I’m addicted to sugar and need help.

[Watdaheck]

I feel a little silly writing here about sugar addiction when so many have much more serious addictions but I don’t know where to turn.

I've been addicted as long as I can remember, as a child sweets were used to pacify me and as an adult I continued to use them to pacify myself as I have very low self esteem and confidence. It wasn’t so bad when I worked as I was busy and couldn’t get hold of them continuously or was just too busy at work.

i took early retirement 5 years ago at 55 and it’s dawned on me that I’m just eating more and more sweets and chocolate. I’m at home most of the day and rarely eat before lunchtime. But after lunch, when I’ve finished my housework, I give myself the afternoon to chill, watch tv, play with and walk the dog, drink coffee, read magazines and eat chocolate and sweets, it’s almost like a reward.

i would estimate I eat around 1000 calories a day in chocolate and sweets. I’m educated and intelligent but I just can’t cut down without getting cravings….and then giving in. Every night I tell myself I will do better the next day and I have ended up in this perpetual cycle.

I would pay a lot of money for someone to cure me of this. I watched 100’s of videos on YouTube about it and even tried hypnosis but nothing has worked. I’m reasonably ‘healthy’ for my age (albeit 2 stone overweight) but no serious medical problems but I fear I am storing them up for the future.

Can anyone give advise, guidance or help? Thank you.

Dates filled with peanut butter and some nuts is a delicious sweet treat.....
Yes I took am addicted to sugar ...as soon as I eat my lunch/dinner I need a sweet treat

That’s interesting…. How much do you drink at a time? Do you have any concern that you’re having too much kefir?

Just a very small glass of it does the job, I use about 250ml of milk and make a new batch once every 1-2 days, depending on how it’s developing.

I have this and love it…and if there is any chocolate or biscuits etc around I eat that too

Thank you really appreciate your time explaining, not for me so you’ve saved me time and effort thinking about it!

Today I started with good intentions and a protein yoghurt with blueberries. By now I’ve had 3 chocolate bars, a bag of mini eggs, a massive bowl of cereal, toast, sugar in tea 3 times and a McDonald’s meal with a milkshake 😒. I had to try really hard not to also buy a pack of biscuits in the shop but managed to walk past.

I ‘micro dosed’ a GLP1 for a while as a trial, it made massive difference and it took about 6 weeks to fully wear off after I stopped (because I thought I’d got things under control- ha!) - maybe I need to fork out to stay on it forever 😔

You don’t @Oifeathers . You need to eat really low carb or keto and just eat meat, vegetables, dairy and eggs. It’s natural GLP1 without the steep cost and risky side effects. I don’t know why more people don’t know this.

If you eat anything sweet it’s going to open the floodgates. Trust me, I know. It’s the same for me. I cannot eat sweet things because I cannot control them.

exactly as @PegDope if you eat mainly green vegetables, with enough meat, fat and dairy to make the food palatable, you body will adapt and that food noise is dampened down naturally. It takes a few days, while your brain is screaming for its drug of choice (sugar and starchy carbs). Within a fortnight (usually much more quickly but best to set modest expectations) you will have lost your appetite for processed / sugary / starchy near food substitutes and be back with the taste of real food. Not as ‘exciting’ or ‘fun’ as junk food by
ut so much better for your mental and physical health.

i feel so much better and calmer for eating ‘real food’ and can moderate my intake without ease.

the processed food industry has been making fools of most of us since the ‘70s when they started peddling the ‘low fat is healthy’ message to sell us overpriced, unhealthy but addictive c**p instead of food. More profit for them, much worse for us.

come and find us over on the low carb Bootcamp thread.

Don’t buy it? I’m okay as long as it’s not in the house, biscuits, chocolate, sweets etc if they’re in the house I can’t stop myself eating them.

If I’m craving something sweet having something like Greek yogurt with a small amount of honey sometimes helps.

How do you make it?

@Oifeathers if you really are a sugar addict, then moderation is not possible. It has to be abstinence, or damn near to.

I discovered by experimentation that the higher cocoa chocolate does not set me off in the same way. The threshold for me is 85% - that or above, I can have 2 squares to end my main meal, and stop and I’m happy. Any higher sugar content than that, and even if I don’t give in to actually eating it (or something else as a substitute), I will be obsessed with it for days.

And it goes without saying, I do not eat puddings, cakes, biscuits any more. For a while I made substitutes using almond flour and a natural sweetener such as erithrytol or glycine. But tbh the sweet taste is an issue in and of itself. So now I don’t do that. A batch of keto bounty bars a couple of times a year, and that’s it. I’ve also given up crisps and similar salty snack foods (and actually UPF’S more generally), and peanut butter. Because even the no sugar organic stuff I was eating with a spoon from the jar. The whole jar.

Now I eat real food the vast majority of the time. The only UPF’s we have at home are things my husband eats which I do not, or a jar of lime pickle. When eating out, I do my best to avoid or minimise them.

My life is much better for it. Even if some people roll their eyes.

I’ll just add that switching to real food will deal with the physical craving. If that is the only thing driving your sugar consumption, you’ll be golden. But if there are also emotional factors driving your eating, what then Twelve Step world calls the mental obsession, then you will need to address that as well. Otherwise, sooner or later, your subconscious will persuade you that it would be nice to have one. Just one. You’ll just have one.

And maybe you will. But more likely you won’t.

You can buy milk kefir grains online, you just need a jar with a breathable cover, a wooden spoon and a plastic sieve. You add the milk and strain it, then you can freeze grains in milk as they multiply as a back up.
It’s honestly so easy, I am very slapdash but they take care of themselves pretty well.

@PuzzledObserver thanks for your thoughtful response- I do think it is psychological as much as physical with me. I definitely associate sugar with comfort, it’s how I was brought up. The answer to any problem was sugar, or happy occasion, or moment of pride or a job well done, or being tired etc etc. I’ve tried therapy for this, to no avail.

I’ve done therapy (CBT) and hypnotherapy. Also the Intuitive Eating approach, which says you shouldn’t try to restrict anything because that creates scarcity and makes you want to rebel. None of them did anything for me. What is working for me now is the 12 steps.

There are several online providers for dealing with sugar addiction, if you do a search.

Don’t despair…. There are alternatives…. I hope you find one that fits you.

I'm interested to know how people deal with events such as birthdays.

A friend loves to make me a cake, another makes jam. I find it really hard to refuse.

@BerfyTigot I get where you’re coming from, and struggled with that for a while. It wasn’t that anyone was making anything for me specifically, it was more that I felt my birthday (or whatever) needed cake to make it complete.

Then I heard someone talking about a mindset shift…. choosing to make the people and the conversation the focus of the celebration, rather than the food. And once you add the understanding that the food (sugar) is an addictive metabolic toxin, it becomes easier.

I don’t celebrate or treat myself by consuming poison. I do it by engaging in activities I enjoy with people I like, and who like me. If any of those people choose to consume metabolic poison, to which I am addicted, that’s their choice and I won’t interfere with it. But I wouldn’t smoke just because everyone else was….. so why would I eat sugar, just because they are, when I have come to see I can’t safely use it?

When someone makes something especially for you, there is an extra layer of complexity. You have to have The Talk. Explain that you know they’ve always made that for you, and you appreciate it, but sadly you have realised it’s not good for your health and you need not to eat it. Maybe suggest alternatives.

But at the end of the day, don’t allow anyone else’s disappointment or pressure to make you eat something which you know will harm you.

@PuzzledObserver thank you so much for that reply. Comparing it to another drug is useful to me. I don't drink and it's doesn't bother me so maybe I can get to that stage with sugar.

I’ve found that I can have one piece of cake or choc. I try to make myself eat it slowly and savour it rather than eat it quickly and greedily like I used to. It’s another habit I’m trying to change. I don’t want to be leering at forbidden foods, I need to learn control. And I try to have things like that in company where I can share it out. I might insist they take it home too - saying it’s absolutely delicious (they will have seen me eat it) but you know I’m trying to lose weight so I can’t have any more. I’m kind of trying to do what my slim friends do!

Did you find a solution in the end, OP? I notice that this thread has been going since October 2025...

I no longer eat crisps, and rarely eat sweets, ice cream or biscuits, but... it is chocolate and Coke for me (the cola variety, not the drug)! I manage a few days, because going to the supermarket requires the effort of driving into town, but if I need something for a meal, I usually end up 'treating' myself. OK, it makes me feel better on the bad days, especially when my anxiety is bad or it's that time of the month, but in my head, I know that it's not good for me. No amount of reading or watching programmes seems to help. Sometimes when my family visit, they bring things, like big boxes of Christmas biscuits 'because I can't have it, your healthy sibling won't let them across the doorstep, and you will eat them, so it is not going to waste'. I do not want them, but then the shortbread tempts me!

I stopped sugar yesterday. This morning I have a headache, of course. I just had a banana and an apple.
Meeting friends for coffee soon but I think I'll cancel as it is in a cake shop!!!!

Following

Me too cut down loads though and now manageable. Its very addictive.
protein will make a massive difference. Have 1 or 2 eggs with porridge again lunch and dinner big protein focus fish meat and veg. Expect to take 6 weeks to reprogram ive never been better, literally still got chocolate bought 3 days ago whereas before eaten before got to car.

Lots of really good advice here. I realised my evening sweet stuff snacking was habit and that my hands were used to being occupied. I play with blu tack to keep my fingers busy now! I do snack on grapes, cherries, olives at times in the evenings and this has helped me to be healthier.

I also agree that thinking about nutrition is important in shifting mindset. I no longer think about ‘bad’ food but instead ask myself ‘is this nutritious’ if the answer is ‘no’ I actually think about why I’m going to eat it. The answer is usually boredom, being tired, that I deserve a treat etc. This has really made me reduce poor food choices.

I also read Ultra Processed People, it really helped me understand the power of the food industry and has really made me think about what I put in my body.