I'm constantly asked what craving sugar means by readers, followers and clients. Cravings are complex and required diet and lifestyle interventions to fix them. There's no pill or easy fix to make cravings go away.
The good news is I have mastered my own cravings and that of 100's of women. I have a proven solution that's been shown time and time again to stop sugar cravings and get my weight loss clients total clarity on what causes them so they can reach their weight loss and health goals.
Let's talk about what craving sugar means so you can get off the sugar madness train!
What Craving Sugar Means
Sugar cravings are a sign of an imbalance with your nutrition, lifestyle or mindset. In my experience working with weight loss clients, it's usually a combination of all three causing the cravings. There's three specific hormones that cause cravings called leptin, insulin and Ghrelin.
These hormones are your fat burning and hunger hormones. Sugar cravings are a sign that these three hormones are not balanced. It's well documented in research that people who are overweight generally have what's called leptin resistance (and insulin resistance). This means they store more fat and crave more sugar. It's a vicious and frustrating cycle for overweight individuals.
Consuming too much sugar added sugar and not enough fiber and protein causes imbalances with these hormones and therefore, sugar cravings for simple carbohydrates.
Unfortunately, there's no definitive test for these hormones but having intense cravings for sugar and carbs, not feeling full after a meal or carrying the majority of your body weight in your belly are signs you may have imbalances with these hormones.
You can read more about these hormones and sugar in this post where I go into what the research says. What's important to know if you're reading this post is that sugar cravings come from imbalances with leptin, insulin and Ghrelin.
For this post, I will focus on the common nutrition mistakes made that cause cravings. In my free webinar, I talk more about what causes cravings and go into more details about the type of nutrition I recommend for weight loss and busting cravings. If you're at all interested, sign up to join the next webinar or get a replay link.
Nutrition & Cravings
Not Eating Enough Food
If weight loss is your goal, you probably think eating less is the magical answer to reaching you goal. I actually talk about why it's not in my free weight loss masterclass for midlife women and how it causes weight loss resistance.
Eating less is a recipe for increased cravings. Think about a time you went on a diet. About 3-4 days you probably experienced cravings and ate ALL THE FOOD. That's because you were not eating enough.
Everyone needs to eat above their resting metabolic rate. Resting metabolic rate is the minimum amount of calories your body needs to function (to keep your lungs working, heart pumping, brain operating, etc.). Most dieters make the mistake of eating BELOW their resting metabolic rate. This causes cravings.
It makes sense this happens too. Your body is trying to survive so hormonal mechanisms kick in making you more hungry. This is why eating enough calories is so important whether or not weight loss is your goal because you stop losing weight when metabolism adapts.
Cutting Carbs
Cravings are your body's way of telling you it's not getting something. Dieters make a very common mistake of cutting complex carbohydrates with fiber and not eating enough lean protein to lose weight. If you're ever cut carbs and had cravings, it's because you're not eating carbs!
Carbs break down into sugar which creates energy. Therefore, it makes sense for you to have low energy, low mental focus and have intense sugar cravings when you cut carbs.
There's a lot of unnecessary confusion around carbs and so many people believe they need to cut them to reach their goals. It's not true and cutting carbs is not something I promote with my clients. Any diet you do should be one you can do forever. I don't know about you, but I can't imagine myself NEVER eating pizza, bread or cookies again.
Eating Too Little Protein
Protein is proven in many studies to reduce hunger and stabilize blood sugar. Your body even burns a few more calories breaking it down.
If weight loss is your goal, more protein is needed. Protein is not only important for stabilizing cravings, but also to preserve muscle mass because when you're in a calorie deficit your body will want to break down muscle before fat. You need to counteract this mechanism by eating more protein. A lot more! I've never met a weight loss client who was eating enough protein.
Another reason protein is so important is because after 35, women's hormones begin to decline. This change in hormones results in losing muscle mass and makes weight gain very easy. Muscle mass is what keeps metabolism running well. One way to counteract this change after 35 is eating more protein to preserve muscle mass and again, it stabilizes cravings.
Here's a few suggestions for getting more protein for fat loss!
Mindset
All the women I coach have been dieting for years, some even decades. They have the mindset that certain foods are good and bad. I never let my clients say a food is neither good or bad. Food is simply information for the body. Some information will energize you and some will make you feel lethargic and tired.
If your mindset is always to restrict and that you can't have certain foods because they're not on your diet plan, you will always feel more desire for that food. This creates cycles of sugar cravings, binging and feeling like a failure.
If long-term weight loss is your goal, then making peace with ALL food is key. I teach my clients how to shift their mindset so they're not constantly placing morality on food, struggling with cravings and feeling like a failure.
This is just one example of how mindset creates sugar cravings. There are many more examples and I teach the women I coach how to build a healthy habits that result in weight loss by practicing powerful mindset strategies.
Master Your Cravings
In my weight loss program for midlife women, I teach you to eat balanced meals with foods you love without restricting foods so that you can lose weight and keep it off for good!
If you're a woman over 35 with 20 to 50 or more pounds to lose and want to learn more, book a complimentary weight loss call with me so we can talk about your goals, challenges and if this program is a fit for you!
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