How do you control sugar cravings?

I don't crave sugar... sweet things maybe. Coke zero for me. lol or gummy candy (lifesavers, swedish fish..etc..)

I don't like candy chocolate thank god...

I have the same problem - the one thing I have found to help is to take the time to make sure that I am not eating because I am depressed, bored, or thirsty. If I still am craving something after that, I will eat fruit - watermelon, raspberries, grapes - something that is sweet and crunchy but not be something that is bad. I also have started using the chocolate Shakeology from beach body and that really helps!!

VERY difficult. I have no time for sweeties personally, but my wife is much like you. I think the best you can do is just be strong when you're at the supermarket, which'll help you cut down longer term. Good luck!

I am the same way! Unfortunately, the only way I've been controlling my cravings was to cut it out totally. Now, granted it's only been cut out for four days, but once I hit the third day, I haven't had a craving like I used to. Of course, my brain will play tricks on me like telling itself "wouldn't it be nice to get a burger?" or "mmm, think of all the tasty flavours of pizza" but they're not strong enough for me to lose to them. Then, the other day I committed 'carbocide' and had so many carbs in the form of bday cake, chips, buns, and the like and guess what? I got so bloated and uncomfortable I had to take advil! Now I'm back to my low carb regimen and feel great. More energy, no 'ups and downs', and no cravings. I think I can't rule them out entirely (like in special occassions), but not eating them so much definitely helps the mind and body.

I usually try find out if I'm craving sweets because I'm bored or thirsty. Most of the time I take a big drink of water to see if that helps. If not, I find fruits or low-cal snacks to compensate. If that doesn't work then I'll try to do busy work to keep my mind off of sugar!

You could treat yourself once a week to some sugar. That will help with your cravings. It's better to set limits than to make something off limits especially if it you used to be a regular in your diet.

bump. the sugar madness has gotten so bad lately that i've asked my husband to go to the grocery store for me.

I had to eliminate all starches from my regular diet, retaining only one ice cream treat in the evening (for good behavior). This has almost completely eliminated my carb and sugar cravings. If I have even one slice of bread or rice or cereal during the day, I crave carbs and sweets all day long.

Sugar cravings feed on themselves... the more you indulge, the more you crave. Gotta go cold turkey. Have light yogurt in the morning with a scoop of whey protein powder to get your sweet fix. Eat berries first thing in the morning, but never after 2pm.

I'm one who craves sugar all the time - whether it is pop, chocolate, cakes, chewy candy. I found that it was too much for me to go off of all at once. However, once I gave up pop (as a daily drink - I drink maybe 1- 8oz glass a week now) I found that I didn't crave the sugar goodies as often. It took me about 2 months to give up pop. I used to drink about 2-32oz fountain of Mountain Dew a day. I also increased my water intake (I drank none before and now I drink a minimum of 8 glasses). I'd say you should determine what you eat and then give yourself a goal.

My goal for reducing my pop intake was this (Each was for a week):
I knew I drank at least 2 of the 32 oz fountain pops.

1. Add so much ice that its at the very top (less room for pop)
2. Drinking 1.5 of the 2
3. Drinking 1 - 32 oz
4. Drinking 1/2
5. Drinking 1/2 every other day
6. Drinking 1/2 every 3 days
7. Drinking 1/2 every 5 days
8. Drinking 1-2 swallows if I absolutely needed it.

I am a HUGE fan of all things sweet..... Cinnamon rolls, danishes, donuts, chocolate bars, If it is sweet and you can name it, I LOVE it.... Well, I cut the pastries from my diet completely. I rarely ever have one now and don't typically crave them. We went to chili's for dinner the other night and I decided that I was going to split a molten lava cake with my hubby. I rode 10 miles to burn those calories so I wouldn't feel guilty treating myself LOL.

Basically for me, I save sweet stuff for the evening after all my meal calories have been logged. If I don't have the calories to cover it, I exercise until I do, then I treat myself. :-)

After about a month of cutting out sugar and starchy carbs altogether, I completely lost my sweet tooth. So, I guess I control the sugar cravings by staying away from it completely.

So glad im not alone.. I am such a sugar junkie. . I do eat sugar as a way to help deal with stress. But i find that if i drink a glass of water and maybe have some fruit the craving is not as bad. I do stack up on low calorie snacks like jello, ff pudding, and yogurt .

The best thing to do is to stop. Eating. Sugar. And refined carbs. Sugar/refined carbs = more refined carb cravings. Go cold turkey for a week and watch what happens-- no more cravings!

Sugar/refined (high GI) carbs produce insulin spikes, which then lead to blood sugar lows, which provoke more cravings. The best thing you can do is keep your blood sugar even by foregoing high GI sweets and starches. Works like a charm.

This is exactly what I had to do. I was (am?) a sugar addict but I finally got to my breaking point re: how i was feeling day in and out and being honest that the sugar/refined carbs were largely responsible for my crappy moods. sadly it can keep you in a vicious cycle of eat sugar->feel good for a bit->start to come down->must eat more to come up again->repeat. I knew from my history that even indulging once in a while could lead me right back to that cycle so ultimately it took cutting it ALL out. I did that for a couple weeks before I allowed myself to have a treat like a sugar free Jello pudding snack or a fiber one brownie and even then those are infrequent because I don't crave the sweet anymore. I find that a couple servings of fruit during the day suit me just fine.

The other issue can be replacing sugars with substitutes. While this can work for some people, for myself (and others) the sweet TASTE of sucralose and the like makes me want more sweet which can be a slippery slope hence being careful with intake sugar free or low-sugar sweets. I don't want to fall back down that hole again now that I'm finally out.

I found that making sure I am getting plenty of good fats, carbs, and water water WATER (i follow the advice of 1oz for every lb of half your current weight but no less than 64ozs a day) and eating every 2-3hrs kept the cravings at bay until they were gone and now it is my normal mode of eating/drinking.

Ultimately I had to commit to the decision to let all the sugar go once and for all. I reached my lowest of lows and decided I didn't want to be there anymore. My biggest hurdles now are when my stress levels spike and in those times I have to hunker down and work through it. Find distractions, call a friend, post here, do what you need to do to stop the sugar from making it into your body.

I wish I had more advice or something magic but I don't. All I can tell you is that it IS possible and you CAN DO IT!!

freeze bananas!!

This is what I came in to comment about!! They are just like icecream (use ripe bananas), and frozen grapes too are delicious. I'm into sweets, chocolate, icecream, everything bad, but frozen bananas were a huge lifesaver for me when I started dieting! I now also freeze vanilla muller light yogurts and mix it up with the banana. Frozen treats are the best!

Also sugar free gum helps.

And chocolate drinks like the Belgian Chocolate Options one.

I don't like things like Thinsations and Go Ahead bars and all the rest because they are quite little and unsatisfying and I'm always left thinking that I wish I'd just had a real chocolate bar.

Finally, if things get really bad, I'd recommend giving up all sweet things for about 3 days, all treats and all fruit. After 3 days allow yourself fruit again and you'll be so grateful and it'll be so sweet and delicious that you won't be thinking about candy at all!