Do all serious diets eliminate sweets?!

By sweets I take it you mean candy or confectionery. These tend to contain sugar - which 'serious' diets consider to be empty calories - ie: you get no nutritional content, only energy in the form of carbohydrates, which will be stored as fat if not worked off by some form of exercise.

Sweets are a ready source of instant energy - so they are included in a soldier's ration-pack to provide life-saving energy in extreme or harsh environments. Obviously a soldier is fit and motivated to make use of this energy supply. Sweets are not an effective long-term fuel, since after the initial buzz, you would feel tired and depleted.

While many diets ban sweets, the reality is that dieters may develop cravings. My own feelings are that it should be looked at as a permanent change of diet and lifestyle.

Of course, you should still have access to a smaller supply of sweets - but you should be eating a range of filling foods, so you don't binge-eat, and there should be a sensible and acheivable method for exercising.

You have to be more precise.
What do you mean by “serious diets”, what do you mean by “sweets”?

You’re not on a diet...what does that mean? You don’t eat?
Some people are “on a diet” and just mean that they eat less than what they need in order to lose weight (poor souls sending their metabolism down the drain...don’t they know that their body is a marvelous adaptable system and will lower their metabolism according to their lower caloric intake?).
Other people’s idea on being “on a diet” is just stop eating too much and stop gaining weight so now they can maintain their weight (those people are always pissed off that they cannot lose weight).



For me, there are only 2 kinds of diets...the good one or the bad one.

A good diet would be a healthy balanced diet with all the nutrients that your body needs (carbs, fats, proteins, minerals, vitamins, water), with enough calories to cover your BMR + your growth (if you’re younger than 21) + your physical activities, allowing flexibility for occasional treats and festivities as to not develop food obsessions and allow for socializing. If you eat too many calories of a good diet, you just exercise more, but a good diet is paired with exercising and being in shape so you usually never have to worry about your calories intake when you need to eat a lot because you have a high metabolism due to muscle mass gained by being fit. You can easily lose weight on a good diet as you just have to exercise more or eat less, still covering your BMR and your growth, and still getting all the nutrients that you need, but usually, you never need to lose weight if you’re exercising and eating healthy. A good diet is listening to your body so you can satisfy your cravings and answer your body’s need for some missing nutrients. If I’m building muscle mass, I’ll need a lot of carbs to do the weight training (because it’s anaerobic and fat burning shuts down) and then I’ll get huge cravings for eggs, nuts or a good juicy filet mignon (need for proteins for the “repairing stronger” part) otherwise, I would only eat eggs or meat like once a week.
A good diet is eating fruits/veggies, whole wheat food (the brown kind of bread, pasta), brown rice, legumes (beans, peas, lentils...), lean meat, low fat dairies, eggs and the good kind of oil (olive, avocado, nuts, fish).


A bad diet is when your idea of something “sweet” could be fake sugar messing up your taste buds and confusing your brain. Or you have a sweet tooth because you eat too much sweets, and if it’s real sugar, it’s not about messing up your taste buds or getting too much energy but about cavities and flossing and brushing.
A bad diet is avoiding carbs. If I don’t get my 60% carbs in my diet...exercising gets soooo much harder...forget about anaerobics (calisthenics and using small weight or weight machines), which is too intense for your body to get enough oxygen to process fat reserves so you can only rely on carbs, providing that you have a good high carbs meal 2 hours prior so you get a good blood sugar level. A bad diet is when you’re not listening to your body and not satisfying your cravings. A bad diet is eating fast food (any restaurant food, really), packaged and boxed food (except for bread, pasta and rice, if you don’t make your own bread/pasta), canned food, prepared and processed food.

I can have any food I want anytime, I could order a pizza right now or go to McDonald or eat as much candies or chocolate as I want. I do not limit myself...but I do not have the cravings for junk food because I eat healthy.

I’m going to go grocery shopping today because I have two cravings and I’ll decide tonight which one I want more.

One craving is for my homemade shredded cabbage salad with red and green bell pepper and a small onion with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper to accompany my chicken and cheese platter...roasted chicken (in my George Foreman grill), artichoke hearts, red kidney beans, radishes, pitted ripe olives, green onions, cherry tomatoes, romaine lettuce, cubed Jarlsberg cheese, and warm whole wheat pita bread.

The other one is for Pasta with Broccoli-Onion Sauce (fettuccine, broccoli florets, onion, skim milk, mozzarella cheese, white wine, cornstarch, homemade chicken stock, herbs and spices).

I go grocery shopping when I get my sea scallops cravings that I cook in butter (oh yeah, in butter and olive oil, in a pan, on the stove...the exception that confirms the rules), and minced garlic, with lemon, parsley and paprika.

I need a craving to go grocery shopping otherwise I just stay home and eat 2 eggs with some spinach.

I’m glad my cravings are not about packaged sweets (I have a slight sweet tooth tendency around Halloween but get over it when leftovers run out).

http://www.food.com/recipe/Pasta-With-Br…

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1645,143…

No, dear, sweets are empty calories, not "an important source of energy". They are all processed sugars and trans fats that offer nothing beneficial to anything but your tastebuds.
If you seriously want to lose weight, the sweets, junk/fried foods and sodas have to go.

you can have the occasional sweet. just be aware of the calorie and fat content. you don,t want to deprive yourself. you also don,t want to derail a weight loss plan. judgement call.

Diet = temporary

You should just make a life style change. I mean its ok to eat some candy like once a week.