FIRST TO GO - SUGAR, CAL'S, CARBS OR SODIUM

brunettesrule

Hello everyone from lovely Hervey Bay, QLD.

I need to lose weight, and a lot of weight. I am sitting here comparing all the different brands from coles, woolies, aldi's etc for the best dietary buy in sugar, white bread, etc. Obviously they all vary different in carbs, calories and sodium.

WHAT WOULD YOU RANK AS FIRST ETC IN CUTTING DOWN ON - SUGAR, CARBS OR SODIUM
(as all of them have different values, some are high in sodium but lower in calories, some are lower in calories but high in carbs)

Is is better to cut down on carbs and sugars and put sodium ranking third?

Was just wondering what you all thought?

Cheers, Jane :happy:

Valkiraya

I approached it as an overall but manageable "attack". The first thing i did was increase my fibre and cut out completely salad dressing, mayo/miracle whip, pop, juice, and anything that did not offer nourishment to my body. I also cut my portions in half. I cut out bread and pasta at first but eventually introduced them back into my meals bc i needed carbs for my running.
I lost 110 lbs in about a year. I have maintained my weight and have gotten smaller (but havent lost anymore weight) for over 2 years.
I would suggest not looking at food as a sugar, a calorie, a carb or sodium. Look at what you do not "need" and go from there....
Good luck with your journey and be kind to your body and to your mind

lilpoindexter

1-Switch from white bread to whole wheat (after a few weeks it doesnt taste like cardboard anymore)
2-If you drink soda, stop.
3-if you drink beer / alcohol, stop.
4-if you drink orange juice, stop.
5 DRink only water or milk (if you are into that sort of thing)

Do only one of the first 4 things and I GUARANTEE you will notice the difference.

ladynocturne

I think Sugar(refined) is definitely the first thing to cut down on. Foods that are high in sugar tend to be high in calories and low in weight/nutrients. Leaving you feeling less full and with a blood sugar spike causing all sorts of problems like having your energy plummet after the sugar rush ends.

Carbs are not your enemy, you just have to eat healthy carbs that are slow to digest such as oatmeal or complex carbs which are found in fruit.

Sodium will not affect fat loss, it may make your scale go up when you'd rather see it go down, but in the long run, it only matters if your doctor has instructed you to watch your sodium levels.

thistimewillbedifferent

It would also depend on your personal health indicators. Someone with high blood pressure might want to focus more on sodium, whereas someone with pre-diabetes might prefer to focus more on sugar. What I did was focus exclusively on calories in the beginning, tracking everything I ate to begin getting an idea of what the various counts were, and then once I had a month or so of logging behind me, I began looking at which numbers I needed to focus on reducing as well as which numbers I needed to increase (such as fiber and protein). Psychologically, I find it much easier and more fun to focus on adding things than to focus on reducing things, and once I started increasing the fiber and the protein, the other items naturally decreased because I simply didn't have room for them any more. Best of luck figuring out what numbers best fit your nutritional needs!

morpheousneo

Maybe it would be best to make your own bread? I'm not sure how hard it actually is bake one but I'm going to give it a go maybe next week or so. At least you control what you put in it

brunettesrule

1-Switch from white bread to whole wheat (after a few weeks it doesnt taste like cardboard anymore)
2-If you drink soda, stop.
3-if you drink beer / alcohol, stop.
4-if you drink orange juice, stop.
5 DRink only water or milk (if you are into that sort of thing)

Do only one of the first 4 things and I GUARANTEE you will notice the difference.

I admit I eat white bread, but have found "country split" to be the best white bread - will try the cardboard bread you suggested.
Don't drink fizzy drink, except once a week on takeaway night
Don't drink alcohol
Don't smoke
Don't drink juices - but love freshly squeezed (by myself) orange juice. Feels like a hit of vitamin C.

I just drink water, coffee and tea

OBVIOUSLY my problem lies elsewhere. Possibly portions sizes etc

brunettesrule

Thanks for all the tips. I don't have high blood pressure or anything like that. I gained alot of weight during and after chemo and have never been able to shift it. I have a thyroid problem that tablets won't fix.

Will take all your advice on board and cut down firstly on calories and definitely sugar and also concentrate on increasing protein and fibre and EXERCISE more.

Its just some foods have a mind-blowing amount of sodium in them, don't want to clog the already old arteries and have a blood pressure problem.

MelsAuntie

Sodium, no doubt. Don't worry about sugar unless you're diabetic.

BarackMeLikeAHurricane

Stay within your calorie limit, aim for at least 1g protein per pound of lean body mass, aim for at least .35g fat per pound of body weight, and let the rest fall where it may.

brunettesrule

Everyone has different theories on what to do - ugghh !!!! I will count my calories, cut down on sugar and fat and exercise and see how that goes for a month.

cmriverside

Do a lot of research.

These forums will drive you crazy if you start reading them. Every other post will contradict the last one.

Obviously, you need to stay within your calorie Goal first and foremost.

For me, sugar should be the first to go, if you are worrying about nuance. It serves no purpose. It is a carb, and you can get plenty of carbs with vegetables, dairy products, nuts and the occasional fruit.

You need fats - don't cut them too low. Just use the default settings here for now, and work within them. They are reasonable, healthy, and very easy to work within. As you learn and grow, you can tweak them.

gamagem

To me if you start eating healthy; lean meats, veggies, fruits and high fiber foods you will pretty much lower your calories, fat, carbs, sugar etc....So just move to healthy foods.

socajam

Hello everyone from lovely Hervey Bay, QLD.

I need to lose weight, and a lot of weight. I am sitting here comparing all the different brands from coles, woolies, aldi's etc for the best dietary buy in sugar, white bread, etc. Obviously they all vary different in carbs, calories and sodium.

WHAT WOULD YOU RANK AS FIRST ETC IN CUTTING DOWN ON - SUGAR, CARBS OR SODIUM
(as all of them have different values, some are high in sodium but lower in calories, some are lower in calories but high in carbs)

Is is better to cut down on carbs and sugars and put sodium ranking third?

Was just wondering what you all thought?

Cheers, Jane :happy:

For me sodium is #1, then my calorie intake.

Achrya

Calories would be the obvious answer I think. I spend exactly zero time watching the other junk. Don't even look at my sugar or Sodium (Except to go 'Oh hey. Over for the week by Wednesday again.' Though I made it to Saturday without going over this week, go me I guess) and carbs are not the enemy.

Getting rid of Sugar, Sodium, or carbs won't make you lose weight alone, but cutting calories alone will.

socajam

Maybe it would be best to make your own bread? I'm not sure how hard it actually is bake one but I'm going to give it a go maybe next week or so. At least you control what you put in it

I have been thinking of doing for a while now, probably won't have time until August. I know for a fact it will not have in soy or canola oil, and the salt content would be less than 400.

Bobbie8786

For me it was sodium, but that is because I retain water like crazy. I always try to get the highest fiber content I can, especially with bread. I have also just cut out white rice (though the arsenic in brown rice has me moving to barley instead) and whole wheat pasta instead of white.

Bobbie8786

Maybe it would be best to make your own bread? I'm not sure how hard it actually is bake one but I'm going to give it a go maybe next week or so. At least you control what you put in it

If you have a stand mixer, making bread is insanely easy. We switched to it to save money and to move away from the massive number of preservatives in store bought bread. I do advise that if you are using whole wheat flour that you add vital wheat gluten to the recipe (it helps make it softer and it lasts a little longer). There is nothing more heavenly than homemade bread.

Binkie1955

You can safely ignore managing sodium. See http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/opinion/sunday/we-only-think-we-know-the-truth-about-salt.html?pagewanted=all (google Taubes on Sodium New York Times if cutting and pasting is a pain). you can also ignore fiber in case you were wondering.http://www.city-data.com/forum/diet-weight-loss/1657454-science-no-evidence-fiber-vegetables-required.html

Sugar is a Carbohydrate so if you manage carbs you manage sugar directly.
You need not manage calories, protein or fat. Yes, that's correct. if you manage carbohydrates, these manage themselves.

That leaves you with only carbohydrates to manage.

when you set up in MFP, the system will propose a carbohydrate level to manage you to. Mine happened to be 250 grams of carbs a day. Switch the goals so that you manage them directly instead of relying on MFP's guidelines. change the carbs MFP proposes so that you LOWER the carbs. You should be able to safely cut the initial MFP guideline in half. You can also safely go to under 100 grams of carbs a day (i.e. Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, etc, all track to under 100 grams of carbs a day).

this will force your protein and fat intake up. don't worry about it. eat all the fat and protein you want. DON"T REDUCE YOUR FAT INTAKE! Yes, that's right. your body will need the fat for energy when it starts missing all the carbs. remember, your body burns FAT for energy, stores CARBS (AS FAT) and builds tissue out of Protein. It will take a few weeks for your body to switch to Ketosis and begin the FAT burning (instead of FAT BUILDING) that you're looking for.

You may find after a week you can attack the carb cycle again and take your grams of carbs down to 50 or so grams per day. don't worry. your body doesn't 'NEED' carbs. it doesn't need 'whole grains' or starches or anything. It just needs FATs and Proteins.

you're on your way. read Gary's pdf at
http://www.dragaonordestino.net/Drachenwut_Blog_DragaoNordestino/Ernaehrung/Ernaehrung_arquivos/Notes-to-Good-Calories-Bad-Calories.pdf
because you can't take me as an authority.

FAST - ok, you're next concern is how fast can this work. In my and my wife's experience it CAN work fast. my wife dropped about 30 pounds in four - five weeks, (175 to 145). the carbohydrate reduction will initially cause you to stop carrying so much water (that thing they keep trying to tell you salt does to you is actually done by carbohydrates).

Stay on it. don't worry about exercise beyond walking or swimming please. and walking in water is fine (great) too. no running at this point. if you're heavy as you suggest you are running hurts your body. walking on land or in the pool is fine.

that's it. you'll regularly drop weight each week. once you begin approaching your goal weight exercise to your heart's content but please do not think exercise helps you lose weight. it doesn't. it only works and builds muscle and any reduction in weight is incidental.

YOU MUST CONSUME ENOUGH CALORIES For your body to not start fasting! if you reduce your caloric intake the body will suspect you are in a famine and it will SLOW your metabolsim. You actually want to flood your body with protein and fat so that your body's metabolism will 'accelerate'. As the carbohydrates are removed from your system, the pancreas will finally stop pushing insulin (the adipose building hormone) into your blood stream, take a nice long nap and the body will begin to turn to its only other source of energy which is your STORED FAT. it will then begin to burn it. You need not exercise for this to happen.

it's so damn simple and society so miseducates us as to how it works that I'm actually distressed everytime i see an overweight person trying to starve the weight off.

you're going to miss bread! don't eat it. there are some low car breads at sprouts, like 8-11 grams of carbs per ounce but my suggestion is to stop eating bread, grains, cereal, potatoes, rice, sugar. if it's white it ain't right like they say.

you'll eat meat, chicken, fish, vegetables (cooked). stay away from fruit (sugar), milk (use almond milk unsweetened), use Truvia or Atkins bars for your sweet tooth.

good luck, keep us posted. this should be good for 10-40 pounds in the first month you try it.

Goin4goal

To me if you start eating healthy; lean meats, veggies, fruits and high fiber foods you will pretty much lower your calories, fat, carbs, sugar etc....So just move to healthy foods.

This for sure!!

etoiles_argentees

Everyone has different theories on what to do - ugghh !!!! I will count my calories, cut down on sugar and fat and exercise and see how that goes for a month.

Good for you, and good luck. You can always revisit and revise next month if needed.

Binkie1955

Post Script-
if you absolutley feel you must target a caloric intake a rule of thumb is to use 10 calories per pound target weight and 1 gram of protein per pound target weight. But in my own experience, it's just the carbs.

prattiger65

Stay within your calorie limit, aim for at least 1g protein per pound of lean body mass, aim for at least .35g fat per pound of body weight, and let the rest fall where it may.

THIS^^^^^^^^^^^^

prattiger65

Please ignore all of this......

You can safely ignore managing sodium. See http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/opinion/sunday/we-only-think-we-know-the-truth-about-salt.html?pagewanted=all (google Taubes on Sodium New York Times if cutting and pasting is a pain). you can also ignore fiber in case you were wondering.http://www.city-data.com/forum/diet-weight-loss/1657454-science-no-evidence-fiber-vegetables-required.html

Sugar is a Carbohydrate so if you manage carbs you manage sugar directly.
You need not manage calories, protein or fat. Yes, that's correct. if you manage carbohydrates, these manage themselves.

That leaves you with only carbohydrates to manage.

when you set up in MFP, the system will propose a carbohydrate level to manage you to. Mine happened to be 250 grams of carbs a day. Switch the goals so that you manage them directly instead of relying on MFP's guidelines. change the carbs MFP proposes so that you LOWER the carbs. You should be able to safely cut the initial MFP guideline in half. You can also safely go to under 100 grams of carbs a day (i.e. Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, etc, all track to under 100 grams of carbs a day).

this will force your protein and fat intake up. don't worry about it. eat all the fat and protein you want. DON"T REDUCE YOUR FAT INTAKE! Yes, that's right. your body will need the fat for energy when it starts missing all the carbs. remember, your body burns FAT for energy, stores CARBS (AS FAT) and builds tissue out of Protein. It will take a few weeks for your body to switch to Ketosis and begin the FAT burning (instead of FAT BUILDING) that you're looking for.

You may find after a week you can attack the carb cycle again and take your grams of carbs down to 50 or so grams per day. don't worry. your body doesn't 'NEED' carbs. it doesn't need 'whole grains' or starches or anything. It just needs FATs and Proteins.

you're on your way. read Gary's pdf at
http://www.dragaonordestino.net/Drachenwut_Blog_DragaoNordestino/Ernaehrung/Ernaehrung_arquivos/Notes-to-Good-Calories-Bad-Calories.pdf
because you can't take me as an authority.

FAST - ok, you're next concern is how fast can this work. In my and my wife's experience it CAN work fast. my wife dropped about 30 pounds in four - five weeks, (175 to 145). the carbohydrate reduction will initially cause you to stop carrying so much water (that thing they keep trying to tell you salt does to you is actually done by carbohydrates).

Stay on it. don't worry about exercise beyond walking or swimming please. and walking in water is fine (great) too. no running at this point. if you're heavy as you suggest you are running hurts your body. walking on land or in the pool is fine.

that's it. you'll regularly drop weight each week. once you begin approaching your goal weight exercise to your heart's content but please do not think exercise helps you lose weight. it doesn't. it only works and builds muscle and any reduction in weight is incidental.

YOU MUST CONSUME ENOUGH CALORIES For your body to not start fasting! if you reduce your caloric intake the body will suspect you are in a famine and it will SLOW your metabolsim. You actually want to flood your body with protein and fat so that your body's metabolism will 'accelerate'. As the carbohydrates are removed from your system, the pancreas will finally stop pushing insulin (the adipose building hormone) into your blood stream, take a nice long nap and the body will begin to turn to its only other source of energy which is your STORED FAT. it will then begin to burn it. You need not exercise for this to happen.

it's so damn simple and society so miseducates us as to how it works that I'm actually distressed everytime i see an overweight person trying to starve the weight off.

you're going to miss bread! don't eat it. there are some low car breads at sprouts, like 8-11 grams of carbs per ounce but my suggestion is to stop eating bread, grains, cereal, potatoes, rice, sugar. if it's white it ain't right like they say.

you'll eat meat, chicken, fish, vegetables (cooked). stay away from fruit (sugar), milk (use almond milk unsweetened), use Truvia or Atkins bars for your sweet tooth.

good luck, keep us posted. this should be good for 10-40 pounds in the first month you try it.

Crochetluvr

The first thing I cut out was white carbs....bread, potatoes, rice, noodles and pasta...and all processed sugar for one month. After that, I started to add in whole grain bread and pasta...stayed off rice and noodles. Potatoes I would have on occasion and only about 3-4 oz. at a time. I limit my sugars because I have diabetes. But if you have no medical condition that would cause you to limit sugar, I wouldnt worry about it.

Or you can just eat anything you want in moderation...its your choice. But keeping my carbs low has worked for me.

ncmedic201

It depends on your goals and your health. My first priority was cutting back on sodium because I have high blood pressure and wanted to come off my medications. Diabetics are going to be more concerned with sugars first. Really, everyone is different and their goals are different. You need to tailor your habits to you and nobody else. Me personally, I don't monitor fat intake because I'm more concerned about meeting my potassium requirements. Maybe talking to your primary care physician is a good place to start.

ncmedic201

You can safely ignore managing sodium. See http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/opinion/sunday/we-only-think-we-know-the-truth-about-salt.html?pagewanted=all (google Taubes on Sodium New York Times if cutting and pasting is a pain). you can also ignore fiber in case you were wondering.http://www.city-data.com/forum/diet-weight-loss/1657454-science-no-evidence-fiber-vegetables-required.html

Sugar is a Carbohydrate so if you manage carbs you manage sugar directly.
You need not manage calories, protein or fat. Yes, that's correct. if you manage carbohydrates, these manage themselves.

That leaves you with only carbohydrates to manage.

when you set up in MFP, the system will propose a carbohydrate level to manage you to. Mine happened to be 250 grams of carbs a day. Switch the goals so that you manage them directly instead of relying on MFP's guidelines. change the carbs MFP proposes so that you LOWER the carbs. You should be able to safely cut the initial MFP guideline in half. You can also safely go to under 100 grams of carbs a day (i.e. Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, etc, all track to under 100 grams of carbs a day).

this will force your protein and fat intake up. don't worry about it. eat all the fat and protein you want. DON"T REDUCE YOUR FAT INTAKE! Yes, that's right. your body will need the fat for energy when it starts missing all the carbs. remember, your body burns FAT for energy, stores CARBS (AS FAT) and builds tissue out of Protein. It will take a few weeks for your body to switch to Ketosis and begin the FAT burning (instead of FAT BUILDING) that you're looking for.

You may find after a week you can attack the carb cycle again and take your grams of carbs down to 50 or so grams per day. don't worry. your body doesn't 'NEED' carbs. it doesn't need 'whole grains' or starches or anything. It just needs FATs and Proteins.

you're on your way. read Gary's pdf at
http://www.dragaonordestino.net/Drachenwut_Blog_DragaoNordestino/Ernaehrung/Ernaehrung_arquivos/Notes-to-Good-Calories-Bad-Calories.pdf
because you can't take me as an authority.

FAST - ok, you're next concern is how fast can this work. In my and my wife's experience it CAN work fast. my wife dropped about 30 pounds in four - five weeks, (175 to 145). the carbohydrate reduction will initially cause you to stop carrying so much water (that thing they keep trying to tell you salt does to you is actually done by carbohydrates).

Stay on it. don't worry about exercise beyond walking or swimming please. and walking in water is fine (great) too. no running at this point. if you're heavy as you suggest you are running hurts your body. walking on land or in the pool is fine.

that's it. you'll regularly drop weight each week. once you begin approaching your goal weight exercise to your heart's content but please do not think exercise helps you lose weight. it doesn't. it only works and builds muscle and any reduction in weight is incidental.

YOU MUST CONSUME ENOUGH CALORIES For your body to not start fasting! if you reduce your caloric intake the body will suspect you are in a famine and it will SLOW your metabolsim. You actually want to flood your body with protein and fat so that your body's metabolism will 'accelerate'. As the carbohydrates are removed from your system, the pancreas will finally stop pushing insulin (the adipose building hormone) into your blood stream, take a nice long nap and the body will begin to turn to its only other source of energy which is your STORED FAT. it will then begin to burn it. You need not exercise for this to happen.

it's so damn simple and society so miseducates us as to how it works that I'm actually distressed everytime i see an overweight person trying to starve the weight off.

you're going to miss bread! don't eat it. there are some low car breads at sprouts, like 8-11 grams of carbs per ounce but my suggestion is to stop eating bread, grains, cereal, potatoes, rice, sugar. if it's white it ain't right like they say.

you'll eat meat, chicken, fish, vegetables (cooked). stay away from fruit (sugar), milk (use almond milk unsweetened), use Truvia or Atkins bars for your sweet tooth.

good luck, keep us posted. this should be good for 10-40 pounds in the first month you try it.

That's not true about not needing to worry about sodium or sugar. I've come off 3 different blood pressure medications by monitoring my sodium intake. My mother stays off diabetic medications by monitoring her sugar intake. Blanket statements like this shouldn't be made.

Duck_Puddle

First to go was calories. That's worked well for the last 18 months. If I start fussing with the rest, I'll let you know which comes up as #2. Eating healthier foods in general will take care of everything else. And I eat plenty of white carbs, white bread, white rice, etc. just to give you yet another take on the matter.

siqiniq

Well I haven't cut out anything. And I'm not going to. I have cut down on the amounts I eat of almost everything, except veggies, but to cut them out completely sets me up for failure. On the weekends I normally eat out once on Saturday and once on Sunday, and what I order is determined by the amount of bicycling I've done that day. Yesterday was rainy, so when I went out for dinner last night I had a diet soft drink, poached salmon, and a salad. Today I may get out more, so I may make different choices because when I bike, I need more calories. It's all simple math to me.

RealMarkD

For me, it was sugar & milk/cheese. I rarely have dairy now because apparently I'm allergic to milk--I cannot give up the occasional slice of pizza or Greek yogurt, though. And a can of Coke is a once or twice per month treat these days. I think cutting out the soda and cutting way back on beer has made the biggest difference for me.

lucyricky2

sugar. ever since i watch my sugars i have lost more