The less carbs/sweets I eat the more I want them

(Anna ) #1

I used to be a carboholic and was really hoping that going keto would help with not craving carbs/ sweets anymore, but it hasn’t. I’m now 6 months on keto. In the first few months of keto I would make keto treats and snack on nuts, because after each meal I have to have something sweet or carby. It started off innocent, just having a little bit of something at the end of a meal or just a hand full of nuts but then I started to be craving these foods even between the meals, and eat these foods more often and in larger quantities. So I stopped making sweet keto snacks all together since I thought the alcohol sugars where tricking my brain into thinking that I was eating sugar and then my brain wanted more.

I continued eating macadamia nuts after meals, as my treat. Funny thing is, before keto I never ate or even liked macadamia nuts. Last month I had to stop eating macadamia and all nuts really, since I just crave them so much all the time if I have them at home, I want to eat all of them.

So the last two weeks I’ve been eating mostly eggs and meat since I didn’t want to go to the store often with this CV around, so I’m not eating veggies daily like I have been. I had not had any keto sweets or nuts either but have been craving them daily, and the cravings instead of lessening as the days go by, started to intensify. Yesterday I broke down and went looking for this jar of really old raw honey I had stashed somewhere, which was totally hard and I had to chip at it with a knife to even eat it. I ate a lot of honey in one sitting. I couldn’t stop eating it and only stopped eating the honey when my tongue started to hurt because the honey was so crystallized, it was very abrasive and was cutting up my tongue pretty bad.

This was such a scary experience for me, because I had no control at all. In the past I might have had cravings but it was always my choice to eat a food or not, but not yesterday. There was something else controlling this need for carbs/sugar. I’ve never experienced anything like it before and now I’m trying to figure out how to never experience it again.

(UsedToBeT2D) #2

Just get back on the wagon. Most of us have had a weak moment, and probably will again. Remind yourself how great your health is improving, and that you are in control.

(Hyperbole- best thing in the universe!) #3

Some people say going full carnivore helps with cravings. If that is the case with you, I bet you were going thru a second wave of carb withdrawal from what you were still getting on keto. Might be worth another try, but know to expect some tough days.

#4

go tough on your own butt here. any and all sweets we keep just keep the addiction alive and our bs out of control and we never get that ‘mind body reset’ we need for succeeding.

You know what you have to do. You have to go super duper low carb, like maybe 10-15 total carbs per day and HOLD ONTO it as strong as you can thru the adaption/detox times.

Life is out of control right now. For all of us. This is a big play in our lives, no doubt about it but can you do for you as needed when the chips are against us? You have to say yes here as I do every single day also!!

Now use that. Use it AS YOUR control to do for you as you want to do for you and change your life on your eating plan. In other words while we sure as heck can’t control our true environment of life, no one can, we sure can control what goes into our mouths and down our gullets.

Put it in real form now. Make it I WILL succeed and eat my eating plan any way I can and put that ‘screw you attitude’ you need to gain up at the honey :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

Hoping all the best. Sometimes we have to make a new game plan thru the crazy we can’t control to actually be out best thru it and you WILL find that best at all times and all meals! You truly got this if you want it !!!

(Gail P) #5

Could your cravings currently be related to your stress levels? I know I am wanting more and more carbs as isolation stretches out longer and longer.

So I eat some. I do end up with slightly higher desire for carbs generally, but otherwise tend to feel better. (I’m talking a tiny bag of popcorn from the grocery, not an entire pizza.)

If this is a craving you can’t get rid of, it would seem your body is trying to tell you something! Maybe your carbs are set too low? This is why we have to experiment to find our own optimal levels.

Good luck, constantly craving carbohydrates sounds miserable.

#6

Why are you eating so restrictively now? Once you tell yourself you CAN’T have something, I don’t care how much you REALLY want it, you’re going to want the hell out of it. Me personally, which many will disagree with I’d eat the keto ok sweets in RESPECTABLE amounts, get the veggies in, drink plenty of water, eat a couple meals a day. Don’t leave gaps in your diet that your brain will tell you to feed with junk. Many people will swear by TOTAL cut out of everything sweet and in real life that just doesn’t work for many people. I’m one of them. Not only do I think it’s not necessary, I think it’s stupid. I LIKE sweet stuff, I SHOULD be able to eat my keto sweet junk food of I want to as long as I don’t abuse them. People always defend keto saying it’s NOT restrictive (It’s not) but then go on to say cut out all the sugar, everything that tastes like sugar, everything that ALMOST tastes like sugar…Keto is the way I eat, not my religion. I’m not turning my WOE into a diet.

(KCKO, KCFO 🥥) #7

You should have microwaved the honey to melt it down. Your experience sounded painful. I do keep a jar of locally produced honey I had just bought when I went keto about 4 yrs. ago. When my eyes get very itchy and allergy pills are not helping I have 1 TB for a few of days and that stops the itching.

I have found that if it am craving something, a glass of water and a 10 min. sitting meditation helps a lot. I rarely have that anymore, but when I do this really helps me. YMMV.

Stay healthy and ketoed.

#8

Hmmm… People change. Now extreme low-carb ensure I won’t desire sweets (not like I did it longer term this far) but years ago I absolutely needed my decent amount of vegetables to stay on keto. If I didn’t, I started to eat sugar (fruits), it couldn’t be helped.
Why are vegetables out? I can eat vegetables for several weeks without shopping, yeah, it will be pickles and frozen vegetables after 2 weeks but still, they are vegetables. I can’t possibly know if they are needed for you. Maybe 2 frozen raspberries per meal would be better, who knows? Back then I needed my bigger amount of vegetables AND my daily fruits but the latter was tiny.
Maybe it’s a mental thing too. When there are too many restrictions, some of us gets rebellious or too stressed… When I went keto and my vegetable intake drastically dropped, I balanced it out with other things so I didn’t feel too restricted for a long while. My solution wasn’t ideal but the best I could find and later I could improve my woe. People can change a lot but many of us just can’t do a very strict style of keto right away. Or ever.

I know the feeling when one tries to be strong and in the end a really big chaos ensues. After a while I figured out the pattern, searched for solutions and I act before I feel really upset and miserable (it’s usually not hard as I don’t really resist temptation but sometimes I am super stubborn and my options are limited. forcing things on myself never worked well so I try to find something that all my parts are fine with). So maybe you should figure out what little thing could help when your desires are still small and you are in control.

Nuts (and oily seeds in general) are tricky, I dropped them together with vegetables, it worked well but as I wrote, it’s now, I couldn’t do the same in my early keto times… Sometimes limiting them works, sometimes avoiding is the better choice. I can’t possibly know what works for you, try out things. You will make things less then ideal sometimes, life is like that but you probably will get better at choosing your food if you are determined to find the way. Hopefully quicker than me, I am horrible even after several years though amazing compared to my old self… But these things are pretty hard for many of us, indeed. You can get good advices but there is no guarantee they will work for you as well as for others. But you can try out them if they seem helpful. Good luck!

#9

I have a similar problem and the keto sweets make me have cravings too. Macadamia nuts stall my weight loss, and it is really hard to stop after just 2.
I also think that right now the stress of the whole situation with the corona virus makes us feel low grade anxiety and sweets serve to soothe us. The endorphins. I am having a very hard time now too. Sitting at home compounds the problem.
Try this: buy exogenous ketones in powder form- they have them in different flavours. I use chocolate. Add this to some almond milk. I like it on ice. And then drink that. I find it really helps with the cravings. And maybe- I dunno- the ketones in it also helps to subdue our need for carbs. We get a lot of ketones for energy there.

(Anna ) #10

This doesn’t have to do with CV, this started happening before all this hit. I have two theories about what is happening to me. I either need more carbs to maintain weight. Or I have microbes/bacteria that needs the carbs. I do have a chronic sinus infection that I’m trying to starve out on keto once and for all, and it seems that whenever I go really low carb my sinuses start to act up and I start craving sugar really bad. Its as if the sinus infection bacteria knows I’m trying to starve it and it’s waging some war on me. Sugar and dairy bother my sinuses, going very low carb shouldn’t have the same effect.

The curious thing for me, is that fat doesn’t satisfy my cravings. I’ve had days where I’m eating 300 grams of fat, which is insane, and I still want to eat more, and I still crave carbs. I’m not doing keto for weigh loss, and I’m pretty skinny, but I find it upsetting that there is no amount of fat that really satisfies me. I can maintain my weight if I have 50+ grams of carbs per day but now that I’m under 20 grams per day I’m seeing some weight loss, which I do not want. I’m now 108 lbs. I want to stay around 112 lbs. Just not eating veggies with one meal makes me loose weight. And maybe that lack of carbs and weight loss is signaling my body to eat more carbs, my body is trying to maintain the weight, signaling for me to eat more carbs.

(Susan) #11

Maybe upping your carbs with vegetables will be a good fit for you then? It is better then eating sugary treats at least. I am envious of your ability to lose weight like that… I still have 96 pounds to go and I definitely have to stay under 20 personally. Our bodies are all very very unique, though, for sure!

If I was in your position, I would eat all Keto foods still, but increase the vegetables -then your body will be happier from how it seems to react and hopefully your cravings for sweets will diminish =). Best wishes for figuring it all out =).

(Anna ) #12

@Momof5 I wish eating veggies would satisfy my carb/sugar cravings but it doesn’t. It does however allow me to maintain my weight. And no matter how much fat I eat, I’m still not satisfied. I can eat a whole package of bacon in one sitting and still want something sweet right after. What I’m craving is sweets and nuts mostly. I had to stop eating nuts because I was eating too many of them when I have them in the house. I also wanted to stop eating nuts because my migraines got stronger after starting keto and I suspect that it may be the nuts. The keto desserts although having no sugar are problematic for me because most of them are made with almond flour or coconut flour, and both of these are nuts. Chocolate is also out because the chocolate bean is really a nut. In a nutshell, (pun intended) there is no keto dessert that I can make that does not involve using nuts or dairy :frowning:

I started this thread almost 2 weeks ago and I’ve been experimenting with different foods, since living with these cravings is just horrible. Actually what seems to be working for me now is making a little bit of hot oat cereal with monk fruit sweeter. I was hoping to be grain free, but oh well. This seems to satisfy the sweet cravings and if I eat just a little bit, I can still be under 50 grams of carbs per day.

(Hyperbole- best thing in the universe!) #13

Many people say that full carnivore kills the cravings. That even the carbs in vegetables keep the cravings alive for some. Might be worth a shot for a few weeks.

(Susan) #14

Awww, okay, it was just an idea =). I know we all have different things that work for us, I wish you all the best in figuring it out.

@Ruina’s idea of trying carnivore for a bit might be a temporary solution to reset your body?

Best wishes, =).

#15

I definitely needed to stop eating veggies and nuts to stop my decades long habit of eating sweets in the end of my meals… Whenever I have a day with more than a tiny amount of plants, I eat sweets again. Carnivore day? I don’t feel tempted at all. I am sure it’s similar for many of us but surely don’t work for everyone (and some people can’t even do carnivore, yet or ever).
Sweets without nuts, oily seeds, cocoa and dairy? Yeah, it’s getting tricky but you still can eat whipped egg yolks with sweeteners and optionally some flavors (I use vanilla and a very tiny bit of lemon juice. and some whipped whites too and freeze it for some hours. It’s my fav ice cream, even hwc isn’t needed but it makes it even better I think. Raw eggs aren’t a problem for me but pasteurization at home is possible or buying already pasteurized eggs…)

If you just want to be below 50g net carbs, any fruits may fit (that you are able to eat in not big amounts). But they might not solve your problem, just making it worse as they have sugar. If I saw no other way, I probably would use some berries and keep my net carbs super low. But as I wrote it before, I needed my time myself, I couldn’t do it right away. At one point I needed my sweets and banana with chocolate… It wasn’t ideal but it was that or no keto at all. So I don’t know what could work for you at this moment. Try to change different things, maybe. Something should work for you.