I've been following Atkins to the letter for 2 months and I've lost 20 lbs along with my craving for sweets and food in general. My diet has been limited to eggs, meat, cheese, veggies and a handful of walnuts on occasion and I've been doing great. Well...that is until I decided to add strawberries to my diet yesterday. I only had 3 strawberries with cream cheese along with some meat. Then all the cravings came back...how depressing I decided to just throw them away to stop the temptation But I am still left wondering why such a small amount would set me off like that. My carbs for the day was only 23.

Maybe it's an association thing? I'm not sure because I eat some type of berries almost every day (lots and lots of vitamins!). I don't really pay attention to cravings, as they're nothing new for me, so most of the time either ignore them or find something good to eat instead. Say, for example, I'm hungry and walk into a quick stop. The donuts try to jump off the shelf and grab me, but I beat them off and head for the cheese stick or nuts.

I am experimenting with adding back in items with some natural sugar content after having to go cold turkey on the candy, ice cream, bars and fruit.

The strawberries did bring back mental cravings and a very slight physical craving. The next day I found myself planning an entire meal of low carb sweets-YIKES! Talk about addiction.

It is so hard to envision a life without sugar of any kind... but for me it is like alchoholism - 1 day at a time.

usually if I am craving something sweet, strawberries will satisfy it. But like LilaCotton said, I'm always craving sweets, I just make better choices now.

I recently added strawberries and blueberries back in to my diet, and yes, they do trigger cravings for me, but only for MORE strawberries and blueberries. I will have my 1/2 cup of strawberries or 1/4 cup of blueberries in my Carb Control yogurt as an evening treat, and find myself wanting more fruit. It still galls me that fruit is not a "free" food and that I have to limit my intake of it -- that is probably my one and only criticism of Atkins!

I find that I have cravings as well, not due to fruit but I know that I associate foods with certain times...
Like after lunch, I like to have something sweet...it has nothing at all to do with what I ate, but just an association of lunch gets desert.
I usually do pretty well not having sweet tasting things at lunch...but today, I had a spoon of LC Icecream because of my feeling of wanting it.
Hang in there...the fruit is good for you in small amounts...if you can make it through the cravings.

See that is what I am afraid of I know that the second I try something afer induction I am going to go hog wild because I have very little self control.

Ack! I've had great luck adding strawberries to my diet. Like someone said, they make me crave more strawberries!

I've probably been eating a dozen or so everyday. I also eat them with splenda and Creme Fraise, or sour cream or whipped cream.

I'm sooo lucky. I haven't ever been able to eat many of those without breaking out into hives. It's too bad cuz I LOVE them. Oh, well, once in a while I'll have some in a smoothie. Annie

Many people who have cravings and/or 'uncontrollable urges' to eat LOTS of carbs have "insulin resistance". That means that our cells have been resistant to the effect of insulin and much more than normal is needed to process food. Even the lowest fruits on the Glycemic Index (berries) can set us off.

The good news is that the longer you stay strictly on low carbing without going off it frequently (eating sugar and starches) the faster your body will heal from this disease. After 6 months of low carbing, you may be able to eat the fruit without cravings or binging.

This way of eating and losing weight is chemical, not just calories. And many of the health benefits are invisible to us. But this decrease in insulin oversensitivity is just one of the best.

That's encouraging news Tofi I really do think that's the problem for me. Anyway, I threw away the strawberries since the cravings were so bad I was about ready to go eat the whole box and then I would really have been out of control and who knows what else I would have eaten. As soon as I ate a couple of high protein/fat and veggie meals the cravings were gone. This is the only diet that has ever worked for me...I'm not about to blow it...I'll live without fruit until I can handle it.

Don't feel so bad. I ate a pound of strawberries today. Yes...a pound!!

I'm pmsing and wanting to eat *everything* in the house and if it comes down to it a pound of strawberries is much better then a loaf of white bread.
When my TOM starts (in a few days I expect) my appetite will taper off
and I will be glad I never indulged in refined foods.

I kicked TOM out of the house a few years ago rofl...so that's not an issue for me.

This is interesting...I ate strawberries last night and the proceeded to get out the brownie mix and start on that! Didnt make the connection until now. This could be the problem!! lol

Oh wow. The same exact thing happened to me last July I had been on Atkins for about a month( had lost about 20 pounds) and I'd decided to move on to OWL. We saw a berry stand so we stopped got about 4 crates of berries for some astronomically low price. I ate them in like three days :-( I was so pissed that I didn’t have any more until a month ago. I didn't have the same reaction but it could have been that I was just prepared for it.

Gabrielle