Are you struggling to lose weight, despite eating what you believe to be a healthy diet? If so, sugar could be the culprit. Sugar is one of the main causes of obesity, and it can be very difficult to tell if you are consuming too much of it. In this blog post, we will discuss how to determine if sugar is impacting your weight and causing you to gain unwanted pounds. We will also provide tips for reducing your sugar intake and improving your health!
If you are carrying around extra weight, it is important to evaluate your diet and see if sugar could be the cause. Sugar is found in many foods that we eat on a daily basis, including fruits, vegetables, breads, cereals, and even dairy products. While some sugar is necessary for our bodies to function properly, too much sugar can lead to weight gain and other health problems.
If you’re like most of my clients, you’re struggling to lose weight, but you don’t know whether or not you have a problem with sugar & carbs specifically.
Quiz
This short quiz will help you start to figure this out. Read the following questions and answer yes/no for each one.
- You crave sweets or carbs (such as chips, crackers, bread, pasta) every day, but think it’s just “how you’re wired.”
- Do you reach for a sugar-laden coffee drink, muffin, bagel, donut, or sugary cereal to kick start your morning?
- You get through most of the day eating healthy, but you can’t seem to resist eating a sugar-laden coffee drink, soda, candy, other sweets or carbs mid-afternoon.
- After a long exhausting day, you typically use sweets or carbs to wind down at night.
- Do you often eat more sugar than you plan to? Do you find that it’s difficult to stop after eating a small portion?
- Do you find it next to impossible to abstain from sweets and carbs when they’re in front of you?
- Do you often feel like you’re not in control of what you’re eating – almost as if there’s another force inside you that’s taking charge and derailing your plans?
If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, then there’s a good chance sugar is impacting your weight.
While you may not be happy to know this, the good news is that there’s an easy fix. (More on this later.)
You’re Not Alone
Answering yes to any of the above questions might make you feel like you’re the only one struggling with this issue. You may feel different from everyone else and wonder why you don’t have more willpower. But trust me, you’re not alone. Almost every client I work with struggles with sugar & carbs.
In fact, I’ve been in the same place you are, where I just couldn’t seem to get through the afternoon slump without a sweet treat. I couldn’t resist the cookies offered during a meeting at work. I tried to eat well but ended up eating foods that sabotaged my efforts to lose weight.
That’s because at the time, I really didn’t realize just HOW sugar was impacting me.
Once you learn the direct correlation between sugar and your metabolism, and discover exactly why it makes weight loss so difficult, you’ll feel more empowered and able to take back control of your diet.
How Sugar & Carbs Prevent You From Losing Weight
Sugar wreaks havoc with your metabolism. By eating sugar, you force your body to hold onto excess weight. When you consume sugar, your body attempts to remove it from your bloodstream as quickly as possible. It first tries to use it as energy, but it often can’t, so it turns to Plan B: fat storage.
Fat is your body’s way of hanging onto calories when it can’t use them right away, and while this was a useful mechanism back in hunter-gatherer days when famine was frequent, now it’s not so helpful – especially if you’re trying to slim down.
Additionally, when you eat sugar, your body experiences what’s known as an insulin spike. Insulin is a hormone that helps regulate blood sugar levels by shuttling glucose (sugar) from the bloodstream into cells for energy or storage.
When you eat sugar, your best-case scenario is that you use it right away and aren’t burning the fat your body is already holding onto. Worst case? You’re just adding to those energy stores, for “later”. In other words, you’re gaining weight.
Good News: Willpower is NOT the Solution
Now you may be thinking that the answer is that you simply need to be “tougher” and have more willpower. But here’s the thing: willpower only lasts so long. It’s not the long-term solution you’re looking for.
Sure, if you’re determined, you can set your mind to removing certain foods from your diet. But if you don’t understand the underlying reasons WHY you’re experiencing cravings (and address them), they’re sneaky and they’ll creep back in.
This is the main reason that most diets don’t work long term.
The solution is to pinpoint what’s causing your cravings. There are a few main culprits and once you know what they are, you can eliminate your cravings so sugar and carbs no longer have a hold on you. I’ve been sharing my strategies to kick these cravings with clients for years and they can’t believe how much easier it’s been for them to lose weight.
I’m incredibly excited to share these same strategies with you!
I’m going to dig much deeper on this topic during an upcoming FREE webinar…so that you can finally lose all the weight you want!
FREE WEBINAR
“Struggling With Nagging Sugar Cravings? How to Lose Weight (Even if You Don’t Have Any Willpower)”
During this FREE webinar you’ll learn:
- The 7 culprits that make your sugar cravings worse and keep you from losing weight
- 3 little-known strategies for kicking your sugar cravings to the curb
- EXACTLY how and why sugar impacts your metabolism
- Why sugar is secretly FORCING your body to hold onto excess weight
- How you can create your own plan to kick the cravings for good
If you’ve been struggling with your weight and nagging cravings for sugar and carbs, this is for you. I hope you’ll join me because I know what a huge difference this can make for you!
