So im getting to the point where by my intake of sugary foods is bordering on the obscene. Im trying to cut down a bit but finding it very hard. At work its worst. Ive tried substituting choc biscuits with things like nuts but im finding that im just eating both. Im not even hungry. Just struggling to stop the sugar intake.

Any advice to help cut it down?

get rid of the easy stuff first. Coke can be replaced by diet versions, or heaven forfend…water? choc is harder, there is a measure of will power needed, but you can swap to dark choc squares, they have considerably less sugar than twix/mars bars etc. eat fruit? still a sugar hit, but with a bit of roughage thrown in.

But it’s a mind set really, you need to get your head in the place where not not eating sugar is more attractive than eating it.

It’s the habit as much as anything. Sipping on a cup of tea, rooibos/honeybush if you worried about caffeine, or maybe chewing gum to give your gob something to do. You may find cutting out all sugary snacks for a week or so first helps. As it will remove any risk of grazing. If that’s not possible, then just allow one banana as a snack. It will have a sugar hit, but healthier as well.

At the end of the day, some of it’s going to come down to good ‘ol willpower. For what it’s worth, I have quit smoking, drinking and caffeine….but it’s the sugar I did/am really struggle with.

A few bits of reading:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jan/17/a-guide-to-cutting-down-on-sugar
http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Goodfood/Pages/how-to-cut-down-on-sugar-in-your-diet.aspx

Of course you could go full bore, and adopt the philosophies of the likes of Prof. Tim Noakes, Robert Lustig, Dr Aseem Malhotra etc in dumping all sugar, and going full fat/protein.

Have a decent breakfast.
Don’t buy junk food.
Don’t have any in the house.
Stay away from vending machines.
Fill up at card pumps,don’t go in the garage shops.
Have gruel oatcakes and water at work if you must have a snack.
Do a menu plan for your main meals and only buy what you need.
Easy init 😉

Find where the sugar is, it’s not always obvious as many savoury foods contain a lot of sugar to keep you addicted.
Then breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dine like a pauper.
Fill up with a good homemade, sugar free breakfast (my current favourite is veg omelette with black pudding), lunch is a salad and I have no desire to snack.
Dinner can be anything homemade, and this is the key. Homemade allows you to control what you put in to you ingest.

I’m three months in to a low carb diet. I went completely cold turkey and the first couple of weeks were absolute hell, I was lethargic, full of cold etc. I’m an ex-smoker too, quitting carbs is much harder than quitting cigarettes IMHO.

Someone will have to kill me before I quit caffeine though.

Porridge instead of cereal.

Bowl of mini tomatoes on kitchen worktop, apples and bananas in easier reach than Haribo and Bourbons. Chewing gum instead of a snack when you can. Sweetex is the best flavour sweetener for me for my tea and coffee. Avoid fancy coffees that are more than coffee and milk.

but you can swap to dark choc squares

This

Similar here, 17.5 stone in Jan, so just cut back a bit on portion size and lost a stone by end of June. realised it was the carbs that were the problem, so just cut them out as much as I could. No processed food, no potatoes, pastries, rice or pasta. Just fruit and veg, and easy on the fruit. Still have 3 to 4 cups tea/coffee per day with one sugar (giving up smoking was a doddle compared to stopping sugar in hot drinks) – down from my usual two. . . found it hard for the first week with banging headaches, but kept up the fluid intake with plenty of water. feel so much better and much less bloated, and dropped a stone in 3 weeks!

So still bread?

Man….not sure I want to live in a world without German style potato salad.

Double post, eh?

Watch the Apprentice less.

nope – no bread . . . . nothing processed – even beer!!

im not keen on giving up the carbs. what im trying to give up is the multiple choc bars im getting through a day.

tried this morning and my jaw is grinding at the moment!! id have normally had 5+ choc biscuits by now.

I have a real issue with sugar too, I’ve stopped a few times but I always get back in to bad habits.
It’s been particularly bad in the last year as there are always ‘treats’ in the house as due to my wife ‘needing’ them whilst pregnant and now breastfeeding, before that not having them in the house did the trick. Working from home doesn’t help either.
Sugary drinks have never been much of an issue and our main meals are mostly healthy and cooked from scratch. I just can’t get through the day without snacking on biscuits / sweets / cake.

protein flapjacks.
still contain carbs, but are generally quite filling, and the protein content will help you stay full for longer.

its not about feeling full i dont think. Im not generally hungry. its an addiction?

its not about feeling full i dont think. Im not generally hungry. its an addiction?

yep, as addictive as cocaine

its not about feeling full i dont think. Im not generally hungry. its an addiction?

This

For those who like sugar in their tea/coffee use sugar lumps.

It’s always the same amount and far less sugar than most would put in when using a spoon.

And whenever you think of buying processed food, don’t.

Go cold turkey for a week. Then treat yourself to a sugar binge. Your arsehole will teach you everything you need to know about the evils of sugar.

im not keen on giving up the carbs. what im trying to give up is the multiple choc bars im getting through a day.

tried this morning and my jaw is grinding at the moment!! id have normally had 5+ choc biscuits by now.

I had to give it up, pancreas gave up.

Drinks are easy, just buy diet – the anti-sweetners stuff is rubbish. They’re OK in normal quantities. Personal preference for me is Sucralose\Splenda based stuff, less after tastes. Loathe Stevia and pretty much anything ending in -ol, like sorbitol, will turn a tap on in your arse 🙂

Crisps, chocolate and biscuits were tough. I found the easiest way was to avoid the aisle in the supermarket at first, if they’re not in the house, I’m not tempted. Work were the worse as they would always have cakes and biscuits in, that had to be just sheer will power. I can now watch a couple of packets of chocolate Hobnobs get demolished by the other people in the office and not bother.

Breakfast I only do porridge now. Pretty much every cerial has added sugar in large quantites. The ones that don’t taste like the cardboard they come in.

Bread I never buy, stuff like Tiger Bread and other Supermarket fresh loaves is terrible for added sugar (and using flour so refined it might as well be sugar).
Got a taste for the Dark Rye Ryvita and that’s pretty much my bread replacement.

Yoghurts were something I missed as I found most of the main brands were around the 20% sugars mark. The FAGE Greek stuff has no added sugar and you can add in granulated sweetner and your own fruit if you want something sweet.

I got into the habit of looking at the ingredients list when shopping, anything that was more than 6g of Sugars per 100g and I didn’t buy it. After a while I relaxed that and could go over once in a while but that 6% sugars is my standard cut off mark.

Snacks during the day were difficult but I mostly went cold turkey, porridge for breakfast and a really good dinner helped. Sometimes went for cold chicken pieces or a Ryvita with a massive slab of cheese if it got bad.

It’s worthwhile doing it, carbohydrate is a brilliant fuel, just a shame that there’s too much of the quick burn refined stuff about 🙂

its not about feeling full i dont think. Im not generally hungry. its an addiction?

I would concur with this. I could eat a big meal, but still demolish a pack of choc bourbons. Despite being full enough.

So what sugary foods are you eating aside from biscuits ?

FWIW IMO you have a sugar addiction – you have trained your body to need it and thats why its hard to stop

As above best drink is water

Biscuits. Start by reducing the number, say only 1 or 2 a day and then try and go to zero

Goal if possible is not to buy any biscuits / sweet stuff. Do not have any in the house

Edit: good luck by the way, its tough I know – I cut out most sugar and it can take a while to kick the addiction and habit of snacks and also to adapt to the different taste

interesting that others have / are having the same problem.

im not going to get to the point im looking at food lables. Just need to cut out the twixes / boosts / minstrels / bonbons that im eating every day 🙁

The problem with diet cola etc is that it can make sugar cravings worse because it conditions you to want sweet things.

Start by not having biscuits and cakes in the house. Have a tiny amount of sugar in tea to start with offset the craving.

Don’t carry around change for vending machines. Shop for food online with a strict list to stop you picking up chocs etc when you go around. Cut down on bread – swap white for brown at the very least. Brown rice for white rice. Buy smaller plates to reduce portion size.

Most importantly, don’t sit around in the evening, no matter how tired you are. Find a project, maybe build up or restore a bike, something like that. Or just go for a ride.

You will feel shit for a couple of days then suddenly your energy levels will go up.

Just need to cut out the twixes / boosts / minstrels / bonbons that im eating every day

Or

😀

Food tables and getting very nerdy with I all has actually been a real help for me – just reinforces will power and gives me some structure and a plan to stick to . . .

Be really strict, and after a while you won’t miss it too much, but don’t give it up entirely or you could end up cracking and having a sugar binge!

The problem with diet cola etc is that it can make sugar cravings worse because it conditions you to want sweet things.

I think this is one of those things you have to see how it effects you personally, I don’t drink that much diet drink, but it certainly doesn’t have that effect on me. (I’m not saying it’s not true, just that it varies from person to person)

Oh, and why not try making your own low sugar snacks? I make a essentially no sugar flapjack (found recipes on line)

Food tables and getting very nerdy with I all has actually been a real help for me – just reinforces will power and gives me some structure and a plan to stick to .

I reckon this is a good point – although you might not want to micromanage your diet, if you can develop awareness of the sugar/calorie levels of a choc bar, then when you do wander over to the cupboard and pick one up, there’s another internal voice going ‘yeah but it is 250 calories that I don’t particularly need…’.

It’s not a massive thing, but might serve as another nudge in the right direction. I find it helps with me for booze, funnily enough, even though I don’t watch the calories in any other area of my diet 🙂

im not going to get to the point im looking at food lables. Just need to cut out the twixes / boosts / minstrels / bonbons that im eating every day

I think you may need to. At least initially.

I find this really fascinating – I can sit in front of a plate of biscuits at a meeting and not be bothered about them at all, whereas my business partner (despite being mid-season of his race calendar and on strict food rules) cannot resist them and disappoints himself every time by giving in.

Beer on the other hand – I can’t resist but he can go months without touching a drop without any bother.

We stopped buying processed stuff with sugar in and OH swapped from two sugars in tea and coffee to one sweetener. It’s difficult to make the change, cos chocolate is awesome, but once you’re in the habit of not eating sweet stuff it gets easier. Not buying sweets is made much infinitely easier by the fact Cadbury’s is now owned by Kraft and Nestle are a bunch of evil bastards so I refuse to buy their shit on principle. High cocoa solid dark chocolate is good for a chocolate hit.

Also, and this is great, you can eat more sausage, egg and bacon sandwiches if you stop eating sugar 😀 Medical fact*, right there.

* not a medical fact

Beer on the other hand – I can’t resist but he can go months without touching a drop without any bother.

So you can resist it.

I was in a similar place to you OP. Wanted to reduce intake as my Dad is very ill with type 2 diabetes, and I was probably on course for similar. Never seemed able to keep up any changes, so tried hypnotherapy. Worked from the first session, and was able to be as flexible as I wanted (still allowed desserts when eating out, for example).

Haven’t had any sweets in over a year, so it’s been very effective. I’ve recently decided to have my birthday ‘off’ every year, however, so will be in a haribo-induced coma by 10am next February…

its not about feeling full i dont think. Im not generally hungry.

Just need to cut out the twixes / boosts / minstrels / bonbons that im eating every day

At the risk of stating the obvious, don’t buy them, can’t eat what you don’t have.
The thing I find harder to understand is how someone on a cycling forum can not be hungry, i’m ALWAYS hungry.

andybrad

interesting that others have / are having the same problem.

im not going to get to the point im looking at food lables. Just need to cut out the twixes / boosts / minstrels / bonbons that im eating every day

Do some research into just how poisonous sugar is, then read some food labels. It’ll be an eye opener.

As for diet consider that what works for some will not work for you. IE lots of people recommending porridge for breakfast. I used to eat porridge every day (haven’t eaten cereal in years) but I started reading about people who have energy slumps/intense hunger pangs after breakfast….which I did. I now have a double espresso and just get on with it and I’m good until lunch. Yesterdays carbs keep me going just fine.

Consider a low carb/lower carb diet and this will actually lessen your cravings and make it easier for you to resist things. If you try and tough it out on will power alone you’ll probably struggle, whereas if you can get your diet in order overly sugary things will make you feel nauseous, which makes them a lot easier to resist.

If I have time I’ll go for porridge, mostly I’ll have shredded wheat as it’s easier to prepare and saves me at least 3 minutes every morning.

As snacks go I started eating dried lentils/chickpeas etc. You can find them in the world food isles in supermarkets or even discount stores – poundland, B&M etc.

I don’t crave sugar any longer, in fact I don’t enjoy it when I eat it. If I have a craving it’s generally after I’ve been on the bike or in the gym. Easily satisfied with half a dozen peanut M&Ms or a couple of jelly snakes.

I’ve gone low carb and no sugar. Lost 3 stone since May. It requires a change in mindset really it’s not something you can dip in and out of. I will only have brown rice and then a quarter of what I would of normally had. No white rice, pasta or bread. Up your protein content especially fish and chicken. Sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes. It’s really bloody hard at first but I’ve never lost the weight as easily as I have this time. Weight loss has settled down now and I’m down to under 16st. I’m only losing about 1/2 LB a week. I am 6ft 4″ though. My only treat is 90% Cocoa Dark Choc I’ll have a piece with a cup of coffee when I get home from work. It isn’t so much sugar for me that was the culprit but too many Carbs. Sugar is easy compared to giving up bread, rice and pasta!