Some thoughts and discussions from me.
Got Sugar Cravings? Here’s 5 Ways to Squash Them
Do you find yourself needing something sweet at a certain time everyday? Maybe it’s after after lunch or it’s at night, the two most common times to feel those cravings.
If you’ve found yourself reaching – or thinking about reaching – for more sugary, sweet, or carby sweets lately,
a) that’s very common, and
b) there’s a reason for it!
Like many of my clients, you might find yourself wanting to reach for the sweets this time of year, as the days get shorter and the temps start to decrease. Regardless of whether those sugar cravings are year round – or are just ramping up, today I’m going to share 5 ways to help you squash those cravings.
However — if you don’t feel like checking out the video (or can’t listen,) here’s the gist 🙂
Got Sugar Cravings? Here’s 5 Ways to Squash Them
This is actually one of the main issues clients have before working with me on their nutrition. Many of my clients have this happen to them, and I myself have sugar cravings. Lately, I’ve been getting quite a few questions about this, so I figure this is the perfect time to talk about it.
The Big 3
Truly, you can *almost* always knock out – or at lease significantly decrease your sugar cravings by having these three factors in order:
- Your macronutrient split
- Appropriate nutrient and meal timing
- Daily intake/amount of food
Macronutrient Split
You macronutrient split is how much fat, carbs, and protein you’re eating per day. Your needs will differ from your joe schmo next to you, even if you are performing the exact same workouts. Your personal split depends on many factors, but to name a few, your training, your schedule, your preferences, body type, BF%, years training, and more.
We can get sugar cravings if we’re not getting enough satiating protein or fat in our meals. Let’s say you had a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast (you may have heard me use this example before!), and you tend to crave carbs and sugar all day long. That’s probably due to the macronutrient split and timing of those nutrients being off-balance. It was primarily carbohydrate and didn’t have any protein or fat in it.
So looking at your meals and making sure they have a balanced amount of macronutrients you should be getting, that’s completely individual. It’s completely dependent on your body, your preferences, your schedule, your workouts, etc.
Nutrient Timing
Nutrient timing, or the time at which you eat each of these nutrients, and the order in which you eat them, also has a very big affect on not only sugar cravings, but also hunger levels and appetite.
Daily Intake
And of course, your daily intake, or how much of everything you’re eating throughout the day.
Are you eating enough? If you’re not eating enough, your body will tell you to eat more, usually in the form of quick-digesting sugars and carbs, or anything to give you fast energy. Make sure you’re eating enough. Even if you’re trying to lose body fat, you don’t want to create a deficit that’s too large for too long, because those leptin and ghrelin hormones will get out of whack (those are your hunger and satiety hormones.)
Other helpful factors
Hormones and serotonin
This time of year, the sun’s not out quite as much — it’s rising later and setting earlier — and as a result, we don’t get as many daytime hours, which can mean our serotonin levels dip a little bit. That dip in serotonin can make some of us crave carbohydrates more. We’re not getting that serotonin which converts to dopamine, and we’re not getting those great hormones from the sun that we do during the summer, so we tend to crave carbs.
How do we fix this? You could get out, get some movement in the sun, take some Vitamin D, put up some lamps around you if you work at home, or bring a small sun lamp with you if you work in an office. Those are all things that should help curb those carbohydrate cravings a bit.
Decreased serotonin levels are associated with an increase in carbohydrate cravings, as seen in multiple studies.
Cinnamon tea
If you’re craving something sweet and you want to curb it right away, and you don’t want to fight it too much, my favorite choice is a beverage actually — cinnamon tea. If I find that I just can’t get rid of this sweet craving, and I don’t want to go downstairs and get some ice cream or cookies, then I’ll have some cinnamon tea. It’s a little bit sweet — Trader Joe’s has a really good fall tea that’s out right now — and that tends to take away the craving for me much more than chocolate would. If I have chocolate, or a cookie, I usually end up wanting more! So cinnamon tea is my number 1 go-to.
BCAAs
Lastly, there are multiple studies that show that drinking branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) in the afternoon and evening before bed helps to decrease appetite. Try sipping on some BCAAs during those specific times where you tend to get a little bit snacky — maybe you’re hungry even though you just ate a good, well-timed meal with a good macronutrient split — because sipping on BCAAs tends to reduce appetite.
I hope you found this helpful! If you have any questions at all, as always feel free to email me at info@trainerpaige.com.
Tell me — do you have sugar cravings? And if so, do they ramp up when the weather gets colder?
(Sometimes if I’m craving something specific, multiple days in a row, it’s best just to give into a single size serving of it, too ;))