Sugar cravings

Loulouise

Hi all,

I'm completely new to boards and am looking for some advice!

I get serious sugar cravings every night. I'm just after eating three teaspoons of golden syrup simply because there was nothing else in the house! But I am dying for something sweet.

I'm sick of craving sugar. I always give in cos the cravings are overpowering. The thing is its never in the day, I don't give it a thought until 7 or 8 pm when I sit down and relax.

I'm beginning to think its just habit but I'm finding it impossible to break. Any words of wisdom?

Alf Veedersane

Loulouise wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm completely new to boards and am looking for some advice!

I get serious sugar cravings every night. I'm just after eating three teaspoons of golden syrup simply because there was nothing else in the house! But I am dying for something sweet.

I'm sick of craving sugar. I always give in cos the cravings are overpowering. The thing is its never in the day, I don't give it a thought until 7 or 8 pm when I sit down and relax.

I'm beginning to think its just habit but I'm finding it impossible to break. Any words of wisdom?

Put up an average day's food intake. It'll more than likely show where the problem lies.

runawaybishop

Get rid of the sugary things in your house and exercise willpower. Drink water when you get craving, or do handstands, or kick a box around the garden - just do something else.

Loulouise

Hate doing this cos ill prob be told I need to eat more but dont like eating too much during day plus I don't be hungry.

I skip breakfast.

Either a bowl of homemade veg soup or cully and sully carrot soup for lunch

Dinner is massive portion of veg, some times with chicken breast and then a protein shake( 100kcals, 20g protein)

The junk food then follows!

I run 10k twice a week and do a 5k run 2 days, on 1 other day I do 40-50 minutes on exercise bike, that's all though.

Stench Blossoms

Yeh you need to eat more.

Oryx

How long have you been eating the diet that you posted above?

You dont eat solid food until dinner, as Stench Blossoms said, you're just not eating enough food. So you're ravenous in the evening, and make poor choices.

Loulouise

Oryx wrote: »

How long have you been eating the diet that you posted above?

You dont eat solid food until dinner, as Stench Blossoms said, you're just not eating enough food. So you're ravenous in the evening, and make poor choices.

I've been eating this way for the past three months. The thing is I never feel hungry, never!

But I just crave sugary crap every night.

I know I'm not eating enough but I don't know how to bulk up my lunch in a healthy way and without feeling stuffed. I always feel satisfied after soup. I tried adding nuts but don't anymore as I overeat on those.

Alf Veedersane

Supplement your food intake with some willpower as well.

You seem to overeat on certain foods.

Don't.

thegreatiam

craving sugar, overeating on some type of food are all signs of hunger. SO saying you never feel hungry is kidding your self.

get a good solid diet going.

meat and veg every meal time. if you still find you snack make a bigger meal portion and eat it in 2 sittings.

helliwen

Hi LouLouise,

I've had similar struggles and for me it was usually restricting my food intake and being overly rigid that led to massive sugar blowouts. You definitely need to eat more during the day - 5-6 smaller meals might make it easier if you say you're not hungry. My experience is that when you consistently eat too little, your hunger signals get skewed. As you begin to eat more, they tend to normalise. Also, maybe add in some low GI carbs with your lunch and dinner.

Is there anything else going on that makes you turn to the sweet stuff at night? Do you eat to avoid any uncomfortable feelings? In my opinion, willpower doesn't work because eventually your resolve will weaken. You need to address what's causing the cravings rather than just white-knuckling it through them.

Hope this helps.

Loulouise

helliwen wrote: »

Hi LouLouise,

I've had similar struggles and for me it was usually restricting my food intake and being overly rigid that led to massive sugar blowouts. You definitely need to eat more during the day - 5-6 smaller meals might make it easier if you say you're not hungry. My experience is that when you consistently eat too little, your hunger signals get skewed. As you begin to eat more, they tend to normalise. Also, maybe add in some low GI carbs with your lunch and dinner.

Is there anything else going on that makes you turn to the sweet stuff at night? Do you eat to avoid any uncomfortable feelings? In my opinion, willpower doesn't work because eventually your resolve will weaken. You need to address what's causing the cravings rather than just white-knuckling it through them.

Hope this helps.

I really don't think there's anything emotional causing them, I feel generally happy bar this problem with night time eating.

I will try to have a bigger lunch and dinner and see if that improves things.

Thanks to all who posted with genuine advice.

McDonnellDean

Perhaps it might be an idea to give you a look at my diet, I used to be the same, cravings at night basically reset any good I did. Here's a general day for me:

Breakfast:

- ReadyBrek
- 2 Weetabix
- 3 eggs scrambled

Lunch:

- 6 inch Turkey Sub, all the veg, little mayo, brown
- 3 eggs scrambled, slice of brown bread, loads of veg (peppers, onions, lettuce, etc)

Dinner:

- Turkey, Cod or Chicken, Steamed or Grilled
+ A small portion of spuds, steamed
+ All the veg, carrots, brocolli, turnip, that sort of veg, steamed.

I run quite late at night so I only end up with 3 square meals a day, if I eat any later I would cramp up. If I am hungry I have some nuts or fruit or popcorn but in general I don't be hungry. I do have a variety of foods, the ones I listed are the more common ones, each line is an alternative, I don't eat all of those things in each section per day!

What I found is to make the diet work for me, sure not everyone things weetabix are a great food but they fill me up and its not a roll with sausages and hash browns. I have always found the key to sustainable eating and removal of pangs has been to eat what I like but on the healthier end of the scale and to always eat enough. I found when I eat less I put on more wait due to slip ups because of pangs.