Starting by cutting out sugar - advice?

pink_mint

I am wondering if anyone can offer advice or experience about cutting out sugar. What are the guidelines you use? How strict are you? Do you eat fruit, etc? Has it made a difference in your weight loss and general health?

I want to lose at least 25 lbs, but I'd really like to lose 40. I am currently breastfeeding a massive 6 month old boy, so I need to get enough food and good nutrition to keep my supply up to reach my goal of nursing him for 1 year. But I am really tired of being overweight. Breastfeeding does not have the miraculous weight loss effects for me that it has for some. This is my 3rd time doing it so I know. I will most likely be able to lose weight much easier when I wean (as it happened the previous 2 times) but I don't want to wait that long if I don't have to. I'm pretty disgusted with my current self. I figure if I can do something like cut out sugar, I can still eat enough to adequately make milk for this huge baby of mine.

Thanks for any feedback.

Tiamo719

How much sugar do you eat? Are you referring to donuts, cakes, etc..? I finally learned to control my over indulgence in sweets so now I eat them nearly every day and am still losing.

Eat your fruits!

Hornsby

I have a carb goal I try not to go over. Sugar is just a carb. Some days my day is filled with "bad" carbs, some days it's filled with "good" carbs. Most days, it's a variety of both. I found this easier than trying cut out something I enjoy and has no impact on my health or weight loss.

Unknown

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365andstillalive

My advice? Don't.

Sugar is not the devil. It's not the sugar that's causing you to put on/maintain weight; it's the excess calories.

While I have not had a child, it is my understanding that you actually need to eat maintenance or slightly above to produce enough milk to feed your child, so the reality might be that this isn't the time for you to take on serious weight loss.

Since your nutrition is important to you and it looks like you'd like to begin making healthier choices, just be conscious of what you eat. Have the fruit over the donut if possible. Choose coffee over hot chocolate etc. It's really the small changes that will go the longest way.

I know it's difficult to want to look and feel differently than you do, but this is a process and any change that you make (like getting rid of sugar or deciding to exercise x number of days per week) need to be sustainable changes that you can reasonably do in the short and long term. Otherwise, you won't make it to your goal or if you do manage to, you won't maintain it because you won't have developed a healthy relationship with food.

You're going to want to eat cake at your child's first birthday. No sense feeling guilty about it.

Goodluck!

pink_mint

Thanks for the thoughts, everyone! I guess it's more a question of carbs than just sugar alone. I don't even eat lots of sugar in the sense of desserts and sodas etc. I'm just looking for something, anything I can alter in my diet to aid in weight loss without restricting calories so much that I lose my supply and can no longer breastfeed. Whenever I restrict calories enough to lose weight, my supply goes down right along with it, so it's a bit of a frustrating place to be in.

noquietending

pink_mint wrote: »

Thanks for the thoughts, everyone! I guess it's more a question of carbs than just sugar alone. I don't even eat lots of sugar in the sense of desserts and sodas etc. I'm just looking for something, anything I can alter in my diet to aid in weight loss without restricting calories so much that I lose my supply and can no longer breastfeed. Whenever I restrict calories enough to lose weight, my supply goes down right along with it, so it's a bit of a frustrating place to be in.

I wouldn't start by focusing on sugar. Stop eating bread and pasta. Replace those calories with fruits, vegetables, and increased dietary fat (bacon, butter, nuts, avocado, egg, etc). Doing this you shouldn't have to restrict calories, but you may still lose weight (I did).

richardheath

Cutting sugar can definitely help to remove some excess calories from your diet. Switching from regular soda to diet soda or water; reducing/eliminating sugar from tea and coffee; cutting out/back on candy and pastries... these are all good places to start.

Don't cut out all fruit though - it may have sugar, but also has vitamins and fiber that your body needs.

Just realize though that by reducing the amount of sugar you consume all you are actually doing is reducing the number of calories you take in. Cutting sugar is no magic panacea for weight loss per se: creating a calorie deficit is the only proven way to go.

Different people have different ways of creating that deficit, so find one that works for you in a sustainable way. Controlling overall portion size, making lower calorie substitutions for certain items etc can also be incorporated in a relatively easy way to help reduce intake. Upping exercise will help increase calories out. As long as calories in are less than calories out, you should lose weight.

I'm no expert on breastfeeding, but I think you want to make sure you don't cut too drastically right now. Set yourself a reasonable target here on MFP and get logging!

Phobos1618

Cut out all added sugars, I'd limit fruit to one-two pieces of higher fiber fruit a day like berries.

Once you're at your goal weight, add fruit back into your diet and added sugar into your treats.

FRiNADA

Cut sugar from candy and added sugars, like adding sugar to cereal, teas and oatmeal, etc. It's time to think of fruit as your dessert and cut out yogurt.
Do not eat or drink things with zero sugar!

paperpudding

FRiNADA wrote: »

Cut sugar from candy and added sugars, like adding sugar to cereal, teas and oatmeal, etc. It's time to think of fruit as your dessert and cut out yogurt.
Do not eat or drink things with zero sugar!

Why cut out yogurt? And why not have zero sugar things?

Cheriesaurus

I generally try to not eat more then 20g sometimes I hit 40g because I like to eat a banana for multiple vitamins but eating anymore then this sends my sugar cravings uncontrollable.

But keeping my sugar/carb (<20g sugar/<50g carb) intake low is what worked for me since if I don't crave it I won't eat it.

If I ever feel like chocolate I eat "Well naturally fruit and nut chocolate" bars which has 15g fat/5.7gb carbs/5.1g sugar/10g fiber per bar as it's sweetened with Stevia. I lost a lot of weight eating 1 of these a day actually, it was weird. Lol. Got sick of them though, going to buy some more though for the fiber Helps with night time and that time of the month cravings!

GiveMeCoffee

FRiNADA wrote: »

Cut sugar from candy and added sugars, like adding sugar to cereal, teas and oatmeal, etc. It's time to think of fruit as your dessert and cut out yogurt.
Do not eat or drink things with zero sugar!

Why no yogurt? Why nothing with zero sugar?

I've been pretty successful and I drink diet soda, eat yogurt, eat chocolate, add sugar to some cereal if it needs it, and while I enjoy fruit .. gelato makes a much better dessert. I'll stick with that

soldiergrl_101

I go over my sugar every day by 20-40g and I still lost 40lbs it hasn't hindered me one bit. Its all about the type of sugar your taking in i.e (fruit vs. soda). Its salt that can make a huge difference because for every 2000mg of sodium your body takes in, your body holds on to 4lbs in water weight. So if your not carefully you could look like you weighed a lot more than you ate to much salt

TeaBea

Phobos1618 wrote: »

Cut out all added sugars, I'd limit fruit to one-two pieces of higher fiber fruit a day like berries.

Once you're at your goal weight, add fruit back into your diet and added sugar into your treats.

Um no......

If you diet by eliminating sugar and then add it back in at maintenance.....have you learned how to portion control sugar?

I need to portion control sugar now, not at some point in the future.

OP - I typically leave room for a sugary snack each day. I don't have medical issues. The snack is at the end of my day and within my macros & calorie goal.

blktngldhrt

I switched from white bread to wheat or rye, white pasta to whole wheat, limited sugary snacks to special occasions, limited certain fruits, no soda.. And switched from sugar to Stevia. Pretty much went by what's low on the glycemic index. I used to average about 20g of sugar a day. Now I average 5g. Today was a 0g day. But, I can't really have it. Just gave you numbers to know it's possible.

Sugar is one of the best things to limit while you're nursing..if you're wanting to cut something out. Especially because there are easy treats to make that are sweet and nutritious without too much sugar.

Just make sure your caloric intake is where it needs to be and accounts for the calories used to produce milk..as I'm sure you know.

Good luck! I nursed my kid for 2.5 years on low to no sugar. It can be done. If you want to cut it, cut it. If it's too much, add it back in. There's no harm in trying.

PokeyBug

Cut the processed foods, and you'll cut a lot of dietary crap -- excess sugar, HCFSes, artificial ingredients, trans fats, etc. Lots of nasty stuff in there that real (unprocessed foods) don't have. I breastfed both my daughters until they were both around 14 months, so I understand your fears of cutting your calories. Here's the secret, though: by eliminating crap foods, you'll naturally cut your calories while improving your nutrition, and breastfeeding on a no-crap diet actually will help you lose weight.

raysputin

What PokeyBug said.

Roaringgael

PokeyBug wrote: »

Cut the processed foods, and you'll cut a lot of dietary crap -- excess sugar, HCFSes, artificial ingredients, trans fats, etc. Lots of nasty stuff in there that real (unprocessed foods) don't have. I breastfed both my daughters until they were both around 14 months, so I understand your fears of cutting your calories. Here's the secret, though: by eliminating crap foods, you'll naturally cut your calories while improving your nutrition, and breastfeeding on a no-crap diet actually will help you lose weight.

What she says!
Its empty junk food that is our biggest problem.
They are of course made of highly refined carbs (sugars) and some useless trans fats.
They don't really satisfy. If you remove take out/ take away and processed packaged foods from your diet and eat nutritionally this will work.

ladybugny

I was the SAME way. Its so frustrating to see these other women just drop the baby weight and say it was the nursing, but I never did until a few weeks/ months after nursing stopped. I nursed my son for 16 months and my daughter for 21 months so I understand how you feel. The first thing I did was congratulate myself for putting my child first. So yeah you! Breast feeding is the most difficult and challenging commitment you'll ever make.

I can't really give advice about dropping weight because nothing really worked for me or else my supply would go down but I did cut down on the heavy carbs like pasta, breads etc... that would sap my energy. It also helped to add some activity, even if it was a walk around the block. Sometimes I also added a pump session between feedings figuring it would keep my supply up as well as burn calories but it only worked marginally. For me it was really the hormones. Once they weren't there it was easier to make a difference.

GillianMcK

What's your currently calorie intake??
As a few people above have said, sugar isn't quite the evil it's made out to be, it's the processed foods that are the biggest issue as empty calories.
That being said, the switching from white bread to brown means a lower sugar spike, there was an article yesterday about the difference to the sugar spike in pasta with it being a 50% lower sugar spike if the pasta was cooked, cooled and then reheated, same number of calories, but better for people that are insulin resistant and because it's a lower sugar spike you don't crave it again 30min after eating.
But as I've already said, what is your calorie intake, are there enough calories after breast feeding for 6mnths that your metabolism isn't maybe a bit slowed down (it doesn't happen over night, but would over 6mnths), also you can eat all the whole, nutritious, healthy food in the world, but if you're still exceeding your calorie goal, it's going to make it difficult to lose the weight!!

annanaidoo

honestly it's about the refined sugars!! Natural sugars are ok but it's that refined one in processed foods that you should not be eating! You'll be getting your daily dose of sugars in natural foods!So have a look at the foods you're eating, the cleaner the better!

ashleigh315

PokeyBug wrote: »

Cut the processed foods, and you'll cut a lot of dietary crap -- excess sugar, HCFSes, artificial ingredients, trans fats, etc. Lots of nasty stuff in there that real (unprocessed foods) don't have. I breastfed both my daughters until they were both around 14 months, so I understand your fears of cutting your calories. Here's the secret, though: by eliminating crap foods, you'll naturally cut your calories while improving your nutrition, and breastfeeding on a no-crap diet actually will help you lose weight.

Yup. Also make sure to get your exercise in! Those two things combined should get you started. Best of luck!

CRH1979

I've lost 85 lbs over the past 16 months and I would say that cutting out refined sugar was the most important thing that I did. No treats, no desserts, ice cream, etc, and also any packaged food that has sugar listed as the first through 5th ingredient. Sugar spikes your insulin levels which is bad because insulin converts more of the starch that you eat in to sugar, and more of the sugar in your system in to fat. I'm not referring to natural sugars such as in fruit.

I also carefully portion starchy carbohydrates, and always eat whole wheat/whole grain starches because they contain fiber, which also smooths out the insulin spike.

Obviously, sugary treats are extremely high in calories. One chocolate chip cookie (like 3-4" in diameter) contains about 250 calories. A 4x4" piece of cake is about 1,000 calories. A pint of ben and jerry's ice cream is 1000+ calories. The high calorie load is mostly from the sugar.

Refined sugar is terrible, unhealthy stuff. For about the first 6 months I think I only ate sugar twice. Since I dropped the first 50 lbs I will allow myself one treat per week, usually on my off day Sunday. I plateaued 3 months ago and recently looked in to this app and realized that I was letting calories creep up on me... rounding up the portions of starches, proteins, etc. One week on MFP and I've broken through the plateau and already lost another pound...25-30 to go.

I eat a serving of fruit for breakfast and afternoon snack. I find that apples are the best for curbing appetite.