Craving sweet foods

[NorthDave]

Hi All,

Doing a fair bit of cardio at the moment - cycling in the Alps. I normally do between 5k and 10k jogging 2/3 times a week but am doing 2 to 3 hours cycling a day at the moment with strava reckoning on about 1500 to 2000 calories being burnt at once.

I am eating my evening meal and feeling full but craving sugar afterwards. I need to break the habit!

Should I be eating more protein or carbohydrates to counter this? I think at the moment I am probably more towards the Paleo diet than anything else although I dont follow anything regimented.

Any help appreciated!

[TwistingMyMelon]

I get this after cycling, when I do intense hill reps/intervals, I come home and just raid the sweet drawer, even after a huge meal I'm still eating cookies!

Guessing it is the body craving the calories it has burnt

[NorthDave]

TwistingMyMelon said:

I get this after cycling, when I do intense hill reps/intervals, I come home and just raid the sweet drawer, even after a huge meal I'm still eating cookies!

Guessing it is the body craving the calories it has burnt

It just feels counter productive and then I feel dirty :-)

[roboxm3]

Lollipops!

Get yourself a tin of Chupa Chups and grab one when you start to get the cravings.
I find they satisfy my urges and stop me going the whole hog and getting a Mars or something.

[Cheib]

Eat fruit. Personally I find that if I eat an apple or say a couple of clementines/satsumas that works.

[LordGrover]

Have you tried something savoury and calorie packed? Maybe a pork pie and glass of whole milk?

[Hoofy]

Perhaps eat more carbs? Sugar is just simple carbs unless my maths is all wrong.

[grumbledoak]

Sugar is addictive, you can crave it even if you are eating enough calories. Why do you think half the Western world are ham beasts?

If you want to stay Paleo eat more fat for calories and go cold turkey on the sugar.

[Hoofy]

grumbledoak said:

ham beasts?

giraffe canoe?

[Nezquick]

Cheib said:

Eat fruit. Personally I find that if I eat an apple or say a couple of clementines/satsumas that works.

Fruit's full of sugar though.

You can get sugar free (and fat free?) jelly which a personal trainer friend of mine recommends to all of his client's who are on the Paleo diet.

[272BHP]

Are you seriously recommending fat free jelly as a better option than an Apple?

I suspect your personal trainer friend knows little about what a paleo diet is.

[Hoofy]

I suppose it's a bit like a vegetarian eating fake burgers.

[Cheib]

Nezquick said:

Cheib said:

Eat fruit. Personally I find that if I eat an apple or say a couple of clementines/satsumas that works.

Fruit's full of sugar though.

You can get sugar free (and fat free?) jelly which a personal trainer friend of mine recommends to all of his client's who are on the Paleo diet.

It's also full of things like vitamins and fibre though which happen to be very good for you!

[LordGrover]

graphene earlier today:

[stew-S160]

I'd been suffering with some depression for a while, and all I wanted was to eat crap sugary foods. Cake, cheesecake, chocolate etc. Yeah, put on some pounds, felt even worse etc.

I had also been eating low carb for quite some time, and I'm now thinking it had caught up with me. Sure, I'd upped my protein and fat intake, but I think I work better with a bit more carbs than I was allowing myself.

I've recently changed this, increasing my carb intake by a suitable amount and I definitely want less sugary stuff.

The depression still remains but hey...man up.

So, what I'm saying is, who knows. Actually, most cravings show a deficiency of something. Such as shown here-

[toohuge]

It is likely that you are low on Potassium....

Here is a list of potassium rich foods:
http://www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/food-so...

Try increasing your potassium intake and your sweet cravings should subside - it usually happens pretty quickly.

Chris

[Nezquick]

272BHP said:

Are you seriously recommending fat free jelly as a better option than an Apple?

I suspect your personal trainer friend knows little about what a paleo diet is.

Err no, that's not what I was recommending. The op was craving sweet food. Jelly is sweet and sugar free jelly has no sugar. It's a viable alternative if your trying to avoid sugar.

Of course fruit's better for you than jelly. You'd have to be a moron to believe otherwise. I was offering an option.

[Anonamoose]

Could be magnesium deficient, I take a magnesium supplement and it completely eradicates my sweet tooth.

[Digger]

Anonamoose said:

Could be magnesium deficient, I take a magnesium supplement and it completely eradicates my sweet tooth.

Might well be irrelevant, but out of interest what time of day are you taking your Magnesium?

Like the OP majority of my energy expenditure is cardio-based. I'm taking mine (magnesium / zinc combo) prior to my morning workouts and still finding I'm getting a serious "sugar rush" most evenings (on workout days). Maybe I should take it later in the day.

[Anonamoose]

Digger said:

Anonamoose said:

Could be magnesium deficient, I take a magnesium supplement and it completely eradicates my sweet tooth.

Might well be irrelevant, but out of interest what time of day are you taking your Magnesium?

Like the OP majority of my energy expenditure is cardio-based. I'm taking mine (magnesium / zinc combo) prior to my morning workouts and still finding I'm getting a serious "sugar rush" most evenings (on workout days). Maybe I should take it later in the day.

I take mine last thing at night, generally just because I forget any other time.

Are you taking a strong enough supplement? I take 400mg a day which seems about right for me.