I have always been a meat and potatoes guy…pretty simple.
Since I started on this diet, I have found myself craving things that before I didn’t miss. Sure I would eat the occasional cookies and milk after a meal or a slice of homemade pie or birthday cake, but my sweet tooth has always been lacking. But now… oh man. I crave every sweet treat I see or think about. And soft drinks (Oklahoma translation - “pop”), well I’ve been cutting them out for a long time but sweet tea (or what I use to call the “nectar of heaven”) has been the one thing I required of my wife or daughters to have freshly made at all times.
I have found suitable replacements for many of my cravings but I was under the impression that being in a state of ketosis would cause me to lose the craving for sugar. Is this true? Should I expect to lose such cravings in time or will it be a perpetual temptation? I’m constantly looking for keto recipes for sweets but none satisfy like a glass of milk with homemade chocolate chip cookies to drown in.
Things like rice, pasta, bread, etc has never been a craving of mine until now. I know there are recipes for keto friendly items in those categories but I would rather get back to a simple life of homemade deer steaks and steamed vegetables without Little Debbie whispering sweet nothings in my ear. Will this ever happen or will it remain a thorn in my flesh from here on out?
Unusual cravings
I’m from Canada and we say ‘pop’ too!
I don’t have any advice, as I’m only one month in myself and definitely still have sugar cravings. I’d say they’ve gotten worse in the past two weeks, when I’d hoped they would diminish as time passes.
Personally, I’m planning on avoiding the keto replacement recipes (keto breads and cookies ect) until I’m at least 3 months in…or maybe even until the cravings go away entirely, as I’m concerned that placating the sweet tooth would only temporarily temper it, and not kill it entirely (little debbie, i’m coming for you!) We’ll see how it goes.
There are two sides (well I am no expert so maybe more) to sweet cravings.
One keto resolves nicely. Go without sweets for a while but remaining satiated all the time on healthy fats (staying satiated all the time is key) and the desire for sweets drops to very very low or zero (like a bad habit can be dropped given enough time not doing it).
The other keto cannot really deal with. That is one’s psychology. Some people cannot accept a message like “No sweets” - from anyone else OR from themselves. They maintain a heavy focus on what the cannot have and build a desire to rebel.
To resolve the second one you have to work on you identity. If someone told me “You cannot have a cigarette”, I would be fine - I am not a smoker. Maybe if you can change your identity to include being truly keto, you might view sweet tea as tea mixed with (due to the dose) a poison (a teaspoon of sugar is fine but I am pretty sure sweet tea has a lot more, leading to insulin spiking).
Welcome to the keto club! We all suffered carb withdrawals, I was sick with keto flu for about 3 days before I googled feeling sick starting keto and found the solution, salt. Anyway I was an addict unknown to myself before starting to eat this way. It passes and each day forward is easier.
I second @plain_jane suggestion of avoiding all sweet flavors artificial or not until later. Keto bread, pizza, cookies, cakes and whatever is trying to imitate carb rich foods you may have been eating, even occasionally. Try making your sweet tea with less and less sweetener until it’s not sweet. Maybe add lemon if you don’t already. Retrain your taste buds with different foods and beverages. Anything that was habitual like drinking pop, sweet tea or juice is best abandoned for now. New likes and healthy habits will form. Time is the great healer, (keto as well).
My best wishes for your success and I’m kind of jealous that you have a good stock of venison on hand! KCKO 
I have not had sweet tea for several months bc it is bad for my gallbladder (so I’ve been told). I only drink water mostly with doTerra lemon essential oil and I don’t really miss sweet drinks as much. It quenches my thirst and satisfies me. My struggle has been craving things I could easily go without before keto but now its difficult to see or smell them without my tongue swelling and mouth watering. Never been a big bread or tortilla eater, but a woman in our church made our family a big batch of homemade chicken burritos after my wife had our 7th child this weekend. I scraped the ingredients from the tortilla and it seemed fine but oh how I wanted to chomp down on those burritos. Apparently my stomach is shrinking bc I couldn’t finish half my 12 oz ribeye this evening. That’s not like me! I’ve lost 10 lbs in 3 weeks but it has not been easy. I also realize dieting is not always easy or fun but I’m trying to make it as nondreadful as possible. It’s just those sweets…
To answer your question Omar… I have wondered if I have digestive issues but never been to the doctor about it. Why do you ask? Is this something I should be concerned about?
You can reply to specific post by using the reply link next to them instead of the link at the bottom of the page (as I did for this post).
@ericm, @Alpha May never see your comment with his name in it unless you put an @ sign before it.
I have observed through the years that people with leaky guts have severe cravings.
I have no reference to back it up.
For my self I have unbearable cravings for food ( not carbs ) when I have a flare of diverticulitis. But when no flares, the cravings go a way and I could fast forever.
most of digestive track issue are related to low stomach acid.
acv with food or betaine hcl should help
@RobC I did not see the reply until you notified me
thanks
You may not have been a regular sweet indulger but I believe you are still suffering from sugar withdrawal. Sugar affects us very much like narcotics or alcohol and quitting them cold turkey does have some consequence. A bit more time might put that to rest for good.
I’m not aware of any science that says our stomachs shrink during ketosis but I do know that our hormones work much better than we are used to. Ghrelin is the hunger hormone that tells us we are hungry and should eat. This hormone works overtime when we eat a carb based diet. This is why we are hungry every 3-4 hours and are recommended 5 meals a day. Leptin is the satiation hormone which tells us we are full and should stop eating. I believe your leptin signaling is just working properly now that you’ve eliminated carbs and you just don’t need to eat as much as you used to.
In a nutshell, this means you need to eat less to feel full and it means weight loss is easier.
I’m in KY and we say Pop too.
I’m 4 months in and my cravings for sweets has greatly diminished but I also have never made a keto bread, pizza, tortilla, noodle, pancake, etc. I am too afraid of it’s slippery slope. I stick to meat and low carb veg, an occasional couple of nuts and high fat dairy. I craved sweets most of the time in the beginning but it wasn’t hunger, it was the high of the sugar I wanted. I am sober so I know what my brain was doing. I agree that if you abstain and they should fade away.
I stopped eating wheat about 5 or so years ago (before keto, and before paleo I think). That’s when my cravings for sweets and breads and such went away. I don’t know all of the science, but it has to do with something to do with the opioid peptides in the wheat binding to opioid receptors in the brain. I believe it’s discussed in the book “Wheat Belly.”
I’m sure someone else here can explain this.
This isn’t to say that, in my mind, I don’t like wheat based products, I’m just not driven by it. Plus, I have extra incentive to stay away from it. It makes my joints hurt, which was noticeable once I stopped eating it. And I know that sugar makes my blood sugar spike and my heart race. I want to be healthy, so I stay away. It doesn’t even bother me when I see people eat it in front of me. It’s a non-food item for me.
Oh, how I wish it were! While my taste for sugar has changed, and I don’t enjoy sweet things nearly as much as I used to, my craving for sugar remains undiminished, alas!
Try a tip that works well with other addictive substances: You don’t have to swear off sweet things for ever. In fact, doing so can make your cravings worse. Instead, promise yourself all the sugary goodness you can eat—tomorrow. For today, just don’t have any right now. Even the worst addict in the world can go 24 hours without his drug of choice, so just take things a day at a time.
I well remember calling a friend at 7:30 in the morning, years ago, desperate for a drink. He suggested that we go to a bar near my office and get drunk together, as soon as it opened at 10 a.m. Needless to say, by the time 10 a.m. rolled around, I was fine, and no longer felt the urge to drink. One of the things that helped was just knowing that I could drink, but I was choosing not to. Dealing with sugar urges seems to work just the same. Good luck, and keep ketoing on!
It happens, but slowly. I missed drinking for years after I quit. Today, I hardly think about it. I expect the same to happen with sugar. And by the by, the fructose half of sucrose is metabolized in the liver by the same pathway as the liver uses to deal with alcohol. And fructose and ethanol both affect the same reward pathways in the brain the same way, too. They are both long-term toxins; the only difference between them is that a sugar high doesn’t usually cause car crashes and sexual encounters with the boss’s spouse.
In New England, the term used to be “tonic,” though these regional differences seem to be dying out, nowadays.
But my ex and I once ran into this in a Boston restaurant, years ago,. He, being British, ordered a tonic with lime, and was surprised when the waitress asked what kind he wanted. “You know, Coke, 7 Up, . . .?” Fortunately, my dad is from New Hampshire, so I was able to translate and order him a “quinine.” 
We say pop in Western PA too.
I was able to get past all my cravings after 2 weeks, except for bread. I loved bread and could easily eat a whole loaf in a day. It did take about a year for me to stop wanting it. Now, I can have a couple bites of stuffing at Thanksgiving and be satisfied. But it has been about 10 years since I went low carb. The key was not to have any until I was over it, lol.
When I grew up in Ga. everything carbonated was a Coke. “I’d like a Coke.” “What kind?” “Orange, please.”
I have no idea of the science of stomach shrinking with keto…I just know I’m eating half the amount I used to eat. After coffee and whey powder about 7am I have to remind myself to eat about 5pm. I too could go with no more food, no cravings, no hunger, blood sugar is perfectly stable. I do take prescription Pepcid so that may help with stomach acid making me want to eat. However, I was on Pepcid long before keto.