Need help cutting out the sweets!!

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hailz1991
hailz1991 Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone,
First time poster, and in need of some advice!! I have been trying very hard for several months (almost a year now!) to eat three meals every five hours while incorporating a snack in between one or both meals depending on how busy I am that day. I do pretty well when it comes to eating healthy during the day. But when it gets late at night, my sweet tooth can't help but THROB! No matter how much I try to convince myself I don't want it, I more then likely end up giving in! Being in a body that I an comfortable in and like to look at is important to me! I have worked very hard to get where I am at now and still have work ahead of me! Please help me guys! Give me some advice as to how to say goodbye to these pesky sweets for GOOD!!
Ik a cheat day every once in awhile is a good thing, but this is turning into a serious problem for me!
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Replies

  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
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    maxit wrote: »
    Leave room for "sweets" in your calorie intake every day, and if you are wanting to have sweet stuff that has helpful nutrients, try fresh cherries or strawberries.

    Yep this^^^
  • adoette
    adoette Posts: 181 Member
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    You can still eat sweet stuff, you just gotta do two things: plan and make smarter choices.

    I've got a horrible sweet tooth. Every so often I'll budget a chocolate bar into my day (for mental health and not going to prison for murder reasons) but for the most part I want something sweet everyday.

    I started bringing sugar free pudding cups and no added sugar Greek yogurts to work for when the vending machine urge hits. It takes some time to get used to, but once you do, it does pretty good for the cravings.

    I agree with the other posters that a little fruit is good as well, though I'm quite partial to stone fruit (plums especially) myself. Eat them slowly, chew thoroughly, and savor every bite.
  • CattOfTheGarage
    CattOfTheGarage Posts: 2,750 Member
    edited June 2016
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    Yeah, sounds like you're pretty convinced that "cutting out" stuff is an integral part of weight loss, but it isn't - in fact it's counterproductive. If you tell yourself sweets are "naughty" or "bad" or "forbidden", you are setting yourself up for cravings and internal battles, and just making things far harder than they should be.

    I would buy a cake and every night have a small slice with a tea or coffee as a snack before you go to bed. WEIGH that slice, otherwise it will get gradually bigger (!) but have it and enjoy it. It's your daily treat. MUCH better to do this than restrict yourself and rely on "cheat days", which sets up a mentality of restriction and craving. If you're having trouble fitting your cake into your calories, have a smaller slice.

    Simples.
  • SugarySweetheart
    SugarySweetheart Posts: 154 Member
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    Fruit or sugar free pudding or popsicles help too.
  • smile_saurus
    smile_saurus Posts: 7 Member
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    I like Dannon's Light and Fit Greek Yogurt. 80 calories and only 6-7 grams of sugar per cup container which isn't a lot considering most yogurts have upwards of 18 grams of sugar. Plus it has about 12 grams of protein! That's my go-to bedtime snack because I too do really well with my diet & exercise all day, every day - until the time between dinner and bedtime. Instead of telling myself I 'cannot' have something, I build it into my calorie budget for the day. Sometimes I'll skip the yogurt two days and have a nice glass of wine instead on one day. It's all about balance.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,425 Member
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    Leave room. Other than that you might look at doing something else at night. What are you doing if I may ask? If it's just sitting behind the telly then why not go out and go for a walk, or if your body allows you to learn to run. Or do bodyweight exercises or any other workout video somewhere at home. I find that if I workout I'm much less hungry, plus my sweet tooth vanishes completely. Maybe it has something to do with blood sugar regulation, or just some 'happy hormones' being excreted. I don't know. But it does help me.
  • doodleswithpencils
    doodleswithpencils Posts: 74 Member
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    If you're like I was, and would crawl on your knees and hands to the corner shop just to get something sweet when a craving hits, and have no self-control to mention around sugar, you might need some time to get things into a healthier perspective. I had to get over what felt like an addiction to get to the place where I can make room in my calorie count for it. It meant replacing pure sugar type sweets with, for example, honey over berries and coconut milk, and dark chocolate in place of milk chocolate. It was Hard for a while, and then for a while I stayed away from sugar sweets like the plague, but somewhere along the line I found I no longer craved sweet things, and when I had a mild yen, the berries or dark chocolate totally floated my boat. I can have sweet things in moderation now, and mentally be able to cope with eating some without falling apart and it being the beginning of a slippery slope to diet hell.
    If you are like I was, I'd approach it like a withdrawal of a kind, and plan ahead for it - stock up with alternatives, plan happy activities to keep your mind distracted, don't attempt it on a week which is likely to be stressful, and bunker down for a week or so until the worst is over. Then be sensible.
  • NinjaChinchillaNZ
    NinjaChinchillaNZ Posts: 56 Member
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    I have a terrible sweet tooth. What helped me was buying a particular brand of protein bars. Horley's Carb Less. They taste like a chocolate bar, but have hardly any sugar, hardly any carbs, and plenty of protein. Highly recommend them if you can get them or something similar (protein bars not to be confused with energy bars which are high in sugar and calories).
  • BettyEtte
    BettyEtte Posts: 39 Member
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    Hershey Kisses Dark, Weight Watchers Fudge popsicles, and Quaker Raisins, Dates & Walnuts oatmeal--one of these treats can usually satisfy my sweet cravings.
  • kendahlj
    kendahlj Posts: 243 Member
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    Are you able to go three or four days without sweets? Because after that, the cravings disappear. It's hard at first, but a better option in the long run than some of the suggestions mentioned here. Except for the fruit...I think that's a good one. Fruit tastes even better after you've been off refined sugars for a bit.
  • VitaSh
    VitaSh Posts: 113 Member
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    It doesn't matter in terms of fat loss or body composition when you eat your food or snack. Therefore, I suggest plan your snack or something you really like and enjoy that you would eat anyway at night, so you don't get the f**k it mentality and eat through all your cupboards lol. I also like to make healthier versions of treats or eat something like a protein waffle/pancake, or sweet oatmeal or greek yogurt with sugar free pudding mix or whatever to curb my sweet tooth. If I can do it, you can too because my sweet tooth IS MAJOR ;) No really, I can eat a whole cake if with extra sugar on top if I presented with the opportunity lol. So yes, this has worked for me and satisfies me.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    kendahlj wrote: »
    Are you able to go three or four days without sweets? Because after that, the cravings disappear. It's hard at first, but a better option in the long run than some of the suggestions mentioned here. Except for the fruit...I think that's a good one. Fruit tastes even better after you've been off refined sugars for a bit.

    Hahaha. I wish.
  • eileensofianmushinfine
    eileensofianmushinfine Posts: 303 Member
    edited June 2016
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    kommodevaran wrote: »
    Decide which path does NOT lead YOU into overconsumption, and choose that path, for each individual food/item:

    [*] Steering away from from food without brakes. This food is "moreish", and creates a snowball effect. Not eating it will pose no challenge, you don't feel like you are missing out without it.
    [/list]

    Do NOT cut out whole food groups unless real medical issues makes it necessary, you are instructed by your REAL doctor (not Dr Oz), and have gotten a second opinion by a registered dietician. (Chocolate is not a food group.) DO eat a wide variety of fresh and tasty foods. Home cooking is preferable, but readymeals can also have a good nutritional profile, look at each individual item to decide what you want to eat.

    This is SO me!!!! There are some foods where there is no control whatsoever....One leads to, well...WAY more than two...I keep all of that stuff out of my house. The only "sweet" I keep in my house is frozen yogurt -- and I measure out my portions when I have it. It really helps me to have my house be a "trigger-free" zone.
  • btodd304
    btodd304 Posts: 105 Member
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    hailz1991 wrote: »
    Hi everyone,
    First time poster, and in need of some advice!! I have been trying very hard for several months (almost a year now!) to eat three meals every five hours while incorporating a snack in between one or both meals depending on how busy I am that day. I do pretty well when it comes to eating healthy during the day. But when it gets late at night, my sweet tooth can't help but THROB! No matter how much I try to convince myself I don't want it, I more then likely end up giving in! Being in a body that I an comfortable in and like to look at is important to me! I have worked very hard to get where I am at now and still have work ahead of me! Please help me guys! Give me some advice as to how to say goodbye to these pesky sweets for GOOD!!
    Ik a cheat day every once in awhile is a good thing, but this is turning into a serious problem for me!

    Obviously everyone will have done different things. I since i can remeber have always had dessert after dinner. So when i started working out and eating right the first thing i had to cut out was the late night sweets. So my trainer told me to try any kind of berries instead if i felt like i needed a snack. They are sweet enough to give me what i was looking for. For the 1st week i ate them every night just out of habit and after that i didnt feel i needed to have a snack after dinner all the time. Now i would say maybe once a week i might either have some berries or 1 piece of 72% dark chocolate. Thats what worked for me.
  • ogtmama
    ogtmama Posts: 1,403 Member
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    I haven't read everything but my favourite are skinny cow frozen truffle bars
  • lovebirb
    lovebirb Posts: 52 Member
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    one trick i learned is to stir your favorite chocolate protein powder in as little milk as possible (i use 1/2 cup) thus making it super chocolatey, and its sooooo good! (make sure no clumps). Then use a spoon to savor every chocolatey drop over a period of 10 mins while youre browsing the internet or something. Kills your sweet tooth, gets your protein in for satiation so you eat less throughout the day in general. i do this almost everyday bc i could not find a way to kill the sweet tooth and would always over eat on regular chocolatey snacks
  • tryett
    tryett Posts: 530 Member
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    Kind Bars are awesome. I eat them periodically. I had 1/2 a Hershey bar one night but even I was amazed that I stopped at 1/2. Usually I don't snack but if I still have calories left I add one.
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
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    I too had a wicked sweet tooth. I got to the point where I was eating a candu or soda every day. Not good. Iwould try to cut it back but I would eventually cave, and always in the evenings when I was tired and worn down.

    I evetually switched to a very low carb high fat diet and was happily surprised when that cut my appetite and sweet cravings WAY down. In the past, I would cut out the sweets but still eat a plate of noodles at dinner which resulted in craving sweets again a couple of hours later. It was hard to fight that.

    When I cut carbs below 20g per day, my appetite dropped and I didn't "need" more food or carbs. I wasn't always thinking about food, or getting jittery and light headed a couple of hours after eating.

    ... I still like my food in the evenings though so I tend to skip breakfast and eat something like nuts or cheese after dinner. ;)

    It's not for everyone, but many find that a LCHF diet helps with conquering issues with sweets. Good luck.

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