SO I’ve just about finished my first week which has went well on the whole.

Was able to keep to the suggested meal plans (which saves a lot of time and effort thinking) and feel great and have lost a bit of weight.

The only day I have struggled was the day my wife gave birth with both of us being tired.

I’m just wondering if people who have done the 8 weeks if it does re-set and break the addictive qualities of sugar and simple carbohydrates.

Its one part of the book that I wish there was more talk about – it hints at it with the addicted to carbs quiz but doesn’t really say any more about it. I know I’m addicted to chocolate etc, even though it makes me feel rubbish, much like a hangover. Will 8 weeks cold turkey break the addictive nature?

studies show that sugar is as addictive as cocaine after all!!

Just wondering what others experience have been or other ways to break the addiction.

Its one thing saying that after 8 weeks you go on a med style diet and thats that, but of the addiction quality of sugars is still there, then it is going to be too much will power!

Hi skinnydave. Well done on completing your first week – and congrats about baby’s arrival too! Big week for you. I’ve been told on here that if you can cut out all the bad carbs and sugar, that it will indeed change your palate. So I’m interpreting that as a simple yes to your question. I’m on week 3 now and sugar is the hardest for me to give up, but I am slowly weaning myself off it. I used to have 3 heaped spoons of sugar in a cup of tea, but I’m down to 2 already and have limited the amount of cuppas that I have in order to cut down on the sugar intake. Good luck with it, and let us know how you’re getting on.

skinnydave, I’ve been on the Fast800 for a year because I had such an enormous amount of weight to lose that the first 8 weeks only made a dent in it. I felt so good and had such great results that I just kept going. I am extremely draconian about my carb intake and it has completely broken the cycle of sugar addiction for me. At least once a week I get my OH a pastry from a lovely bakery I pass during my daily walks and have never once been tempted to eat even a single nibble of it. Huge cinammon buns draped in ooey gooey glaze, strawberry hazelnut scones, banana chocolate cupcakes, flakey almond crossiants, all things I would have wolfed down in an instant in the bad old days, now just stay in the bag while I continue my walk. I hold that bag, whistling a merry tune, for 12,000 more steps. Then the bag sits on the counter all afternoon until my fella comes home. It means nothing to me.

If you had told me last year that I wouldn’t experience a second’s struggle when confronted with fine confectionary on a regular basis, I would have laughed in your face. Friends and family have expressed amazement at my willpower, but it doesn’t feel like that to me at all. I just don’t eat that stuff. Period. I am no more tempted by sweets than someone with a peanut allergy is tempted by a Snickers bar.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I eat fewer than 20 grams of carbs a day, often less than 10, all of them from vegetables and dairy. If you keep eating sugar/white carbs, you will keep craving them because the blood sugar spike – insulin release – blood sugar drop mechanism is powerfully self-reinforcing.

I’m getting close to my final goal now. When I switch to maintenance mode, I’ll still count carbs, at least for a while, and will continue to eat exactly the same things, just more of them. I am never going back. This is who I am now, and I love it. There is no lure dessert, bread or pasta can hold for me that is better than fitting into normal clothes and being in good enough shape to run up and down stairs and walk all day without effort.

Skinnydave, I have to endorse what Esnecca has said. I started BSD800 way back in January, and did 2 back to back rounds. In that 16 weeks I lost 47lbs (way in excess of what I had hoped for) and have been in maintenance for 14 weeks. I restrict carbs more than cals these days but this afternoon we were out at a local regatta with friends and my o/h bought a plate of cakes / biscuits / pastries from the cake stall. All our friends tucked in and I thought “one mouthful won’t hurt” – well, I kid you not, I had to discreetly excuse myself from the table to surreptitiously spit out the one mouthful I took. It was soooo sweet, I couldn’t have swallowed it for anything!! Really truly do not crave anything sweet now – not even dark chocolate. I never in a million years envisaged that when starting out on the BSD journey.

I am not quite as extreme an avoider of the sugary stuff, and can report that indulgence in it can indeed still spike cravings after several months on BSD so you are probably never entirely ‘safe’ if you are deeply addicted. I tend to prefer savoury flavours now rather than sweet, and generally can walk quite happily past cakes and biscuits, but have several times in the last few months of maintenance indulged in old favourites, most of which I have found now too sweet to be repeated often, at least enjoyably. I have experienced a couple of days where indulgence was followed by cravings that were hard to resist, and have introduced my ‘maintenance rules’ to try to stop that effect. Essentially I try to keep the bad stuff to within one hour a day, if I indulge in it, and keep drinking to just weekends and holidays and special occasions. I haven’t had any cravings while sticking to this plan so it seems to work.

I’m also addicted to eating chocolates, cakes, pastries and all sorts of sweet foods. When I do crave for it, I make it sure that I drink a lot of water after I ate eat. Sometimes, I find an alternative food to eat to divert my attention.

Esnecca, Theodora and Mixnmatch are all 100% correct in their own way. Here’s my tuppence worth. 2011-2012 I lost 7 stones in 15 months. I could not believe how insanely easy it was to keep away from sugar. Like Esnecca, I could live with sugar, even bake for other people , have it in the house. That was on 20g carbs for 15 months, where I did not let so much as a single strawberry pass my lips, never mind obvious carbs. Then, the day AFTER my daughter’s wedding – very stressful -(after I had lost all that weight and looked and felt bloody great), I let one sandwich pass my lips and the floodgates opened. Pretty much back to my original weight, very quickly. Mixnmatch is probably right when she says we are never safe and will probably always be sugar junkies.
I have learned from that experience and better prepared for future setbacks. Currently I am losing weight well, but I am not so stringent with carbs. This time I am in control and I want to learn how to deal with carbs in this carbladen world. I hasten to add that my carbs consist of SOME fruit and veg and ‘smart carbs’, like the occ. slice broccolli bread, fish and chips once a week, because we’re only human 😀
If it’s any comfort, I can now have guests and indulge them without indulging myself – it is easy after a while. I don’t actually want it. But I know the potential is there to be gagging for it. Hopefully, I can confront that when it happens. Mixnmatch’s coping mechanisms are good. I’ll be following them when I get to that point as I surely will! I know I will always be a sugar junkie – I just need to learn to control it. Hope this helps – best of luck on your journeys.

Thanks everyone for your replies!

That is the sort of answer I was hoping for, just need massive willpower for 7 more weeks, then hopefully find a change in favoured tastes!

You won’t need massive will power for 7 weeks. Very soon your hunger will vanish, then it’s plain sailing. Social occasions can be difficult only because people think you are a party pooper if you don’t ‘join in.’ That’s their problem, not mine. Spent to long trying to keep people happy. My true friends do not sabotage me, thankfully! Go forth Dave – skinniness beckons! 🙂

Hi Dave,

I found that I only needed massive willpower for about 2-3 weeks. After that things got a lot easier. I’m now transitioning to a steady diet as I had a lot to lose when I started and now I’m actually struggling to eat enough! The cravings do mostly disappear, it’s only when I’m tired at the end of the day that they occasionally creep back. Wishing you all the best with the 8 weeks.