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Giving up sugar for January, maybe longer

326 replies

GrumpyOldBag · 04/01/2017 18:17

I have decided to try giving up sugar.

Anyone else tried this?

I am going to continue eating fresh fruit, but not dried or juice.

No processed foods containing sugar.

And obviously no fizzy drinks - but don't drink those anyway.

Anyone tried doing this? Can I have honey on my porridge?

I think dry wine & vodka OK?

Anyone got any advice to share? Thanks

OP posts:
hollyisalovelyname · 04/01/2017 18:28

I'll join you if I may.
I am a sugar addict.

OnePlanOnHouzz · 04/01/2017 18:32

My friend did this. She's lost 24lbs so far !!! ( yes I'm very proud of her ! Can you tell !)

GrumpyOldBag · 04/01/2017 18:35

Been doing some reading on this and some plans say you need to give up bread & carbs as well.

But that would be too tricky for me ....

OP posts:
thepennyshop · 06/01/2017 16:35

Yes I'll definitely join this thread at least! Have been very slowly considering giving up sugar for about a year. But I'm a busy working single mum of two toddlers! I'm doing the bare minimum to get by each day, so can't really overhaul our diets in a major way.

That said, I can definitely give up sugary snacks and treats, even if I can't eliminate it from everything (having a ready meal

Noofly · 06/01/2017 16:53

I have given up sugary junk for January. I've never been able to do it before but I had emergency surgery just before Christmas and between that and recovery I managed to get past both my caffeine and sugar addictions. Poor DH bought me a whole load of really nice chocolates for Christmas and I haven't been able to touch them. I plan to nibble on the starting in Feb, but am staying away from my downfalls - biscuits upon biscuits up biscuits and cake and sweets and heaps of sugar in my coffees.

I feel so much better now. My head has lost the fuzziness that it used to have and I'm not tired.

I've been mixing a handful of blueberries into my porridge and find by doing so I don't need sugar or honey.

thepennyshop · 06/01/2017 17:05

Hi Noofly, I think you should plan not to eat those nice chocs at all, as sugar is addictive so it might undo all your hard work. Sounds like you've done really well so far. Did you get bad headaches at the beginning?

Bluntness100 · 06/01/2017 17:10

I guess you're not low carbing, just cutting out sugar right, (note fruit does contain a lot of sugar as does honey ) .are you doing it to lose weight? I guess if you're cutting you're calories it will enable you to lose weight, but not if uou just substitute with other foods to the same calorific content. If you're doing it to be healthier it will definetly help.

If uou want to low carb, then yes, you need to cut out bread and pasta etc too,

Noofly · 06/01/2017 18:02

thepennyshop Unfortunately these were the most expensive chocolates DH has ever seen (work trip to London and he was having a wander round Notting Hill in his spare time) so they will be eaten. There's 16 of them and I'm figuring I can get away with giving the DC a couple each and then splitting the rest with DH which means only 6 for me and I'll have two each weekend until they are gone. I used to be able to eat the odd bit of chocolate and keep it at that so I should be OK.

I managed to avoid headaches. I became ill a few days before Christmas and was hospitalised with an inflamed gall bladder. It was removed on the 23rd and I went home on Christmas Eve but between that (not allowed to eat or drink until I had the op) and having no appetite for nearly a week after getting home, I managed to completely miss the withdrawal- though I was in an awful lot of pain instead!

I've decided to take advantage of it and not go back to caffeine and sugary snacks.

cherrytree63 · 07/01/2017 09:25

I gave up sugar and processed food to lose 3 stone.
I didn't get any withdrawal problems, despite eating a family sized bar of chocolate plus cakes and biscuits every day. (Although when I've given up caffeine in the past I've been so Ill I thought I had a brain tumour)!
I forget the exact science, (there was info on here when i started) but although fruit does contain sugar, because you are eating it with the fibre, you avoid the instant sugar rush and insulin spoke that it caused. So eating fruit is healthier than fruit juice or smoothie.
I find full fat milk and fresh fruit makes porridge sweet enough.

hollyisalovelyname · 07/01/2017 09:47

Cherry did you lose the three stone?
I have been a disgrace over the past couple of days but I shall pick myself up, dust myself down and start all over again.

thepennyshop · 07/01/2017 11:11

Ooh Noofly those chocs sound good, I was going to say give them to me instead ha ha! I'm sure 16 will be ok like you say.

Just to pick up on that point up thread, about you won't lose weight from cutting out sugar, if you replace it with the same amount of calories in other food.

That's not true. Reading a great book "The Case Against Sugar' at the moment. The line that a calorie from sugar is equal to a calorie from say broccoli is not true.
If you replaced all calories from sugar with a bulk load of calories from broccoli you would certainly lose weight!

Basically refined sugar is a chemical and works in a different way inside our bodies.

The hormonal and insulin changes that occur when you eat sugar, makes fat cells trap excessive calories as fat, and don't allow it to escape or be used as energy by the rest of the body.

This means your body is eating, but the food isn't going to the normal organs which are expecting it. So your body sends signals to eat more, and still only a percentage gets through to your organs, and a percentage goes into the fat cells.

This explains the 'delayed sense of satiety and frequently abnormal taste for carbohydrates encountered in obese persons'

It also explains the big crash you get after eating sugar, where you feel drained. It's because not the full amount of what you've eaten has gone into your body in the normal way. Your body is drained from food. And an abnormal process is trapping it in the fat cells.

Phew, it is interesting reading. Started the book on Thursday and not even felt like sugar since! Had ready meal for dinner and bread for lunch, so refined sugars are sneaking in. But my mouth felt a lot different last night. I thought I'd cleaned my teeth already but I hadn't. Just didn't have the normal fuzzy feeling.

Got kids birthday party to day and tmrw, so think the kids will be going crazy on sugar. But I'm sure if I model good behaviour it will slowly trickle down to them!

GrumpyOldBag · 07/01/2017 11:39

Well I currently have 2 of those plastic pots of Millionaires Shortbread & Rocky Road from Waitrose sitting in the food cupboard. Normally the dc would demolish them in a couple of days but they are away for a few days! But so far I have resisted ...

I also got expensive chocs for xmas but made sure I ate them before starting my new regime.

Will try blueberries on porridge as it's a bit dull without anything. Discovered my "nutty" Dorset cereals muesli is 14% sugar so will have to give that up.

Anyone know if honey is less bad than normal sugar?

Cut back on wheat a long time ago, so bread & pasta not really an issue for me.

I would like to lose half a stone which I put on last year due to working from home & snacking more.

OP posts:
thepennyshop · 07/01/2017 12:43

I think honey is similar to normal sugar. But at the same time obese people didn't get obese from eating too much honey.

It's harder to use honey in as many foods as you can use sugar in. E.g. Cakes sweets biscuits fizzy drinks white bread etc. So the times when you'd be eating honey are a lot less.

I had been putting honey on my porridge every morning, and my son has toast with honey every single morning too. I've now stopped putting it on my porridge though, and only give him really thin scraping on his toast the last two days and he's not mentioned it.

Were you wanting to put it on your porridge?

FlyMeToTheSpoon · 07/01/2017 12:44

I hope you dont mind if i join too. I just bought the "I quit sugar" book and am going to start the 8 week programme on Monday. I am addicted to sugar, I eat a family sized bar of chocolate every day. The rest of my diet is healthy (hardly any wheat, lots of fresh fruit and veg, brown rice, minimal dairy) and I go to the gym regularly but sugar is my downfall and I'm worried I'm screwing up my insulin levels.

I think honey is not as bad as refined sugar grumpy , most of the trendy, clean eating restaurants near me use agave syrup instead of sugar which is another type of natural sweetener. I've not read up on the different effects though.

cherrytree63 · 07/01/2017 12:51

holly, sorry wasnt clear in my post, yes I lost 3 stone.
the penny, that book sounds really good!
Grumpy from what I read honey is just as unhealthy as sugar and perpetuates the craving.
I eat loads of full fat dairy (cheese, butter, Greek yoghurt - Also sell a delicious one- full fat milk on my cereal and in coffee).
Calories are not equal, the body uses more calories to digest a calorie of fat as it does a calorie of sugar.
Nuts are high calorie, but we can't break the nut down enough to absorb the calories.
But everyone is different, I have a friend who is obsessed with calories, starves herself all week on 500 calorie pre packaged meals and then eats whatever she wants at the weekend. She's lost loads of weight but looks dry and pale.

cherrytree63 · 07/01/2017 12:52

Aldi, not also sells the yoghurt Blush

Noofly · 07/01/2017 13:24

cherry Can I ask how long it took you to lose the three stone? I'm hoping to eventually lose 2.5 stone, doing it in small milestone chunks. I was only going to weigh myself once a month but broke down and weighed myself today- was 2.5lbs down from last Saturday which takes me to 9.5lbs since pre-op weigh in.

I'm really pleased because we still have a house full of chocolates, biscuits and ice cream but I'm not tempted by them at all. Hoping this lasts!!

GrumpyOldBag · 07/01/2017 14:47

Agave syrup must be refined or processed, no? Which is why I prefer honey or maple syrup as sweeteners because I see them as more 'natural'.

But I think I am going to try the porridge with blueberries & no honey for a bit & see how I get on ...

FlyMe my diet is similar to yours. I don't think i overindulge in sugar too much, but with 2 teenage boys in the house we do have a lot of sweet treats which I can't always resist & I'm interested in seeing if it has an effect if I cut it out.

OP posts:
cherrytree63 · 07/01/2017 16:55

Noofly it took me about 31/2 months.

Noofly · 07/01/2017 19:25

Oh that's not too long at all! Well done (and quite encouraging for me)! grin]

Ibloodyhatethomasthetankengine · 07/01/2017 20:49

Was literally about to start a thread asking if anyone had done this as I am definitely sugar-addicted and just feel grim.

Does anyone have any good links or resources they can recommend to get started? Thanks x

SixtiesChildOfWildBlueSkies · 07/01/2017 21:00

I started doing this last March. I cut out all sugar, so no biscuits, cakes, pastries, pies etc - threw them all in the bin - a total sugar lockdown . And also started walking just 3 times a week - about 1-2 miles each time.

I've lost 3 1/2 stone in weight, dropped 4 dress sizes and feel fantastic.

It's also now my way of life. My partner joined me in this(he's lost weight too) and we decided to not have anything sugar related in the house. but, if when we go out at the weekend, to allow ourselves a sweet treat - such as an icecream - if we wanted one.....we don't always as we've lost that sweet tooth thing!

An average days menu is :
Breakfast - homemade muesili with grated apple +soya milk.
Lunch - toasted gluten Free pitta bread with smear of peanut butter or some cheese+ sides of tomato and cucumber slices.
Dinner - roast dinner with mash and lots of veggies.
Snack - paelo nutty/fruit bar - no added sugar.

Re a PP - honey is every bit as calorie laden as sugar.

Go for it people Star

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minnymoobear · 07/01/2017 21:08

Have downloaded the sugar smart app which is very interesting!


Stopped buying chocolates etc and have not had any this week - used to have loads every evening with a cuppa!
Drinking water instead of fizzy drinks
Need to cut down on take away, cereals and processed foods

Bit difficult at the mo as no kitchen due to building work but will do best I can

mummymummums · 07/01/2017 21:27

I gave up sugar November and lost 9lb in just over 4 weeks. I did it because blood test showed I was borderline pre diabetic which was a shock as I'm fit and a size 10. However, I have a small frame and wanted to lose a bit but no matter what I did I couldn't shift it. Joined WW which was an epic fail and even on 1200-1500 cals a day I was putting on weight. I was hungry ALL the time. Constant battle.
I went for a low GI diet as well as cutting out sugar and it's been life changing - lost weight easily and not hungry all the time. Even though I wasn't proper diabetic my Dr felt I just don't process sugars well as I now eat 1200-1500 low GI and am losing.

mummymummums · 07/01/2017 21:30

Should add that my old diet was full of white rice, butternut squash, mango, grapes and some sweets - all high GI

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