How long does it take to give up sugar for good?
 

This is a question for those of you who gave up sugar:

How long did it take to quit the addiction? In weeks, months, etc.

Did you go cold turkey?

I am interested to know because I am trying to give up sugar, but I have had a sweet tooth all my life, so it's hard!

And I mean refined sugar, not sugar from fruits, or honey, etc.

For me it only took about a few days, I think that mostly depends tho what kind of diet your doing I'm doing intermediate fasting only eating dinner everyday and keto and vlcd which is actually pretty easy but even if you have a sweet you can still make healthy low carb desserts usually when I have a craving after dinner I'll have some blackberries or blueberries and some whip cream which isn't that bad tho because it has very little calories and carbs in it and not eating through out the day besides dinner helps with the cravings too when your not around food so much and so does black coffee and a lot of water

For me - 1 week on low carb, high protein and lots of veg/salad fare and even the thought of something sweet but no nutritional value doesnt interest me. Once I started exercising - I would weigh the pros and cons of non-nutritious things I was thinking of eating. 2 Oreos=20 minutes on the elliptical. Really said my stomach? Really said my brain. So, I let the Oreos pass and grabbed the yogurt.

I have a huge sweet tooth and can easily down a huge bag of m&ms during one movie if I wanted to... I started losing my excess poundage last May. I researched and wanted something that I would never have to switch away from. I zero'd in on what is basically a bit of a twist on low carb, high protein and vegetables/salad with occasional intermittent fasting and occasional "refeeds." I never crave a sweet as long as I stay away from other carb stuff like potatoes, rice, alcohol, etc. A week on high protein and my appetite went POOF. really....

Here is a sweet satisfying recipe - sometimes this is my breakfast now!
Frozen Greek Yogurt Drops: This one’s brilliant. It’s this simple to turn a cup of plain old Greek yogurt into a quick frozen treat that’s fun to eat: Combine 1 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt with ½ cup frozen berries and stir it all up until the fruit has broken down and the mixture has an even consistency. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and drop 1/4 teaspoons of the mixture onto the sheet, leaving enough room between each drop so they don’t touch. Freeze for a few hours until solid and pour all the drops into a plastic baggie. Store in the freezer until you’re ready to snack!

Hi there,
It only took a few days to get over major cravings for carbs in general, not just sweet stuff. Now, even if I want sweet stuff or crave it for a hot second (because I see and it's available (like at work)) I can successfully walk away and say no without too much trouble. So, the self control is also affected in a good way by the low carb diet as I feel satiated and full with the food choices I make.
Check out ditchthecarbs.com for amazing recipes, research behind benefits of dropping the bad carbs and sugar, and advice. I am not affiliated with them in any way, just found the website and the stuff there is VERY useful.
Hope this helps.
Best of luck to you! :)

SO much depends on your personal hormone levels, genetic predisposition, previous diet choices, what you're replacing the sweet stuff with...

Personally, it takes about 10 days for the worst of my cravings to subside with under 100g of carbs/day. It may take longer, or shorter, for you.

Just focus on whole foods, enough protein, and lots of veg. I find that soda water & lemon juice really help with sugar cravings.

Good luck, be safe, have fun! :hug:

Wow, I am amazed at all the answers. Thank you!

It seems like it didn't take very long for all of you! You guys rock!

I was doing fine for a couple weeks until I had a relapse yesterday... ice cream and 2 spoonfuls of Nutella. But it didn't even taste that good. It was not worth it.

I don't want to totally quit sugar, I just don't want the sugar habit to control me. Like every now and then I can have a piece of cake, but I don't want to have it everyday, like I used to.

Thanks for all your advice, and recipes, I will make sure to follow them.

I've given up sugar completely several times and usually intense cravings only last about three days. I'm not sure if that restless, "I want Candy!" feeling is actual sugar withdrawal or just breaking that habit of having sugar at certain times.

One thing I've found is that I always lose weight just by doing that one simple thing. I usually last about a year and lose 50 to 60pounds.

Another thing I've found is that when I go off the plan and return to sugar, it always tastes delicious to me, even after a year. I'm impressed with the people who lose their taste for sugar, but I never do. Babies are born liking the taste of sweet. Human mother's milk is very sweet, sweeter than cows milk. Scientists believe we are hard wired to like sweet, because in nature, sweet foods like blackberries are not poisonous, while bitter berries are poisonous. Still we are talking the mild "sweetness," of lettuce vs the bitterness of ordinary leaves and grasses.


Refined white sugar is not a natural food and we don't need anything that sweet. For me, it's an addictive poison and the more of it I eat the more of it I want and the fatter I get.

I watched "Sugar, the bitter truth" and it pretty much put me off sugar instantly. I still indulge very occasionally (mostly by having 1 small piece of dark chocolate now and then) but really it changed how I thought about things. Now instead of walking through a grocery store and seeing all these types of food, I literally see entire aisles of poison.

Nightowlrn, your Frozen Greek Yogurt Drops sound delicious! My dessert weakness is hands-down ice-cream so I love healthy desserts that somewhat mimic ice-cream. Yum!

Greek yogurt blitzed with frozen blueberries and some vanilla protein powder - tastes like ice cream, but practically virtuous in it's nutrition. ;)

Freeze a banana and then blend it up. Add some peanut butter if you like and a few chocolate chavings or chips. Some days we call that breakfast!

Just a few days for me too. I didn't have any cravings but did have a couple of days of swinging moods; this worried me at first, because I didn't immediately make a connection to ditching the sugar but once I'd caught it, I told myself to ride the moods out, and that worked.

I laughed at this, because my partner went berrying with an ex and tried some delicious, and very sweet, berries when they were out. They ate a few, thought they couldn't be poisonous because they were sweet, and took the rest home. Thankfully they then looked them up, because they were deadly nightshade, and if they'd eaten them they'd have died. He says they were amazing and would make a wonderful jam - if you could stop them from being poisonous.

Former sweet tooth monster
 

For me it took a week to really get used to not eating any refined sugar. The first 3 days were brutal during my water and juice fast. But once my body flushed it out (and then some) my taste buds began to change as did my cravings for salt and sugar. I'd go food shopping and I'd walk right past the confectionary stand like it was a stack of toilet roll. I should probably also mention that I experienced migraines in the first week too, but these got better by week 2. I didn't feel energetic until week 3. Sleeping got better waking up only once or twice whereas I'd wake up upto 10 times a night. By week 4, I noticed my skin was glowing and smooth.
I also noticed my stomach was becoming droopy. I used to be obsessed with weighing myself, but now I only go with how I fit into my clothing. The only exercise I do is walking and climbing stairs. I'm back on solids, and yes I did gain some of the weight back which was to be expected, but by eating clean (fruits, vegetarian meals and drinking water) I'm steadily losing it.