Keto made easy

How to Stop Sugar Cravings on Keto

Quick answer: In the first few weeks, a sugar craving is mostly withdrawal from the way you used to eat, not a sign you need food. It fades if you stop feeding it. That includes sweet "keto" treats, which keep the habit warm even when they don't break ketosis. Eat real meals with enough protein and fat, keep a few days' log, and expect the worst of it to pass in month one.

In this article

Craving is not the same as hunger

Hunger is your stomach saying "food, any food". A craving is your brain saying "that food, specifically, right now". They feel similar at 9 p.m., but they need different fixes.

KetoDick describes his own early cravings this way: they felt psychological, the potato chips in particular, rather than like hunger (video 9Hk0jRb_9Es). A good quick test: would a plate of chicken thighs and green beans fix it? If yes, you're hungry; see always hungry on keto. If only the cookie will do, it's a craving.

Why the first weeks are the worst

His frame is addiction. He describes keto as breaking a food or sugar addiction and the hunger cycle that comes with it, and calls the first-weeks misery the withdrawal (video Ewo-C_Cc4hU). In a separate video he says most of what people call "keto flu" is carb and sugar withdrawal (video 9r2Y74AnjUQ).

He's careful to say that view is more his opinion than science (video 9r2Y74AnjUQ). Keep that in mind. The practical point stands either way: the first weeks are the hardest, and they end.

There's also a physical layer. Insulin takes weeks to come down, and while it's high it keeps driving hunger, which makes every craving louder (video 7Aixw4uRksI). He also points out that food makers design products around that sugar habit; in his words from the video, keto "isn't what did that to you" (video xyEZL0HuejI).

Step by step: starving a craving

  1. Eat real meals first. Protein, then green vegetables, then fat until you're full. In month one he says not to restrict calories at all (video 7Aixw4uRksI). A hungry person craves harder.
  2. Don't feed the craving with a lookalike. A keto brownie keeps the brownie habit alive. He doesn't recommend copycat recipes such as keto pancakes (video xyEZL0HuejI).
  3. Get it out of the house. You can't eat what isn't there. The most useful shopping skill on keto is not buying things (video DWI8qQl5BbY).
  4. Swap the ritual, not just the food. If soda was the habit, try seltzer; he says switching from soda to seltzer was a big one for him (video cTGYIFOTPl8). If dessert was the habit, keep the after-dinner cup of something.
  5. Find the crunch. He says crunch is what keto lacks, and points to pork rinds, crisp bacon and kale chips (video cTGYIFOTPl8). Sometimes the craving is for texture, not sugar.
  6. Write down when it hits. Same time, same place, same mood? That pattern is the thing to change.
  7. Wait it out on a timeline. Mark week four on your calendar. Month one is the hardest; be patient with it (video 7Aixw4uRksI).
  8. If it's still loud past week six, look for hidden sugar in sauces and packaged foods, and for triggers and psychological factors (video 7Aixw4uRksI).

What about keto sweets and diet soda?

Here his position has two sides, and both are worth hearing.

He's not anti-sweetener. His top three keto items include erythritol (stevia if you can't get it), because, in his words from the video, so many people need some kind of sweets (video DWI8qQl5BbY). In his 2018 basics he lists stevia, monk fruit and erythritol as swaps, and says to limit "net carb" packaged treats to a few items a week (video UygKGoP_BtA).

On diet soda, he says Coke Zero is probably fine for ketosis but not ideal, and he suspects aspartame and sucralose are the sweeteners most likely to cause an insulin response, unlike stevia and erythritol (video xyEZL0HuejI). That's his reading; none of the evidence pages here test it. More in artificial sweeteners and ketosis.

So what you do is this: if a sweetener helps you cook real food, use it. If a sweet treat is keeping the craving alive, that's the one to drop for a few weeks, even if it's "keto". See keto-labeled products and fat bombs.

When to bring in your doctor

Cravings themselves aren't a medical issue, but some of what gets lumped in with them can be. He separates fatigue and cravings from cramps, which he says point to electrolytes, and tells people to talk to a doctor before supplementing sodium or potassium (video 9r2Y74AnjUQ).

If you take diabetes medication, cutting sugar and carbs can change what you need, so talk to your doctor before you start. And if food has a history of controlling you in a way that looks like an eating disorder, he says to involve at least your therapist, and probably your doctor (video xyEZL0HuejI).

What the research says

No study on the evidence pages tests "sugar withdrawal" on keto, and no study here proves cravings are an addiction. What there is:

So the literature backs "eat enough protein and the cravings have less to work with" better than it backs "it's an addiction". The addiction frame is his, and he labels it as his opinion.

KetoDick's take

I've said I disagree with the name "keto flu". Most of it, in my opinion, is withdrawal from sugar and carbs, so blame it on your old way of eating, not on keto (video 9r2Y74AnjUQ).

The goal is to get control of insulin and cravings. Once you have that, the deficit and the weight loss follow without you forcing it (video Ewo-C_Cc4hU). And go easy on yourself. It took years to get here.

Key takeaways