What to do with cravings while being moderate and trying to lose weight?

July 28, 2017 5:09 PM

Let's say I have cravings for specific foods like cheese cake, bubble tea and empanadas. Or a general craving for salty/sweet/etc. I've eaten sufficient calories and protein and I still have those cravings. I also have cravings like this a few times a week. How can I balance indulging these exact cravings while still being healthy and trying to lose weight?

I've had a habit of getting things like bubble tea or sweets a few times a week for months and it's finally caused a stall in my weight loss. It's also not very healthy. I tried only giving into cravings by spacing them out to twice a week but it didn't work. If I don't give into these cravings they stay with me until I do (and end up binging). I don't want to go cold turkey on stuff like sugar, it's unsustainable. Any ideas what to do? I basically want to cut down on the junk food a lot without the cravings driving me crazy.

posted by starlybri to Health & Fitness (26 answers total)

When you get bubble tea, are you already ordering it with less sugar? If not, you could order it with half or a quarter of the sugar. I think it's made with flavoured syrup and then added sugar, so maybe you could work down to just the syrup and then eventually just tea.
posted by kinddieserzeit at 5:26 PM on July 28, 2017 [2 favorites]

There was a Facebook article that offered the usual clickbaity format and yet had all common-sense recommendations. One of them was:

"I eat sweets after every meal. Why do I crave sugar and how do I stop?" And the answer was, "You trained yourself to eat them. Train yourself not to." That just framed it in a totally different way for me.

You can approach this a couple ways.

1. Build cheat treats into your diet. Meet your macros and leave calories for a finite amount of bubble tea once or twice a week.

2. Go cold turkey on sugar for a couple weeks. The fact is that eating sugar makes you crave more sugar. If you stop eating sugar, you feel like shit for a few days or a week, and then your sugar cravings decrease dramatically. If you think you can stand it for this finite period of time, for the long-term goal of eating less sugar, give it a shot. Maybe knowing that this isn't "no sugar forevermore!" will make it easier to push through.
posted by Autumnheart at 5:35 PM on July 28, 2017 [12 favorites]

Chia and tea with spices and a tiny bit of sugar can be used for a much lower calorie and higher fiber alternative to bubble tea. Just takes a few minutes to make, and really fills me up.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:11 PM on July 28, 2017

Don't think of them as special treats you have to "save up" up for by denying yourself by spacing them out. Go ahead and have some, but really, actually enjoy them. Savour them, and eat or drink only the minimum you need to satisfy the craving. Obviously it is easier said than done, but it is possible. And once you give yourself permission to have them just whenever, I think it will help reduce the frequency of the cravings simply because the foods will seem less special. They're just food.
posted by synecdoche at 6:15 PM on July 28, 2017 [1 favorite]

Two things I do

- Think of the craving as a hole asking to be filled. Acknowledge the hole. And sometimes say "Not today hole, you'll just have to go without".

- The sugar substitute erythritol, mostly in my tea. It doesn't dissolve as well as sugar but it doesn't have the nasty taste of stevia. Also, I put a pod of cardamom in my tea.
posted by falsedmitri at 6:16 PM on July 28, 2017 [6 favorites]

The cure for sweet is sour. So if you want something sweet, eating a pickle helps. (I swear this works.)
posted by DarlingBri at 6:18 PM on July 28, 2017 [14 favorites]

You have to go cold turkey on sugar if you want to get rid of the cravings, and you'd probably be better off if you also didn't use artificial sweeteners, either. You have to cut your dependency on the sugar rush entirely.
posted by empath at 6:23 PM on July 28, 2017 [7 favorites]

The saying around lc/keto communities is "fat fights cravings" and it really does. Half an avocado or a boiled egg with chili and garlic powder (or a drizzle of balsamic vinegar) will do a lot, or a little chunk of cream or goat cheese with sweetener and cinnamon and/or vanilla.

During the day, a cup of coffee or decaf or chai with lc creamer and sweetener (I'm teaching myself to like stevia) and possibly a dab of vanilla or caramel sf syrup does the job.
posted by Lyn Never at 6:25 PM on July 28, 2017 [8 favorites]

When shedding postpartum pounds, I made a rule that I could eat anything I pleased so long as my servings were limited to what would fit in a small Dixie cup. This worked really well as: it required no thought at all, and, they are so small you could fill one with butter every day and still carry on with losing. Sometimes I had little meals of crap: candies, cheezies, potato salad, etc, all spooned out into the little paper cups. (Admittedly a bit wasteful. Small kiddie cups or large shot glasses would also do the trick.) I didn't feel deprived; I was still eating what I pleased, and skipping fussing with weighing or counting calories.

Very occasionally the little cup of whatever would not completely scratch the itch, and I had a guideline for that, too: I had to wait twenty minutes for the next cup. Sometimes I really did require more sorbet; sometimes, I'd forget all about it, and twenty minutes pass quickly enough.
posted by kmennie at 6:27 PM on July 28, 2017 [47 favorites]

I tend to get the cravings in the office mid-afternoon, especially if my day has been stressful. I try to redirect myself with "check back 20 minutes later" or "after I do this meeting" and by then I never want it anymore. Going for a walk or even up and down the stairs to the lobby is another good redirect.

I can't really do moderation with sugar, though. I have to go off it completely.
posted by matildaben at 6:44 PM on July 28, 2017 [2 favorites]

I've been doing Atkins/keto a long time, but still honestly love sugar. The way I try to deal with my cravings is let myself have something once in a great while, but I try to make it really worth it -- like the best bubble tea around or a great bakery cookie rather than some vending machine junk.
posted by not that mimi at 7:08 PM on July 28, 2017 [2 favorites]

I don't want to go cold turkey on stuff like sugar, it's unsustainable.

For me, regularly having a small sugary treat is actually less sustainable than having very little sugar at all. E.g., I usually drink tea sweetened with Stevia (which does not cause me to crave sugar, ymmv) and my daughter drinks sweetened soda. Sometimes I'll have soda instead of tea and too often (like this past week) this leads to me increasingly chosing soda over tea until I'm asking her to pick up Coke for me.

She left this morning to visit a friend and won't be returning for a week. I got rid of the last bits of remaining soda after she left and I have been regretting that decision all day. Fortunately, buying more would require walking an unpleasant mile in this heat—plus, I know from experience that this is usually enough time to talk myself out of the idea.

By the time she returns, I'll be over my Coke craving and the fresh reminder re how difficult it is to give up soda will help keep me on the wagon (for awhile, at least).

So, I'm seconding the advice to go cold turkey and rid yourself of the craving.
posted by she's not there at 7:58 PM on July 28, 2017 [1 favorite]

I don't know how you're losing weight, but I lost 30 pounds on Weight Watchers like 12 years ago, and I have mostly kept it off (I gained back maybe 3 pounds). I don't have an issue with sweets at all, but I do LOVE SALT. For me, the WW system of having to write down everything and hit a certain level really worked. I literally just made room for what I wanted to eat in my meal plan for the day/week. Not in a really aggressive way, but I knew that I could have X amount of Cheetos at 4pm as long as my dinner was really healthy. Or that I could have a bean burrito on Tuesday as long as I was very clean on Monday and Wednesday. Eat your sweets if you want them, but the mathematical fact is that you're going to have to give something up to make up for it. A healthy diet CAN have sweets, but you probably need to give up something else to make up for the calories, especially because, as you know, the closer you get to your goal weight, the harder it is to lose the weight.

I also LOVE the dixie cup idea.
posted by Countess Sandwich at 8:45 PM on July 28, 2017

Can you try going for 2 weeks cold turkey on the artificially sweetened stuff? Naturally sweet stuff like fruit is ok in that time. In my experience, that's about how long it takes for the intense cravings for processed-sugar stuff (that are created by eating processed-sugar stuff) to fade. If you give in to the craving before that, you're just sort of resetting the clock.
posted by colfax at 9:32 PM on July 28, 2017

I suck at moderation. For me and food, it's all or nothing. I've been doing keto for 18 months now and yes, there are some things i miss like crazy. Ice cream & popcorn primarily. But super strict rules work better for me with food - it's black and white, yes or no. I get around the cravings by letting myself eat in excess things i can eat and still keep keto. Bacon. Diet soda. Quest bars. Cheese. It's not the healthiest system in the world, but it works for me, and i usually don't feel too deprived. That said -- the first 2-3 weeks of going cold turkey off carbs sucks, there's no way around it. I just have to summon all the willpower and do it an hour at a time. After those initial weeks though it gets so much easier.
posted by cgg at 9:48 PM on July 28, 2017 [1 favorite]

When the cravings flare up, try drinking a glass of water and then brushing your teeth.
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:47 PM on July 28, 2017 [3 favorites]

licorice root tea calms my cravings. BTW it has a sweet flavor (it's not something you'll be adding sugar to). If you do like it, just be sure not to overdo it (might raise blood pressure)
posted by mirileh at 1:43 AM on July 29, 2017 [1 favorite]

Make sure you're eating enough in general. I know you say your macros are on point but there's no exact science here and you could just be hungry. You should have snacks built in to your plan.

Also, I find if I eat sweets regularly I will continue to want them regularly. Whereas if abstain, or have only one pastry a week with Saturday coffee as a ritual and a treat, then I'm not expecting a little something on Tuesday after dinner or Thursdsay afternoon.

Alternatively, I killed a nightly candy bar addiction once by always having 32 semisweet chocolate chips after dinner whether I wanted them or not. 70 cals of high quality dark chocolate was better for my body than regularly polishing off half a bag of fun sizes, and I never again felt that intense craving.
posted by kapers at 6:20 AM on July 29, 2017 [1 favorite]

Also, as a recovered binge eater I will say that total abstinence from junk --temporary, like a month--really can reset the cycle. If you have binge eating tendencies then you do have to fight through the crave signals harder than other people. Moderation may not be an option for you right now. It's not fair and it feels like torture at first but it's worth a try.
posted by kapers at 6:31 AM on July 29, 2017 [1 favorite]

I usually just eat the thing that I want and then, the rest of the day, eat vegetables if I get hungry. Also, go out and eat the thing at a restaurant if possible--the cost and public scrutiny will keep the brakes on. I can easily eat 2 pints of ice cream or half a homemade cheesecake, without even feeling full, and Lord knows how many empanadas...but if I'm paying at a restaurant, I'll limit myself.
posted by 8603 at 7:56 AM on July 29, 2017

I used to have a lifelong soda dependency. I tried quitting the stuff so many times and I'd always end up returning to it time and again. About three months ago I stopped drinking it completely, and I really believe that I'm over it for good this time. The trick was re-framing the way I thought about it; every time I got a craving for a Coke, instead of agonizing over how much I wanted it, I'd shake my head and tell myself, "I don't drink soda." It sounds so simple but it made a huge difference.
posted by darkchocolatepyramid at 10:12 AM on July 29, 2017

There are pretty different types of cravings in the world. What happens if you just ignore yours for a bit? If you're in the middle of doing something at work / on the computer / with a friend and it's not a good time to go get _whatever_, what happens with it?

Asked to spur some thoughts on your side because I think 'we train ourselves to want things' is definitely one thing that happens. I went off sugar and refined carbohydrates for a while, and for the first, call it a week, I had the normal types of 'habit/boredom' cravings - 'oh man you know what would be great? a piece of cake. Nope, I'm not eating cake any more, do I want an apple instead? No? Then I guess I'm not really hungry.' and maybe half an hour later I'd be doing something else and realize, oh yeah, I never did have that thing and I don't crave it any more. This is still how my daily cravings for cookies go. See/imagine -> Want; Stop seeing -> Stop wanting. But about a week into that dietary change, I went through a bit of an 'extinction burst' of "want-want-want-want" of all the sugary carby things and that was hard - it was also clearly different and more intense than the previous habitual / you-know-what-would-hit-the-spot? type of cravings.
posted by Lady Li at 11:15 AM on July 29, 2017 [1 favorite]

Always start by drinking a glass of water, even a small one. Many times, thirst presents as hunger or craving. I drink a cup of tea with truvia or stevia or have sugarfree gum.
posted by theora55 at 11:48 AM on July 29, 2017

From literature on the Whole30:

It’s not always easy to tell whether you’re actually hungry, or just having a craving. Here are two methods to help you figure out whether you need to eat something healthy or just ride it out the next time the Sugar Dragon rears its ugly head.

HALT! This acronym stands for Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired. The next time you’re having a craving, stop and ask yourself, am I really hungry, or am I just angry (or frustrated), lonely (or bored), or tired. If you’re not really hungry, then use some of our craving combat strategies below to see you through. If you discover that you really are hungry, then eat! (We’ll help you figure out what to eat when the Sugar Dragon is spitting fire next. Hint: it’s not fruit!)

Steamed fish and broccoli: This next trick is a bit simpler, and brutally effective. The next time you get a hankering for something to eat (and are wondering if it’s just a craving), ask yourself, “Am I hungry enough to eat steamed fish and broccoli right now?” If the answer is no… you’re not really hungry, you’re just craving, so act accordingly. If the answer is yes, then you really are hungry! Time to eat… read on to see what the perfect craving-busting meal should look like.

The worst thing to do when you’re craving something sweet (and actually hungry) is to satisfy that craving with sugar, even if it is from an “approved” source. Your brain doesn’t know the difference between a Snickers bar and a dried-fruit-and-nut bar… All your brain knows is that it threw a sugar tantrum, and you gave it sugar.

posted by Brittanie at 12:29 PM on July 29, 2017 [1 favorite]

Good substitutions that don't feel like punishment and ideally don't even feel like compromises help a lot. I fell off the wagon w/t/t soda, was drinking one every day at lunch and feeling like it was an indispensable part of lunch. I obviously put on some weight. I started ordering iced tea instead and then making interesting kinds of iced tea at home (hojicha! tartary buckwheat! Both actually taste a little sweet) and I'm actually not craving soft drinks at all anymore, though other sweets are sometimes tempting. (Fruit can be good for that, though some people will argue fruit is also not great for your weight. Weight Watchers allows you unlimited fruit and is really effective so I'm going with "it's fine.")
posted by Smearcase at 1:29 PM on July 29, 2017

Response by poster: Great ideas everyone! I'll definitely be using some of them. I've been drinking tea with no sugar in latge amounts and I haven't gotten as many cravings.
posted by starlybri at 11:20 AM on July 30, 2017