Craving sugar means you have insulin and/or blood sugar regulation issues. And/or that you overly restrict your eating. Which is it?

If the former, take walks after every meal, exercise more, and fast between meals.

If the latter, have balanced, satisfying meals and include at least one sweet thing early in the day.

You will never drop sugar/desserts forever if you like them. Fortunately you don’t have to. You just have to get out of the desperation mentality.

I have cravings all the time, at night or after a spicy meal. If I am able to, I just sit with it and eventually it goes away, even if it means that I go to sleep still thinking about it, because when I wake up, it’s gone.

If I am not able to, I am able to limit the amount I have, like going to a frozen yogurt place and getting a cup. I don’t keep any sweets in the house. If I want it, I make myself go get it, and most of the time, I don’t.

OP here. Thanks for these suggestions.

What does it feel like to quit sugar? I’m curious what I’ll go through if I’m able to do it. Or what changes you feel once you’ve weened off.

Don't have it in the house
After dinner is over, dishes are done, brush your teeth (you'll be hesitant to eat after that)

Yeah, I had to simply not have any added sugar in my house at all. If it's there, I'll eat it. It took me a week to get over irrational anger and feeling "unsettled" and then I could taste sugar in things like fruit. I also sometimes very aggressively chew gum.

After I'd gone like two months without sugar, I bought very dark chocolate in small individually wrapped things - I think it was Tony's? So now if I'm craving sugar I eat one of those and am like "Um, this actually doesn't taste that great."

Protein and fat, and more sleep.

Change your routine: e.g., instead of a treat go upstairs, brush your teeth, and spend 20 minutes with a trashy book or painting your nails or whatever feels like a reward.

Also, allow yourself whole fruit, and 2 or 3 pieces of very dark chocolate a day. You're limiting added sugar not eliminating all things sweet.

Anonymous wrote:I’m absolutely addicted. Immediately crave something sweet after lunch and dinner, have 1-3 desserts after both of those meals and something sweet (3-5 chocolate covered pretzels or something like that) as a snack daily. I sweeten my coffee daily too, my breakfasts are sweet.

Has anyone with similar habits had success breaking them?

You just stop, OP. You limit and prioritize. Stop buying desserts and sweet snacks. Accept that you're going to be pissed about that and that it will be hard. Do it anyway. Switch to savory breakfast, likely something in a totally different direction. Reduce the coffee sweetener slowly and then don't ever order another sweetened drink again. Introduce dessert judiciously. I eat fruit pies and occasionally ice cream. I stay away from cake and cookies and candy to the best of my ability.

It takes 1-2 weeks to get through the cravings. When I did this last year, I drank water and washed my hands every time I wanted to eat a sweet. It was hard and I hated it, but it has been great since. Sugar truly makes you awful. For me, it's no different than an alcohol hangover.

Splenda for everything. Think that sweets are evil

It sounds way easier than it actually is but don’t bring it in to the house. I find when I have it in the house I will eat it and gorge on whatever it is. I can “usually” get out of the store without buying whatever it is that catches my eye and then forget all about it. I do have a husband and kids with big sweet tooth’s (teeth) lol but I tend not to like what they have. Although, the other night damn if I didn’t find myself eating handfuls of marshmallows they were putting in hot cocoa. I don’t know… sorry not much help other than I feel you- it’s sucks!

Anonymous wrote:Protein. At least 20 grams at each meal, 30 is better. Lots of vegetables. If you focus on getting sufficient protein at each meal, don’t have any added sugar in the morning, and feed your gut biome with fruit and vegetables, you won’t have cravings.

I am similar to OP as far as craving sugar, and this is my plan. I hope it works. I'm tired of feeling like I want it constantly

Protein. At least 20 grams at each meal, 30 is better. Lots of vegetables. If you focus on getting sufficient protein at each meal, don’t have any added sugar in the morning, and feed your gut biome with fruit and vegetables, you won’t have cravings.

Thanks for posting this, I was just about to. I was allowed unlimited access to sweets as a child and now have a full fledged sugar addiction with a strong family history of type 2. Nothing is working, I have zero willpower when faced with cake, cookies, etc. I just can’t control myself! One tip that helped that I saw on Reddit was to eat butter and toast when those cravings hit.

It takes about a week to break it if you go cold turkey.

There are chocolate mints that are low calorie. I just looked them up but seems like they shut down:
https://www.thedailymeal.com/1275252/mealenders-shark-tank-today/

There are other optoins though, like Gatsby Chocolate.

Just stop with the sugar. Savory breakfast only. Start following the Glucose Goddess on Instagram.

I’m absolutely addicted. Immediately crave something sweet after lunch and dinner, have 1-3 desserts after both of those meals and something sweet (3-5 chocolate covered pretzels or something like that) as a snack daily. I sweeten my coffee daily too, my breakfasts are sweet.

Has anyone with similar habits had success breaking them?