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MyFitnessPal Community

Gone mostly sugar free and struggling

jasminedurocher

I've given up most sugar (ie all sugary treats from chocolate to biscuits), and have cut back significantly on carbs such as pasta and bread.
I've read about sugar detoxing being done in a couple of days, but its been 22 days now since my last sugary treat and I am still craving sugar. My way of dealing with it is by having a piece of fruit or a boiled egg, but I'm feeling the pangs so much I often find myself eating well over 2000 calories just to make the hunger pangs go away.
Its an absolute nightmare, not really sure what to do?

I try to do a couple of hours exercise a week, drink lots of water etc

Has anyone else gone sugar free? And how long will the cravings last for?

Replies

Madmarsha

Yes, I've given up most sugar. I'll be honest, I never detoxed. Protein is what fills me up so I always start with that and never have a carb like a fruit by itself. But I also learned that feeling hungry is not an emergency. I almost, almost, like feeling hungry. It's part of learning how to listen to my body. If I feel hungry and I haven't eaten, I eat; BUT if I feel hungry and I have eaten, I drink water first and wait. I may eat some more or I just tell myself, okay, I'm hungry, so what? I know overall I'm eating enough and I know I will eat eventually. It's still an ongoing process and I won't say I'll never have another donut or another cookie; but for all intents and purposes, I have given up sugar for food.

twixlepennie

Do you have a medical condition that is making you cut out sugar? Otherwise it's fine to keep eating foods with sugar, just fit them into your calorie allotments

In order to succeed you need to do this in a way that's sustainable long term. Don't box yourself in with pointless rules and restrictions-that's a sure way to fail. You're already struggling now-how on earth are you going to keep doing what you're doing for 20, 30, 40+ more years?!

Holly_Roman_Empire

Not sure what to do? Eat some freaking sugar.

meshashesha2012

i did something like this years and year's ago. i also had an horrendous sweet tooth (candy, going through bags of sugar a week for koolaid, putting extra sugar in cereal, etc).

i found going col turkey was really most needed for me considering i was going to sleep with candy in my mouth lots of times :laugh: so there was no such thing as "just fit it in and eat a small amount".

i stuck with the diet for about 4 months (i know it wasnt 6). i still got cravings every now and again the entire time, but it wasn't until after the fact that they pretty much stopped. now almost a decade later i still havent redeveloped a sweet tooth. in fact , many things are too sweet for me .

oh yeah i didnt do it for weight loss, but mainly to avoid getting more cavities and eating crazy amounts of candy

jasminedurocher

Theres something in sugar that causes me depression and makes me binge eat.

Thats why I've given it up.

jasminedurocher

And I'm an all or nothing kind of person, I can never just have one sweet. It has to be the entire box. Then another and another.

Then the next day I feel headachey and quite often depressed.

Greytfish

As long as your habit remains "feeding" a craving, it will not matter much whether you feed it with M&Ms or a piece of fruit. It's the mental habit you need to change. Cutting out a certain type of sugar does not make you "detox" from sugar. It's just means you've cut that sugar from your diet.

The key to getting past cravings is to form new, healthy habits to teach your brain good associations Plan out your meals to hit your macros and eat deliberately - not because you crave something, are watchign TV, or are emotionally upset.

FindingMyPerfection

I find when I crave sugar it is usually also something high in fat. If I keep my daily fat intake high enough I find that I don't have the uncontrollable sugar cravings, and if I don't keep my fats high enough I crave the sugar.

Hornsby

And I'm an all or nothing kind of person, I can never just have one sweet. It has to be the entire box. Then another and another.

Then the next day I feel headachey and quite often depressed.

You sure none of that is because you associate sugar as "bad" which makes you depressed and "headachey"?

PikaKnight

And I'm an all or nothing kind of person, I can never just have one sweet. It has to be the entire box. Then another and another.

Then the next day I feel headachey and quite often depressed.

Honestly, your all or nothing attitude may lead to you being unable to sustain your weight loss. I think now would be the best time to practice moderation. It's not going to be easy, but if you are having such issues, both physically and mentally, then maybe a different approach is needed.

shmulyeng

Why cut it out completely? Just cut back a bit and, over time, you'll find yourself craving sugar less and less. I was a sugar addict as well. I never made a conscious effort to cut it out. But by cutting back a little, I've gotten to the point where I hardly eat anything sweet. If I have a craving, I eat it (fitting it into my calories).
As Joy said, if you miss something that much, you will never be able to keep it away long term.

kgeyser

Theres something in sugar that causes me depression and makes me binge eat.

Thats why I've given it up.

Oh honey, no. No, no, no. Your body doesn't recognize the sugar in sweets as being different than the sugar in fruit, or veggies, or dairy, or anything else. It all gets processed the same way.

It sounds like your issue is more psychological than physical. You associate sweets with bingeing and feeling bad about yourself, so you're thinking it's something in the sweets. It's not the food. What's going on that is causing the binge? Do you associate sweets with feelings of comfort or coping? Are you bored? Do you view sweets as "bad" and then figure you've already crossed the line, so you keep going as a way to punish yourself for doing it? If you can pinpoint the reason behind the behavior, it is easier to confront it and change it.

mangorabbit

Hi there!
Not sure if I am coming from a similar place, but I cannot do cane sugar or beet sugar (or corn products so no High Fructose Corn Syrup either...). Can you deal with/tolerate alternatives like real maple syrup or raw honey? If the issue is a certain type of sugar, there are ways of getting a relatively healthy sweet treat without heading into the verboten territory of items that hurt you (and in my case, cause me to fiend for precisely the items that hurt me...).

I understand the moderation approach and applaud those who have rather more restraint than I - for over a year I had to keep all the tasty sweet treats out of the house. I am working toward moderation, but it is a work in process. If you know that is an issue, by all means, take a hard line with yourself, but you kind of have to know and accept that it will suck at times.

The 'mostly' in your title makes me wonder - if sugar is wreaking havoc on you, it may be a matter of stopping entirely. And oh heck yeah, it is going to suck. BUT part of it really is a mind game - the more I obsess about things I cannot have, the more I think I crave them. Never worth the pain it causes.

Be strong. Sorting things like this out aren't always fun, but can make a HUGE difference in how you feel, physically, mentally and emotionally.

**And remember, I'm just a human, I probably know nothing about anything**

Kiwi94544

Oh yeah - someone had the SAME plan as me for January - going sugar-free!!

I began January 2nd and am planning on seeing this thru the end of the month. No sweets, none of it.

The beginning of the month - the first week - I had the WORST headaches! For about three days, pounding headaches. I was eating a LOT of sugar before, so I think that was the withdrawals kicking in. Since then though, it's been OK.

I've had my moments of temptation, but all-in-all, it's been OK. I'm only planning to do this for 30 days though, and then see if I can slowly reintroduce sugar - in limited quantities - back into my diet. See, I don't know about YOU, but for ME, in the past when trying to diet, sugar was a "trigger" for me.... I'd see a cookie or something and thing "Well, it's only one cookie - I can have just one. That won't mess-up my calories TOO bad." So I'd eat it... but then 5 minutes later, I'd eat another... then another.... and within a half-hour I'd basically consumed 500 calories of crap and then feel horrible after, because I lost control. We all lose control now and again with food, I'm sure - but with sugar, it was almost a guarantee that I would binge.

I made the goal to give it up completely in January, party for nutritional reasons but mostly as a mental kick-in-the-pants, so-to-speak: I NEEDED to prove to myself that I didn't NEED sugar. That I could not only go 1 day without eating it, but that I could go 30 days! It's day 21 now for me, and I'm confident I'll make it to day 30 (January 31st) going the entire time without sugar. At that point, I am going to try to allow myself a once-weekly "treat" and see how that goes. To avoid binging, whatever my "treat" is will be purchased and eaten in a single portion - no half-gallon of ice cream sitting in my freezer, or baking myself a pan of brownies and promising myself I'll "just eat 1" or whatever.... cause that hasn't worked for me in the past. So beginning in February, I'll try allowing myself a once-a-week "treat" that gets eaten on the spot.... and see how that goes. If it triggers some binge, it's back off sugar completely again.... But anyway, guess we'll wait and see.

My advice to beat sugar cravings? Drink LOTS of water.... eat at regular intervals & fill-up on healthier alternatives.... and take it a day at a time. Sometimes no matter WHAT you do, you still crave the sweet - I've been there a few times this month too. Ya just gotta suck it up, commit to your commitment, and focus on just getting thru "today" without sugar.

I find if I just get thru "today" - then "tomorrow" I wake up feeling proud of myself... which gives me a little more motivation and drive to get thru my next "today" - know what I mean? Good luck!

happieharpie

I would gladly eat 1600 calories of sugar per day and skip every other food group, but when I decided to revamp my life, I began to substitute unsalted mixed nuts for sweets, and I've had very good results doing so.