Runner with a serious sugar addiction

Disagree all you want. You can die from heroin withdrawal. That's a fact, not an opinion.

Disregard my earlier question. Thanks for the clarification.

Sugar is in almost everything processed including savory foods so it's a challenge to get it totally out of your system.

You can't get sugar totally out of your system. The human body manufactures sugar. It has a number of highly complex, sensitive systems in place to maintain sugar levels in the blood. If you got sugar totally out of your system, you would die instantly because your cells would starve.

Sugar is in almost everything processed including savory foods so it's a challenge to get it totally out of your system.

You can't get sugar totally out of your system. The human body manufactures sugar. It has a number of highly complex, sensitive systems in place to maintain sugar levels in the blood. If you got sugar totally out of your system, you would die instantly because your cells would starve.

I knew you would be trolling this thread...once again I am not talking about limiting anything but fructose...glucose, lactose, no limiting. You need sugar to live and your brain runs best on glucose. I am talking about reducing the fructose. BTW I opened my diary so if you want to take a peek you can have a look. I looked at yours, you are basically just keeping fast food and supplement companies in business. If your diet was so perfect you wouldn't have to supplement it with protein powders.

I totally understand what you are going through. I am also a runner addicted to chocolate. Many people here have said that it isn't an addiction but if you haven't been there its difficult to understand.
I don't believe that a real chocolate addict can have a bit of chocolate. Just like an alcoholic cannot take that first drink we cannot taste chocolate.
I have found an excellent solution which totally helped for me. The first phase of the South Beach diet. It wasn't easy and the first few days were difficult but once the chocolate was out of my system I didn't even want it. When I really felt like chocolate I ate peanut butter which has a similar texture. It doesn't taste nearly as good but eating it doesn't set me on a binge.
I have gone off chocolate successfully 3 times but all 3 times after not touching it for a long time I thought that I was "cured" and I tasted it again. All 3 times it started a binge and I found it hard to get back on track.
I also run quite a lot but I still don't really lose weight. Recently I went back onto the South Beach program and I run 4 times a week. Initially it is difficult because you don't eat a lot of carbs but your body gets used to it. I lost 6kg and I felt like I was over my chocolate addiction. A week ago I had a little taste which set off a binge and I gained 3kg in one week! It took me months to lose 3 kilos and I just gained them back in 1 week only!
I am now back on track (it has only been 2 days) but I realize now that I just can't have chocolate. BTW, I can have other sweets/candy as they don't cause me to binge. It is just chocolate. I suggest you try the South Beach diet for a week or two to get it out of your system and then don't touch chocolate. If you want it have something else that isn't your trigger food.

There are lots of sugar detox programs out there and a few days ago I checked a lot of them out but most of them seem too extreme. since I know that South Beach works for me and gets me off chocolate I am on it again.

I totally understand what you are going through. I am also a runner addicted to chocolate. Many people here have said that it isn't an addiction but if you haven't been there its difficult to understand.
I don't believe that a real chocolate addict can have a bit of chocolate. Just like an alcoholic cannot take that first drink we cannot taste chocolate.
I have found an excellent solution which totally helped for me. The first phase of the South Beach diet. It wasn't easy and the first few days were difficult but once the chocolate was out of my system I didn't even want it. When I really felt like chocolate I ate peanut butter which has a similar texture. It doesn't taste nearly as good but eating it doesn't set me on a binge.
I have gone off chocolate successfully 3 times but all 3 times after not touching it for a long time I thought that I was "cured" and I tasted it again. All 3 times it started a binge and I found it hard to get back on track.
I also run quite a lot but I still don't really lose weight. Recently I went back onto the South Beach program and I run 4 times a week. Initially it is difficult because you don't eat a lot of carbs but your body gets used to it. I lost 6kg and I felt like I was over my chocolate addiction. A week ago I had a little taste which set off a binge and I gained 3kg in one week! It took me months to lose 3 kilos and I just gained them back in 1 week only!
I am now back on track (it has only been 2 days) but I realize now that I just can't have chocolate. BTW, I can have other sweets/candy as they don't cause me to binge. It is just chocolate. I suggest you try the South Beach diet for a week or two to get it out of your system and then don't touch chocolate. If you want it have something else that isn't your trigger food.

There are lots of sugar detox programs out there and a few days ago I checked a lot of them out but most of them seem too extreme. since I know that South Beach works for me and gets me off chocolate I am on it again.

Strong first post. Way to troll!

I totally understand what you are going through. I am also a runner addicted to chocolate. Many people here have said that it isn't an addiction but if you haven't been there its difficult to understand.

To this, I could respond, if you haven't suffered from both an addiction and a behavioral disorder, then you can't understand the distinction between the two.

I knew you would be trolling this thread...once again I am not talking about limiting anything but fructose...glucose, lactose, no limiting. You need sugar to live and your brain runs best on glucose. I am talking about reducing the fructose. BTW I opened my diary so if you want to take a peek you can have a look. I looked at yours, you are basically just keeping fast food and supplement companies in business. If your diet was so perfect you wouldn't have to supplement it with protein powders.

Firstly, I don't see using protein supplements as somehow a failure. My diary's open too, so you can see that I shoot for 180 grams of protein every day because I am a strength athlete. Supplements help me achieve that while remaining in a reasonable calorie limit; it would be very, very difficult to achieve that otherwise (oh, I suppose I could start bringing a chicken breast to the gym with me for my post-workout, but I don't want to, frankly.).

Secondly, I don't see what business it is of yours if he chooses to eat a lot of fast food and/or supplements.

Finally, who said his diet was perfect? Why is that even a goal? I don't even think that statement has any truthful meaning. There's too much value judgment wrapped up in that to be healthy for my mindset. My diary is open precisely because I need to be OK with the world knowing that sometimes I eat 4000+ plus calories in one day and that nobody but me cares if I have sweet potato fries five days in a row. The daily reminder that nobody cares but me makes me feel freer to own my choices free of value judgment.

Comparing desserts with synthetic opiates is a little absurd. There is no such thing as a withdrawal syndrome for sugar. Our brains run on sugar (glucose). Sugar is a natural thing to eat. Synthetic opiates, not so much.

It is not constructive in any way to compare compulsive behavior to drug addiction.

I didn't. I just said you can't die from heroin withdrawals.

Having said that I firmly disagree with you on this, but you are entitled to your opinion, as I am mine.

Disagree all you want. You can die from heroin withdrawal. That's a fact, not an opinion.

Disagree on your opinion of addiction versus compulsive behaviour, binge eating etc etc etc

Addiction has an associated physical withdrawal syndrome. (i.e. vomiting, diarrhea, etc) Compulsive behavior is psychological rather than physical. I understand the difference quite clearly because I have dealt with both. I am still struggling with addiction, mostly because deep down, I don't want to quit.

So by your reasoning nicotine isn't addictive? Nor is cocaine? But SSRIs are?

I have dealt with other addictions too. As I said before, your experience doesn't mean you know mine.

Sugar is in almost everything processed including savory foods so it's a challenge to get it totally out of your system.

You can't get sugar totally out of your system. The human body manufactures sugar. It has a number of highly complex, sensitive systems in place to maintain sugar levels in the blood. If you got sugar totally out of your system, you would die instantly because your cells would starve.

I knew you would be trolling this thread...once again I am not talking about limiting anything but fructose...glucose, lactose, no limiting. You need sugar to live and your brain runs best on glucose. I am talking about reducing the fructose. BTW I opened my diary so if you want to take a peek you can have a look. I looked at yours, you are basically just keeping fast food and supplement companies in business. If your diet was so perfect you wouldn't have to supplement it with protein powders.

Yes I find limiting fructose helpful too (apples were a big one!). It also causes big IBS flare-ups for me.

Comparing desserts with synthetic opiates is a little absurd. There is no such thing as a withdrawal syndrome for sugar. Our brains run on sugar (glucose). Sugar is a natural thing to eat. Synthetic opiates, not so much.

It is not constructive in any way to compare compulsive behavior to drug addiction.

I didn't. I just said you can't die from heroin withdrawals.

Having said that I firmly disagree with you on this, but you are entitled to your opinion, as I am mine.

Disagree all you want. You can die from heroin withdrawal. That's a fact, not an opinion.

Disagree on your opinion of addiction versus compulsive behaviour, binge eating etc etc etc

Addiction has an associated physical withdrawal syndrome. (i.e. vomiting, diarrhea, etc) Compulsive behavior is psychological rather than physical. I understand the difference quite clearly because I have dealt with both. I am still struggling with addiction, mostly because deep down, I don't want to quit.

So by your reasoning nicotine isn't addictive? Nor is cocaine?

I have dealt with other addictions too. As I said before, your experience doesn't mean you know mine.

Both nicotine and cocaine are addictive and have associated physical withdrawal syndromes.

Well I never vomited or had diarrhea when withdrawing from either.

Yet I did both when coming off SSRIs.

The IIFYMer's hate me for recommending this book but I'm doing it anyway, "Fat Chance" by Dr. Robert Lustig (I'm ready for the haters). I followed suggestions and a plan on the "I Quit Sugar" website.

I don't hate you for it. I just disagree. I tried "Radiant Recovery" at one point to stop my bingeing behavior after low-carb stripped out my serotonin reserves, but before I ever got to the point of "detoxing" from sugar, I looked around, realized the groups that restrict or demonize one food group are all culty and walked away, resolving to learn moderation. As the person said earlier, compulsive overeaters have to learn to face their drug of choice multiple times a day, so if they can do it, I can do it too.

I learned a lot from the experience, though, and put quite a bit of it to use still to this day.

You make a good point, and if you are able to moderate I think that's the first way to go. Some people can be moderators and some people need to abstain at least for a while. I think it is also worth realizing one's limitations. I am a terrible moderater, the quicker I realized that and accepted that about myself the quicker I could move on. What one should be able to do is not always going to be the same as what they are actually in reality going to do. I would beat myself up because everyone would tell me that I should just stop being controlled by my cravings. If it was that easy I would have lost the last 25 lbs I need to lose long ago. By reducing NOT ELIMINATING FOR FOREVER fructose mostly in the form of added sugars in processed food I was able to free myself from the cycle of hypoglycemic ups and downs and the hold of my cravings.
Having a binge eating disorder is a whole different thing with it's own challenges. I'm simply offering this as a way to try and break the addition to sugar.

I knew you would be trolling this thread...once again I am not talking about limiting anything but fructose...glucose, lactose, no limiting. You need sugar to live and your brain runs best on glucose. I am talking about reducing the fructose. BTW I opened my diary so if you want to take a peek you can have a look. I looked at yours, you are basically just keeping fast food and supplement companies in business. If your diet was so perfect you wouldn't have to supplement it with protein powders.

Firstly, I don't see using protein supplements as somehow a failure. My diary's open too, so you can see that I shoot for 180 grams of protein every day because I am a strength athlete. Supplements help me achieve that while remaining in a reasonable calorie limit; it would be very, very difficult to achieve that otherwise (oh, I suppose I could start bringing a chicken breast to the gym with me for my post-workout, but I don't want to, frankly.).

Secondly, I don't see what business it is of yours if he chooses to eat a lot of fast food and/or supplements.

Finally, who said his diet was perfect? Why is that even a goal? I don't even think that statement has any truthful meaning. There's too much value judgment wrapped up in that to be healthy for my mindset. My diary is open precisely because I need to be OK with the world knowing that sometimes I eat 4000+ plus calories in one day and that nobody but me cares if I have sweet potato fries five days in a row. The daily reminder that nobody cares but me makes me feel freer to own my choices free of value judgment.

I care that you eat sweet potato fries five days in a row: I think it's awesome. And knowing that somebody I admire is able to make a variety of choices in a variety of situations allows me to escape the trap of yogurt and rice cakes.

Both nicotine and cocaine are addictive and have associated physical withdrawal syndromes.

Well I never vomited or had diarrhea when withdrawing from either.

Yet I did both when coming off SSRIs.

Those were two examples of physical symptoms. They are by all means NOT an exhaustive list. :laugh:

You said "i.e. vomiting, diarrhea" so I'm guessing it's that you don't understand the difference between i.e. and e.g. To clarify, what you actually said is that vomiting and diarrhea occur on withdrawal from all addictive substances. I'm guessing by your subsequent response that you didn't mean to say this.

I too have issues with sugar, once I have it I want more and more until I am out of control. I watched a documentary called "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" online (its a free video if it interests you). After that I started juicing. Sometimes I do several days of just juice other times I still have dinner with the family. In just one homemade juice I was getting more fruits and veggies than I typically ate in a week. The one thing I noticed as my body was getting the nutrients it needed was that my sugar and carb cravings got better. I didn't have trouble saying no to sweets or just having a little bit.

juice = sugar

^^^This

And, Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead =/= Documentary

I'd go with commercial.

I knew you would be trolling this thread...once again I am not talking about limiting anything but fructose...glucose, lactose, no limiting. You need sugar to live and your brain runs best on glucose. I am talking about reducing the fructose. BTW I opened my diary so if you want to take a peek you can have a look. I looked at yours, you are basically just keeping fast food and supplement companies in business. If your diet was so perfect you wouldn't have to supplement it with protein powders.

Firstly, I don't see using protein supplements as somehow a failure. My diary's open too, so you can see that I shoot for 180 grams of protein every day because I am a strength athlete. Supplements help me achieve that while remaining in a reasonable calorie limit; it would be very, very difficult to achieve that otherwise (oh, I suppose I could start bringing a chicken breast to the gym with me for my post-workout, but I don't want to, frankly.).

Secondly, I don't see what business it is of yours if he chooses to eat a lot of fast food and/or supplements.

Finally, who said his diet was perfect? Why is that even a goal? I don't even think that statement has any truthful meaning. There's too much value judgment wrapped up in that to be healthy for my mindset. My diary is open precisely because I need to be OK with the world knowing that sometimes I eat 4000+ plus calories in one day and that nobody but me cares if I have sweet potato fries five days in a row. The daily reminder that nobody cares but me makes me feel freer to own my choices free of value judgment.

I care that you eat sweet potato fries five days in a row: I think it's awesome. And knowing that somebody I admire is able to make a variety of choices in a variety of situations allows me to escape the trap of yogurt and rice cakes.

Do you mean me? :blushing: You're making me feel weird inside! :laugh: