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That has been my experience, particularly with alcohol and ice cream. I don't crave them as much as I did when I would regularly over indulge. And these days, when I do indulge, it's to a much less degree. My body just won't tolerate the quantities I once found enjoyable to consume.
This matches my experience too, and I've heard similar accounts from many people. With sweets, it does seem like people's sensitivity for it is highly malleable, and so reducing or quitting sweets for even a short period of time tends to cause noticeable increase in sensitivity to it. Which means same amount of sweetness for fewer calories. If I abstain from sugar for a week, then a single cookie might be enough to satiate my sweet tooth where in the past I might have needed 3.
Generally, I think part of the difficulty of starting and maintaining dieting is the difficulty people have in imagining themselves to have different preferences in the future. Cutting down or out food quantity or quality (in terms of taste) can be painful at first, but it's the very act of cutting it down or out that modifies you to desire less in the first place, thus allowing you to enjoy that new reduced amount just as much. The transition is the tough part.
When I briefly went paleo, regular French bread tasted like candy when I came off of it. Granted, yeast flavored candy. But it was just that sweet.
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