Difficult few days resisting sugar

Is there a medical reason you are avoiding sugar?
Weight loss is caused by being in a calorie deficit. You can eat chocolate and other sweets just work them into your calories.

I feel like I have more questions than suggestions..
Instead of prying, I'm going to suggest that you go to your doctor and get the clearance to start a low calorie exercising regimen considering everything that you just said.
I'd also suggest having fun size chocolate on hand for when you do have a craving. You don't need a lot to satisfy that taste. After you have that one fun size piece of chocolate the rest is mental as your body will not crave it anymore but you may think that you want more therefore you eat more

elenacosta5 wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

If you were ill for a couple of weeks, and ate below an already reduced calorie goal (that's not clear to me, from your post), then cravings as you start to recover would be normal. It's also normal to have cravings for foods we've strictly limited for an extended time (not clear if chocolate and ice cream have been off your menu entirely, or nearly entirely, during the 6 weeks).

If you were under goal while ill, I think a little recovery eating would be sensible - maybe a couple of days eating at maintenance calories, including some ice cream and chocolate? Then get back on your previous track (maybe working in some reasonable portions of ice cream or chocolate occasionally along the way, if you've been strictly avoiding them).

Losing any meaningful amount of weight tends to be a long-term undertaking - weeks, months, sometimes even years. Sustainable approaches, including some adjustments and breaks, can be part of a reasonable process. As long as you keep moving forward, in general, over the long haul, you'll get there.

If you like learning about theory behind things, there's some relevant stuff in this thread:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1

Thank you. Some interesting comments. I have been eating under my calorie target already, even less when not well. So maybe I did just need to eat a little more. Even with eating the chocolate I didn’t go over my calories. But I’m worried that any weight loss will slow or my weight be the same at the next weigh in. You’re right of course, weight loss needs to be slow and steady! Thank you for the link, I’ll take a look!

It's useful to consider that under-eating your calorie goal can result in difficult-to-control cravings, eventually. It may not be true for everyone, but it's definitely a risk. (This risk is part of the reason so many people here encourage "go slowly" and "eat your whole goal, or close").

It's absolutely true that if you eat your whole calorie goal, and do so consistently, your weight loss will be slower than if you eat substantially less than your calorie goal, and do that consistently. Eating fewer calories = faster loss, generally. The problem is that if those cravings set in from under-eating, it's pretty easy to give in to them (eventually) in an undesired/unplanned/uncontrolled way (some people would call that a "binge").

If that happens, there are three potential problems: One is the interruption in progress (potentially a bigger interruption than any slowed loss from eating close to goal most days), a second is the possibility of getting into a longer-term poor relationship with food in the form of repeated restrict/over-eat cycles, and the third is the potential for guilt or sense of failure or other psychological effects that result in giving up (so making no progress at all).

Like I said, those are risks, not for-sure problems. But the risk is part of what's behind the "take it slowly, sustainably, steadily" advice. Doing the slow/steady thing does risk more pseudo-stalls when water weight fluctuates or something, which is frustrating. Slow loss is potentially frustrating, but too-fast loss can be a health risk, so that's a factor, too.

This is sort of the oversimplified cartoon version of what I'm talking about:



I'm not saying that's what you're doing (you're not, you've been making good progress), but it's an extreme illustration of what the problem is, with over-restriction, for some people.