45 grams of Sugar Daily???

lilcharmer214

Hi,
1st post (15 days in). I was wondering if anyone else has a goal of 45 grams of sugar daily and how you're managing?

This is my biggest issue. For one, I've been eating a Greek yogurt for breakfast for years but they are generally 18-20 grams, using up half for the day. I then check everything for sugars during the day so I have some leftover for dinner which is often a salad in which I need sugar for vinaigrette dressing.

But there's sugar is pretty much everything!! Nuts, sauces, salad dressings, fruit. I've even tried to look up no-sugar snacks and couldn't really find anything. I also use to love snacking on an apple with peanut butter but the apple alone is 12 grams. It adds up soo fast.

How are others managing their low sugar diets?

Golbat

It is very challenging! I'm trying to have more protein-heavy foods and more whole foods I prepare myself. Like for salad dressings, I'm just making my own. I know exactly what's in it that way, and salad dressing is easy to make and the homemade stuff tastes better. And then second, as much as I love fruit (and I do have it!) I try to chose veggies over fruit a lot of the time. So carrot sticks and hummus is a common snack for me. What nuts are you finding have a lot of sugar? It seems like when I log them they often only have one or two grams. But yeah, sauces, salad dressings, and fruits are big for sugar. What sauces are you having? You might be able to either buy low-sugar ones, or make your own.

It seems like every convenience food has tons of sugar though, doesn't it? I wasn't aware how much sugar I was eating, and from how many sources, until I started logging food here. It's been a real wake-up call.

lemurcat12

MFP has 15% of total calories for sugar, so anyone on 1200 will have 45 g.

Personally I only pay attention to added sugar, and try to keep that under 10% (normally 5%) of calories (roughly). I don't eat lots of packaged foods, which possibly makes it easier. If I get in enough protein, fiber, healthy fats, and vegetables (despite their sugar), I'm happy. I think it's a shame if people start worrying about eating fruit in the context of an overall healthful diet.

tryett

Mine is like 61g or something like that. Over the course of any given week my average is 21g per day. Since I watch my carbs and don't have a lot of fruit (mainly in salad) and rarely yogurt anymore (too much sugar for my tastes) and don't eat a lot of processed food anymore, it eliminated a lot of them.

MelaniaTrump

I don't count sugar from fruits, veggies, and dairy products.
I try to limit my added sugars to 20 grams a day. I keep track in notes or in my head.
Some fat free kraft dressings have no sugar. Vinaigrettes are loaded with sugar.

lemurcat12

Not if you make your own. (I'm sure there are store-bought ones that don't have it either, as a typical vinaigrette would not. But so easy to make one's own dressing.)

aeb09

I stay under 10g of sugar pretty much every day as I eat low carb, ketogenic foods (I have PCOS and need to watch my carbs/sugar). If you are trying to go lower on sugar, you also can't use low fat products - when they take out the fat, they replace it with sugar. You'll be able to cut your sugars down by eating full fat dressings, sauces, yogurts, etc.

cecsav1

I'm 907 calories in for the day and have eaten only 15 g sugar. I looked back through my diary to check, and I seem to average around 20 g a day (except yesterday, when I went nuts and tried to kill myself with excess calories...)

Kobz27

aeb09 wrote: »

I stay under 10g of sugar pretty much every day as I eat low carb, ketogenic foods (I have PCOS and need to watch my carbs/sugar). If you are trying to go lower on sugar, you also can't use low fat products - when they take out the fat, they replace it with sugar. You'll be able to cut your sugars down by eating full fat dressings, sauces, yogurts, etc.

I'm with her^. I consume less than 80 grams of sugar a week. I've read up now from vinnietortorich.com as well as the obesity code, and the primal blueprint, and there is a lot of scientific study showing how our genes get triggered by diet. NSNG (no sugar, no grain). This is day 61 for me and I'm down 25.4 lbs with a very low activity level. I eat eggs, butter, full fat cheeses, avocados, cufernicus veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, etc), raw nuts, green veggies, seeds (chia and flax), salmon and other fish, olive oil, olives, lots of meats, and berries (along with other fruits under 50 on the glycemic index). When you eat full fat items your body will be more sated, and you will be less hungry. And once you become 'fat adapted' your body will use stored fat as its main source of energy rather than carbs and sugar. Once you reach that point you're body feels better and you're energy levels are more even throughout the day. If you want to get into ketosis, you need to stay under 50 net carbs (carb grams - fiber grams) per day. However if you follow the NSNG, ketosis isn't necessary for fat loss.

It's very important to keep the activity level low during the first 2 weeks while the body adjusts. There is a thing called the low carb flu. Your body will fight you with flu like symptoms if you put too much activity in those first 2 weeks. After that though you're in the clear and you'll feel great.

The hardest part for me was giving up bread, but after 4 weeks I lost cravings for sweets or grains.

Good luck!!

dykask

I blow my sugar budget on breakfast. After than I don't eat much sugar the rest of the day.

Typical breakfast for me is Oatmeal with some peanut butter, a bit of dark chocolate and 3 servers of fruit, well maybe 4.5 servings of 3 different fruits ... If you are going to eat 600 kc for breakfast, might as well enjoy it.

mlee981

I eat a "diet" that is comprised of around 2500 plus calories a day, from whole plant based foods - so 80 percent of my diet comes from carbs - potatoes, rice, fruit, oats, refined sugars (I try to keep this to a minimum has refined sugar is processed totally differently in the body compared to fruit or starch) and I had well over 45 grams of sugar for breakfast - mango, 1 1/2 banana, 50 grams oats, almond milk, and like 20 grams of butterscotch flavoured syrup. I'm maintaining my weight not gaining, carbs don't make you fat.

Look at the quality of your calories, if the calories and sugar is coming from highly processed foods like yogurts, cakes, cookies, heavy sauces, added sugar and all that jazz just change up WHAT you actually eat.

Don't worry about "grams of sugar" and calories so much, focus more on eating WHOLE foods - fruit, vegetables, whole grains - breads, pasta, oats, rice, potatoes, legumes all that.

Just look at the food pyramid again like you did when ur learning about healthy eating at school, you don't need to stress so much about this all.

lilcharmer214

Thanks everyone for your responses. I know that sugar is my thing as I crave sweets nearly all day long. Yogurt and fruit were my go-tos for years but I have to be really careful with them now. I'm now down to yogurt on some days, 4 tablespoons of salad dressing (viniagrette) and only a half cup of OJ again on some days. This is my biggest challenge, losing the sugar craving.

Guess I should also look into making salad dressing?