sugar or no sugar?

I hear so many ppl are able to lose weight with either approach. Some allow for just a few sweet snacks after dinner to kill the craving and do just fine with it, (obviously saving cals for that.) But I am interested in those who say that once you give it up you no longer crave it. I've never been a huge sweet eater anyway. I used to drink reg cokes and NEVER craved sugar or sweets, now that I drink diet sodas I crave sugar all the time. Just looking for each persons personal expereince with it.

I've been doing the NO sugar thing for a coupld of days now, also eliminationing almost ALL white flour. (Still getting plenty of carbs though, don't misinterpert my intentions.)

Also, what do you think about fruit and how it affects sugar cravings, yes, no, maybe? Lol.

Some would say the more you eat the more you crave, (sugar), however others would argue that, stating that by allowing a lil they get the satisfaction they were craving.

Just interested in some feedback, that's all...

Well they say that artificial sweeteners make you crave sugar, even when you're not having any. I personally drink diet sodas and don't have a problem with wanting the sugared-up versions.

I couldn't ever completely eliminate sweets... I eat fruit every day, and will often snack on nut bars made with honey, and get maybe 3g of regular sugar a day, in foods I eat. And I don't really have a problem! A well rounded diet, in my opinion, reduces the likelihood of backsliding and overeating, because you're not denying yourself something you crave. You're not going overboard enough to gain weight, but you're not going so much under that all you can think about, all day long, are sweets/chips/snacks.

while i wouldn't say that some sweet stuff makes me want more sweet stuff if i'm not diligent about portion control i will eat a whole large bag of mini recess peanut butter cups in NO time. they're just so tasty!

fruit in general is ok for me, but apples seem to make me hungry. very strange.

I was never much of a sweets eater either, but now I want sugar.  I don't drink soda other than SF root beer, and that taste fine to me.  I would rather eat a huge baked potato with.........well, you know.  I would make it totally unhealthy just as I do at a salad bar.  So I avoid that stuff too.  Back to the sugar issue though; I replaced sugar with no-cal sweeteners.  I don't want a bunch of negative feedback from other posters about the artificial this and that and it's got to be bad for you.  It has helped me with the sweet cravings that I never had before and enabled me to lose my weight so far.  One of my favorite treats is a mock "Jamoca Shake".  (like from Arbys).  I use one sugar free chocolate pudding cup, 1/2 cup skim milk, a tablespoon of instant coffee and about 6-8 ice cubes.  I have a single serving blender (Hamilton Beach from Walmart for about $15.00 - best investment I have ever made.)  I forgot about the sweetener.  For me, I use 8 to 10 packets depending on how sweet I want it, usually 10 (sorry).  This is good stuff!!  Walmart also sells their brand (Great Value) sweetener for less than $3.00 for 200.  I go through just about 2 boxes a week.  There, I said it, and I don't care (sticks and stones you know).  You have to do what ever is right for you.  BTW, my calories per Jamoca shake is only 102.  Quite a deterrant for a bowl of ice cream.  And it makes a blender full which is 16 ounces.

I went to an anniversary party this summer and there was not one, but two cakes there.  Carrot cake with creamed cheese frosting, and German Chocolate.  My daughter was with me, and I asked her to serve me some of each.  Because I wasn't helping my self, she knew that I only wanted just a bit so that's all I got.  Yes, I wanted more.  I would have eaten much, much more if I hadn't had her serve it to me, and if she hadn't known my weight loss goals and is totally supportive to my quest to be thin before my 50th birthday next summer. 

I hope you get a lot of opinions on your subject.  I will check back later to see what others say.  Have a great day!

I'm definitely a "sweet" person, but a few years ago I went on the south beach diet, and I noticed that ever since then i don't crave the sweet stuff, especially chocolate, like I used. Now I'm back on the diet to lose a few extra pounds, and after a few days of phase 1, my cravings went away, so now I can see cake, candy etc, and not feel the need to have some.

I tried to completely cut out sugar about a year and a half ago. I was alot heavier then. I definitely felt like I was depriving myself. For me, having some sugar free pudding - besides it being gross - it didn't cure my sweet craving at all. Same with diet root beer or whatever. I would eventually buy totally unhealthy stuff - like snack cakes or Ben and Jerry's - gain weight, feel depressed and swear off sugar again. What I ended up doing (since that obviously wasn't working for me, haha) was to have more fruit, and sometimes have sugar like in oatmeal or protein bars. I have something sweet every day (even if it's just fruit). If I want a cookie or something occasionally, I just have it. That works for me, but I understand that some people can't do that. I have a friend who swears if she has one morsel of sugar, she loses all control and binges and can eat, like, a whole cake. It just varies from person to person I guess.

Thats kind of me, the part about eating one morsel of sugar and suddenly indulging in the whole box of whatever. Ice cream sends me into binges, a single bite does. I haven't had a binge in a very long time and I am now on day 5 of no sugar. I don't know, perhaps it is different for all. I use spenda all the time and it has never made me crave sugar either. I'll keep you guys posted on how it goes though. And I'm actually jealous of those ppl who can have 1/2 a slice of cake at the Bday party or just one cookie. That is so not me. He he!!!

Best wishes to all!

I'm currently cutting out sugar and snacks (eg chrisps, biscuits, chocolate etc), it's been about 2 weeks and I feel really good.

'Im having sweetner in my tea, and still eating fruit, but feel a lot less bloated, heavy, guilty, and feel happy and have lost a couple of pounds in the process! I used to eat a LOT of sugar, e.g 2 tea spoons of sugar in tea, at least 4 times a day, also having biscuits with my tea and so on! So probs having about 40g of sugar a day! I don't crave it as much anymore at ALL! So yeah, it's good. kind of like a mini detox. Keep it up! :D

I think it depends on how bad your sugar consumption is to start with and also on your behaviour around sugar.  If you're used to a very high sugar diet and have a tendency to binge-eat sugary foods then I think the 'no sugar' (and no refined starches) route is the most successful.   Fruit, IMHO, should be cut back to 2 pieces a day at the same time but don't cut your calories drastically because that will cause energy slumps and make cravings worse.

I've observed the following in people I know that have given up.  The taste-buds gradually go from 'sugar tolerant' ... i.e. you need a lot of sugar in something before you can taste it.... to 'sugar intolerant'.... i.e you can taste a tiny amount of sugar in anything.  And this means that very sweet foods begin to taste sickly rather than appetising.  (BTW... going with Splenda 'methodone' means taste-buds remain sugar tolerant, which is a pity)  The blood-sugars - which have become used to going up and down like a whore's drawers - and associated insulin levels start to stabilise.  This means that blood-sugar crashes are less likely which means that you don't have the same urge to drive them back up with more sugar.  Finally, there's the 'habit' element.  If you deliberately avoid sweet foods for a while and find savoury things to replace them with then you get out of the habit of having several biscuits with a cup of coffee or a bar of chocolate in the evening or whatever your particular poison happens to be.

The process takes about 3 to 6 weeks from what I've seen.  (The fewer times you slip up the less time it takes)  After which point, people go on to reintroduce sugary foods in smaller amounts but don't seem to find them anything like as appealing.