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Last updated on September 1st, 2024 at 08:56 pm
Do you feel like you’re constantly craving carbs? Are you binging on sugar to the point where you feel like you just can’t stop?
If this is you, you’re not alone. It might also surprise you to learn that your body is doing exactly what it is supposed to do.
Craving carbs is often a result of:
- Dieting
- Having off-limits foods
- Recent weight loss
- Recovery from an eating disorder
If you are not properly fueling your body, the first thing you will crave is carbohydrates!
Lets dig into some of the biological reasons you are craving carbs, how craving carbs can lead to a sugar binge, and how to stop craving carbs.
Why Your Body Needs Carbs
Carbohydrates are one of three macronutrients that the body uses for energy. Carbs are your body and the brain’s preferred energy source.
Carbohydrate foods include:
- Breads and pastas
- Rice
- Boulger
- Millet
- Quiona
- Pastries
- Corn
Your body also needs carbohydrates in order to absorb protein! Carbohydrates have a very important role in the body.
Reasons You Are Craving Carbs
Five reasons you might be craving carbs are:
- You are not eating enough food
- You are not eating enough carbohydrates
- You are low on protein
- You’re not getting enough sleep
- Your stress levels are high
Your body HATES when you restrict carbohydrates. It depends on carbs to keep itself running. Your body will also respond to lack of sleep and high stress levels by increasing carbohydrate cravings.
Your body craves carbohydrates with lack of sleep and stress because cortisol levels are increased in the body. Cortisol is a hormone that often spikes during times physical threats are present. However, to your body, physical and mental threats produce the same hormonal response.
With cortisol levels increased, your body will crave carbohydrates because this is often the nutrient that your body can break down and use for energy immediately. This is something that your body would need if it was facing a physical threat or in a famine.
Biological Reasons You Crave Carbs
When you do not eat enough food or carbohydrate, your body will start to take matters into its own hands.
You are craving carbohydrates because:
- Your body has a spike in neuropeptide y, which is a neurotransmitter that will cause you to crave carbs!
- Your body spikes its cortisol levels
- You have a decrease in leptin (your fullness hormone)
- You have in grehlin (your hunger hormone)
.
You might also be experiencing low blood sugars from not eating enough or not eating enough carbohydrates specifically. This can make you crave carbohydrates.
Bottom line, the primary reason you’re probably craving carbohydrates is because you’re not eating enough of them. Or not eating enough food altogether.
What To Eat When Craving Carbs
If you have an intense craving for carbohydrates, it is very important that you satisfy it by eating carbohydrates!
Many people that are trying to restrict their carbohydrates will try to satisfy their cravings by:
- Eating a low carbohydrate food
- Eating a protein
- Eating the carbohydrate food they desire but only a small portion
- Drinking water
- Eating a zero or low calorie food
None of these things will work! In fact, this is a form of food restriction and your body is smarter than that. Foods that are often included in “wellness diets” tend to leave us longing for more and urgently searching for carbs.
Once you are done satisfying that craving, move onto your next meal or snack. Establishing healthy eating habits such as eating every 3-4 hours and balancing your plate with a variety of macronutrients including carbohydrates will help reduce carbohydrate cravings.
Balancing your plate with carbohydrates, proteins, fats and produce will also help you to enjoy your food more and improve your mood.
What Is A Sugar Binge
Sugar is a simple carbohydrate. If you restrict your food or carbohydrate, it is very likely that you’re going to feel overwhelmed with the urge to eat simple sugars. Many people may be able to suppress their sugar cravings during the day by distracting themselves only to find themselves binging on sugar at night.
Restricting sugar can lead to binging or even binging and purging.
A sugar binge is when:
- You consume large amounts of sugar in a small period of time. This often happens multiple times per week.
- You feel an urgency to eat simple sugar foods, and cannot stop thinking about it until your urge is satisfied.
- You feel a sense of panic when sugary foods are available
- You feel like you can’t stop eating or have a lack of control around the sugar food
- You have extreme guilt or shame after you eat the sugar
Why Does a Sugar Binge Happen
A binge can happen for many reasons. Things that make a binge more likely to happen are:
- You have a history of binge eating disorder. Those who experience an eating disorder are more likely to experience extreme hunger which may come in the form of a sugar binge
- You tend to restrict food
- You restrict sugar, even if you do not have a restrictive relationship with other foods
- You restrict sugar after you binge
What To Do After A Sugar Binge
The only way to stop binging on sugar for good is to break the binge restrict cycle.
The best thing you can do after a sugar binge is:
- Move onto the next meal or snack as usual
- Keep the “binge food” available and do not physically or mentally restrict it
- Journal about negative body or food thoughts
- Ditch the scale
Whatever you do, do not restrict your food at your next meal or snack. This is a recipe for disaster! You will experience a deeper, more intense binge the next time around if you begin to restrict sugar.
How To Stop My Body From Craving Carbs
You don’t.
Carbohydrates are one of three macronutrient sources of energy that your body needs to sustain life and mental capacity. Therefore, you will always crave carbohydrates from time to time because your body is letting you know what it needs to function optimally.
To reduce intense and urgent cravings for carbohydrates you must:
- Eat regularly throughout the day (every 3-4 hours)
- Eat a balance of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and fruits/veggies at every meal
- Stop food shaming yourself
- Keep all types of foods in the house
- Practice food neutrality (no good foods or bad foods)
- Practice gentle nutrition
- Eliminating food rules
If you want to achieve true food and body freedom, you must honor your body’s natural wisdom in telling you what it needs.
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