How do you control your sugar cravings?

I never had these sweet cravings.. Lately.. all I crave is sweet ( chocolates).. .. The immediate access vending machines at work are of no help!... Does anyone have these cravings?? How do you deal with this?

I don't. Which is why I'm now pre-diabetic with fatty liver disease...

Yeah, sorry though, I know what a pain this is. Seriously - when I find an answer to it (beyond anorectic/starvation restriction) I will definitely fill you in.

Perhaps you could try following a suitably balanced low GI meal plan that provided you with several "mini meals" every few hours to keep your blood sugar levels more stable and the cravings at bay.

One thing that helps curb my craving for sweets after I finish a meal is to pop a piece of gum.  About 90% of the time it works.  If it doesn't and I really really need something sweet, I'll eat one of my 74 calorie Ghirardelli dark chocolate squares with caramel inside, and savor the heck out of it.  Either that or if I'm feeling like I need something with a little more substance, I'll have a Skinny Cow mint ice cream sandwich.  Filling, and only 140 cals.

Whatever you do, do not eat near the vending machines. It's just way to easy to be tempted to buy an after lunch snack. Sometimes out of sight, of of mind is really true.

I usualy eat fruit but sometimes very dark chocolate (at least 70 %) and peppermints when I get serious cravings.

My main vice is Coke. I loved to drink that stuff but now I have replaced it with Club Soda. It doesn't have the same taste, but the bubbles help me not drink Coke and it keeps me occupied until the craving goes away :)  Maybe you could try and find something that replaces what you crave for?

i allow myself a small serving of dark chocolate every day. i don't always eat it, but i know it's there. my favorite right now is Perugina Chocolate Bars. I make one bar into 6 servings (usually). i read somewhere about a study that showed people who had a small amount of chocolate in the morning were more likely to resist it later in the day. don't know if i really believe it, could be one of those things that works for some, but not all.

I choose to just figure out a way to feed the craving while staying within my calories guidelines!  I am with you on the chocolate!  My current chocolate fix is the Hidden Valley Ganola Thins with dark chocolate!  Only 80 calories.

Chris

I find the more I eat sweets, the more I crave sweets.  I've been in a bad chocolate cycle for a few months.  I haven't had chocolate for 3 days now and I find that the craving is subsiding.  I've been substituting fruit for chocolate and so far so good.

Extra has a new flavor of gum-mint chocolate chip.  It's yummy and really works on a craving!!!

I do a weekly meal plan, where I plan on what days Im gonna eat candy.

Example, this Wendsday I get a milky way I refuse to starve

have you been drinking more caffeine or getting less sleep? a good bit of the time sugar cravings come once caffeine has worn off because your body feels like it needs a source of energy (sugar=glucose=ATP aka energy). same thing as when you get less sleep.

I gave up all refined sugar  in July.  I read all the labels and try to buy nothing with sugar.  It was one of the most difficult things I've ever done, as I ate something sweet with my coffee almost every day.  In the process of trying to really improve my health, I also stopped all processed food and food with chemicals.  Therefore, I don't use artificial sweetners either.  It took about 3 weeks to get over the craving for sugar, and I still wish I could eat something sweet now and then, but I now realize (that for me) eating foods with refined sugar is an addiction.  For a while, I was sad and depressed knowing I would have to live the rest of my life this way.  Now I know I could have a small piece of cake on MY birthday (not everyone else's), and I might have one Christmas cookie, but there'll be no pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving.  I can't do it because I don't want the sugar in my blood.  I've lost almost 50 pounds and have another 40 to go.  One day at a time!

I found that after eliminating refined sugar from my diet for about 2 weeks the cravings went away. You might also try some sugar free low carb chocolate. There are several available online. Just Google sugar free low carb chocolate.

Trader Joe's has a really good sugar free milk chocolate and dark chocolate candy bar. It helps with the cravings and since your blood sugar level does not spike you have a little more control over your cravings.

awesome way to think about it thhq!  On the vita tops website they talk about being able to walk off one of their tops in 15 minutes or so.   Good marketing!  lol  In my profile there is a link to my blog where I talk about how I have changed my eating to fit exactly what you were saying!  Is eating X worth the effort?  Good way to think!

Chris

I used to have a terrible sweet tooth (for most of my life) and to an extent, I still do for certain foods (chocolate included!).  When I started my get-fit regime, I knew that sweets would get in the way, and at first, I continued grabbing them whenever I could!  I found that when I got very hungry, I would grab a sweet between meal and end up kinda feeling gross, but I couldn't stop! (kit kats where my main antagonist)  Between meals I'd get kinda sleepy and groggy and thats when my sweet cravings would be the worst.  After a while I figured out that, for me, multiple mini-meals (250 to 300 calories each about every 3 hours - 4 or 5 times a day depending on when you wake up) SERIOUSLY curbed my sweet tooth and I started to have waaay more energy and felt much better during the day.  I used calorie count (and still do) religiously to log calories to make sure each meal was on target.  I found this actually helped me to lose weight faster and more effectively.  (I also used a pretty rigorous exercise routine, but after slacking on that a bit, I was still seeing a slower, but steady weight loss each week). 

All the comments so far have been awesome and have lots of good advice!  Definitely try out some of the ideas and see how they affect your lifestyle/cravings.  You may find a small change here or there may yield other healthy benefits you weren't looking for!

Good luck!!!

For me, I will make myself a sweet recipe, and then not use any sugar. I am actually extremely sensitive to sugar, and have not been eating it for 4 years now. That doesn't mean I don't crave it, though!!! I make tons of recipes without sugar in it that stills tastes sweet. I made a blog about it here:

http://spoonfulofsugarfree.wordpress.com/

Check it out, if you want! It has tons of sugar-free, healthy recipes in it to enjoy :)

Original Post by snacker_chris:

I choose to just figure out a way to feed the craving while staying within my calories guidelines!  I am with you on the chocolate!  My current chocolate fix is the Hidden Valley Ganola Thins with dark chocolate!  Only 80 calories.

Chris

 

that sounds good i will have to try those!!!!

Narmi, I'm guessing you're a woman? I crave sweet stuff, especially chocolate, almost uncontrollably in the days before and during my period. The feeling I get from what you wrote is that this is pretty 'all of a sudden' - could changes in your diet + hormones have brought this on?

Anyway, I have a formidable sweet tooth and have actually just given up on fighting it!  What I do instead is limit the amounts so that I'm not overstepping my calorie limit for the day.  I keep a slab of chocolate in a non-descript white box in the fridge (so it doesn't stare me in the face every time I open the door!) and allow one square at a time, usually after dinner.  Two if I've been especially good - but I still record every mouthful meticulously to avoid the 'snowball' effect.

I also make trades a lot with myself... 'So you want some chocolate this morning?  Ok, then you skip the coffee and have green tea instead.'  That way I don't deprive myself and still keep my addiction under control.  I guess it has slowed my weight loss down, but I've still made great strides (I have just a couple more pounds to go!!) and imagine others could, too.

Hope this helps.

Original Post by deltsea:

I find the more I eat sweets, the more I crave sweets.  I've been in a bad chocolate cycle for a few months.  I haven't had chocolate for 3 days now and I find that the craving is subsiding.  I've been substituting fruit for chocolate and so far so good.

Me too, for me the only way to curb my cravings is just to avoid it altogether. In public it's easy I tell people Chocolate gives me migraine that way I don't get offered. At home I just don't buy the stuff because experience tells me if it's in a cupboard somewhere with in the boundaries of my property then I'l eat it!

I still love sweets and make it a point to have some, but I try to balance calorie intake with calorie burn.  Before I got over the top with regard to training, I would log everything into the livestrong calorie counter.  It logs calories burned and consumed.  That worked because I ate the sweets, but usually had to work out more or eat less later in the day.  I had days where I went over or under the recommendations, but tried not to let it stray much in either direction.

I got into fairly good shape and last spring, started training for triathlons and quite the close tracking on the advice of my coach.  I actually got too thin from an appearance standpoint, but it made me pretty competitive for races.  I'm thinking of starting calories and burn in the off season because I've begun to pick up a few pounds.

To sum all that up, eat what you want, but track what you do and what you eat.  Weight loss or maintenance is mostly a matter of math.  Also, with specific regard to sweet cravings, the posts below about caffeine and menstural cycles has some merit.