Have you ever struggled to lose weight or to maintain it? If you ever did, considering the sugar substitutes to cut down the sugar calories had probably crossed your mind! Am I right?Because I did try to lose weight a few times in my life, I have quite an experience avoiding, using for a period of time and getting off the sugar substitutes! So here’re the truths about the sugar substitutes that I’ve learned from both deep diving into multiple sugar substitute articles and from my own extensive experience!
THE TRUTH ABOUT SUGAR SUBSTITUTES FOR WEIGHT MANAGEMENT!
Let’s be completely honest.
As you can see, I can rather be described as a lean girl. Right? Well… I haven’t ALWAYS been this slim!
As a teenager I was somewhat chubby (too much schoolwork + full sugar & fat desserts DO affect the waistline!). After giving birth to my boys I gained quite a bit of weight again… (You can read more about my weight gain & loss journey here).
Throughout those times and as I’ve finally lost my baby-weight and struggled to maintain it, despite learning up a few useful weight-management tricks, the weighty issues have never been struggle-free!
And… this is where the sugar substitutes came REALLY handy!
Why, you may ask? Because no matter how much we’d like to avoid them, they DO help you lose / maintain weight! They help a LOT!
Let me explain:
HOW SUGAR SUBSTITUTES HELP YOU LOSE WEIGHT
Losing weight is all about building your healthy habits! My own weight-loss experience makes me strongly believe in that!
The problem is: it’s VERY-VERY hard to quickly reset all your “unhealthy” habits and all of a sudden start eating salads instead of fries, drinking water instead of Coke and eating one TINY piece of your favorite dessert instead of a pint of Ben & Jerry’s!
Not only it’s hard on your body (it will be going through withdrawals). It’s very hard on your mind, too!
Switching to healthy food habits don’t just leave us hungry… Your food is a huge source for daily comfort and joy! And let me tell you – in our stressful lives, you cannot underestimate how much we emotionally depend on our food and the joy that it adds to our everyday life!
And although it may be relatively easy to switch from the full-fat to low-fat foods and from the white breads to whole grain options rather quickly…
Giving up the sugar habit presents the biggest challenge!
Especially if you’re a big-time sweet tooth whose day just DOESN’T GO RIGHT without treating yourself with something satisfyingly sweet!
Learning to make your desserts healthier is the first important step. Yet, the dates in the Healthy Caramel or the chocolate in the Fudge Bars are healthy, but not… calorie free! And thus, for your waistline and your wellness’s sake they’re safe to be consumed… But in SMALL quantities!
Now, learning to consume your treats in small quantities takes time and it takes effort!
…Still, of course, when I started making my own all desserts I’ve lost a lot of weight! But I was still a few pounds away from where I wanted to be!
What helped me lose them?
Despite me trying to avoid them for as long as possible, I turned to the sugar substitutes!
And that’s when all these last pounds shed off! They shed of really-really fast!
My weight actually dropped below where I planned for it to be! (I actually had to regain some weight to stay healthy!)
I was happy. I was finally really slim while still having the access to my mid-afternoon sweet (calorie-free) cup of coffee or my late-night erythritol-sweetened marshmallow dessert!
GETTING OFF THE SUGAR SUBSTITUTES
The truth is: I still occasionally use sugar substitutes in my coffee, and I like chewing some sugar-free gum after lunch (it really helps with digestion). And I still occasionally munch on my sugar-free Halo Top and Arctic Zero ice creams.
But because I strongly believe that the sugar substitutes are not 100% “all-natural” even if they’re claimed organic, and they are not COMPLETELY safe to use, I do try my best to minimize using them as much as I can!The good news is: once you’ve lost all your extra pounds and established all your other healthy habits, the sugar (or the sugar-substitute) habit ALONE becomes quite easy to manage!
That’s because when you only have ONE last habit to tweak, all you need to do is just concentrate on the portion control and on learning a few mind-tricks to help you prevent being emotionally dependent on the sugary (and the sugar-less) sweets to celebrate your everyday and find the joy and the comfort in some other great things in life other than eating a dessert!
THE CONCLUSION:
Although some sources claim that using the sugar substitutes may not just stunt your weight-loss, they make actually make matters worse, after reading many of such articles the conclusion usually comes down to stating that if you don’t end up replacing the free sugar calories with other high-caloric foods, sugar-substitutes can be really helpful in losing weight and maintaining it!
I can fully support this statement with my own weight-loss experience as the sugar-substitutes proved to be really helpful with losing the last stubborn pounds of my extra weight!
Also if you hate the whole idea of using a substitute, yet are stuck on your weigh-loss journey, I believe that it’s totally OK to use the sugar-substitutes to help you get over this last hump and give you some extra time to reset all your other habits to healthy while still having the access to some sweet edible pleasures!
Finally, breaking the sugar-habit alone isn’t only possible, it’s actually quite easy once you’ve reset all your other habits to suit your healthy body goals!
Great solutions for weight loss and maintaining your weight. Completely denying yourself will never work. Thanks for the solutions!