The ultimate guide to stop sugar cravings. In this post I’ll discuss what a sugar craving is, why we get them, as well as long-term strategies on how to manage and overcome sugar cravings.

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Why do we get sugar cravings?

Sugar and your brain

So what’s actually happening in our brains when we crave sugar?

Your hippocampus allows you to remember how things taste. Think about a Twix bar, you know exactly how it’s going to taste, don’t you.
The insula in each hemisphere of your brain, creates an emotional response to sensory experiences. If you see a picture of a woman on a patio with a glass of wine on a warm sunny day, you think, “Oh that looks amazing, I need that glass of wine on my patio today.” Just the thought of wine supplies a dopamine hit, providing you with pleasure (making your desire for that glass of wine even stronger).
Sugar stimulates a dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens. This is the area of motivation, novelty, and reward. In other words, when you eat sugar, your brain lights up, thinking, “Yay, give me more!”
You can develop a tolerance to sugar, leading to requiring more to get the same dopamine response.
Eating sugar leads to endogenous opioids in the brain, leading to a rush of pleasure.

Studies have shown the reward response when eating sugar is similar to that of drug use, but not as strong. The same area of your brain is involved with the sugar reward cycle as would be if drugs were used.

The good news is, there are habits you can practice to help you short-circuit the reward cycle, and stop your sugar cravings.

Extremes won’t solve sugar cravings long-term

A habit I’ve noticed with my clients is that they know their overeating tendencies with sugar and take extreme measures to circumvent their actions.

The most common being fasting.

I’ve seen clients who say they won’t eat for 24, even 48 hours as an intentional fast. The logic they explain to me is that they just want to “reset” their brain and body to stop the cravings. If that’s a thing…

The biggest issue with fasting

I understand wanting the reset, but such an extreme measure is rarely achieved. This grandiose goal leads to failure, which only perpetuates the real issue:

You use fasting to not eat, because you don’t trust yourself when you do eat.

Self-trust with food is an entirely different topic, but at the root of many issues of why people fail at their diet.

My recommendation is to build self-trust with food in smaller, incremental steps. Give yourself small wins to build your self-trust.

How to use this stop sugar cravings list

Start with one recommendation on this list to help you stop sugar cravings. Make that your goal for one week. I know it’s tempting to try two at a time, but resist the urge. The idea is to build momentum. For instance, if your goal is to increase protein intake, make that your only focus for the week.

Trying all of this at once is a recipe for disaster. Don’t overwhelm yourself. This list isn’t meant to do that. It is however, meant to provide you solid nutritional advice that can help your overall well-being, and when done over time, will help to reduce your sugar cravings.

Sustainable change

If you’re looking for a “stop sugar cravings fast” or “quick fix to stop sugar cravings” this isn’t the post for you. And honestly, if you’re craving sugar, you’re probably just hungry. Below I do give you tips on what to eat instead of sugar. But please know, there is no magic pill, potion, or elixir that will “cure” you of sugar cravings.

In this post, I’m providing strategies that will be sustainable for you. This is the long game. It’s meant to be taken step-by-step, one week at a time.

An important concept to understand if you want to reduce or stop your sugar cravings is that we are always adapting.

Our bodies actually adapt to the diet we feed it. We start to become accustomed to the food we eat and our bodies will adjust to survive and thrive on what it’s given. That’s why people in some parts of the world can survive on mostly meat from animals and other parts of the world survive on berries, nuts, and seeds in their surroundings. Humans are very good at adapting to a variety of foods.

How does that apply to sugar cravings? The more sugar you give your body, the more it will want sugar. Sugar comes in a variety of forms and names check out the list if you’re curious. The more these sugars are in your diet, the more your brain will crave them.

The flip side is that if you take the actions listed below, you can help curb those cravings and your body will naturally adapt to the new normal of what you are feeding it.

When it comes to sugar, here are my recommendations as to where to begin.

The definitive rules to stop sugar cravings

12 strategies to reducing your sugar cravings

1 – Address your surroundings

If it’s around, you will eventually eat it. No matter what, this always rings true. You can be strong and say no, for only so long.

Remove sugary substances in your home, stored in your desk, or car. Anywhere you spend time regularly. This includes processed foods or refined carbs that might be in your cabinet.

By removing these now, you’re helping your future self out from self-sabotage. If you’re nervous about this, I’ve got you covered with a sweet tooth satiating recipe below.

2 – Move your body

When you aren’t moving you give your brain time to think and wonder into cookie, ice cream, chocolate dream land. Performing purposeful movement requires you to stay in the moment and focus on where you are putting your foot, hand, arm, leg, etc. It’s a great trick to move focus away from food (and sugar cravings) and into something that is good for your body, mind, and spirit.

Next time a craving strikes:

Go for a walk
Exercise
Stretch at home
Basically do anything but sit there and let your mind think about sweets

3 – Reduce Stress

Humans eat not only when we are hungry but when we are stressed, bored, or sometimes just because it’s there. Take a look at where stress is showing up. With your family, friends, work, etc.

How can you create more balance in your life? What is one thing you can do every day to help calm your nerves, anxiety, or reduce your need to be “on” for people around you.

Reflect on what might be causing stress in your life. Meditation, yoga, long walks, a nice hot bath, or just being alone are all great coping mechanisms to help bring balance to a stressful life. Next time a sugar craving hits you, ask yourself if you are hungry or if your symptom might come from stress or some other mental reason. If it is hunger, use the tips below to help you.

4 – Eat more protein

Eating more protein helps us feel full longer, provides our body with tissue-building amino-acids, and helps create the toned, lean body so many of us strive for. When you eat more protein, you feel fuller, you don’t have as many cravings.

Increase protein to 30-35% of your daily caloric intake. A few ideas are, a protein shake in your favorite flavor, collagen protein in coffee, start the day with eggs, egg whites, turkey bacon, or lean sausage + leafy veggies like spinach, kale, or asparagus.

5 – Check for nutritional deficiencies

Our highly processed western diet is often void of the essential nutrients and minerals we need and most people are deficient in one way or another. Getting a blood test with your doctor can help you determine what deficiencies you may have to help you make better food decisions to correct them.

6 – Increase water intake

This has more of an indirect effect on overall health. Our bodies are made mostly of water, so it’s vital you get enough to function and perform optimally. When you feel good, you have less of a need for sugar.

Drink 8 oz of water before and after each meal or snack, get a cup you like, use a straw, a squeeze of lemon for flavor, whatever you need to do to make it happen.

7 – Get enough sleep

When we are rested our hunger and satiety cues are firing on all cylinders. If you are lacking sleep, the body releases chemicals based on hunger and fullness that can be thrown off. Have you ever noticed this? Next time your sleep is cut short, notice your hunger or cravings throughout the day. I know this affects me and I tend to crave sugar, refined carbs, or any quick energy source. That’s also been proven here.

Everyone’s sleep needs are different and dependant on many factors. What’s important is that you analyze how much sleep you need to feel rested and aim to get to bed in time to get that amount nightly.

8 – Reduce alcohol consumption

Now, there is a balance here and I understand you may not want to give up alcohol entirely (I certainly don’t). Drinking alcohol because you love the taste, enjoy the social lubricant, or the relaxing benefits it can provide are completely understandable.

However, with those fun benefits come some drawbacks, specifically if you are trying to reduce your sugar cravings. Alcohol has been shown to decrease your quality of sleep. When this happens, it can throw off your brain and create an imbalance in the way our hunger and fullness hormones fire, increasing hunger hormone ghrelin and decreasing fullness hormone leptin

As you can imagine, if our hunger hormones are out of whack it can lead to additional cravings. Unfortunately, it’s not for healthy foods like broccoli or kale, it’s usually for sugary or salty foods like soda or french fries.

9 – Fresh > processed food

When you eat processed foods, you are also ingesting a whole bunch of added sugar (and sodium) that comes with. Because of how sugar registers in your brain (as mentioned above), it makes you want it more and more.

The more we eat sugar, the more we crave it. So if your diet includes processed foods, you are really stimulating your sugar cravings. You may not feel the sugar craving while you’re snacking on bread, chips, or crackers, but later on in the day, your brain might start to crave something sweet.

Eat fresh, home-cooked foods full of vegetables, lean protein, and complex carbs. Avoid packaged foods in a box, bag, can, etc. These often have added sugar, in one of its many forms, that can promote your sugar cravings.

If you want to satiate a sugar craving, try eating a blood sugar balancing protein first, then a piece of fresh fruit to appease your craving or try the recipe in #12 below.

How to Eat Clean for Beginners Losing Weight

Clean Eating

Grocery List

You can print or save this to your phone to use for grocery shopping every week!

10 – Increase Fiber – Eat Smart Carbs

Refined carbs (white bread, pretzels, bagels, pastries) breakdown into sugar in our bodies quickly. Your body craves refined carbs because it’s a fast digesting form of energy, along with the dopamine hit we mentioned earlier.

However, as most of us know, that energy doesn’t last long.

Because refined/processed carbs are easy to digest and create a quick spike in energy, your blood sugar will spike, and dramatically lower quickly, also causing insulin to do the same thing. (When this happens over and over it can lead to metabolic syndrome or pre-diabetes). As a result, you’re sugar high comes to a screeching halt and you get the infamous sugar crash.

Eating smart complex carbs will provide your body energy (via glucose) but takes longer to digest, so you feel fuller longer while your body breaks them down. With complex carbs you don’t have the extreme blood sugar spike, and have more sustained energy. The added benefit is you are essentially training your brain to not need the quick spikes and instead eat something that will sustain you for longer.

Eating smart carbs will help your sweet tooth and stop sugar cravings because you are effectively training your brain to become accustomed to a sustained energy source vs. the quick spike.

17 High Fiber Complex Carbs List

On the list you'll get the best bang-for-your-buck carbs (calorie-wise).

Without having to do any guess-work, you'll know exactly which carbohydrates are the best choices for you to feel fuller longer.

Remember, our bodies are always adapting…

The more refined carbs you eat, the more your body will crave them.
The more nutrient dense complex carbs you eat, the less your body will crave refined carbs and sugar.

These are all great whole-health big-picture ideas, but…

11 – What do you do when a sugar craving strikes?

Don’t eat sugar or refined carbohydrates. When you have that moment strike, reach for some lean protein, fiber, and healthy fat. Low fat Greek yogurt + berries or a protein shake + scoop of almond butter, and some berries. I like to keep those things in my fridge at all times. You can ALWAYS have frozen mixed berries around if you really want something sweet. However, raspberries and blackberries have the added benefit of 8 g of fiber per serving, which gives you the same effect of a smart carb – taking time to digest, making you feel fuller longer

But when those cravings strike, try this recipe:

12 – Sweet tooth recipe

Use this recipe next time you absolutely need something sweet.

½ cup frozen berries like raspberries or blackberries
1 tbsp of almond or peanut butter
1 tbsp cacao nibs or dark chocolate chips or both!
1 tsp coconut flakes (no sugar added)

What about balance? Can I ever eat a donut?

Sugar cravings are inevitable. We are human after all. The above strategies should help you start building healthy habits, which will help reduce your sugar cravings. However, I too have sugar cravings and don’t expect those to ever fully disappear. I strive to be healthy, lean, and strong but that doesn’t mean I want to live with complete restriction.

If you know me, you know I love donuts. So, to keep my sanity, I enjoy them on occasion. Not every day, not every week, but yes, occasionally. Usually as a reward on a day I’ve gone on a hike, or been highly active. Again, it’s with balance and intention, not on a whim when you see donuts in the breakroom.

I’ve given you a bunch of tips to stop sugar cravings, but putting these strategies into practice can be confusing. What do you do first? What about limitations in diet? How do you navigate social gatherings? If you’d like more information on how to apply these to your own life, I encourage you to check out my FREE NUTRITION MASTERCLASS

The Ultimate Guide to Stop Sugar Cravings in Their Tracks

5-DAY

CLEAN EATING CHALLENGE