craving sugar/sweets when your exhausted

alyssa92982

Does anybody else experience this? I notice that when I'm up for so many hours or behind on sleep all I want to snack on is cookies or sweet stuff. Y is that? I eat fruit to try to fix it but that just doesn't cut it :-(

Neliel

I too often get that insane craving for artificially sweet foods. No idea why. I'd love to NOT crave and want them at all

hpsnickers1

Please read below:

http://www.hussmanfitness.org/html/TPAdaptation.html

Working With Your Body - The Basic Strategy
By John P. Hussman, Ph.D.
All rights reserved and actively enforced.


The goal of this site is to help you to transform your physique by walking you step-by-step through everything you need to know about exercise physiology and nutrition. I know that a lot of you have “tried everything,” and because there are so many approaches that have failed you, there's a real risk that you'll quit again and again if you don't see results immediately, or if you don't fully understand why your fitness program should work. Worse, there may be some missing pieces in your program, which could lead to slow progress even though you're hard at work. My hope is that this information will help you to stay on track - to turn effort into results - and to reach your goal.

Want to change your physique? Start by realizing that whatever shape you're in right now is your body's way of adapting to the lifestyle you're living. It's your body's attempt to survive. So the strategy is simple. We're going to give your body a very specific “environment” – a particular mix of activities, nutrition, and recovery – and your body is going to adapt by becoming leaner, stronger, and healthier.

Every change you throw at your body triggers a response. The problem with many diet and exercise programs is that they can accidentally encourage your body to defend fat, shed muscle, increase appetite and even lower its metabolism. The key to fast results is to know exactly which actions will cause your body to adapt by becoming fitter.

Maybe you've tried before to get in shape. But for some reason, you didn't get the results you wanted. If you're like I used to be, you've repeated that cycle year after year to no avail. Maybe you've failed so many times that you think of yourself as a “special case.” You've started to believe your entire metabolism consists of a little turtle on a treadmill. You wonder whether you've got the fat gene. You're convinced that no matter how hard you diet, your cells can still be seen eating Twinkies when viewed under a microscope.

Look. You're not a special case. Even if you had the fat gene (common among Pima Indians but rare otherwise), you'd only be burning 50-60 calories a day less than anybody else. Even if you've been diagnosed with a metabolic difficulty such as diabetes or hypothyroidism, you can still be successful with proper medical support. Most probably, other approaches failed you either because they were missing important pieces, focused on the wrong things, or produced results so slowly that you just gave up. What you need most is good information. You're in the right place.

THE LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
Your body is an amazing feedback system aimed at balance and survival. Humans are at the top of the food chain because they are able to adapt to their environment. Every action produces a reaction. Every change in its environment triggers a survival response. It's important to keep that in mind when you plan your fitness program. If you treat your body as an enemy to be conquered, you'll produce unintended results.

For example, if you severely cut off the supply of food to your body, it will defend itself by slowing down its metabolism to survive starvation. The body will shed muscle mass the same way that you would throw cargo from a plane that was low on fuel, and it will reduce its thyroid activity to conserve energy. The body will also actually defend its fat stores. In anorexia, muscle loss can be so profound that fat as a percentage of body weight actually rises. Extreme carbohydrate restriction also causes muscle loss, dehydration, and slower metabolism, which is why even successful Atkins dieters can have a significant rebound in weight after they stop the diet (don't worry – the advice on this site will prevent that from happening).

As another example, if you put your body under stress through overexertion and lack of sleep, it will respond by slowing down, reducing muscle growth, and increasing your appetite for junk food, carbohydrates and fat. If you feed your body excessive amounts of sugar and quickly digested carbohydrates, and it will shut off its ability to burn fat until those sugars are taken out of the bloodstream.

This website will show you how to work with your body to quickly produce the changes you want. In order to do that, you need to take actions that push your body to adapt – to build strength, burn fat, and increase fitness. You need a training program, not an exercise routine. You need a nutrition plan, not a diet. You need a challenge, not a few good habits you usually try to follow except when you don't.
Setting the right goal

John Dewey once said that a problem well-stated is half-solved. If you want to reach your goal, you have to define it correctly. See, a lot of people say “I want to lose weight.” Well, if losing weight is your goal, go on a no-carb diet. You'll lose a lot of weight – some of it will be fat, a lot of it will be water, and a dangerous amount will be muscle tissue. You'll lose weight quickly, but you'll slow your metabolism and gain fat more quickly once you go off the diet. Trust me on this. I've been there, done that.

The problem is that you've set the wrong goal. If you want to look better, have more energy and enjoy better health, the goal is not simply to “lose weight.” The goal is to improve your fitness level and body composition. That means losing fat, improving your aerobic capacity, training your strength and defending your muscle tissue. You can't do that with a no-carb diet. You will do it using the approach you'll learn on this website. Trust me on this one too. I know what it's like to feel fat, tired and helplessly out of shape. The whole point of this site is to help others avoid that, by sharing lessons that I had to learn the hard way.

HeatherShrinking

I'm totally like that. No amount of caffeine helps, just sugar. So I end up sleepy all morning

FrancesGallagher

Try to get your rest, that is terribly important. When you crave a sweet treat you could try Nestle Hot Chocolate (Fat Free) mix with water and maybe a bit of milk (I like some skim milk). The calories in a mug will be about 25 for the mix but it is sweet enough to help get through cookie monster time. If you need something with it you could try 2 or 3 whole grain crackers, just check those calories because some crackers have lots of fat calories.
Good luck, FG

AnnaPixie

I'd say its because you're down on energy and the body wants a quick fix. In other words you need to eat some carbs, although sugar will sort you out short term, you'll just feel hungry again in half hour. So best to eat an apple or something sweet but lower in glucose.

good luck :flowerforyou:

InstantSunshine

I find if I've eaten wrongly (as I now know) I'll get a major attack of 3 o'clock Syndrome and literally fall asleep at my desk in the afternoons. I used to get this all the time, every day, 'cause I used to eat great big sandwiches for lunch and never made the connection. Whaddya know, it's stopped happening since I joined MFP and watched the amount of bread and pasta etc that was going in.

That said, it happened the other day - I lapsed a bit - and there I was, losing consciousness, drinking gallons of coffee and it wasn't touching the sides, considering sneaking off to the loo for a crafty nap.

I went to the next office and nicked a Cola Cube from the big jar my colleague keeps on her desk. I Googled them and decided that 14 calories was entirely doable for a major sugar rush, trading it off against keeping me awake the rest of the afternoon and a promise never to do it again... so yeah! When caffeine has stopped working, I get sugar cravings. I suppose it's to do with provision of instant energy. :yawn: (that was me the other day)

AEROBICVIC

I just read a book called Body Confidence by Mark Macdonald from Venice Nutrition. it explains it in detail of why your body craves food. your (our) blood sugars levels drop causing your body to crave. he explains how to maintain blood sugar levels at every meal, even up until you go to bed. he also explains how to correct it all through eating the right foods. it is NOT a diet, you don't cut out any carbs or eat special foods. he makes you aware of balancing your prot, carb and fat ratios. it makes sense and it's working for me. i've been researching nutrition for a long time, this book has a lot of answers that i was looking for. i highly recommend it!

the book also explains plateaus, why we reach them (which is a really good thing, never knew that!) and how to work through them, prepares you for the next level of training, how to drop or gain wt, explains in better detail how the body functions and how to maintain once you've reached goals, helps give a positive lookout on foods and how to make better choices. i have read several books on these issues, they tell you how to change things but not why. they give you the "basic" info but detailed. i WANT details!!! i know that we're supposed to eat small meals throughout the day but i want to know why, what does my body need, how does it react, what to expect, how long before i should see results. i dont want to be told what to eat, i want to know WHY i should eat it and WHAT happens when i do. i've kept a journal of my foods, exercise, outcomes, set backs, advances, ect for the last 6 years. this book has filled many unanswered questions! it's been a great help!

AmandaArnwine

I try and Get a Workout in when I am feeling like this .. even if I DREAD it.. I always feel a little less like having the sweets after that ... and If I still feel like sweets.. I Have some .. and feel better about it because at least I already worked some of it off :-)

samcee

I am having one of those days right now *sob*

Usually I try my best to sleep on it.