Sugar Out of Control page 2

[cinnamon]

Maybe the thing You´re craving isn´t only about food ... sometimes there may be emotional issues behind cravings. if You like to, find someone who does energy healing like EFT or go on the internet to learn how to apply EFT to Yourself - can be quite helpful for overcoming cravings if the background is emotional. I´m quite a newbie to primal (two weeks) but I already love it
and I am practicing EFT for a year for myself and others with good results

[Solldara]

It would help if you gave some idea of what you consider primal eating ie a couple of days typical menus.

I find that the more sweet, sweet stuff I eat the more I crave so I restrict very sweet tasting things as I really hate the out of control constantly starving feeling I get when I go back to a high carb diet. Personally I'm not a fan of the low carb (below 50g) idea so I eat loads of lower carb veg (brocolli, cauliflower etc) as well as carrots and I also eat several different types of berries throughout the day without them causing any problems. As I do need to lose weight I aim for around 50-100g of carbs a day but as I only occasionally count them to check I'm not stressed about an actual number.

I'd suggest aiming for between 100 and 150g which is made up of loads of fruit and lower carb veg (30g carbs is 500g of mixed berries) and try sticking to that for a couple of weeks before tweaking depending on your results. That way you should have loads to eat all the time and will give you chance to stabilise so you can then add back in the other stuff you like and see how it affects you ie I love Full Fat Coconut Yoghurt but that always starts me craving sweet things so its on treat status for the time being.

[Corvidae]

Carbs/sugars give us energy, so do fats. Problem is it takes our body a while to adjust to getting energy from fats when its relied on sugars for so long, which is where sugar cravings come from. You say you want to transition gradually, and i think the best way to do that would be to 1) eat only "good" carbs, like fruits and sweet potatos/yams, maybe some white rice, when you have a sugar craving, and 2) try to get more fats in your diet*.

Also you can try this: when youre hungry/have a sugar craving, have a spoonful of (good) olive oil, or even better, coconut oil. See if that helps the hunger. If it does, then your body is just looking for more energy. If youre still hungry, then maybe your body is craving something in particular. Try a good multivitamin.

*If the idea of eating crispy gobs of animal fat is unappealing to you, try nibbling on small pats of grass-fed butter (Kerrigold is an irish import thats pretty easy to find and is awesome) or getting more coconut milk into your diet. Try making coconut milk smoothies.

[Pebbles67]

Let's remember that primal is not necessarily a low carb program. If you have no weight to lose, then why would you go low carb?
Personally, my binge issues get bad when I don't get enough carbs. (and yes, I have tried very low carb). If I am not getting the right balance of Protein, Fats and Carb, I lose it. Maybe some tracking would help.

You could try this:
1. Figure out your BMR, then use the Harris Benedict Equation to add in activity. This will tell you how many calories you need to maintain your weight.
2. Use Mark's protein needs range to find out how much protein you need first. Subtract from your daily calories. 1g P = 4 cals
3. Use the Carbohydrate Curve to decide how many carbs you will eat. Subtract those calories. 1g C= 4 cals
4. Make up the rest of your cals in fat. 1g F=9cals
5. Use a food tracker like Fitday to track your food intake and try to keep close to your chosen numbers daily.

[Lily]

I am using the term "paleo" really loosely I don't know what "low carb" technically is, but pretty much anything would be low carb compared to where I started i.e. almost all calories coming from grains, dairy and SUGAR (and fruits, legumes and veggies). I feel like I messed up my body with 2 vegetarian pregnancies and nursing... I'm naturally skinny--no matter if I work out or am sedentary, and I never restrict my calories intentionally (sometimes I miss a meal, because I'm too busy chasing kids around), but I usually make up for that with some sort of a cheesecake binge...

[sbhikes]

When you get the urge to eat all that sugar are you actually hungry? If so, maybe you should eat more real food, especially meat or eggs, something really satisfying that can leave you not feeling hungry for hours. When I eat really satisfying stuff like that I can sit in a room full of delicious treats and forget they are there.

If it's just that you suddenly think, hmm, xyz sounds really good and then you get obsessed and after the first bite you're off on a binge, you probably have some other kind of issue to work out. Perhaps you can just observe yourself to see what triggers this and then work on finding better ways to deal with that trigger. I know that I get triggered by job stress and I probably should find better ways to handle that kind of stress than chocolate.