Can't control sugary items

My loss is 35 pounds since Christmas, 2019. Not impressive, but I'm getting where I want to be. I eat sugary items, although I have cut way back on it. Example - I just had a breakfast of oatmeal with milk and brown sugar. Then there are the foods I eat with added sugar at the factory.

Thing is, if you burn more calories than you eat - no matter what color, shape, or form those calories come in - you will lose weight. Yes, we all know too much sugar is a bad thing, but sugar, alone, won't stop weight loss if CALORIES OUT ARE GREATER THAN CALORIES IN.

There are two ways to handle this. One is, as suggested above, to moderate your portions of sweet things. There’s nothing magical about calories in cake which makes you gain weight more than the same number calories in broccoli.

The other is to abstain from sweets completely. Some people aren’t able to moderate certain foods and find it’s easier just to cut them out completely. I fall into this category. I am a type 2 diabetic so sugary treats aren’t good for me in any case, and it’s almost painful to have the small amount allowed to me, so I cut them out completely. In my experience, and I have heard the same from others, the sugar craving goes away after about two weeks. After that, your tastebuds reset, natural sugars taste much sweeter, and added sugar tastes almost nasty. I haven’t had any trouble doing without added sugar for four years now.

It’s up to you which approach to take. Can you eat one biscuit and then stop, or do you feel a need to eat all of them? If it’s all or nothing, you might try nothing, give it a couple of weeks, and see if it gets easier for you. If, on the other hand, you can eat one and then stop within your calorie goal, then rest assured it won’t magically stop you from losing weight.

This is not precisely the question you asked, but I found that it reduced my cravings for calorie-dense sweets when I started making it a point to eat a minimum of 3 servings of fruit daily. After doing that for a while, many cookies, cakes, candy, etc., started seeming too simple, not very satisfying, not worth their calories.

I still eat some sweeter foods now and then, but I don't have the cravings for them that I once did. This doesn't help everyone, but I've seen others here say it helped them, too, so it's not *just* me. Might be worth a try.

That said, I did and do still eat the occasional cookie, chocolate, ice cream or other treat/dessert within my calorie goal, and loss weight just fine (and have maintained afterward for over 4 years now). I tend to want something a little more extra special now, because things like the routine grocery store bakery stuff just isn't very appealing - not worth the calories. Something like a good homemade cookie with tasty flavors, richness, good texture, though? Yes, please. 😋