How to kick the sugar addiction

quitquit14 wrote: »

Hey MFP friends! I've only been on my weight loss journey for 1 week and I know I have a long way to go but this is something I want to address asap so that I can get some much needed advice early on. I really need some advice on how to to handle my obsession with sweets. I got to 215lbs by doing things like eating entire bags of Dove milk chocolates in 1 day and eating entire pints of ice cream and multiple brownies/mini muffins/cookies etc in 1 sitting. For the past week I've still been eating ice cream (3-5 spoonfuls a day from a pint) I am proud to have let a pint last so long, but I want to do better. Everyday I log my diary I go over my 78 grams of sugar limit and I don't want to keep letting myself down. Help PLEASE!

I think you are making great progress toward leaning to moderate your intake of your favorite foods. That's the approach I've taken, because I can't imagine never eating ice cream of other sweets for the rest of my life. Regarding the sugar limit that MFP sets, it is often low especially if a person eats a lot of fruit or other products with natural sugars in addition to sweets. Many people who don't have medical reasons to restrict sugars don't even track it on MFP, choosing fiber instead.

If you really feel that you want to further restrict/eliminate those foods, I would start with foods that you have the most difficulty controlling yourself around, your trigger foods. Try removing those from your house, and then move to another food and then another food. I would also focus on the emotional or behavioral triggers that you feel when the cravings are the strongest. Often addressing those emotional cues is one of the best ways to learn to deal with your cravings, whether you go with abstinence or moderation.

RatherBeInTheShire wrote: »

I am not a moderator, but an abstainer, so when I need to kill the sugar addiction, I have to stop eating sugar cold turkey. I literally cannot eat any at all.

Good luck!

I went cold turkey too. I did a two week no added sugar, no sugar, and no fruit period. Then I added fruit back.
That was 14 or 15 years ago. These days I'll have a bit of dark chocolate, but that's it. No other sugary sodas or junk foods. NONE of that stuff appeals to me AT ALL now. And I used to eat A LOT of junk food.