Struggling to stay within my sugar limit
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peaceout_aly wrote: »Mycophilia wrote: »Unless you have a medical condition like diabetes, you don't have to worry about your sugar intake.
Some people (like myself) have benefits from limiting sugar like better skin, less inflammation overall, plus it does help in making generally better food choices. If she wants to limit sugar it isn't going to hurt her.
Well okay but the "some people benefit from doing X" could be said about anything and MFP doesn't default tracking on everything. It sounds from her post like the only reason she is trying to limit her sugar is because MFP defaulted to tell her to limit her sugar and she is struggling with that, not benefiting from it. So my suggestion is basically you don't have to do that so if you are having difficulty with that, stop. If on the other hand you feel benefits from it and enjoy it then sure, go right ahead.
Didn't mean to imply avoiding sugar was somehow bad, just not necessary.2 -
Aaron_K123 wrote: »Yeah I have sodium on, not because I care but because when I set up my tracking that defaulted to on and I couldn't be bothered to turn it off. I don't care about it though and most days I'm way over on it. I don't have any blood pressure issues though so it doesn't matter.
Track sodium if you have blood pressure issues, track sugar if you are diabetic. Otherwise don't bother.
That is fair enough. This is not trying to be clever, but why wait for an illness to appear before watching salt and sugar. Even if these govt campaigns are wrong, there is enough smoke to make me think it something I should watch. Respect your point though mate
I think to go type II diabetic you need to be overweight, pushing obesity, at caloric excess AND having a ton of sugar in your diet and I'm not doing that so I don't really see a need to track sugar while in caloric deficit...to me it seems overly nitpicky. I think for 99% of people where this was a problem it will cease to be a problem simply by calorie counting and establishing a deficit for weight loss. Same argument for sodium and blood pressure, I've never had blood pressure issues and if I was going to develop an issue due to my sodium intake it would happen when I'm not tracking my intake at all and in caloric excess and becoming obese not while I'm actively tracking and in deficit. So again, don't feel a need to track it.
Last time I was at the doctor and they took my blood pressure their first question after was "do you work out regularly?" so I don't think I have any issues there. My resting heartrate is in the 50s and my blood pressure is pretty darn good as is my other hearthealth indicators.
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Little_Miss_Kriss wrote: »Diabetics watch carbohydrates, not sugar when they are being treated, when i took insulin, i had to take 3 units for every 10g of carbs i consumed, i was never asked to count sugar
sugar is a carbohydrate (CH20)x is the chemical formula for any sugar, its literally hydrated carbon. I would think sugar intake would be pretty important to a diabetic.0 -
peaceout_aly wrote: »Hey all,
So I've only recently started logging again as I'm trying to lose weight....AGAIN!
So I put in my weight, age, height etc and it calculated my BMI against how much I want to lose and worked out how much calories, fat, sugar etc I should be consuming each day if I want to lose weight (My Fitness Pal did this all for me).
So it says I'm allowed 54g of sugar a day. One banana contains nearly this whole allowance of sugar! I am constantly going over my sugar limit even though I usually stay within my fat and calories limit for the day.
So my problem is this...if fruit is so high in sugar and I'm only allowed 54g a day what on earth am I supposed to snack on? and what am I supposed to have for breakfast.
I was having weetabix, low fat natural yoghurt or porridge with fruit for breakfast and snacking on fruit if I got peckish between meals.
I dont really like having eggs for breakfast.
Any ideas guys?
Many thanks,
Ruth.
xx
My sugar intake used to be around 120g +, and it's now down to 20-40g per day. Fruit is a natural sugar, which although natural, is still sugar. Opt for berries which generally contain less. Bananas, pineapples and apples are some of the worst offendors. Of course, you don't have to eliminate them (and I don't suggest it) just don't overload on these particular fruits. My go-to breakfast option is usually a Quest bar - 21g protein, 1g sugar. Can't beat it. If you like yogurt or porridge, just use natural oats and a bit of honey, berries or add some protein powder to flavor plain yogurt and top with berries and sunflower seeds. YUM!
You can do this if you just want to lower sugar, but the question is why you would need to. I like berries and eat them quite a lot, but in the summer especially I want peaches and plums and melon. In fall I like an apple sometimes. In the winter I like clementines, and a banana can be a useful choice. Sometimes pineapple just hits the spot. Limiting my variety of fruits or worrying that a particular fruit has too much sugar just doesn't seem like a useful thing to concern myself with.
What I do think is important is having an overall sensible, balanced, healthful diet. For me, that means (1) overall calories; (2) enough protein; (3) healthy fats (I never have to worry about getting enough fat and I bet most also don't); (4) plenty of vegetables; and (5) a variety of other nutrient-dense foods. Plus whatever else that happens to fit.
If eating pineapple or peaches was causing someone to go over calories, then, yeah, reduce the consumption, although because of the calories, not the sugar. Same with a diet that lacked protein and healthy fats and, IMO, of course one should not think that lots of fruit substitutes for vegetables. But if OP doesn't have any medical advice to the contrary, enjoys fruit, and is eating an overall satiating and healthful diet, worrying about cutting fruit or replacing it with a protein bar doesn't seem necessary.
I used to have oatmeal quite often with berries (nice winter breakfast, I usually add protein powder or have cottage cheese with it, on the side). Sometimes I'd want apples or a banana instead. The idea that this variety is bad for you vs. just the berries is, IMO, the wrong way to approach nutrition.3 -
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Little_Miss_Kriss wrote: »Well when you are taking insulin you only count the carbs in any food, carbs in fruit, carbs in breads, pastas and grains, carbs in milk and dairy and carbs in sweets, you never take insulin based on the amount of sugar in it, only the carbs
That is sugar though. the carbs in fruit is fructose, the carbs in breads pastas and grains are starches which are just polysaccharide chains of sugars like amylose, carbs in milk is lactose which is a disaccharide of two sugars and carbs in sweets are typically sucrose, maltose or some combination of mono or di saccharides. It is sugar, I think we are talking semantics here.
Carbohydrates, carbo-hydrates, hydrated carbon, Carbon plus H2O. Chemical formula for all sugars, (CH2O)x. Glucose for example (CH2O)6. Sugars, carbohydrates, same thing....sugars are what is being refered to by the term carbohydrate where a sugar is the monomeric unit, carbohydrates are different combinations of sugars. The chemical suffix for sugars is -ose. So starchs like amylose, monosaccharides like glucose, fructose, disaccharides like lactose, maltose, sucrose.
I think when MFP tracks "sugar" it is tracking refined sugars that are either mono or disaccharides which is a bit of an arbitrary distinction. I agree that the amount of your carbs that come from polysaccharides such as amylose starches and the amount that come from refined sugars such as sucrose probably doesn't matter all that much.0 -
I think the point is it's not just sugar, but all carbs, that will have to be watched. For example, white rice might show on MFP as 0 g sugar, but be more of a problem for some T2D than a banana or even a cookie (from what I have been told by T2Ds I know). Even for T2D there may be no reason to focus on just sugar, whereas fiber will be important.0
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MFP's "sugar" category is the same as on a nutrition label, and would have 15 g for a 120 g banana, for example. It's carbs other than starches and fiber. Starches are a concern for T2Ds too (as we all seem to be agreeing!).0
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Little_Miss_Kriss wrote: »I am not arguing with you about the fact that its sugar, i am just saying...LOL... when i was diabetic i did not have to watch both carbs AND sugar, just carbs. As a former diabetic the amount of sugar on the label made no difference to me, i only paid attention to the carbs, There are a lot of people out there who think these two things are two different things, im just saying, i was only ever required to watch one, not both
Yeah they aren't two different things, so I agree that the MFP distinction is kind of arbitrary and pointless. If you are tracking carbohydrates then you are tracking your sugar intake so there is no need to track your sugar intake AGAIN on top of that. I agree with that, I see what you are saying.2 -
CoffeeNCardio wrote: »Aaron_K123 wrote: »Been a while since I've set up my account, is sugar tracking on by default or do you have to turn it on intentionally? If it is on by default that is sort of bizzare.
It's on by default. You can change it to fiber or a number of other options by going to "settings" from your diary page on desktop website, it's the first thing that shows, five or six little boxes wth "Protein" "carbs" etc. The very last box is default set to sugar. I've changed it to fiber. Unless you're in deep trouble with the white stuff, there's really no reason to track sugar.
Ya, fiber was more useful for me as well. Hitting my fiber goal ensures satiety for me, which makes it easier for me to stay in a calorie deficit.0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »peaceout_aly wrote: »Hey all,
So I've only recently started logging again as I'm trying to lose weight....AGAIN!
So I put in my weight, age, height etc and it calculated my BMI against how much I want to lose and worked out how much calories, fat, sugar etc I should be consuming each day if I want to lose weight (My Fitness Pal did this all for me).
So it says I'm allowed 54g of sugar a day. One banana contains nearly this whole allowance of sugar! I am constantly going over my sugar limit even though I usually stay within my fat and calories limit for the day.
So my problem is this...if fruit is so high in sugar and I'm only allowed 54g a day what on earth am I supposed to snack on? and what am I supposed to have for breakfast.
I was having weetabix, low fat natural yoghurt or porridge with fruit for breakfast and snacking on fruit if I got peckish between meals.
I dont really like having eggs for breakfast.
Any ideas guys?
Many thanks,
Ruth.
xx
My sugar intake used to be around 120g +, and it's now down to 20-40g per day. Fruit is a natural sugar, which although natural, is still sugar. Opt for berries which generally contain less. Bananas, pineapples and apples are some of the worst offendors. Of course, you don't have to eliminate them (and I don't suggest it) just don't overload on these particular fruits. My go-to breakfast option is usually a Quest bar - 21g protein, 1g sugar. Can't beat it. If you like yogurt or porridge, just use natural oats and a bit of honey, berries or add some protein powder to flavor plain yogurt and top with berries and sunflower seeds. YUM!
You can do this if you just want to lower sugar, but the question is why you would need to. I like berries and eat them quite a lot, but in the summer especially I want peaches and plums and melon. In fall I like an apple sometimes. In the winter I like clementines, and a banana can be a useful choice. Sometimes pineapple just hits the spot. Limiting my variety of fruits or worrying that a particular fruit has too much sugar just doesn't seem like a useful thing to concern myself with.
What I do think is important is having an overall sensible, balanced, healthful diet. For me, that means (1) overall calories; (2) enough protein; (3) healthy fats (I never have to worry about getting enough fat and I bet most also don't); (4) plenty of vegetables; and (5) a variety of other nutrient-dense foods. Plus whatever else that happens to fit.
If eating pineapple or peaches was causing someone to go over calories, then, yeah, reduce the consumption, although because of the calories, not the sugar. Same with a diet that lacked protein and healthy fats and, IMO, of course one should not think that lots of fruit substitutes for vegetables. But if OP doesn't have any medical advice to the contrary, enjoys fruit, and is eating an overall satiating and healthful diet, worrying about cutting fruit or replacing it with a protein bar doesn't seem necessary.
I used to have oatmeal quite often with berries (nice winter breakfast, I usually add protein powder or have cottage cheese with it, on the side). Sometimes I'd want apples or a banana instead. The idea that this variety is bad for you vs. just the berries is, IMO, the wrong way to approach nutrition.
My farm stand has had Honey Crisps for a few weeks now.
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Another vote here to turn off sugar tracking. I also tripled the sugar max because in the phone app it yells if I go over their absurdly low limit even if it's not one of my major tracking items.
I track fiber instead. That's helped me go from an average of 11g/day to 30!1 -
Another vote here to turn off sugar tracking. I also tripled the sugar max because in the phone app it yells if I go over their absurdly low limit even if it's not one of my major tracking items.
I track fiber instead. That's helped me go from an average of 11g/day to 30!
You can also turn those off in the diary settings.0 -
Awesome guys thank u you have all been very helpful0
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Aaron_K123 wrote: »CoffeeNCardio wrote: »Aaron_K123 wrote: »Been a while since I've set up my account, is sugar tracking on by default or do you have to turn it on intentionally? If it is on by default that is sort of bizzare.
It's on by default. You can change it to fiber or a number of other options by going to "settings" from your diary page on desktop website, it's the first thing that shows, five or six little boxes wth "Protein" "carbs" etc. The very last box is default set to sugar. I've changed it to fiber. Unless you're in deep trouble with the white stuff, there's really no reason to track sugar.
That seems kind of messed up to me, not sure why MFP does that...it suggests that somehow it is important to track sugar consumption whether you are diabetic or not and thats not really true. If you aren't diabetic then how much sugar you have is not really that important as long as you aren't sacrificing the needed protein, fat or micronutrients.
MFP does a lot of strange things. If your calorie intake is low for a particular day, it sends out warning messages about Starvation Mode!
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Aaron_K123 wrote: »CoffeeNCardio wrote: »Aaron_K123 wrote: »Been a while since I've set up my account, is sugar tracking on by default or do you have to turn it on intentionally? If it is on by default that is sort of bizzare.
It's on by default. You can change it to fiber or a number of other options by going to "settings" from your diary page on desktop website, it's the first thing that shows, five or six little boxes wth "Protein" "carbs" etc. The very last box is default set to sugar. I've changed it to fiber. Unless you're in deep trouble with the white stuff, there's really no reason to track sugar.
That seems kind of messed up to me, not sure why MFP does that...it suggests that somehow it is important to track sugar consumption whether you are diabetic or not and thats not really true. If you aren't diabetic then how much sugar you have is not really that important as long as you aren't sacrificing the needed protein, fat or micronutrients.
MFP does a lot of strange things. If your calorie intake is low for a particular day, it sends out warning messages about Starvation Mode!
Really??? I've never gotten that before, must have to be pretty far under to get that. Or are you pulling my leg right now?1 -
Aaron_K123 wrote: »Aaron_K123 wrote: »CoffeeNCardio wrote: »Aaron_K123 wrote: »Been a while since I've set up my account, is sugar tracking on by default or do you have to turn it on intentionally? If it is on by default that is sort of bizzare.
It's on by default. You can change it to fiber or a number of other options by going to "settings" from your diary page on desktop website, it's the first thing that shows, five or six little boxes wth "Protein" "carbs" etc. The very last box is default set to sugar. I've changed it to fiber. Unless you're in deep trouble with the white stuff, there's really no reason to track sugar.
That seems kind of messed up to me, not sure why MFP does that...it suggests that somehow it is important to track sugar consumption whether you are diabetic or not and thats not really true. If you aren't diabetic then how much sugar you have is not really that important as long as you aren't sacrificing the needed protein, fat or micronutrients.
MFP does a lot of strange things. If your calorie intake is low for a particular day, it sends out warning messages about Starvation Mode!
Really??? I've never gotten that before, must have to be pretty far under to get that. Or are you pulling my leg right now?
If you try to "Finish" or "Close" your diary and you're under by a lot, it'll disallow you from closing it and yell at you in orange about not meeting nutrition requirements.1 -
CoffeeNCardio wrote: »Aaron_K123 wrote: »Aaron_K123 wrote: »CoffeeNCardio wrote: »Aaron_K123 wrote: »Been a while since I've set up my account, is sugar tracking on by default or do you have to turn it on intentionally? If it is on by default that is sort of bizzare.
It's on by default. You can change it to fiber or a number of other options by going to "settings" from your diary page on desktop website, it's the first thing that shows, five or six little boxes wth "Protein" "carbs" etc. The very last box is default set to sugar. I've changed it to fiber. Unless you're in deep trouble with the white stuff, there's really no reason to track sugar.
That seems kind of messed up to me, not sure why MFP does that...it suggests that somehow it is important to track sugar consumption whether you are diabetic or not and thats not really true. If you aren't diabetic then how much sugar you have is not really that important as long as you aren't sacrificing the needed protein, fat or micronutrients.
MFP does a lot of strange things. If your calorie intake is low for a particular day, it sends out warning messages about Starvation Mode!
Really??? I've never gotten that before, must have to be pretty far under to get that. Or are you pulling my leg right now?
If you try to "Finish" or "Close" your diary and you're under by a lot, it'll disallow you from closing it and yell at you in orange about not meeting nutrition requirements.
Yeah, never encountered that. Although I do eat a good amount even when dieting so I suppose I've just never triggered that.0 -
I've triggered the low calorie warning a few times, typically when I'm having a very bad lupus day and slept 20 hours.0
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Swap it out for something useful1
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Swap it out for something useful
You hit the MFP "sugar limit" very easily on "useful" foods. I'm already at 68 grams for the day and it's an hour before dinner (and I don't care; I had to go look it up). I've had a small serving of grapes, a cup of milk (with protein powder in it) post-workout, a bunch of veggies and a turkey sandwich with more veggies. The only "unuseful" sugar I've had was the marmalade on the almond butter on my toast - but I can't tolerate nut butter without something to prevent it sticking to my mouth, so I even consider that sugar useful. Besides, it was less than 15 grams of sugar since it was only 15 grams of marmalade. So I got over 50 grams without it.
The MFP "sugar limit" is completely useless since it has no way of distinguishing between "sugar that comes with fiber and micronutrients" and refined sugar. It's not even useful for diabetics because it doesn't include simple starches.1 -
Aaron_K123 wrote: »Aaron_K123 wrote: »CoffeeNCardio wrote: »Aaron_K123 wrote: »Been a while since I've set up my account, is sugar tracking on by default or do you have to turn it on intentionally? If it is on by default that is sort of bizzare.
It's on by default. You can change it to fiber or a number of other options by going to "settings" from your diary page on desktop website, it's the first thing that shows, five or six little boxes wth "Protein" "carbs" etc. The very last box is default set to sugar. I've changed it to fiber. Unless you're in deep trouble with the white stuff, there's really no reason to track sugar.
That seems kind of messed up to me, not sure why MFP does that...it suggests that somehow it is important to track sugar consumption whether you are diabetic or not and thats not really true. If you aren't diabetic then how much sugar you have is not really that important as long as you aren't sacrificing the needed protein, fat or micronutrients.
MFP does a lot of strange things. If your calorie intake is low for a particular day, it sends out warning messages about Starvation Mode!
Really??? I've never gotten that before, must have to be pretty far under to get that. Or are you pulling my leg right now?
I just tried to close my diary with just 200 cals logged, this is the message that popped up. I used to get it a couple years ago on my 500 calorie days when i was doing alternate day fasting, and i'm pretty sure "starvation mode" was mentioned then, but they've since changed that.
Based on your total calories consumed for today, you are likely not eating enough.
For safe weight loss, the National Institutes of Health recommends no less than 1000-1200 calories for women and 1200-1500 calories for men.
Completing your diary with fewer than the minimum calories noted above will not generate a news feed post for that day, or show a five-week weight projection.
Even during weight loss, it's important to meet your body's basic nutrient and energy needs. Over time, not eating enough can lead to nutrient deficiencies, unpleasant side effects & other serious health problems.
To safely meet your goals:
Focus on consuming nutrient-rich foods and beverages
Check your progress in MyFitnessPal throughout the day
Add nutritious snacks between meals as needed1 -
To the 100g of sugar per day person, I don't think your opinion on nutrition is valid after your statement. How someone knowledgeable has that much of a care attitude towards sugar I'll never know.0
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Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »
Yeah. I skimmed a tad too quick. Seems the lady was telling of her changed ways in terms of sugar consumption. My bad0
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