Yes they do, or at least you can turn the craving towards a nice juicy steak or a bowl of strawberries with coconut milk or some other luscious paleo goody (not paleo junk food). It can take a while to retrain your tastebuds, although not as much as some think.

IMO cheating encourages cravings. Just get rid of the crap.

The cravings changed when my taste buds changed. Everything tastes better, so now I crave a date dipped in almond butter or a bowl of blueberries. Or crab meat. Or a steak. And the cravings aren't as intense, its more like my body knows it needs it rather then I being obsessed with cupcakes, which I really really was for a while there.

After I made the transition into paleo (from regular LC), I was still kind of obsessed with pizza (which I rarely ate before) and brownies (which I ate all the time). So I ended up giving myself one scheduled "cheat day" a week to deal with it.

As time has gone by, and I've been eating well >80% of the time, my cravings dwindled--in part because actually eating that stuff on my cheat days made me feel so lousy afterward. I still reserve one day a week as a cheat day, but lately I haven't felt any desire to cheat anymore, so I haven't. I don't even have any interest in "paleo" substitutes for those foods.

I can now go shopping and walk past tables full of pastries and cakes, or stand in line at the checkout amidst all that candy, without giving any thought to buying it. I can be ravenously hungry and 30+ minutes from home and still pass by pizza and fast food joints because I know I've got something better waiting for me.

When I do still get the rare craving for junk food, it's nowhere near as intense as it used to be, and I can easily satisfy it with something else. I couldn't do that before--I was totally run by my cravings. So yeah, for me the cravings (or at least the ones that matter) really have gone away.

For me it was a choice…I am simply ready to stop eating whats hurting me..I want to feel alive and to do that it means not eating sugar, wheat and dairy…FOR NOW…I didnt tell myself never again, I will reintroduce ONE of those things when I feel mentally prepared to do so and after I`ve done enough homework…I will not add any of these things when I feel out of food control…if I never feel ready to add them back..so be it…I want to control my food and not have food controlling me…

For me the cravings went away when I was ready to give myself to something that was bigger than sugar…I gave myself the gift of life…

Yeah I know...I said no dairy and this whole thing sounded cheesy…but it`s the Truth…you have to just, be ready to change..I had finally had enough. Truth

As someone who had a raging sweet tooth, I can testify that the cravings pass. I used to bake a lot, we always had a sweet treat for afternoon tea on weekends (brownie, millionaire's shortbread, that kind of thing) and I used to 'need' something sweet after our evening meal (usually dried fruit). Since going paleo I rarely get sugar cravings and my sweet tooth is barely there. It probably took a good few weeks for this change to take place. I baked today for first time in 4 months... But the great thing now is that when I do have something sweet ('paleo' or not) I'm satisfied by a much smaller amount than in per-paleo days.

Stick with it! It will get easier.

I never crave cake or sweets but I do sometimes indulge in high cocoa chocolate or a cheesecake (but I don't eat the base). Mostly I treat myself to creamy food whic isn't exactly paleo but better than SAD.

It definitely gets easier in time. 2.5 months in and I no longer want to go through every drive through I pass. I make sure I take time to eat or drink bulletproof coffee before leaving the house. One morning I was running super late and decided to drive through and get two sausage egg McMuffins. I only at the sausage and eggs and threw the English muffin and plastic cheese away. I don't know if it was the questionable oils they use or something in the sausage, but it was NOT a good day.

We are having friends over today for a birthday celebration. One is not Paleo and the other is only newly Paleo. I am making a lemon poppy seed cake with coconut flour, eggs, honey, baking soda, lemon zest, and poppy seeds. It makes 12 servings and each serving only has 1.5 teaspoons of honey. It is divine and I don't consider it a cheat for my family. I won't eat any, which takes huge amounts of willpower, but I am getting better about it and can actually go to bed without thinking I NEED something sweet.

Hang in there. It will get better!

After a few weeks in ketosis I had to remind myself to eat something now and then.

If you want sugar, eat fruit?!

For me, I think it switched from a physical feeling that I needed some of the old food just to feel normal to just missing the old food. So I would say it's gotten easier, but I still do fall off the wagon.

In my opinion, there's no "cheat" food that tastes good enough for a long enough period of time that it's worth spoiling your diet over.

That's just me though and it's taken me years to get to the point where I realized that even if I binge on some crappy food, I now know that I will NEVER feel like it was "worth it." There simply isn't any SAD food on this planet that tastes THAT good.

I don't get cravings anymore and eat very clean about 99% of the time. However, I don't sweat the occasional bit of ice cream or ear of corn. I just don't make it a habit, and I don't consider it a "cheat" because that leads me into a diet mentality and I don't do well with that type of thinking. I do make sure if I am eating something like ice cream, it has minimal ingredients. My "off-paleo" items tend to be things like hummus, corn-on-the-cob or homemade bean sprouts which are not going to do much damage anyway if eaten rarely.

For me it's kinda mixed. I don't have too many cravings except chocolate and yet I don't need to eat too much of it to satisfy the craving. I sometimes miss the food that I used to eat when I see it now but then I remember how I feel after I eat that junk (and it is junk).

I've also found that my taste buds have become more sensitized--I accidently (actually, not accidental--just desparate) ate some semi-sweet chocolate chips not to long ago and they were waaaaaaay too sweet.

I think it gets easier with time. It will be interesting to see where I am in a year, five years, and ten years down the line.

Cravings are pleasure chemical conditioned responses. It doesnt matter if its ciggerettes, crack, carbs, or sugar. Over time they die down.

They often never go away 100%, but rather more like 99% - they are eventually are dominated by a resolution that its the right or healthy choice. Exactly the same as giving up cigs, booze, cocaine, marijuana, whatever.

In short, it gets better. Its all a process called "extinction" - this process takes time. Stick with it, one day at a time.

oh my dog, i've been trying to go paleo for a week now, and i 'can't' go without creme in my coffee in the morning, but worse yet is late at night, i break down and eat some sesame snaps, lots of them actually, and kind of wolf them down... i'm not usually that kind of eater and i'm not sure what to do with these new cravings... because they actually feel a little bit 'unbeatable'... at least so far i haven't been able to say no...