Are you on a weight loss journey and you're really trying to lose weight,
but you find it really hard to get rid of your sugar cravings or reduce them?
You really want carbs when you're restricting your calories
and you get mid-afternoon cravings and cravings after dinner and you're
finding ways to reduce these cravings? Watch this video,
right till the end, because I'm going to give you three tips as to why you
might be getting these cravings and how to fix them and how to reduce them or get rid of them for
good. Is your snack cupboard look like this?
I often hear from clients and online training clients and in-person
personal training clients, that it's hard to lose weight when they have
snacks in the house. I can't have it in a house because I'll eat it. I have
two kids and a husband who loves snacks, but I'll tell you one thing, I
rarely touch this stuff and I'm going to tell you exactly why I don't get cravings
for this stuff, how I'm able to say no to it,
maybe touch it once in a while when I really, really want it, but it's not on a daily
basis. And these tips that I'm going to give you in this video
are going to help you not want to touch this stuff. You can have it in the house, but not touch
it again. This isn't an all or nothing thing. If you follow me on any form of social media,
you know that I'm all about healthy balance and once in a
while, a little bit of sugar is okay, but when you find yourself binging on things,
there's a reason why your body is craving
these foods and I'm going to tell you why in this video. Make sure you guys stick
around right to the end. I'm going to give you one bonus tip
as to what also might be causing your sugar cravings and how to literally get rid of them.
If you're new here. My name is Michelle Roots, kinesiologist,
personal trainer, fitness and fat loss motivation specialist, and I've helped hundreds
of people change their eating for the better, get stronger, leaner and become the best version
of themselves. So make sure you subscribe to my channel.
I'm bringing you new videos every single week, whether it's full
follow along workouts for home, or the gym, with minimal equipment. Or videos,
just like this one, with fitness and nutrition information to help
you on your fitness and fat loss journey. So make sure you smash that like button. If you enjoy this
video, leave me a comment with any questions you have related to fitness or nutrition.
I'm here to help you guys out.
So let's talk sugar cravings. Why are you craving sugar? Why are you craving carbs?
Why is it something that I hear from almost every single
training client that I work with who is looking to lose fat and looking
to build some muscle? Why does everyone tell me, "I can't have things in the house.
I get sugar cravings in the afternoon and
after dinner and I can't help but give in into these cravings and then I feel horrible. I
feel like I've destroyed all my progress and it's a cycle."
So the food guilt sets in and then you eat more because you're like, well, forget it. I already
screwed up, so I might as well just keep eating. Why is this
all happening? So, I am the type of person who,
if I'm getting cravings and if it's something that's out of the ordinary for
me, I'm very in tune with my body. I'm very in tune
with the fuel that I put in my body and what I'm
eating and I immediately know how I feel after I eat these foods.
So my first tip for you, tip number one of how to reduce
sugar cravings and carb cravings is how much food are you eating on a daily basis? Now,
not going to go into this video about how to calculate your
calories for weight loss. I've touched base on that in another video that I did,
an easy calorie calculator, to figure out how to find out
your own calorie deficit, to lose weight in a healthy way, that way you're
not restricting your calories too much. We're eating above 1,200 calories.
Check out that video after you watch this one and you'll find out
exactly if you're eating enough calories. This is often what I hear from people
is, "Well, I'm doing intermittent fasting or I'm trying to eat less
throughout the day, so I am waiting till 11:00 AM to eat. I'm not having anything until 11:00 AM and
then I have a small bowl of yogurt and some berries and then I eat an apple.
Then it's weird. Two o'clock comes around and I get all these cravings and I want sugar and
the cookies that are in the office and the brownies." We're going to tell you right now
is the reason these are happening is you're not putting fuel
in your body. Your body is telling you something. If it's creating sugar,
if it's craving carbs, it wants fuel. Basically there's something called a
basal metabolic rate. That is the amount of calories your body burns
if you literally just laid in bed all day. I have a video explaining exactly
what your basal metabolic rate is and how to calculate that.
Check that one out again after you've watched this video, but if you don't
know what your basal metabolic rate is and you're eating below that rate
and you're not eating enough calories to fuel your body,
your body is going to start craving sugar. It's going to start craving carbs. It's
craving something and it's craving these things for energy. It's fuel.
Think of your body like a car. If you don't put gas in your car, what happens? It dies.
I'm not saying you guys are going to die
but your body needs fuel. We expect it to get up in the morning, go to work, go to
a workout, carry our kids around, do grocery shopping,
clean the house, do all these things, and most likely if you're on a weight loss journey,
you're exercising a lot, at least possibly. Your body can't do this
on minimal calories. So when you start to get these cravings,
it's probably because you're not eating enough. So if you're
going 1,200 calories or less, or you're not eating enough to fuel your body,
even if it's in an intermittent fasting window or not,
this is what is probably causing some of your cravings. So looking at if you're
someone who gets cravings for sugar and carbs around 2:00
PM in the middle of the afternoon, it's possible that maybe you didn't eat enough
at breakfast and you didn't eat enough at lunch, so your
body is craving fuel. You need to look
at why am I getting these cravings every day at two or three o'clock or every day after
dinner. One thing I always advise my clients is they're like, "Well,
I just have like a chicken breast and some vegetables for dinner because
that's healthy." Perfect. That's great. But then every day, an hour
after dinner, I'm hungry again and then you're leaving yourself vulnerable to the snack cupboard.
I would rather you eat a bigger dinner with some carbs; healthy carbs, sweet potatoes, brown rice,
vegetables, whole bunch of chicken, and fill yourself up on those foods
and you will find you don't get those cravings anymore. So my tip number one is to
look at how many calories you're eating throughout the day and start there and make sure that you use
that calorie calculator and that you are actually eating enough calories.
Tip number two, why you might be getting sugar cravings and
carb cravings, you are not prioritizing your sleep. Yes, we all say seven or eight hours a day
and some people hear that and say, "That's insane. There's no way I can get eight hours of sleep
every night. I'm busy, I'm working, I'm doing this." But
when you actually take time to sit down and think, "Okay,
well I sit and watch two hours of Netflix every night. I could probably just go to bed,
prioritize my sleep and get a good night's sleep and watch the
magic happen." I promise you, as someone who's had two babies
and has been up in the middle of the night and has been through a phase of lack of sleep,
I know exactly what it feels like to get cravings because you're
tired. Again, your body is craving sugar because it
wants energy because it didn't get enough sleep. Once in a while you go out and party, you do your
thing and that's fine. But on a regular basis, get yourself on a sleep schedule. If you're
watching this, you're probably an adult. It's not necessarily the
cool thing to do anymore to stay up till 2:00 AM and get up at 6:00 AM
for work and be tired. At least I don't think so. So, that's my tip
number two for you. Try your best to prioritize your sleep. It will change
your life. I promise you. Tip number three.
You're probably dehydrated or you're not drinking enough water. So this is again,
another thing touching base on your body is craving fuel. Maybe you drink a lot of coffee,
which is totally fine. I don't know if you could read this sign. We drink some coffee in this
house as well, but I also drink a lot of water.
Again, I know with my body, I'm very aware of what I put in my body and I'm very
aware of how much water I'm drinking throughout the day. It
is always been a priority to me because I know how good I feel when I'm drinking
lots of water and I'm prioritizing that. I have a water bottle with
me, literally everywhere we go. I'm in my kitchen right now. There's a
glass sitting right next to the sink that is always mine. Every time I'm in the
kitchen, I fill up the glass and I chug it. It's a possibility, if you're drinking
less than half your body weight in ounces of water, this is possibly
causing your cravings as well. I always tell people to shoot for
two liters of water. Of course, you can calculate half your body weight in ounces
that will also help. For two liters, look at the water bottle you
use. If you don't have a water bottle, step one, buy yourself a water bottle.
Please. Not those little dinky ones like this big. I've had
clients that I just laugh when they walk in the gym. I'm like, that's a shot glass.
That is not a water bottle. Go get a big girl water bottle.
Big boy water bottle. Whatever it is. So buy yourself a big water bottle.
Calculate how many of those you need to drink in the day. Put a few
elastic founds around it, so say you're like, okay, for me to get two liters or
three liters, even better, I'm going to fill it up and then to
put two elastic bands around it. Every time you drink it and then refill it,
take off one of the bands and the end of the day, if you still have one band on there, you have some
work to do. That's my tip number three is just focused on your hydration.
So again, this all comes into eating healthy. I could go on and on and
on about cravings, but I would say these are my top three tips. Make sure
you're eating enough calories, prioritize protein, make sure
you're getting enough sleep and make sure you are drinking water. Yes,
we could say, "Well, it's my time on the month and I get cravings and my hormones
and I get cravings and this." Yes, there's so many other things that can come into play,
but there are certain things that you personally can control.
You can control what you put in your body, the food you eat. You can control
how much sleep you're getting, unless you've had
a baby. I feel for you. I've been there twice. I get that. You can let that one
slide but try and take naps and try and do what you can. Three, try and hydrate your body.
So these are the three things you have full control and at least
see if you can use that to reduce your cravings and go from there. If you want to see way
to get more protein, check on my video of, I show you exactly what I'm eating in a day
and how I'm getting my protein in every day. I'll put that link in the
description and I've got a free calorie deficit guide, so if you're looking
to know more about how to get yourself in a calorie deficit,
the best way to lose weight and how to calculate how much protein you
should be eating based on your body weight right now,
as well as your current goals, check out the free guide. I'll leave that in the description below.
One extra bonus tip. I could literally talk about this forever.
If you are eating things that are higher in sugar in the morning, say you have a donut.
You walk into the office at work and there's a box of donuts.
It's 9:00 AM. You haven't had breakfast yet and you eat that
donut. This is what it does to your blood sugar. It spikes your blood sugar up
and then you get that crash about an hour to two hours later and
you want more sugar. So not only does it give you a little energy boost, but you get that crash
afterwards where it's going to spike more cravings.
So my advice is try to start your day with healthy
low-glycemic food. Oatmeal is great because it's lower
glycemic. It spikes your blood sugar a lot slower than something
higher in sugar and that will help reduce your cravings throughout the entire day
and keep your energy levels steady. Thanks guys so much for watching.
I'm sorry if I rambled but I could literally talk about this topic forever.
I really hope these tips help you to reduce your sugar cravings and increase your weight
loss and feel amazing.
Again, smash that like button if you enjoyed this video. Don't hesitate to leave any comments below.
Questions or anything you have, shoot me a DM on Instagram. I'm always happy to help. Thanks again
for watching guys and I'll see you in the next one.