Replacing fat with sugar, good or bad idea?
Replies
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MichelleLei1 wrote: »Oh for heaven's sake stop with the broscience. Studies have shown time and time again that weight loss and weight gain is all calories in vs. calories out.
You'll be posting 5 references to substantiate this claim then ?
I didn't realize that the laws of physics require a citation?0 -
Classic Sunday MFP thread.
*Popcorn*
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I find when I eat more fat I feel filler longer. When I eat sugar, well, I could eat 5000 calories and not feel full. Definitely eat more fat.0
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germanleprachaun wrote: »So my daily intake for fat is 80g and my sugar is around there too. I've been eating about 160g of protein per day and I'm trying to cut back on my fat intake (chicken dipping sauces / peanut butter) and replacing them with high sugar low fat substitutes (BBQ sauce / Chobani yogurt)
I've found its much easier to cut back on fat this way but will my nearly doubled sugar intake (was hardly consuming 50g a day before) screw me over in any negative way?
fat does not make you fat …
you just need to be in a calorie deficit and make sure that you are getting micros, and hitting macro minimums…
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JoshuaMcAllister wrote: »You would be better trying to reduce both rather than one or the other, sugar is technically a form of carb but excess sugar in the body is converted to fat. So if you have a massive surplus of sugar its counter productive to weight loss. Try keeping within both recommended intakes.
that only happens when you are in a surplus of calories..0 -
MichelleLei1 wrote: »Oh for heaven's sake stop with the broscience. Studies have shown time and time again that weight loss and weight gain is all calories in vs. calories out.
You'll be posting 5 references to substantiate this claim then ?
do you also want a study to verify that the earth revolves around the sun?0 -
As long as you meet your calorie goals, and get sufficient essential nutrients, it really doesn't matter if you're over or under on all the details. Personally I only pay attention to protein and overall calories, nothing else.0
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I find when I eat more fat I feel filler longer. When I eat sugar, well, I could eat 5000 calories and not feel full. Definitely eat more fat.
This varies from person to person. Fat is not filling at all for me, and sugar in fruit (well, fruit) or dairy (0% greek yogurt) really can be. A donut (which is sugar and fat), not so much.
I think cutting fat to eat more refined carbs is often a bad idea (for the reasons set forth in the links in my prior post), but it depends on the overall diet and the person's goals, and the person will have to decide for themselves whether it helps or hurts. Claiming it's always a bad idea for everyone is rather doctrinaire and not true.0 -
You can swap almost anything in your diet out with almost anything else and still lose weight provided that you are still operating in a caloric deficit... There. This should please all of the people who are foaming at the mouths because someone suggested that excess sugar will cause weight gain.
Should you?
No. And why would you? Sugar is required in a healthy diet just like everything else, but, just like everything else, there is an ideal level of consumption, and whether you have health problems or not, there is no such thing as a free pass and "WOOHOO! unlimited sugar!", because if you don't have health problems that are affected by sugar now, eating this way is just opening you up to health problems from sugar later. Getting fat is not the only health concern on the menu from having a bad diet.
And you could say the same thing about pretty much any other thing you eat... Potassium is a nutrient your body requires, but too much potassium can cause arrhythmia.
And on the opposite side of the issue... I'm not sure what your macros look like, but fat is as essential in a healthy diet as carbs or protein... fat assists in the absorption of nutrients, promotes reproductive health, and powers your brain... and cutting fats drastically can cause just as many problems as overconsumption of sugar...
So instead of drastically cutting an entire macro from your diet, why not try to achieve a balanced diet? One that has appropriate levels of both fat and sugar? The default settings on MFP for how much of what you should be consuming are an excellent place to start. This is another good resource: http://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/
There. That should please everyone who is freaking out because you are giving yourself a diabetes-gut-punch.
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Why are you assuming that OP is not planning to eat a balanced diet? I don't think he's planning to cut out all fat, but cut down on it some.0
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and that's fine, but he should replace it with something appropriate, not just "sugar". His sugar intake also looks pretty high if he is not being fairly active. men should only be looking at around 40 g ideally.0
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CassidyScaglione wrote: »No. And why would you? Sugar is required in a healthy diet just like everything else, but, just like everything else, there is an ideal level of consumption, and whether you have health problems or not, there is no such thing as a free pass and "WOOHOO! unlimited sugar!", because if you don't have health problems that are affected by sugar now, eating this way is just opening you up to health problems from sugar later.
There's no evidence that dietary sugar has any impact on the development of T2D or of insulin resistance. Weight is strongly linked to both, and high sugar foods can promote weight gain by being less filling for their calories, but there's no evidence that eating 1800 calories but low sugar gives you any different risk for T2D/IR than 1800 calories with higher sugar.0 -
germanleprachaun wrote: »galgenstrick wrote: »germanleprachaun wrote: »I misworded my post, instead of cutting out all fat I'm actually just trying to cut back on it, the reason being I've been going over on fat on occasion. The reason I'm going over is because I used to smother my chicken in honey mustard, or eat huge peanut butter sandwiches each day.
Are you weight training? If so, then yeah, most people do better eating around 20%-25% of their calories from fat and adding more carbs instead.
If you're not weight training, then it doesn't really matter too much.
Thank you for the response this was the info I was looking for. Yes I am weight training and yes by changing from high fat to high sugar substitutes I went from 30% of calories from fat to about 25%, so this all sounds good for me. Thanks again.
If you are weight training, why not increase protein for the decrease in fat instead of increasing sugar?0 -
I gained weight by eating low fat foods, but I am losing weigh by cutting back on sugar.0
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I gained weight by eating low fat foods, but I am losing weigh by cutting back on sugar.
If you gained weight, it was because you where eating at a calorie surplus.
If you lost weight it was because you ate at a calorie deficit.
The type of foods make no difference as far as weight loss goes.sugar doesn't cause people to gain weight alone, a calorie surplus is needed.
When newcomers read posts like this, it could easily confuse them. They could assume that eating sugar is bad because it prevents people from losing weight or eating low fat foods are bad because they make people gain weight. Both of which are untrue alone. You need a calorie surplus to gain weight and a calorie deficit to lose weight.
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thorsmom01 wrote: »I gained weight by eating low fat foods, but I am losing weigh by cutting back on sugar.
If you gained weight, it was because you where eating at a calorie surplus.
If you lost weight it was because you ate at a calorie deficit.
The type of foods make no difference as far as weight loss goes.sugar doesn't cause people to gain weight alone, a calorie surplus is needed.
When newcomers read posts like this, it could easily confuse them. They could assume that eating sugar is bad because it prevents people from losing weight or eating low fat foods are bad because they make people gain weight. Both of which are untrue alone. You need a calorie surplus to gain weight and a calorie deficit to lose weight.
cosign …
in the end it boils down to Calories In VS Calories Out and this does not mean ignore nutrition and eat pancake and syrup all day ...0 -
thorsmom01 wrote: »I gained weight by eating low fat foods, but I am losing weigh by cutting back on sugar.
If you gained weight, it was because you where eating at a calorie surplus.
If you lost weight it was because you ate at a calorie deficit.
The type of foods make no difference as far as weight loss goes.sugar doesn't cause people to gain weight alone, a calorie surplus is needed.
When newcomers read posts like this, it could easily confuse them. They could assume that eating sugar is bad because it prevents people from losing weight or eating low fat foods are bad because they make people gain weight. Both of which are untrue alone. You need a calorie surplus to gain weight and a calorie deficit to lose weight.
cosign …
in the end it boils down to Calories In VS Calories Out and this does not mean ignore nutrition and eat pancake and syrup all day ...
Exactly.
Nobody here would recommend eating a diet of only cake. But that does not mean that a healthy well balanced diet can not include a slice of cake if all other nutrients have been already met .
Weight loss /gain will come down to calories . if one lost weight by cutting back on sugar or fat , it was because they where at a deficit. Cutting sugar or fat or anything alone won't cause weight loss. A calorie deficit is needed.0 -
CassidyScaglione wrote: »and that's fine, but he should replace it with something appropriate, not just "sugar". His sugar intake also looks pretty high if he is not being fairly active. men should only be looking at around 40 g ideally.
40 g? For total sugar and not added? Why? The US Dietary Guidelines and the WHO say under 10% of calories in added sugar (with the WHO recommending that under 5% is best). This is for calorie control and having a balanced diet, though, not simply that sugar is bad. 40 g=160 calories, which is WAY below 10% of the diet of a normal man (and again, that's added sugar).
I haven't looked at his diary (not open), but this was his first post:So my daily intake for fat is 80g and my sugar is around there too. I've been eating about 160g of protein per day and I'm trying to cut back on my fat intake (chicken dipping sauces / peanut butter) and replacing them with high sugar low fat substitutes (BBQ sauce / Chobani yogurt)
I've found its much easier to cut back on fat this way but will my nearly doubled sugar intake (was hardly consuming 50g a day before) screw me over in any negative way?
So he's eating about 640 calories of protein, 320 calories of sugar (added and not -- not sure if he means carbs and not just sugar), and 80 calories or 720 calories of fat. All that totals 1680, so I'm assuming he's also eating other carbs, but who knows.
I happen to agree that there are better choices than straight sugar (for fueling activity I'm in favor of including starches, for example), but one of the things he mentioned is yogurt, which I don't consider a poor choice. So I just don't feel like I know enough to claim that he's not eating a balanced diet and the rest (which is why I left the links I did but tried to avoid jumping to conclusions).0 -
Calliope610 wrote: »germanleprachaun wrote: »galgenstrick wrote: »germanleprachaun wrote: »I misworded my post, instead of cutting out all fat I'm actually just trying to cut back on it, the reason being I've been going over on fat on occasion. The reason I'm going over is because I used to smother my chicken in honey mustard, or eat huge peanut butter sandwiches each day.
Are you weight training? If so, then yeah, most people do better eating around 20%-25% of their calories from fat and adding more carbs instead.
If you're not weight training, then it doesn't really matter too much.
Thank you for the response this was the info I was looking for. Yes I am weight training and yes by changing from high fat to high sugar substitutes I went from 30% of calories from fat to about 25%, so this all sounds good for me. Thanks again.
If you are weight training, why not increase protein for the decrease in fat instead of increasing sugar?
160 g of protein is likely plenty.0 -
Studies have shown that there is a limit as to how much refined sugar can be consumed without problems (eating at maintenance), though this may be partly due to the fact that the higher the consumption of sugary foods, the harder it is to still reach micronutrient needs. Unless one is exercising at a professional athlete level, it is just about impossible to eat excessive amounts of added sugar and still get in all of the recommended micros.rankinsect wrote: »CassidyScaglione wrote: »No. And why would you? Sugar is required in a healthy diet just like everything else, but, just like everything else, there is an ideal level of consumption, and whether you have health problems or not, there is no such thing as a free pass and "WOOHOO! unlimited sugar!", because if you don't have health problems that are affected by sugar now, eating this way is just opening you up to health problems from sugar later.
There's no evidence that dietary sugar has any impact on the development of T2D or of insulin resistance. Weight is strongly linked to both, and high sugar foods can promote weight gain by being less filling for their calories, but there's no evidence that eating 1800 calories but low sugar gives you any different risk for T2D/IR than 1800 calories with higher sugar.
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ForecasterJason wrote: »
Studies have shown that there is a limit as to how much refined sugar can be consumed without problems (eating at maintenance), though this may be partly due to the fact that the higher the consumption of sugary foods, the harder it is to still reach micronutrient needs. Unless one is exercising at a professional athlete level, it is just about impossible to eat excessive amounts of added sugar and still get in all of the recommended micros.rankinsect wrote: »CassidyScaglione wrote: »No. And why would you? Sugar is required in a healthy diet just like everything else, but, just like everything else, there is an ideal level of consumption, and whether you have health problems or not, there is no such thing as a free pass and "WOOHOO! unlimited sugar!", because if you don't have health problems that are affected by sugar now, eating this way is just opening you up to health problems from sugar later.
There's no evidence that dietary sugar has any impact on the development of T2D or of insulin resistance. Weight is strongly linked to both, and high sugar foods can promote weight gain by being less filling for their calories, but there's no evidence that eating 1800 calories but low sugar gives you any different risk for T2D/IR than 1800 calories with higher sugar.
Please link is to said studies that you are referring to...0 -
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/89/4/1037.fullForecasterJason wrote: »
Studies have shown that there is a limit as to how much refined sugar can be consumed without problems (eating at maintenance), though this may be partly due to the fact that the higher the consumption of sugary foods, the harder it is to still reach micronutrient needs. Unless one is exercising at a professional athlete level, it is just about impossible to eat excessive amounts of added sugar and still get in all of the recommended micros.rankinsect wrote: »CassidyScaglione wrote: »No. And why would you? Sugar is required in a healthy diet just like everything else, but, just like everything else, there is an ideal level of consumption, and whether you have health problems or not, there is no such thing as a free pass and "WOOHOO! unlimited sugar!", because if you don't have health problems that are affected by sugar now, eating this way is just opening you up to health problems from sugar later.
There's no evidence that dietary sugar has any impact on the development of T2D or of insulin resistance. Weight is strongly linked to both, and high sugar foods can promote weight gain by being less filling for their calories, but there's no evidence that eating 1800 calories but low sugar gives you any different risk for T2D/IR than 1800 calories with higher sugar.
Please link is to said studies that you are referring to...
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/84/5/1171.full
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24493081
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germanleprachaun wrote: »I misworded my post, instead of cutting out all fat I'm actually just trying to cut back on it, the reason being I've been going over on fat on occasion. The reason I'm going over is because I used to smother my chicken in honey mustard, or eat huge peanut butter sandwiches each day.
Isn't honey mustard more sugar than fat to begin with?
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Replacing Fat with sugar.. IMHO a bad idea. At least we get nutrition from fat, we need it in our diet. Sugar... not so much.0
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germanleprachaun wrote: »I misworded my post, instead of cutting out all fat I'm actually just trying to cut back on it, the reason being I've been going over on fat on occasion. The reason I'm going over is because I used to smother my chicken in honey mustard, or eat huge peanut butter sandwiches each day.
Isn't honey mustard more sugar than fat to begin with?
No my honey mustard is 140 calories per 2tbsp (10g fat 4g sugar) vs BBQ sauce that's 60 calories per 2 tbsp (0 fat 12g sugar)0 -
Good idea. Enjoy.markrgeary1 wrote: »OK. I'm increasing fats to eat less sugar, good luck.
Fat is much more satisfying to eat than carbs/sugar.
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Good idea. Enjoy.markrgeary1 wrote: »OK. I'm increasing fats to eat less sugar, good luck.
Fat is much more satisfying to eat than carbs/sugar.
Depends on the person. I find many carbs more satisfying than fat.0 -
germanleprachaun wrote: »germanleprachaun wrote: »I misworded my post, instead of cutting out all fat I'm actually just trying to cut back on it, the reason being I've been going over on fat on occasion. The reason I'm going over is because I used to smother my chicken in honey mustard, or eat huge peanut butter sandwiches each day.
Isn't honey mustard more sugar than fat to begin with?
No my honey mustard is 140 calories per 2tbsp (10g fat 4g sugar) vs BBQ sauce that's 60 calories per 2 tbsp (0 fat 12g sugar)
Where's the fat coming from? Are you buying pre-made honey mustard? Because if you make your own with Dijon mustard and honey, there should be zero fat.
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