stressed find a councillor to talk it out with. Sometimes just airing your problems iwht a good listener can relieve the stress you feel instantly. It does for me. But then i've done a lot of therapy. You need to be open with any councillor. If you hold back stuff that you are worrying about your stress will continue. Try and find solutions with the help of a councillor. They won't tell you the answer. But using them as a sounding board is great because it nudges your own throughout processes along and this leads to quicker ways to getting solutions.

For depression, get medication as well. For anxiety, they say exercise is really helpful. Its supposed to be good for depression too but i can't make myself do anything when i'm depressed.

Also learn how to calm yourself with mindfulness meditation. Some psychologists teach this or you can learn it from the buddhists. Buddhism has a lot of great self-help ideas.

So back to the food and quitting sugar.
At the very least cut down to 6tsp per day. If that's too much for you, do it like i did it.

No sugar in your coffee tea etc. Just whole milk.
No sugar or honey or anything like that even artificial sweeteners are a no no.
the only way i use sugar is in cooking a basically savoury dish such as bolognese because tomatoes are acidic and need a little sweetening to counteract the acidity. But you only need a pinch to max 1tsp of sugar for that to work and it won't cause a binge.

Eat fruit. As much as you need. Get your love of sweetness via fruit.
Do not eat any sweetened foods such sweet yoghurt. go for unsweetened whole milk yoghurt. Its often called greek yoghurt but make sure its not no added fat.

Do not eat low fat dairy or other foods. These will leave you unsatisfied and craving especially if you are cutting out sugars as well. Always date whole foods not low fat or refined junk.

Create some situations where you feel you would be safe to eat any sweet foods. Tehse are my rules.
I can eat sweets if i am out at someone else's place and i am offered it. I do not ask for it no matter how good my friend is. I just accept what's on offer and then only have one serve, no matter how small it is. I talk to myself quite a lot when i'm doing this. About how this is all i need and i'm not having any more later.

The other main situation is if i go out to a restaurant with other people, i can have a serve of dessert. But only one serve. I cannot have the chocolate that comes with the coffee as well. Just the dessert or the chocolate.

So you can see my rules are really strict and i took a while to come up with them. But i have decided these are low risk situations.

Some other situations where i have eaten sugar are similar but i find them quite difficult so it might be good for me to ban sugar in these situations as well. They are any situation where there's a buffet table. I have resisted eating more than one serve but i must say its been hard. If i gave myself a total ban it might be easier. In both situations i was surrounded by the food for quite a long time. in such circumstances it would be good to keep a distance between me and the food table and such foods. I might do it like that next time. but on the other hand so long as i can stick with my one serve rule it should be ok.

Xmas will be another time that is difficult to manage so i plan to have my rules firmly in place by then. As i've already had my xmas pudding for the year, i could ban all sweets altogether. And focus on making really delicious gourmet savoury foods. and i plan to go a bit overboard if i feel inclined at the time. But as savoury foods don't cause me any loss of control i feel i'm safe even if put on a little weight.

Also i can drink alcohol with no negative ramifications.

I also do not drink much soda type drinks so i do not have to ban them. What i mean is even without a ban on this stuff, i've only had two drinks with soda in them this year.

With my other rules, i've only had dessert 6 times. And i haven't had ice-cream or chocolate at all.

usually when i'm at work and someone offers me a m&m i say no thanks. I say no a lot of times.

i really want only to eat special food that has been home made or restaurant made.
Cooking these sweet foods myself is a big risk because its the thinking about them that sends me a little crazy.

Try not to fantasise about sweet foods. Learn to "dislike" them even if you are kidding yourself.

The book the end of Overeating by Kessler discusses this in the second half the book. All the strategies he talks about i've discovered by myself and they work.

Do not manage your weight with exercise. Exercise for health not for weightloss. For weightloss manage your diet. Research shows that for exercise you need to compensate by eating more. But for me the problem is that when i stop doing it, i tend to keep eating the same or more and pretty soon i'm back being fat again so this year i haven't bothered much with exercise. I do a bit of gardening form time to time and i walk the dog on the beach occasionally (mostly someone else does this job) . I'm trying to join a tennis coaching group as i want to do something that is fun and sociable but its not for weightloss but for health and wellbeing that i want to do it.

So yep quit sugar and read that book if you can. There are other books about quitting sugar but do separated refined sugar from healthy sugars like fruit. For all intents and purposes honey is a refined sugar because it is 90% or more sugar and is as just and even more delicious than sugar. Avoid artificial sweeteners too because you want to alter your taste sensitivities and you can't really do that if you are still eating very sweet foods even if artificially sweetened.

Good luck.

Kalikel

I think you're way overthinking it. Stop with the dieting experts and fitness gurus.

Go to the doctor, get an idea of daily calorie intake and which foods you should or shouldn't be eating.

Then, eat what you're supposed to eat and keep to the number.

You'll lose weight.

Let all the other advice - everything that isn't what the doctor told you - just go in one ear and out the other.