As somebody who follows a very strict diet, but likes to experiment with protein shake recipes, it’s a battle when I’m trying to create a recipe for (e.g.) a pumpkin pie shake, but I’ve never had a pumpkin pie before so I go to the store, get a pie, intend to eat like three pieces for experimentation and exposure, just to eat half of the darn thing. It’s so annoying because now I have to go off for a 3-hour-long bike ride to burn off the 800 calories of pumpkin pie I just ate.

Does anybody have any advice on how to stop yourself from just going feral?! I’ve never been one to eat sweets nor sugars, so this is all new experiences, and as such, I don’t fully have those control skills developed. I’ve gotten a lot better recently, but still an issue.

Unless you buy a lot of sweets, to me it sounds like your problem isn't the sweets, it's being so obsessive about losing all the energy you've gained. Of course if you feel like things are getting out of hand, this could be incorrect assessment, but it doesn't sound to be the case.

It’s an occasional thing, but whenever it happens, it’s just a major inconvenience because then I have bring my whole study set up to either the treadmill or the stationary bike, destroy my tendons for massive exercise routine, and… yeah. Honestly the bigger harm is probably in all the exercise I do to compensate lol but it sure is a strong motivator when I tell myself “If you want to taste this treat, just know you’re running the risk of several hours of exercise… do you really want to do this?”.

One option would be to put a limit, e.g. X calories in Y time (in general or for sweets only, whichever works the best for you), and force yourself to burn those calories only for the part that exceeds the limit you've set. It would give some leeway while still keeping your habits in check - unless you fear you'd be prone to raising the limit too eagerly.

To be clear, I don't think I can help you much with not eating the whole sweet though, for several reasons.

Buy a time lock safe, cut off a small piece, put the rest in the safe ;)

And yeah the excessive exercise is likely more harmful than eating half a pie. Buy smaller pies!

For example I get a costco size package of cookies, we are talking like 24 decent size cookies. I limit myself to 2 per day. Quite unhealthy for 12 days! But like you I already exercise a ton, so it is fine. Diet and exercise is more of a monthly thing rather than a daily thing. Of course it is easier to manage daily, but the body manages it in a much longer timescale!

800 calories is just like a third of your daily quota. So just eat a bit less of other stuff that day instead of going on an excessive bike ride.

I don’t remember if you had food sensitivities? Or is it a mental thing?

To me, I focus on my goal, which is to stay fit. Also, if I eat whatever I want, all those hours I spent on the gym would be in vain. Most of the times, it works. Not always, though . Luckly, although I like most of junkie foods, almost none of them are things I would take an extra mile to get it and eat it. Most of times, when I don't follow my diet, it's because I ended up in a place where the food became available for free, like in a party or something. I don't even have any food delivery app installed on my phone