Why does it seem that everyone on mfp craves sweets?

They crave sweets cause they're sugar addicted.

In some cases it's better to have the real thing as the sugar replacements in 'lite' diet' or 'zero' sugar foods aren't good either.

Everything in moderation.

I cant say no to chocolate ever! it's my weakness but I'm here to gain weight not lose weight so I pack em in.

I sometimes eat sugary snacks like coconut covered dates or almond milk ice cream too. I understand, though, that I'll need to jog an extra 15 minutes to make up for it. Like you said, cheat foods aren't bad if you eat them in moderation. Moderation.

Could be your body making you crave things higher in calorie content to make up for the calorie deficit as it does like to protect itself and maintain some sort of balance

I don't crave them, I eat them! (wthin reason of course, or at least attempted reason lol) NOM!

Everything in moderation. If it fits my macros I will eat it. I focus primarily on providing my body with the nutrition that I need, and try to get this mainly from clean foods, i.e. fresh or frozen meat, fish, seafood, fruits, vegetables and homecooked foods made from these. I make sure I get enough protein, healthy fat, carbohydrate to fuel my workouts and keep my energy levels up, vitamins, minerals, fibre and water. When I've done that, I generally have calories left over for whatever I want to eat. Sometimes that's a big pile of nuts and berries. Other times it's chocolate. Sometimes it's both (dark chocolate and berries is a to die for combination!!) - You could just as easily decide that I'm addicted to nuts and berries as I am to chocolate. It's only because of the emotive values people put on food that one is classed as an "addiction" the other a "healthy snack".

Deprivation does not work for me AT ALL. As soon as I put anything in the "forbidden fruit" category, i.e. something I'm not allowed to eat, then I want to eat it. I broke my "addiction" to forbidden fruit foods by declassifying them as forbidden fruits and putting them in the "I can eat it if it fits my macros" category, which incidentally contains all foods. So there you go, that's why I don't deprive myself of chocolate. When it's in the "I can eat it if it fits my macros" category, I eat it in small doses and it fits my macros. If I were to put it back in the "forbidden fruit" category, then I'll want to eat an entire family sized bar of it in a single day.

There are also other things like mayonnaise and barbeque sauce that I eat foods with, or put in my homecooked foods, that some people will not approve of. Again, so long as I'm feeding my body the nutrition that it needs, and keep it all within my macros, these foods will not interfere with weight loss or damage your health.

The short answer to why people still eat these foods.... it's because actually you can eat them as part of a healthy diet with good portion control, and still lose weight and be healthy.

also, as to why lite/low calorie versions... well you can fit more of them into your macros

for example I use low fat mayonnaise. This is because I want 20-25g of mayonnaise with my tuna. The full fat version, 25g of mayonnaise has crazy high fat and calories. The lower fat version, well it's still quite high in fat and calories,but significantly lower than the full fat, and given that I can't taste the difference, it makes sense to use the lower fat version and save my fat calories allowance for a more healthy kind of fat.

we all have different cravings, and we prioritize based on what we love. I for one am not a big fan of artificial sweeteners (also eeew to fat free dairy), if i want something sweet, i set aside calories for the real deal. Some people would rather save those calories for something else, say, adding cheese to a savory dish.

oh wait, what's that in your diary? some SNACK WELLS Devil's food cake cookies? pot, meet kettle.

You're on a diet site. how do you think we got to be 20/50/100lbs overweight?

They crave sweets cause they're sugar addicted.

Yep! And the only way to stop it? Stop giving in to the cravings!

The attitude that we must NEVER deny ourself something otherwise we will just binge on it is a lazy and undisciplined attitude.

Eating sugar from time to time as a treat isn't going to kill you - but being addicted to it is not a good place to be in.