To have gone insane for sugar today...and ask for your help

[Jewels234]

Can I prelude this AIBU by telling you that at 5 ft 5 and 9.5 stone I am a healthy size 10. I am a vegetarian with a veg heavy diet, and work out around 5 times a week, a mixture of long distance running and HIIT. I did a half marathon at the weekend, and was in the gym still on Monday.

However. I am ridiculously addicted to sugar. Today alone I ate a Mars bar, a dairy milk, 3 bakery sized cookies, a mini bag of haribo, a waffle, and a bowl of ice cream with fudge sauce. This isn't a normal day, but it has made me realize how absolute bat shit crazy I go for sugar. Almost to the point that I don't care about other food...I just want sugar. I'm not hungry, but still can't stop.

This is totally U isn't it? I need to just get it all out of my diet and go cold turkey. Anyone else get like this?

YANBU. You have to get your energy somehow. I guess a juicy steak is out of the question, so...

Up your intake of complex carbohydrates and you won't crave sugar. Eat some pasta. Have a slice of bread to go with that vegetable dish.

The hardest part is stopping. Your brain reacts like an addicts brain when you don't eat it. But once you've gone cold turkey, you just simply stop wanting it. My stomach literally hurts after eating sugar now. So I get fat off cheese and bread instead

I crave sugar really badly. So much so that I will simply eat it by the spoonful and eat blocks of marzipan and icing. I am going to start researching a sugar free diet.

I need to stop too. I feel like shit after sugar binges.

I was doing well and then realized I was pregnant, which seemed to be a reason to eat whatever I wanted. :(

I eat fruit pastillies now, I can do up to four tubes a day without even particularly noticing, plus two cans of relentless, plus sugar in my coffee, plus peanut butter/lemon curd toast, plus any biscuits or cakes that come within reach.

DP says I have the eating habits of a bee

I know it's unhealthy, and I know I have too much caffeine as well, but I keep thinking I'll try and cut down then end up falling asleep mid task. Sugary energy drinks allow me to get stuff done, otherwise I sit around feeling depressed (I have bipolar disorder, take mood stabiliser and anti depressant too, but energy drink takes the edge off, even though long term it's not good)

I don't smoke or gamble, and hardly drink, but I seem to have a self destructive brain and a terrible lack of self control...

Ooh, and vimto rip rolls. One of them and a lemon ice relentless and I can do ANYTHING

In my defence, I drink women's energy tea too, and sugar free cordial, it's not all caffeine and sugar...

(I drink a lot, my meds give me a dry mouth)

My stepmother was like some of you. Tall, slim, walked the dogs ten miles a day, every day. She ate a good diet, my dad did all the cooking and was a little obsessive about healthy eating. She also ate a Mars bar everyday. The bare minimum. Often that and a bar of Cadburys and something else. Her diabetes killed her just before her 70th birthday.

I suspect with that exercise you need more protein- cheese? Beans?

I'm reading chocolate busters by Jason vale, only half way through it and already it is putting me off sweet stuff

Yes no one made much fuss of the headlines last week that only 50% of people being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes are overweight and a section were actually underweight. There are clearly genetic factors at work too but a high sugar diet can be incredibly damaging.

OP I am similar weight and exercise profile to you, I always get similarly hungry in the afternoon around 4, I've come to realise it's just how I am. Think of it as a small meal and you are likely to make more nutritious choices, have something with protein and good fat, with a hit of sweetness if you feel you need it. Banana or apple spread with peanut butter, a milky coffee sprinkled with cinnamon, maybe with a square or two of dark chocolate, a small slice of sourdough with half a mashed avocado and some chilli flakes, a handful of raw nuts and dried fruit, a bowl of full fat Greek yoghurt with berries, a hard boiled egg with a blob of mayo, nuts and a drizzle of honey....these should satisfy your hunger and give you steady energy without triggering the sugar switch .

Oops, my egg mayo found it's way into the bowl of yoghurt with fruit and nuts there...yeugh

I gave up all sweets cakes and biscuits as i could also go without meals and have a sweet and coffee for my lunch etc.
I became addicted to aldi tablet, i had to have a bar of it every day, its superb!
I decided to do an "experiment" on myself and give all that shit up for one year to see how my health would benefit.
3 month in and i know i will not go back to my old ways, when i think of how i used to feel after a blow out…yuck!

I ordered chocolate flavored whey protein powder from Amazon. I have it in thick shakes with soya milk and berries, or mix with full fat Greek yogurt to make chocolate mousse. It satisfies the chocolate taste need and is a little sweet, but both the above choices are low carbohydrates and the fat and protein make them filling. The powder is 2.3 g carbohydrates per scoop, its my regular breakfast or after workout meal now. Could be worth a try just to cut down the number of sweet carbs you have to stabilize blood sugar levels more.

If I don't have a snack and hot drink mid morning I get plummeting sugar at 4pm, the shakes etc. So always have something smallish but filling eg cheese and biscs or wholemeal toast at 10.

So you should try that, perhaps eat more than I do.

Then I am also not starving at lunch time so eat more reasonably then rather than wolfing stuff.

Though fruit or just veg wouldn't be sufficient - I need carbs.

So the secret is to pre-empt the craving by eating 6 hours before or thereabouts.

John Yudkin wrote a book in the early seventies claiming sugar was the cause of obesity, the diet industry all but destroyed his reputation...because they add vast amounts of sugar to low-fat foods. He's beeI'm trying to wean myself off it (can still make a toffee crisp disapear in seconds)

Have you taken a hard look at how many calories you burn and how many you get from your normal diet? People who do a lot of vigorous exercise need a lot of calories - you shouldn't be looking at what's considered normal / socially acceptable for someone whose main exercise is putting the washing out and walking from the car to the shop, or even someone who does half an hour in the gym a couple of times a week.

I think you need a better diet with more carbs in forms other than sugar. I'd expect someone doing what you do to be eating a shedload of pasta, for a start.

Don't know where that that "he beel" came from, probably where the p disappeared to)

I was using sugar as main energy boost when I was sleep deprived. And realised a hot chocolate twice a day with loads of marshmallows (replacing lunch) was making me feel yeuch.

So I pretty much have it up, I didn't want the cravings. Give it three days then yours should pass. You'll feel better.

Gave it up

Yep 3 days is all it takes to quit sugar. I went sugar free for about 4 months but can now eat it in moderation.

I used to get that dizzy shaky feeling most days and I thought it was hunger...I only get it now if I've been back on the sugar. I use it as a signal that I'm eating too much of it now.

If you stop eating sugar, how long until you can eat some in moderation?

Its complicated but my job occaisionally requires me to eat sugary foods

I stopped for a few months and can eat in moderation now - I was a total sugar junkie. I wanted to stop for a few months though for weight loss.

virtual it depends on your reaction to it. I believe that for some people it really is an addiction, once they have a little they can't stop. Only you can assess this by quitting for a while then trying a little, see if you can have a small amount and walk away...most people can btw, the sweetness in processed sugary foods actually becomes unpleasant for some people, or at least much less appealing.

I think people use the word "addiction" a bit too freely.

Would you sell your body for a cube of sugar? (No? Then the crack cocaine comparison downthread is nonsense)

Do you get withdrawal syndromes if you don't eat sugar for a day? (I recently quit sugar for a week and had no withdrawal syndromes whatsoever, fwiw)