Are sweets okay in moderation?

K

katiedid

New member
So here's my problem, I have no issue with eating healthy. I like healthy foods and have no problem eating them; however, I crave sweets. So far, since I started eating healthy on New Years, I have been allowing myself 1 small treat a day (ex: Skinny Cow Ice Cream or 1/2 of a Chocolate Cupcake). Neither is over 150 calories and I have been able to stay at around 1200-1300 calories per day. Is it bad that I am still eating sweets or should I try to cut them out of my diet completely? Any advice is appreciated!
 
It's not horrible that you're eating sweets in moderation..the problem isn't bad food as much as it is bad diet. You obviously have to control yourself more than you once did but completely restricting yourself from something will make it worse.
The only problem I would see is that taking out the sweets you're only eating a little above 1000 calories a day, which might be too little for you. Make sure you're getting everything you need in your diet then you can make wiggle room for sweets.
 
As long as you stay below your calorie limit you will still lost weight. There are 2 issues I can think of with it.
A. Like Tamago said, you are quite low already on your calorie limit (from the looks of your ticker you aren't actually overweight so to lose weight you will need to go with low calories) so saving 150 cals for sweet treats does not allow you a lot of calories for more filling nutritious foods. This may leave you feeling hungrier which could encourage you to fall off track.
B. I know that once I start having treats it creates more cravings for me. Before christmas time I was doing GREAT. I was staying in my calorie limit and hadn't had a single bad treat. Then just before christmas we went out to a buffet I didn't eat too badly but it was enough to send me over the edge and I got cravings that I couldn't fight off. It took a long while to get back on track (the vacation away didn't help either).

What I do when I am craving something sweet is either chew a sweet 5 calorie gum or Ice Breaker has these circular sour mints that are SO good and have zero calories. This helps my craving and doesn't really affect my calorie limit. Of course it does come with a less desireable part to, I believe both the gum and mints contain Aspertane (I can't handle it in diet drinks but can in these things)
 
Of course! Moderation is the key word there :) Over the course of last week I had cheesecake, a couple cookies, and pizza. I still lost. You just work it into your calories.
 
As all have said, it's all in moderation.

Occassional cheesecake or cookie? Good.


Occassional while cheesecake or bag of cookies? Bad.
 
As others have said - as long as you're getting the essential nutrients in the rest of your calories, it doesn't really matter if you have small amounts of sweets.

However, if you end up not getting enough protein or enough vitamins and minerals because you're cutting them out in favor of the sweets, it could be an issue. So focus more on good overall nutrition than whether or not something you like is 'bad' :D
 
I agree, don’t deprive yourself. It makes weight control more difficult. I always tell myself to just taste, don’t have to eat the whole bloody thing.
 
Thanks for the feedback everyone :) I find that if I completely restrict myself to the point where I feel deprived, its hard to stay on track. Allowing myself small treats keeps me sane. You guys made a good point about nutrition though. I will make sure that I am getting all of the food groups in every day and start taking a multivitamin again (I used to take them all the time and I'm not sure why I stopped). I am not overweight (I'm 5'4" and 129 lbs), I'm just trying to get down to my ideal weight, so according to the calorie counter I used I need to consume 1600 calories to maintain my weight and 1290 to lose weight. Thanks again for the advise! It makes me feel good that I'm not the only one who eats sweets now and then :)
 
katiedid said:
Thanks for the feedback everyone :) I find that if I completely restrict myself to the point where I feel deprived, its hard to stay on track. Allowing myself small treats keeps me sane. You guys made a good point about nutrition though. I will make sure that I am getting all of the food groups in every day and start taking a multivitamin again (I used to take them all the time and I'm not sure why I stopped). I am not overweight (I'm 5'4" and 129 lbs), I'm just trying to get down to my ideal weight, so according to the calorie counter I used I need to consume 1600 calories to maintain my weight and 1290 to lose weight. Thanks again for the advise! It makes me feel good that I'm not the only one who eats sweets now and then :)
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It's not so much the sweets (although I do love a frozen york peppermint patty) For me it's wings! And exactly as everyone else has said, if you eat alittle of it everyone once and a while you'll still be healty and losing, and happy ;)
 
I agree with what's been said. My trainer said that it's not so much that you can't eat certain things but rather you need to watch how much and how often so I say go ahead and have some. :)
 
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