Sweet tooth and weight loss

1 dum dum lollipop

1 clementine

Tea

A couple of quick tips I can think of off the top of my head to manage (rather than overcome) sweet cravings.

1) Eat fruit and drink water. Fiber and water can possibly reduce craving/appetite causing you to eat less overall
2) Try to avoid keeping sweets in the house. If it's easily accessible, you're more likely to consume more, which brings me to tip 3.
3) A "eat sweets only when you're out rule" may possibly work if managed appropriately. The trick to that is to split it with a friend, spouse, girlfriend/boyfriend. You both get to enjoy the sweet but only consume half the calories.

I agree about only having them when out to avoid temptation. Or just buy things you know you can handle.

I could make a box of 12 English toffee ice cream bars last for 3 months, enjoying them every now and then - but my husband will eat them all in 2 days. Meanwhile, if we bought a box of Oreos and had milk on hand I would have a very hard time leaving those alone and would probably end up screwing up my calories OR not eating enough "real food" and just eating Oreos. So we don't buy those things!

In the pantry at home we always have chocolate chips for baking, peanut butter, unsweetened coconut flakes, and a few types of nuts. A couple nights per week, I grab SMALL portions of some of that stuff and/or have it with a half banana and it satisfies my sweet tooth. We also buy cookies that are good with tea but not super-appealing to either of us. Biscoff cookies, vanilla wafers, small coconut cookies from the Asian grocery store, or others that are tasty but not so delicious we want to eat ten of them.

We like to go out for an ice cream cone a couple of times a month and I bake 1/2 batch of cookies or something like that, once a month or so. Maybe get dessert on a trip when we are somewhere with special sweet treats that we want to try. Just not a chocolate bar every day for a snack, and no bulk sweets (not even the ones that are supposed to have a nutritional bent like Larabar...my husband will have them 2 or 3 times per day and he's not dieting but doesn't need an extra 400-600 calories most days).

I have a sweet tooth as well and it's definitely a struggle. I try to find lower calorie alternatives (Enlightened ice cream instead of Ben and Jerry's; 100 Calorie Snack Packs instead of Oreos and other type cookies) or fit the real deal in my day if I have the calories for it. Fresh strawberries and blueberries with a dollop of whipped cream and a tbsp of Better than Peanut Butter helps curb a sweet tooth at times

I love sweets too and it has been a problem. Like others, I don't keep much in the house and eat fruit when I am craving something sweet. If that doesn't work I will just fall to the craving and go get ice cream or something. When I am at work and crave sweets I drink Crystal Light and it usually does the trick.

I like to have something sweet after dinner. Something small like a few caramel M&Ms or Hershey's kiss usually works for me. I also like to buy Dove mini ice cream bars. Each one is about 70 calories. Some nights I'll eat just one, and other nights I'll have four or five if they fit into my calories. I also enjoy Halo Top/Enlightened.

Another strategy I use sometimes is to brush my teeth after dinner. It's like a way to signal to my body that I'm done eating. It might seem silly, but it works for me.

I have been eating Chobani Yogurt Flips for my mid-afternoon sweet tooth snack attack. They are around 200 calories and keep my sweet tooth under control with minimal impact on my daily calories. This one if my favorites at 180 calories: https://www.chobani.com/products/snacks/flip-indulgent/salted-caramel-crunch/

I like the Dole fruit dippers frozen things. My favorite is the 100 calorie pack with dark chocolate dipped banana slices. Gets a few of the good banana nutrients, but the dark chocolate yum too.

My grocery has some sugar free baked goods that are decent alternatives to some of my favorites and they fit into my calories for the day better than the full sugar version. Some use Splenda and some use other artificial sweeteners, so if you have an aversion to that, read the labels.

I was traveling a bit when I started calorie counting and spent a week in Europe where they typically don't add as much sugar in foods as transportation and shelf life isn't as long. Coming back to the US I started to become aware of how sweet everything tasted. A key factor in many weight management programs is to "Reset your sweet" - a process of going off sugar for a time and slowly introduce it to become aware of new tastes and start appreciating the flavor of foods outside of sweet.

My diary is open - I have a bit of a sweet tooth and just limit my treats to a lower calorie count. We keep a treat bowl in the kitchen where we all get a treat at the end of the day. Dum Dum suckers, Jolly Ranchers, any manner of candy is up there from time to time, just eaten in moderation.

I have a sweet tooth, but I don't keep sweets in my apartment. If I'm at work, where sweets are plentiful, I might take a few bites and throw the rest immediately away. It is a waste but it satisifies my sugar craving and I still stay within my calories.

I also blend frozen bananas with a dash of vanilla extract and some cocoa powder to create a chocolate ice cream type dessert. Smoothies work wel with sugar cravings as well. I’m a firm surpporter of fruit sugars and natural sugars, which I believe are better than processed sugar.