Killing sugar cravings..
SeptemberFeyre
Posts: 178 Member
I just watched two separate videos on YouTube that made claims on how to kill sugar cravings. One said to eat green beans when having a craving and the other said eat a teaspoon of coconut oil 3 times a day. These kinda made me LOL but has anyone tried either of these? 
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Oiy, what will they come up with next
Is there a medical reason why you need to cut back on sugar? Otherwise there's nothing wrong with it. Just eat at an appropriate calorie deficit for your goals and you'll lose weight. There's no need to cut out the foods you like, that just leads to frustration and failure.1 -
I don't have sugar cravings. I get ideas in my brain that I have to have a gooey hot fudge lava cake or a slice of cheesecake, or maybe get the desire to bake some brownies. I get very specific with what I want. And I'll tell you what, no green bean or coconut oil is going to make that go away! I either put the thought away or I eat it. Most times, I just put the thought away.
I get general cravings, I guess, but they're not really cravings and I'm not really hungry. I get the "munchies" like I want to pop something in my mouth because I get bored, but I don't know what and browse the cupboards and fridge. If I can't find something reasonable in a few seconds, I walk away. Sometimes I'll grab a carrot. Most times, I just walk away because carrots are boring.3 -
I never get sugar cravings. I get cravings for specific things.. not just sugar.
But yeah I've seen how eating some things supposedly help with chocolate cravings and whatnot and I'm just shaking my head.0 -
I just eat sugar. I'm tired of diets that restrict my sweet cravings. I just have a piece of dark chocolate or a Fiber One brownie.6
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For me the best way to kill sugar cravings (or carb cravings like pasta, bread, muffins etc.) is to stop eating it altogether. The first week is tough, then it gets a lot easier. I still eat fruits and starchy veggies, but processed sugar has no nutritional value, so it's not like I'm depriving my body of something it needs.2
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If I ate enough green beans that I couldn't bear the sight of food...maybe? But steamed/microwaved green beans alone would be so boring.
Eating coconut oil straight would just make me too nauseous to have anything else, sweet or not.0 -
The calories in the coconut oil alone would be more than the calories needed to fix my sugar fix
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The less sugar you eat the less you'll have cravings...2
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hmmm sugar is yummy why would you want to not eat it?
so confused.1 -
RunRutheeRun wrote: »The less sugar you eat the less you'll have cravings...
I see people say this a lot but it does not compute. For instance, I can sit here and think about a delicious piece of chocolate cake or something, right? But I don't necessarily want it right now. Maybe I will later or maybe I think about making one for a holiday or something. But as I sit here thinking about it, I can't understand not ever NOT wanting to eat something like that. Not because I crave it, but because I just enjoy eating chocolate cake. Or whatever. So it would seem to me in my logical head that even if I stopped eating sugar today for whatever reason and couldn't have it for 10 years, that would not stop me from wanting to enjoy a nice piece of chocolate cake.
Does that make sense? I guess I just don't get sugar cravings. That's something that I don't quite understand. I hope I'm not sounding like I'm being all holier-than-thou, i'm not trying to be, I don't get cravings like that and cutting out sugar or carbs or whatever wouldn't really do anything for me. For me, a sugar craving would mean it wouldn't matter what kind of sugar I ate, as long as it contained sugar it would work but that's not what happens with me at all. I get very specific cravings about things I want. Like something with chocolate or there's this really awesome calorie bomb of a carrot cake that I make that's absolutely insane and I'll get an itch to make it, but it's not like if I can't have it right now, I have to chew celery sticks or eat green beans to try and get past the thoughts about whatever it is.
I probably don't make that sound right but I just see people talk about sugar cravings all the time and maybe I don't understand what a sugar craving is.
I get mental cravings for lots of things, not just sweet stuff but sometimes I'll just get a thought in my head that I really want some fresh broccoli sautee'd with a bit of olive oil and garlic. Those wants can be just as strong as one for a piece of cheesecake or some General Tso's Chicken. The food type makes no difference but it's always a want for a specific item. But again, it's usually just a thought and I either go with it and eat what I want if I have the calories, or I put the thought away. There's nothing physical that happens to me where I would need some kind of satisfaction to get past it.
Sorry for my rambling, OP.1 -
I guess what I'd define a sugar craving as is I think about something sweet I'd like to eat, eat it, and then want more. Last night I had a fiber one brownie, then a fudgecicle, then a werther's original, then a few chocolate covered pretzels. Before long I was over my calories because I also ate fast food last night for the first time in a while and that took up a lot of my calories. It mainly has to do with chocolate. They say if you go off sugar the desire for something sweet subsides, but I've never had that happen even when I went off sugar. It did get a little better, but that's all. I've been that way every since I was a girl but only started gaining some weight in my thirties. I'm thinking I should just stop buying chocolate anything but that sounds really depressing.1
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I have two choices: Give up sugar for the rest of my life......or learn moderation.
MFP is here to help me learn portion control for everything else....so why not sugar?2 -
Neither green beans nor coconut oil would kill my sugar cravings so then I would have to contend with the calories from the green beans, coconut oil, AND whatever sugar I was craving. Sounds like epic fail to me.0
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hmmm sugar is yummy why would you want to not eat it?
so confused.I have two choices: Give up sugar for the rest of my life......or learn moderation.
MFP is here to help me learn portion control for everything else....so why not sugar?
If someone still wants to include processed sugar in their diet, that's ok, of course. But there are certainly reasons for some people to exclude it.
- no nutritional value, just calories
- some people crave it and can't handle it in moderation, at least not at this point in their journey
- blood sugar is more stable without processed sugar (& grains)
As for chocolate cravings, we live in a wonderful time and place where sugar-free chocolate is available.
I've never thought I could eat only two pieces of chocolate and be satisfied (I'm known to snarl at people trying to get a piece of my Milka chocolate) but the sugar-free kind works well for me. It still has some lactose, but it's usually around 2 g of carbs for 100 g of chocolate. Same amount of calories, though. 0 -
Yeah, like others have said, I also never crave "sugar" or "carbs" or "fat" or what not. I might have a desire to eat a specific food. I separate that out into a desire to eat just because I'm bored or something or want an excuse for a break or because something I like is in the break room, vs. a more genuine desire for that specific food. If it's the former, I ignore it and mostly deal with it by eating on a schedule and (mostly) according to plan. I allow myself a sweet treat after dinner often (200 cal of ice cream if I have the calories, for example), but after that I'm finished eating and a desire to watch TV and eat will be ignored. I find once you are out of the habit the old desires like this go away.
If it's actually a desire for a specific food, I might see if it can fit into my meals for the day or plan to have it soon (in which case I might no longer want it) or sometimes think about whether there's a way to satisfy the desire with fewer calories (and back when I first started and struggled with this more, meal planning or thinking about cooking often channel my desire to eat so that it goes away).
I don't really believe in food cravings that have to be satisfied right now. If I find myself wanting pizza I can generally wait until later in the week and when I gave up meat for Lent I was craving the lamb I planned to make for Easter dinner by the end, but it was kind of pleasant to anticipate it, not something I had to have immediately. I think part of the issue is that in many cases we've trained ourselves to expect immediate gratification or not to have control around something. That's one reason I like eating to a schedule and find it much harder if I graze--I go back to that old notion that if something is there and it tastes good to me might as well have a bit, even if I'm not really hungry and there's no sensible reason to eat.0 -
I think for some people, sugar cravings are an issue when you want to change your diet. It was for me an urge that could only be cured with chocolate.
Frankly, I had to spend a couple of weeks with these uncomfortable pangs, and once I started having less and less refined sugar in my diet, I no longer craved it. I get by just fine without a piece of chocolate in the afternoon.1 -
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Parfumista wrote: »hmmm sugar is yummy why would you want to not eat it?
so confused.I have two choices: Give up sugar for the rest of my life......or learn moderation.
MFP is here to help me learn portion control for everything else....so why not sugar?
If someone still wants to include processed sugar in their diet, that's ok, of course. But there are certainly reasons for some people to exclude it.
- no nutritional value, just calories
- some people crave it and can't handle it in moderation, at least not at this point in their journey
- blood sugar is more stable without processed sugar (& grains)
As for chocolate cravings, we live in a wonderful time and place where sugar-free chocolate is available. I've never thought I could eat only two pieces of chocolate and be satisfied (I'm known to snarl at people trying to get a piece of my Milka chocolate) but the sugar-free kind works well for me. It still has some lactose, but it's usually around 2 g of carbs for 100 g of chocolate. Same amount of calories, though.
sugar is a carb and carbs give you energy so don't tell me there is no nutritional value.
Processed sugar or natural sugar how are they different when ingested and digested?
and blood sugar more stable??? what are you talking about?
sugar free chocolate that's funny you realize it has lactose in it right? sugar...
as well sugar free chocolate uses maltitol (a sugar alcohol) which in excess can cause digestive issues among other things...yah I want that over reg chocolate.0 -
Parfumista wrote: »hmmm sugar is yummy why would you want to not eat it?
so confused.I have two choices: Give up sugar for the rest of my life......or learn moderation.
MFP is here to help me learn portion control for everything else....so why not sugar?
If someone still wants to include processed sugar in their diet, that's ok, of course. But there are certainly reasons for some people to exclude it.
- no nutritional value, just calories
- some people crave it and can't handle it in moderation, at least not at this point in their journey
- blood sugar is more stable without processed sugar (& grains)
As for chocolate cravings, we live in a wonderful time and place where sugar-free chocolate is available. I've never thought I could eat only two pieces of chocolate and be satisfied (I'm known to snarl at people trying to get a piece of my Milka chocolate) but the sugar-free kind works well for me. It still has some lactose, but it's usually around 2 g of carbs for 100 g of chocolate. Same amount of calories, though.
Sorry, but I don't buy the "at least not at this point in their journey" part. For me, the lifestyle change needs to happen while I am losing weight, because the being able to handle sugar in moderation has never appeared when I got to goal. I've been at goal a couple of times.
For me, moderation is something that takes practice. I don't want to start practice when I get to goal. Too many people think they are "done" that they can relax when they get to goal (I'm guilty). Relaxing and not knowing portion sizes for foods you've been excluding for awhile, is not a good combination.
People with medical issues ......of course, but OP did not mention anything like that.0 -
endlessfall16 wrote: »
Lots of people can be satisfied with one donut. Maybe you're not one of them (and that's okay). But not everyone has to eliminate items from their diet in order to meet their goals.
Since people losing weight are often told that they have to resist or beat cravings or eliminate certain items, I think it's worth exploring if OP is trying to eliminate sugar because she has determined it is the best course of action for her or if she's doing it because she thinks that she has to.1 -
SeptemberFeyre wrote: »I just watched two separate videos on YouTube that made claims on how to kill sugar cravings. One said to eat green beans when having a craving and the other said eat a teaspoon of coconut oil 3 times a day. These kinda made me LOL but has anyone tried either of these?
@Septemberfire the green bean is a new one on me but I see you would be trading a carb with no fiber for a carb with fiber since green beans is a whole food.
I do 5 tablespoons for coconut oil daily so I know that one works for me. Coconut oil is Anti- Bacterial, Viral and Fungal so it is known to help kill of the overgrowth of bad microbes in the GI tract that can craving signals to the brain demanding the bad critter to be fed with sugar.
I killed my cravings in two hellish weeks by going off of sugar and most all carbs (eat < 50 grams daily) as of Oct 2014.
Best of success if you have cravings you want to stop. Who knows what will work in your case. We are all different. I know stopping the cravings game me a new lease on life at the age of 63. It is good to see young people thinking about ways of eating to gain/keep good health.1 -
The longer I eat healthy and nutritious meals, the more sweet sugary treats taste and some are just over the top and not attractive. I still occasionally indulge but I don't keep trigger foods around. Things like the single serve cups of Hagen Dasz ice cream are nice to grab every now and again. I would plan for a treat here and there and try to keep things you overeat out of the house. If you want a sugary treat bad enough, you can walk to the store to buy a single serving, right? You'll burn off some it that way, while still not making it off limits.1
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GaleHawkins wrote: »SeptemberFeyre wrote: »I just watched two separate videos on YouTube that made claims on how to kill sugar cravings. One said to eat green beans when having a craving and the other said eat a teaspoon of coconut oil 3 times a day. These kinda made me LOL but has anyone tried either of these?
@Septemberfire the green bean is a new one on me but I see you would be trading a carb with no fiber for a carb with fiber since green beans is a whole food.
I do 5 tablespoons for coconut oil daily so I know that one works for me. Coconut oil is Anti- Bacterial, Viral and Fungal so it is known to help kill of the overgrowth of bad microbes in the GI tract that can craving signals to the brain demanding the bad critter to be fed with sugar.
I killed my cravings in two hellish weeks by going off of sugar and most all carbs (eat < 50 grams daily) as of Oct 2014.
Best of success if you have cravings you want to stop. Who knows what will work in your case. We are all different. I know stopping the cravings game me a new lease on life at the age of 63. It is good to see young people thinking about ways of eating to gain/keep good health.
5 tablespoons (68 grams) of coconut oil is 585 calories. This may work for someone with a higher calorie allowance, but anyone attempting this on a lower calorie diet could struggle to meet their other nutritional needs if they're allocating this many calories to coconut oil.0 -
SeptemberFeyre wrote: »I guess what I'd define a sugar craving as is I think about something sweet I'd like to eat, eat it, and then want more. Last night I had a fiber one brownie, then a fudgecicle, then a werther's original, then a few chocolate covered pretzels. Before long I was over my calories because I also ate fast food last night for the first time in a while and that took up a lot of my calories. It mainly has to do with chocolate. They say if you go off sugar the desire for something sweet subsides, but I've never had that happen even when I went off sugar. It did get a little better, but that's all. I've been that way every since I was a girl but only started gaining some weight in my thirties. I'm thinking I should just stop buying chocolate anything but that sounds really depressing.
Did you eat many carbs in your fast food last night? Look and see if your eating of carbs call for more carbs when your sugar level starts to drop a bit. You are on the right track I expect because you are thinking about your Way Of Eating. Were you figure it out in two weeks, months or years it will not matter as long as you learn a way of eating that stops any unwanted cravings period.1 -
endlessfall16 wrote: »
Yep, I have no problem being done with a food, once I've eaten my allotted portion of it. This includes sugary ones.Yesterday I actually stopped at a local bakery so my daughter could get a donut after her state testing. It didn't even cross my mind to get one for myself, because I hadn't factored it into my calories for the day (I pre-log). There was no big dilemma at the donut counter, I didn't have a huge craving to eat 5 donuts, or have little voices in my head telling me to eat allz the donuts. I didn't assault the donut lady and run out of the building with arm fulls of donuts, stuffing them into my mouth as the cops chased me down the road. Instead, my daughter picked out her cream filled bear claw, we walked out of the bakery and my day went on as planned.
At some point you just have to learn that food does not control you, you control food. I'm the boss, not the donut. And if I want one, then I pre-log it and make it fit into my calories. This allows me to continue eating all the foods I enjoy, without having to cut anything out. It's a more realistic and sustainable way of doing things for the long term. How I eat now is something I've been able to do for the last 3 years of maintenance and it's something I can do for the next 40 years of maintenance as well.3 -
@Septemberfire the green bean is a new one on me but I see you would be trading a carb with no fiber for a carb with fiber since green beans is a whole food.
I do 5 tablespoons for coconut oil daily so I know that one works for me. Coconut oil is Anti- Bacterial, Viral and Fungal so it is known to help kill of the overgrowth of bad microbes in the GI tract that can craving signals to the brain demanding the bad critter to be fed with sugar.
I killed my cravings in two hellish weeks by going off of sugar and most all carbs (eat < 50 grams daily) as of Oct 2014.
Best of success if you have cravings you want to stop. Who knows what will work in your case. We are all different. I know stopping the cravings game me a new lease on life at the age of 63. It is good to see young people thinking about ways of eating to gain/keep good health. [/quote]
@GaleHawkins are you at maintenance ? I'm thinking I may have some of those bad microbes going on but all I could fit in my daily calorie goal of the coconut oil would be a couple teaspoons because it's 38 cal per tsp. I'm on 1410 cal per day.1 -
I don't get sugar cravings. What I get is chocolate doughnut/cinnamon roll/chocolate covered ice cream cravings lol. It can be sugar free and I wouldn't care. Whatever your vice is it really doesn't matter. The result is the same, it's mind over matter. If you've got the calories left, it doesn't matter. Ok maybe macro-wise it does but hey.. I'm not gonna deny myself everything all the time, otherwise what's the point? 1
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janejellyroll wrote: »GaleHawkins wrote: »SeptemberFeyre wrote: »I just watched two separate videos on YouTube that made claims on how to kill sugar cravings. One said to eat green beans when having a craving and the other said eat a teaspoon of coconut oil 3 times a day. These kinda made me LOL but has anyone tried either of these?
@Septemberfire the green bean is a new one on me but I see you would be trading a carb with no fiber for a carb with fiber since green beans is a whole food.
I do 5 tablespoons for coconut oil daily so I know that one works for me. Coconut oil is Anti- Bacterial, Viral and Fungal so it is known to help kill of the overgrowth of bad microbes in the GI tract that can craving signals to the brain demanding the bad critter to be fed with sugar.
I killed my cravings in two hellish weeks by going off of sugar and most all carbs (eat < 50 grams daily) as of Oct 2014.
Best of success if you have cravings you want to stop. Who knows what will work in your case. We are all different. I know stopping the cravings game me a new lease on life at the age of 63. It is good to see young people thinking about ways of eating to gain/keep good health.
5 tablespoons (68 grams) of coconut oil is 585 calories. This may work for someone with a higher calorie allowance, but anyone attempting this on a lower calorie diet could struggle to meet their other nutritional needs if they're allocating this many calories to coconut oil.
I do not advise people on what to eat because anyone who takes eating advice from social media is already at risk.
SM is a good place to hear about things that you can Google then read the pros and cons on things of interest before acting.
About 2000 of my 2500+ daily calories come for fats so my coconut oil makes up a 25% of them. My macro is 5% Carbs, 15% Protein and 80% Fats. I eat this way for joint and muscle pain control and to reverse my rush to a premature death.0 -
GaleHawkins wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »GaleHawkins wrote: »SeptemberFeyre wrote: »I just watched two separate videos on YouTube that made claims on how to kill sugar cravings. One said to eat green beans when having a craving and the other said eat a teaspoon of coconut oil 3 times a day. These kinda made me LOL but has anyone tried either of these?
@Septemberfire the green bean is a new one on me but I see you would be trading a carb with no fiber for a carb with fiber since green beans is a whole food.
I do 5 tablespoons for coconut oil daily so I know that one works for me. Coconut oil is Anti- Bacterial, Viral and Fungal so it is known to help kill of the overgrowth of bad microbes in the GI tract that can craving signals to the brain demanding the bad critter to be fed with sugar.
I killed my cravings in two hellish weeks by going off of sugar and most all carbs (eat < 50 grams daily) as of Oct 2014.
Best of success if you have cravings you want to stop. Who knows what will work in your case. We are all different. I know stopping the cravings game me a new lease on life at the age of 63. It is good to see young people thinking about ways of eating to gain/keep good health.
5 tablespoons (68 grams) of coconut oil is 585 calories. This may work for someone with a higher calorie allowance, but anyone attempting this on a lower calorie diet could struggle to meet their other nutritional needs if they're allocating this many calories to coconut oil.
I do not advise people on what to eat because anyone who takes eating advice from social media is already at risk.
SM is a good place to hear about things that you can Google then read the pros and cons on things of interest before acting.
About 2000 of my 2500+ daily calories come for fats so my coconut oil makes up a 25% of them. My macro is 5% Carbs, 15% Protein and 80% Fats. I eat this way for joint and muscle pain control and to reverse my rush to a premature death.
"I do 5 tablespoons for coconut oil daily so I know that one works for me. Coconut oil is Anti- Bacterial, Viral and Fungal so it is known to help kill of the overgrowth of bad microbes in the GI tract that can craving signals to the brain demanding the bad critter to be fed with sugar" certainly looks like advice to me. I don't know about the evidence that coconut oil has anti-microbal properties that somehow survive the digestive process to be able to impact microbes in the GI tract (and that these microbes are responsible for making someone want sugar), I just think it's important for anyone thinking of implementing your plan to understand that consuming hundreds of calories in coconut oil may make it harder to manage one's weight.2
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