May 25 2011
How To Eat Dessert And Still Stay Skinny
Photo by E.Baron
Cutting processed foods and refined sugars out of your diet is arguably the most important dietary change you can make to improve health and lose weight. But will one slice of birthday cake inevitably tighten your pants and cut your life short?
Not necessarily.
Quality of life is hard to measure, but it certainly involves some balance between good health and hedonistic enjoyment of things that might not be perfectly healthy. The question is how we find this balance for ourselves, and how do we make sure our behavior helps us keep that balance?
The answer, of course, will be different for everyone. Competitive athletes have higher physical demands for maintaining ideal health than, say, a scientist. And I’m not a fan of watering down my favorite foods—especially desserts—with “healthier” ingredients. But there are a few general guidelines that can help the majority of us live a little without constantly fighting the battle of the bulge.
9 Tips For Dealing With Dessert
1. Eat dessert once per week or less
As a general rule I try to keep my dessert consumption to once per week or less (it is often less). A larger person may be able to get away with a bit more, but setting a weekly maximum can help you keep tabs on your sugar consumption. If you are actively trying to lose weight, aiming for once every two weeks or less is ideal.
Sugar is problematic for several reasons. Most of you probably realize by now that excess sugar causes rapid blood sugar and insulin spikes that force extra calories to be stored as fat. Over time these spikes will alter your sensitivity to insulin, negatively impacting your metabolism and risk of type 2 diabetes. Extra insulin signaling is also associated with heart disease, high blood pressure and accelerated aging.
The less refined sugar you eat the better, but assuming most of us aren’t willing to give it up completely it is helpful to have a weekly maximum to keep consumption in a reasonable range.
2. Pick your occasions
Once you decide to budget your sugar consumption, it is time to start choosing your priorities.
Is your weekly group meeting at the office (the one where there’s always doughnuts) really a special occasion? In other words, is that stale chocolate doughnut you wolf down while half asleep really worth the extra workout or skipping dessert with your kids this weekend? Probably not.
If you think about it, there’s a good chance you don’t even enjoy that doughnut as much as you assume you do. And we both know you’ll feel horrible after eating it anyway. So why do you believe that you want it?
When you stop and really think about your food choices, you’ll often find that many of them come from conditioning rather than true preference. But just because 12-year old you liked low-quality sweets doesn’t mean the adult you has to continue eating them.
Save desserts for the times that are really worth it, and realize you aren’t missing much by skipping the Costco brownie bites.
3. Don’t eat dessert alone
Special occasions are moments of celebration you share with people you care about. One of the wonderful things about life is these moments happen all the time. Our weeks and months are perpetually marked by birthdays, weddings, promotions, vacations and a million other reasons to celebrate. Use these special times as cues for when to indulge.
On the other hand, there is nothing particularly special about sitting alone on your couch watching TV. Try to get out of the habit of eating dessert alone, especially if this is something you rely on for comfort. If you just want something sweet, try having a piece of fruit or some herbal tea instead.
I recommend not keeping any pre-made desserts in the house at all. Why torture yourself?
4. Know dessert when you see it
If you’re eating dessert several times a day but only think you are eating it once or twice per week, none of these rules are going to help you maintain your health and physique.
Last week I wrote about the hidden sugars in common foods such as sandwiches, salads and fruit yogurts. There are clearly benefits to eating a salad, but syrupy dressings contribute to your sugar intake whether there is lettuce around or not. Overly sweet non-dessert foods make it more difficult for you to enjoy real indulgences without consequences.
Be aware of the sugar content in the foods you eat and actively try to minimize it in the bulk of your diet (i.e. choose sandwiches without teriyaki or BBQ sauce, salads with savory (not sweet) dressing, cocktails without juice or syrup, and plain yogurt).
If you’re eating healthy and minimizing sugar 90+% of the time, your waist will hardly notice the occasional birthday cupcake.
5. Little indulgences count
Just as you cannot ignore the 27 grams of sugar in Yoplait yogurt, you can’t grab 2 or 3 pieces of candy every afternoon from the bowl in the office without it adding up.
Be aware of the little cheats you make throughout the week and don’t kid yourself about their impact. If you decide that the work day is just too hard to get through without these, that’s fine. But you aren’t doing yourself any favors by pretending they don’t exist. Remember to count them in your mental dessert tally and keep it in mind when you’re looking lustfully at your grandma’s homemade apple pie and wishing you hadn’t had so much sugar this week.
6. Choose quality over quantity
If your goal is to limit your sweets but you don’t want to feel like you’re missing out, make sure your choices emphasize quality over quantity.
A few bites of good quality dark chocolate is infinitely more satisfying than a handful of Hershey’s kisses. Desserts can rack up 25-100 calories per bite. Get the most bang for your buck by picking foods with actual flavor and not just extra sugar and salt.
Hint: This tip should also help you stick to tips #2 and #5.
7. Go splitsies
Half a dessert is 100% better for you than a whole dessert.
If you really really want to try one of those cookies your co-worker has been bragging about for months but have already had your ice cream this week, try taking only half of one. Better yet, find someone to split it with you so you aren’t tempted to finish it. If it’s that good, a few bites should be plenty satisfying.
8. Resist peer pressure
Some people take a special pleasure in encouraging others to do things they know are bad for them. These people also tend to be good at recruiting others to join in their banter.
Be prepared to get nagged occasionally for not wanting to eat foods that aren’t worth it. But if you have decided in advance to stick to desserts you know taste better than what your friends are pushing, it really isn’t that hard to ignore them.
Who’s really missing out here?
9. Use the gym
Despite our best efforts, we all eat too much dessert every now and then. This isn’t good, but it isn’t the end of the world either.
When this happens to me I use it as an opportunity to amp up my workout routine. By far my best runs are on days when we have birthday cake in lab–I feel like I can run for days with all my extra energy.
Your muscles use sugar as fuel, so use it up while you can and give your metabolism a little boost (having a little extra blood sugar and insulin around when you’re exercising can actually improve your metabolism) and prevent those spare calories from being stored as fat.
You’ll probably feel better after working it off too.
How do you deal with dessert in your healthstyle?
Originally published March 31, 2010
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Tags: blood sugar, dessert, insulin, insulin sensitivity, sugar
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i will agree with jeff garlin (on what he said on Real Time with Bill Maher). if you been fat you should keep it AA style.
because most fat people (i know) can’t keep up with your advice imo.
Great article. Lots of good advice. I try to only eat dessert when I bake it myself (or at a friends party). And I always half the batch!
I am so down on sugar, its definitely the most important things to keep an eye on in our diets.
You can make some great deserts with simply baked fruit. We always keep 88% cacao dark chocolate in the cupboard – a square barely contains any sugar and is very heart healthy.
We don’t keep any dessert food at home (beyond fruits, which we’ll sometimes make into smoothies with almond or soy milk).
My work is a different story. Our kitchen is stocked with chocolates and candies and there’s always some sort of sweet baked something up for grabs. People frequently come in with donuts or coffee cake or cupcakes.
I’m trying to stick with the rule that I’ll only eat it if it’s homemade, and if possible the tiniest piece I can eat. I also force myself to throw it away if it’s not amazingly good. If after 2 bites I’m not floored by its awesomeness, it goes in the trash before I can ask myself if I want a 3rd.
I love that last point, and I definitely do the same thing. Great work!!
I also love that last point as I do the same thing. In an attempt to not be “that” girl in the office that always says no to homemade baked goods, I will always take one, have a bite and take the rest home to my bf. This works for me because most of the time, I just want a taste.
I just did this today! Was two bites into flan at lunch and decided that was more than enough.
Free sweets at work is killer though!
What do you qualify as dessert? I eat a few squares of dark chocolate every night after dinner..and often splurge on the weekends with what I consider a ‘full-blown’ dessert. I’m at the gym every week, and I feel like the dark chocolate isn’t really a serious dessert. What are your thoughts, Darya?
Well if you aren’t gaining weight whatever you’re doing is fine
As for dessert, I generally use the 15 g of sugar per serving rule that I mentioned in last week’s sugar post. Dark chocolate has other benefits too. Unless you’re looking to lose weight, your healthstyle seems great to me!
My question would be how to handle NOT eating dessert at special occasions. I do not usually like cake but whenever I’m at a birthday party or wedding, I feel very rude when I’m the only one who declined a slice and am standing there empty handed while everyone else enjoying it and commenting on how good it is. Should I just eat the cake?
LOL, great question! I totally know what you mean, especially when the cakes are gross. I always take a slice (asking for a small one, of course). Then I just hold it. Maybe take one or two bites. Then when most people are done I toss it out when everyone else is dumping their plates or when the waiters are cleaning up. No one notices.
Haha, that sounds like a good strategy. I’ll try it out next time.
Out of sight, out of mind. There are currently three boxes of thin mints in our freezer (I did not buy them). But they are at the back and hidden by cabbage and other frozen oddities. Basically, it takes way too much effort to get to them.
Hi Darya!
You said…
“Your muscles use sugar as fuel, so use it up while you can and give your metabolism a little boost and prevent those spare calories from being stored as fat.”
I’ve known this for a while, and when I feel I’ve indulged a little too much I’ll make it a point to go run before the sugar turns to fat. My question is…how long do I have?!? If I ate too much ice cream before bed, does getting up 6 hours later and running in the morning benefit, or did those calories already turn to fat?
The time before the fuel converts to fat will be different for everybody, depending on your metabolism. But it sounds to me like you’re thinking about this wrong. You shouldn’t be counting on exercise to justify eating too much ice cream before bed. Develop a healthy relationship with food/dessert/exercise and you don’t have to worry about this kind of thing.
Thanks Darya – Yes, I do understand having a healthy relationship with food. I’m actually a very very clean eater…but when I do accidently feel I’ve slipped up (maybe 1x month) I’d still like to have a better understanding of what I can do to remedy the situation. Can you give me a loose timeframe? Right now I’m not sure if this process happens over 2 hours, or 10 hours lol. Thanks!
I’m also sticking to the once per week rule. But if there’s this special dessert at home I’m not like “if you eat it, you’re bad..” instead I tend to eat as a treat to myself because I know the next days (or weeks) are going to be normal again and I’m just fine!
It’s working out pretty well!
I am in the middle of a year long bike tour. If I have a chance, I’ll have dessert every day, and I don’t generally go for small quantities. I also typically work out for five to seven hours every day. I’m losing weight and feeling good. I’m not sure it’s the best way to eat to maintain optimal health, but it does seem to be working fairly well. I probably burn 3500 calories a day. Is the advice to avoid sweets still applicable to me?
I know I’ll have to make radical changes to my diet when I return from this trip, but I’d love to know what folks think I should be eating now.
Even without weight gain sugar consumption has many potential dangers, including accelerated aging, cancer, osteoporosis and other problems. If you need more calories, I recommend focusing on natural, unprocessed sources of fat, protein and carbohydrate.
I’m losing weight even though I’m still eating dessert 3-4 times a week because I was eating 3-4 desserts a day. I did do a sugar fast at first, but twice a week was just more than I’ve been able to hold it too. I have made some other healthstyle changes– increased water and tea, reduced portion sizes, and eliminated most processed foods and non -intact whole grains (still have some pasta and bread occasionally).
Instead of the daily afternoon search for something sweet at work I now have 1/4 cup of almonds. I now think (as I look around) and consider how much food that we don’t think of as dessert that should count (aka yoplait and szechuan salad and soda) that probably most americans could dramatically improve their health and lose weight and still eat dessert several times a week. Because several times a week is still much, much less than what most people do.
Great points, thanks for sharing!
Or instead of going to the gym, go jog outside! It increases your feeling of being connected to nature, which will probably reduce the desire for crappy food (my observation).
Very nice tips list! Thank you for writing it. : -)
from my experience:
1. oh, that’s the TOUGH one.
someone used to have sugary treats everyday will pass through hell to lose the habit (and crawling on the walls, like the bat-demon version of Dracula in the Coppola movie… : -)
… but, there are options – as also mentioned in the article – smaller portions, for a start; or try some yogurt&wheatgerm (it’s sweetish) + sprinkle some fruit/dried fruit; or dried fruits &nuts (I wouldn’t advocate only dried fruits – they are too sugary); or a slice of slow-risen wholemeal bread&few dried fruits… and always chew every bit longer – like enjoying all the flavors (adding some cinnamon / vanilla seeds will soothe the nose too)… or the sugars-free options: breath in , drink a glass of water and ask yourself why exactly you need that sugar-fix; even have a walk outside.
2. true.
also I think that always being stressed of what to do at special occasions adds to the general stress and will trick your body into actually storing more fats than if you’d be relaxed.
If it’s a meal – try to eat during it as few as possible sauces, refined flours and more fibers …and the dessert – either ask for a small portion, or keep chewing a mouthful for longer, and wait for the others to wolf down their portions, then put down the rest, since everybody else finished. : -)
3. well, the ads on TV say something totally different.
4. that’s very depressing. especially when relying on the lunch being provided by the food shop inside an institution …
5. little indulgences mean that for around 30 minutes you might be very chirpy&alert, afterwards the gloom comes.
6. very much agree.
I buy 100% chocolate and can’t go beyond one square . also they don’t fit too well after many meals , so it’s not exactly the right dessert. and very pricey (stored in a tight closed box keep for long, so you won’t feel compelled to finish it soon)
7. well, when the other one wants something else it’s a bit difficult : o)
8. hm, another tough one. Especially those little teasers which feel good only when bullying (it’s bullying, right? ) others about food choices.
9. ……. agree
(as far as I know the body has enough storing of glycogen that you won’t be let down during a gym session – but it’s important the rhythm, and the weight : start at a low pace, and increase in time, otherwise you’ll feel drained and think a juice/ “energy” drink will fix it – and all you need is just some natural water)
Also, regarding the sugar cravings & health issues, I also found interesting the theory that C.albicans&other strains might have a part in here; now, I know there is a whole debate (or maybe war? because indeed haste & poor documentation played a huge role in the mess) on whether this fungus that lives in our intestines has such a tremendous part in making us sick as some portraits, but it definitely has some secrets. As somebody with some annoying symptoms relieved after a so called “anti-candida diet”, it really made me take a better look at what I eat and how.
Hi Darya! I’m a 15 year old teen and have been super thin all my life, but lately I’m gaining weight
I never watched what I ate and suddenly the junk I had no problem eating before is taking its toll! My (also very thin) mother buys ice cream, cookies, candy…..and it’s hard to resist it, especially when eating it does nothing to her and I’m used to junk food. So I’ll eat healthy all day then eat a few bites of ice cream or some brownies. Is this bad if it happens every day? It’s more like one dessert a day for me instead of once a week, but I just can’t diet! Is there any way to be healthy&thin yet continue eating sweets? I exercise and eat healthy meals, but I can’t resist the sweets, and trying to restrict just makes me eat more. One part of me wants to cut off sugar to keep my sleek physique, but the other wants to just be a kid& enjoy life. Is it normal at this age to just want to indulge and not think twice?
You’re young so eating healthy most of the time is fine for you. But the sweets ever starts making you unhappy you know what to do. Enjoy that metabolism while it lasts, you won’t like what happens when you hit 25!