7 Diet Derailers: Cravings

by Christina Ranon — August 25, 2008

Cravings are tough to deal with when you're on a diet, especially when you first start restricting what you eat in terms of portion-sizes and types of foods. I found that when I've been eating a lot of sugar everyday, the first few days after I decide to cut it from my diet or at least reduce my consumption of it, the cravings can be particularly acute. The South Beach diet has a 2-week phase where you quit most carbs cold turkey before you're allowed to gradually reintroduce whole grains into your diet, and cravings are supposed to die off after about a week or so. Cravings tend to come in salty or sweet forms, and if you've suddenly reduced either your sugar or sodium intake, you might want to try the cold-turkey phase and see if it works for you. If you don't want to take it that far, it's also helpful to have a portion-controlled size of what it is that you want to eat. You can do this by measuring it out and putting it into a plastic baggie, or placing it on a small plate. Make sure that you're not actually just hungry and need to increase your calorie intake.