Do You Have a Sweet Tooth as a Runner?
Do you have a sweet tooth?
Maybe you enjoy sweetened coffee creamer in the morning and as soon as you finish lunch you head for the office candy jar to grab a piece (or two) every day?
After dinner, you have a nightly routine of eating dessert – sometimes you go through phases (like when you were pregnant) where it’s a few scoops of ice cream, and other times its just a square of dark chocolate when you’re trying to be “good.”
If that’s you, I know how you feel because I was describing myself – these habits I carried with me for years and years, thinking that I had a natural sweet tooth.
My Personal Struggle With Sugar Cravings
In my 20s, I was addicted (I don’t use that word lightly, the people who worked at Golden Spoon knew me) to frozen yogurt – thinking it was a “healthy” alternative to ice cream.
I remember going out to dinner one night with a friend and immediately asking if she wanted to go get fro yo. She said “Honestly, I don’t want any.” It was hard for me to even imagine someone NOT wanting dessert. I figured she was just trying to manage her weight, but later we lived together as roommates and I noticed she had no attachment to sweets. She had 1-2 cookies a few times a week, but never needed it, and she certainly never binged and ate a whole pint of ice cream or 4 chocolate chip cookies like I did sometimes.
Is a Sweet Tooth Really Out of Your Control?
Here’s what I know now that I didn’t know then:
Your “sweet tooth” isn’t completely out of your control.
3 Common Causes of Sugar Cravings in Female Runners
When working with female runners in my Run Fuel weight loss program, there are 3 major causes of sweet cravings:
- Not fueling enough during the day to match their training, especially carbs – this causes a sweet craving to “make up” for those carbs the body needs to replenish glycogen stores. This problem is something we can fix quickly – I often see women reporting reduced sugar cravings in week 2 of Run Fuel.
- Emotional eating habits – in times of stress, we may turn to sugar for comfort.
- A sugar craving gut biome – this is something that takes time to fix. And it also explains why some women lose weight more slowly than others, even after changing their diet or even being in a calorie deficit.
How Your Gut Microbiome Affects Sugar Cravings
I want to focus on #3, the gut biome today.
In our stomach, we have a mini ecosystem filled with different types of bacteria which regulate digestion and GI health but also impact all different areas of our body – including immunity AND fat burning. Two major groups of gut bacteria are Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes, but a healthy microbiome is diverse and varies significantly between individuals. Today I want to talk about 2 types: Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes.
The Role of Firmicutes in Sugar Cravings
People with an intense sweet tooth often have more of the Firmicutes. These are “sugar junkies (according to Stacy Sims in her book Next Level) send signals to the brain to eat more sugar.” They also generate inflammation, slow metabolism and even signal to the body to store more fat. Yikes.
The Role of Bacteroidetes in Metabolism and Fat Loss
The Bacteroidetes could be considered the good guys – blocking inflammation (which helps you recover faster from runs too!), increasing metabolism so you burn more calories, AND they signal the body to absorb less fat from your food.
My Transformation: From Sugar Cravings to Balance
Old me?? Well, she was likely abundant of Firmicutes. Couldn’t go a day without sweets. Always struggling with my weight. Yo-yo dieting and feeling like I had no self control. Couldn’t even imagine life without sweets – is it worth living!?
Me today? Crushing it with Bacteroidetes. I do enjoy sweets, but I have dessert just a few times a month, not a few times a day. And I don’t feel deprived. In fact, I feel incredible.
*Note the gut biome is made of more bacteria than these two – a diverse microbiome is the ultimate goal. This is simplified for the purpose of discussion. Research on the gut biome is rapidly evolving.
Why Sugar Cravings Make Weight Loss Harder
So you can see why it is harder to lose weight and more frustrating when you have such a sweet tooth. It’s not “in your head” or a lack of self control – its partially your biology fighting you. But what do you do about it?
How to Reduce Sugar Cravings Naturally
The answer may not be one you want to hear – no, its not a probiotic or a pill – its actually changing your gut microbiome through changing your food choices.
What Happens When You Eat More Sugar
The more sugar you feed the microbiome, the more it wants. I notice this every December when we start having more sweets in the house – I start craving more and more.
Why Fiber and Plants Help Reduce Cravings
And the more fiber and plant based foods you feed your microbiome (and the less sugar, even if its slowly, over time), the more of those awesome Bacteroidetes you’ll have.
Why Fiber Is Key for Long-Term Weight Loss
So while protein gets ALL the hype right now for being essential for weight loss, I argue that fiber is the most overlooked element of maintaining a long term healthy body composition.
And that’s why one of the major foundations of my Run Fuel program is eating more fiber – so that runners don’t just lose weight, their running performance improves AND their body is primed to keep excess weight off.
Final Thoughts on Sugar Cravings and Running
The next time someone says “weight loss is simple math- calories in, calories out” remember this. Maybe temporarily it is – but your will power can only last so long. If you make real changes to your biology and habits, you are more likely to enjoy a longer, healthier life and love the way you look in your race photos and bikini.
Happy running,
Nicole Dobransky
PS one thing I also noticed when I shared this photo was the fact that the ice cream serving is much smaller in France than it is in the US!
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