Need serious help with SUGAR!!!!

I used to be, and still am at times, really bad with sugary junk food. I allow myself 4 squares of dark chocolate every now and again if it fits into my calories and macros. But what I really do which works wonders to beat my sugar craving is eat an apple. I find the taste of a granny smith apple overrides my sugar cravings

It's all about moderation, and can be a tough habit to break. I had an awful weekend with sugar cravings, but am back on the wagon now

If you're stupid enough to go that route, knowing what we know about those substances, then I have little sympathy for the recovery process not being fun. If you mess up and get addicted, fine, but own your mistakes and deal with it. Whether you call it an addiction, a habit, a compulsion or whatever other term you want to use, the answer is the same: if you want to get past it, you need to suck it up and deal with it.

God, I hope you don't ever meet anyone that is "stupid enough" to try an addicting drug.

Why, do a lot of recovering addicts consider their decision to begin using drugs a smart move? Give me a break. We've all done stupid things that we knew were unwise, and yet we did them anyways. At least for me, I look back on those decisions and say wow, wasn't that stupid.

You hit a nerve. Most kids try drugs. Who's to say who will become addicted? I don't think a teenager/young adult is stupid for trying drugs. It's not a smart decision, no, but you don't know why they tried it in the first place.

Right. I know tons of kids who tried everything from ketamine to cocaine and never got addicted. Most teens try drugs because our current drug policy makes drug use "cool" and "sexy." (It would be nice if we put a drug policy in place that focused on health instead of "war" and we made it boring, *AND* begin telling the truth instead of LEO lies, but that's a subject for a different thread.)

No, these kids are not "stupid." Even the most highly intelligent people have made mistakes in their lives.

Show me someone that goes through withdrawal symptoms similar to drug or alcohol addicts and watch them be "detoxed" and then MAYBE i will consider food addiction a real thing.

Why would the symptoms have to similar or as severe? Giving up smoking does not have similar symptoms to a heroin addict giving up heroin, yet few would argue that both were addictions.

Few would argue? Anyone "in the know" would agree that nicotine addiction is more severe than heroin addiction. Nicotine is the most difficult drug to quit. In fact, NIDA used to have a chart on this...

That was more or less my point. They are both addictive, but the reactions are not similar.

I don't really have an opinion on whether one can be addicted to sugar other than I doubt there is sufficient research for anyone to say deifinitively one way or the other.

They have been trying for decades to prove that sugar is addictive and have been unable to do so without intellectual dishonesty. :ohwell:

Right. I know tons of kids who tried everything from ketamine to cocaine and never got addicted. Most teens try drugs because our current drug policy makes drug use "cool" and "sexy." (It would be nice if we put a drug policy in place that focused on health instead of "war" and we made it boring, *AND* begin telling the truth instead of LEO lies, but that's a subject for a different thread.)

No, these kids are not "stupid." Even the most highly intelligent people have made mistakes in their lives.

Obviously I didn't mean stupid in the sense of low IQ or that only stupid people make mistakes; I meant you don't get addicted to substances without making a stupid decision. And please don't tell me people are ignorant as to the effects of these substances when they try them. Been there, knew the consequences, did it anyways for superficial reasons - and that's why it was a stupid decision. It doesn't change my point though. Once you've made that decision, the only way out is to own it, deal with it and move on. Whatever word you want to use to call it, be it addiction, compulsion, etc., doesn't change the solution. As such, even if sugar is addicting and that addiction is preventing you from reaching a caloric deficit, the only solution is to find a way to deal with it and get your eating under control.

Getting back to the OP's question, I would set a pretty low carb macro for a bit (maybe 100g/day) and see how you do. The problem with sweets like you're describing is that they aren't filling, and yet they're very dense in calories. Not only that, but you expect to feel hungry again within an hour or two, due to the resulting spike to your blood sugar from eating those foods. You may be surprised how you feel if you try something like a paleo diet or something similar, where you eat mostly fresh vegetables, meats and some fruit. Many people find they stay satiated eating this way and it's much easier to resist snacks and other temptations when a) they don't fit your macros and b) you aren't hungry.

that method works for me. I feel in control and don't miss what i didn't have. I also get a big kick out of taking cakes to work for my colleagues(we take it in turns to bring treats in) and not indulging.

I have battled sweets all my life. It wasn't so bad when I was in my teens and eating a bag of oreos because I was skinny!! Now I'm FAT. 5'3 and 185lbs AND almost 50! I am a sugar-aholic. I love cookies, donuts, cakes, brownies, not just one piece and walk happily away either. I have to eat it until they are done.

I am worse now than I have ever been. Being a stress eater doesn't help since my job is very stressful and there is crap to eat everywhere!!

I've tried just limiting myself to a "serving" so I get my sweets without feeling deprived but it never seems to work.

Do I quit cold turkey?? Is this to be looked at as any other addiction?

Thank you all in advance.

Yes; sugar is addictive and is being aligned with alcohol and cocaine!! Feel free to join the group, the Skinny on Obesity, and there is a great article on how to help stop! YOU CAN.

It's absolutley possible to become dependent on a drug without making a studpid decision. Anyone could be made, quite quickly, addicted to morphine. There are plenty of people whose entry into chemical dependence is recreational, but plenty are self-medicating for undiagnosed mental disorders or people undergoing extreme pain and trauma for which they must be medicated to prevent death from the extreme pain itself. Those are different scenarios, but none are in the realm of "sugar addiction."

I can only say what has worked for me and that is to give it up cold turkey. Any time I try to limit myself to servings or splurge on a reward etc., I don't seem to be able to stop myself. So for me, I had to go cold turkey on all sugary snack food, white sugar etc. I only use one teaspoon of honey in my tea per day. I haven't even ventured into the whole natural sugar alternative thing. So far, it's the only thing that works. Best of luck to you!

It's absolutley possible to become dependent on a drug without making a studpid decision. Anyone could be made, quite quickly, addicted to morphine. There are plenty of people whose entry into chemical dependence is recreational, but plenty are self-medicating for undiagnosed mental disorders or people undergoing extreme pain and trauma for which they must be medicated to prevent death from the extreme pain itself. Those are different scenarios, but none are in the realm of "sugar addiction."

Fair point, and in hindsight, I wouldn't have made that comment in the first place had I known it would derail this thread so much. Regardless, I agree that those situations have little to do with sugar addiction, whatever that means.

Go cold turkey, but try to substitute when you can. The first 3 days are hell, the first week is ok, and after a month, you won't even miss it.

Good sugary food substitutes (in moderation; these aren't health foods):
Sugar free hot chocolate - make iced or hot
Fruity tea with stevia (my favorite is Tazo baked cinnamon apple, iced)
Trader Joe's (or any high quality grocery store) 72%+ dark chocolate
Arctic Zero chocolate/vanilla whey protein popsicles
Banana "ice cream" - peel, cut and freeze several bananas overnight, then put them in a blender until ice-cream consistency. Add fruit/nuts if you want.
FRUIT

Hope this helps! Good luck.