Change in cravings

leesee88
leesee88 Posts: 54 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
As a 50 pound heavier person, I never cared for chocolate.

I could never understand people who chose chocolate cake/icecream over vanilla, or who talked about candy bars, donuts, or other sweet chocolately thing as being a weakness.
My weaknesses were more like bread and butter, cheerios with milk, and cheese.

Now, I completely understand. While i still struggle with eating only small amounts of bread/cereal/cheese, chocolate and other sweets have now come to the top of the list. I have never in my life craved so much chocolate and sweet stuff!

I have no idea why the type of foods I crave changed, and I would really like to stop having rediculous cravings in general. I also only crave chocolate like a maniac AT NIGHT. That is when I feel out of control!

Has this happened to you? Does anyone know what could have caused this and how I can change it?

Replies

  • roachhaley
    roachhaley Posts: 978 Member
    I have no idea why but this has happened to me too! though i still crave carbs of course. lol
  • vthetigercat
    vthetigercat Posts: 35 Member
    Make sure you're getting adequate protein in your diet. I was vegan for 3 years, and before I was vegan I didn't crave chocolate so much. I did some research (it was a long time ago so i can't remember my source), and found that a protein deficit can be masked by cravings for sweets.

    Currently my diet is 40% protein, 40% carbohydrate, 20% fat (or at least that is my goal), and I hardly have cravings for any type of "sinful" food.
  • leesee88
    leesee88 Posts: 54 Member
    I have never checked what my diet is comprised of, but i eat so much greek yogurt, eggs, chicken, and tuna that I always felt confident in my protein consumption. I will attempt your 40/40/20 plan!
  • janet0513
    janet0513 Posts: 564 Member
    I agree that you should look at your diet. A deficiency in minerals (chromium, magnesium, manganese, vanadium and zinc) and their cofactors may contribute to a craving for high-sugar carbohydrates. Minerals are essential for blood sugar regulation.

    Since I have changed how I eat, I no longer have cravings for "junk" food.
  • naku
    naku Posts: 109 Member
    This has happened to me too. It's as before I really didn't like chocolate but now OHMYGOD give me more.

    For me it's pretty much just chocolate though... not just any kind of sweets.
  • leesee88
    leesee88 Posts: 54 Member
    I agree that you should look at your diet. A deficiency in minerals (chromium, magnesium, manganese, vanadium and zinc) and their cofactors may contribute to a craving for high-sugar carbohydrates. Minerals are essential for blood sugar regulation.

    Since I have changed how I eat, I no longer have cravings for "junk" food.

    sometimes i take a womens daily multivitamin. if i took this every day would that help? or do you mean i should obtain minerals from natural sources?
  • janet0513
    janet0513 Posts: 564 Member
    I always think it's best to get naturally especially since vitamins are not regulated. If you can't get it all with diet or just want the extra vitamins then take the multivitamin, it won't hurt.
  • coconutbuNZ
    coconutbuNZ Posts: 578 Member
    Yes that happened to me too. Sugar is like a drug. First taste, second, third and then hooked for life!

    I have set myself a challenge to eliminate all added sugar, chocolates, cakes everything for the next 3 weeks and it sure is a challenge, my coffee tastes yuk without it! But still I try. Someone in here said it takes 3 weeks to get rid of a craving plus I hope it also makes a difference when I step on those scales. This is like an experiment for me, testing it out to see if it works. I LOVE cake. I crave for cake. I love it more than chocolate. I won't give it up forever. I will have my cake, one piece or two at most, once a month and that's it.
  • shimmer_glo
    shimmer_glo Posts: 103 Member
    I also crave chocolate ... always! I decided a while ago that I wasn't going to try to avoid it. I did have to change the amount and type of chocolate I eat, for the most part. Sometimes semi sweet chocolate chips with something healthy like oatmeal will do the trick. If you melt them into oatmeal, everything gets chocolatey and a few chocolate chips go a long way. Other times, instead of M&M's and candy bars, I've switched to a square or two of dark chocolate (antioxidants!) or a 40 calorie fudge popsicle. Also, the triple chocolate chunk muffin recipe in the recipe section is awesome, and there's no sugar in it.
  • bossmodehan
    bossmodehan Posts: 210 Member
    Yes that happened to me too. Sugar is like a drug. First taste, second, third and then hooked for life!

    True story. I have dark chocolate everyday, and have choc flavoured protein powder. but other than that (and fruit) I just cannot allow myself sweet foods and sugar. i have health reasons to avoid them too, which you'd think would be enough to put me off, but I'm often reminding myself, in times of weakness, how it is SO much easier to say NO to the first taste than it is to the subsequent tastes. this 'reminder' is helping so far.
  • coconutbuNZ
    coconutbuNZ Posts: 578 Member
    I couldn't send you the link. Look up recipes then search 60 calorie brownies. Just to satisfy your sweet tooth without all the calories.
  • myjourney2
    myjourney2 Posts: 424 Member
    I used to crave chocolate all the time . Now I find myself craving things like oranges. Hmmm, chocolate covered oranges sounds good :)
  • leesee88
    leesee88 Posts: 54 Member
    I couldn't send you the link. Look up recipes then search 60 calorie brownies. Just to satisfy your sweet tooth without all the calories.

    Thank you!

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