Giving up sugar in 2018

[Fabianthefabulous]

Tomorrow I am giving up sugar.

The plan is not to eat anything with sugar or sweeteners as an ingredient but I will be focusing on sweet tasting things, so will concentrate my efforts on foods with more than 5g sugar per 100g and not beat myself up if I eat a few savoury things with small amounts of sugar (eg crackers).

I am expecting my coke zero addiction to be one of the hardest things to stop but I want to loose the taste for sweet things not just replace sugar with sweeteners so it has to go!

Anyone want to join me?

I know there was a long running 'giving up sugar' thread from earlier in the year but I thought it would be good to have a new thread for those of us just starting (or restarting).

Would love some buddies or any advice or encouragement from anyone who has managed to give up sugar already.

I haven't either! In fact, I put a pound on this week! It's really disheartening. I'm still wanting to eat sugar though - do you think all the fruit I'm eating is replacing the processed sugar and cancelling out any good effects?

If you're eating loads of fruit, or loads more than usual, then maybe. I'm still eating fruit but aiming for no more than three pieces a day, one of them being berries which are supposed to have quite low sugar.

I had a bit of a craving for sugar yesterday, for the first time yet, but probably hormonal, and it wasn't overwhelming.

What are you actually eating? I wonder if there's something with hidden sugars or calories. I find writing everything down really helps..

I'm eating loads of fruit and still losing, and a lot of higher sugar ones like bananas and grapes. I lost nearly two stones last year and never cut down on fruit.

I find I need to make my portions a bit smaller if I have a period of not losing. I do tend to level off at the wrong time of the month.

Maybe it's the dried fruit? I eat a lot of nuts too, but I wonder about my portion size. I'm going to keep going for another week and hope that something changes. I'm really missing hot chocolate though, with all the snow!

Haven't posted for a while but am still 'no sugaring'.

For health reasons I have also reduced my Saturated Fats by cutting out meat and dairy.

Am finding it easier and easier to go without sugar now the initial cravings have gone. I also find my appetite is much easier to control.

It may well be the dried fruit. It has much more sugar content because the water is removed. I avoid all dry fruit and fruit juice, only have fresh. I eat a lot more nuts now, they don't really seem to be a problem unless I go mad!

Lunenburg what sort of things are you eating? I'm veggie and would love to cut out/reduce dairy but I seem to eat much more cheese now I'm avoiding sugar.

In South America they make hot chocolate by melting dark chocolate in hot milk. Try that? Purer dark chocolate isn't as bad, once in a while.

I'm vegan and gluten-free so I feel like there's not much else that I do eat! That's exactly the kind of hot chocolate I miss - although making it with Bournville probably isn't authentic! I'm going to cut back on the dried fruit and reduce the portion sizes and fingers crossed that works!

I'm still at it. I fell off last weekend as we were visiting family and it was wall to wall cake and biscuits. But I'm back on it now.

I've lost 3 pounds since i started in January which is not much but better than nothing and i feel less hungry.

Had some stonking headaches to begin with though.

Im still no sugar (no fructose) , ive brought powdered glucose and made apple crumble from no sugar cook book by Davild Gillespie and put much less than recipe like half! Never thought id do that! Have diet drinks occasionally but drink mainly sparkling water as now havr taste for it! Have had cream quite a lot over last month so eating quite a lot of fat and not exercising so think weight hasnt dropped off , lost stone since jan 1st, will be doing more exercise this month and cutting back on cream.

That's really goodChicken, I wish I'd lost that much! I'm still here, still doing well, but it's really slow progress this year compared to last!

I've had the weekend from hell, seriously snowed in (I'm rural and near where they shut the M62 in the Pennines) with no power or water for a lot of Thurs and Friday so the healthy eating went out the window and I've had biscuits and hot crossed buns plus processed tinned soups (we've only had a camp stove!). However it's been really hard work digging stables out and getting water to the horses and hens, so perhaps I will get away with it!

The Really weird thing that i think a lot of people dont realise, is once you cut fructose out of ur diet and go past withdrawal phase , u dont crave it, so dont ever think about healthy eating or not as sugar is in most things so ur mainly eating basics meat and veg with herbs and spices (sugar dulls flavour so when cut it out also everything tastes more intense! ) and your full and empty 'switch ' works (sugar messes them up so dont fully feel full) and u dont want to overeat ! The feeling of overeating isnt pleasant. Thats been the revelation for me it's not always been there, (ive spent whole life, it not working properly,) I've had to work it out a few times, and made mistakes and over ate and weight has been slower than hoped but when i go past sugar isles now in supermarket im not missing it or wishing i could eat it im just like 'meh' if that makes sense

chicken, that does make sense. Our family have given up processed sugar for Lent. Still eating fruit and dried fruit a bit. I just don't want sugar. Just don't fancy it. It's as though the endless biscuit aisles have turned grey. I just don't see them shouting at me any more. Haven't lost weight though.

I need to rein myself in. I've been a bit naughty this week, had quite a few biscuits here and there.

Hello, would like some advice on giving up sugar. Have been reading this thread and am trying to give up added sugar/fructose, doing it just over three weeks, but eating fruit and dried fruit.

I think I even gained weight in the first 10 days because just couldn't stop eating (nuts, seeds, bread with butter) trying to replace that hungry feeling which wouldn't go without a proper pudding.

Now I'm much better and cravings are mostly gone, however I still really miss not the sweetness so much (though I do eat prunes/dried apricots/figs if I really need a hit of sweet, but require it less and less) but the stodge. I did buy chocolate with xylitol but eat it very sparingly, esp since xylitol makes me terribly gassy. However to my surprise my craving for chocolate is nearly gone, or shall I say easily satisfied by making sugar free cocoa with full fat milk.

But I really miss the texture of baked goods (not biscuits, more like cakes/muffins/patisserie goods). I try to replace it with bread, so have been eating too much bread and butter, definitely haven't lost any weight probably because of that, though my skin has improved (after a massive spotty breakout a week in). Do you all feel that life is not lacking without baked stuff on the menu? I seriously wonder if I'll ever stop missing it the texture more than the flavour even, and that happy feeling in my tummy . Does anyone else miss it and do you replace it with anything?(what with?)

The other thing I wonder about, that's for people who lost lots of weight, a couple of people mentioned up to 4 stone in a year, didn't your skin go saggy? I have about 1,5 stone to lose, but when I lost only a stone in the past, it was over 3.5 months (I'm very short so it's a good chunk of weight on my frame), I immediately got slightly saggy arms and crepey skin not far off a small pouch where my neck and chin come together ...Can't imagine what condition skin would be with a massive rapid weight loss. Does it bounce back if you are over 40? Somebody mentioned their mum losing loads of weight, so obviously it wasn't a 20 year old but seems to have got away with it...

I was actually pushed into going at least low sugar by my 7 y.o. DD getting completely addicted to carbs and gradually refusing to eat anything healthy and putting on loads of weight. For myself to lose weight I guess I need to start tracking overall intake, but I'm really loathe to do it and don't want to have that obsessive regimental mentality around food, I was hoping the natural self-regulation would kick in once I'm off the fructose and I would lose weight naturally (ok if very slowly and gradually).

Hi, I think you need to cut out dried fruit, it's very high in sugar and not recommended, same goes for fruit juices. The only fruit I eat is whole fruit. I still eat bread, seeds and nuts, and it hasn't put. Weight on me. I've found grapes in full fat Greek yoghurt are my desert craving calmer. I've never eaten puddings much, apart from when eating out, so don't have the craving for texture/habit.

Finally, thankfully I've never had baggy skin from weight loss, 2stone was the most Ive lost in the last decade though.

Thanks, honey! I never drink fruit juices (though used to drink smoothies occasionally, but then realised they are evil too), but I do love dry figs better than fresh figs :) and so on. I'll try to cut them out until I've at least lost weight, and then see if I want to re-introduce some.

My baggy skin was probably only noticeable to me, with the chin I only saw due to the phone camera, from underneath, and arms were not wings )), just slightly crepey skin. I gained the weight back in about 6 months, and it all filled back out, I didn't have enough time to stay properly slim to see if it'd stabilise and spring back a little eventually, which was my hope. I did make me slightly wary of rapid weight loss, but there's no such danger here with all the bread I'm eating, though I'm very slowly beginning to crave less. I did have a massive sweet tooth and sometimes the only reason I'd make myself leave the house (when SAHM) was to buy a chocolate bar

DH also has a very sweet tooth(but built like a rugby player) and now moans non-stop about no biscuits and puddings in the house (that's for DD's sake, otherwise he'd eat them in front of her all the time, and she just stopped constantly begging for treats of that kind)

We do eat Greek yoghurt for dessert with a little honey for DD, and - was it recommended on this thread?- I make cinnamon popcorn. But need more ideas for replacement puddings...

Get yourself a low sugar cookbook, they have cake and desert recipes in them - perhaps make some of them?