Trying to stay within my daily sugar limit, help

mrsjoyw

Hi guys! I'm back on the bandwagon of MFP and I have a question regarding my daily nutritional limits. I'm way off on my sugar although it's mostly from fruit. How do you get the recommended daily serving of 5 fruits but stay within the sugar limit? I now know that bananas are a no-no. I've just made my food diary public so if anyone is willing to give it a look and let me know what you think I should do. I still haven't met my daily calories but trying to figure out what to eat and yet stay within my limits, I'm lost! Thanks for any help!

Hamsibian

A lot of the nutrients in fruits can be easily found in low sugar vegetables like Leafy greens and cruciferous ones, so just eat more vegetables instead. If you really want to eat 5 servings of fruit, berries are lowest in sugar.

ibboykin

98% of all my sugar comes thru fruit. In maintaining a healthy lifestyle I just don't worry about naturally occurring sugars. It is the items with added sugars that will get you. Don't sweat the small stuff. Just read your labels. Eat real fruit not prepackaged juices. No sodas diet or otherwise. Stop all sweats!!! This has worked for me.

dewd2

Or better yet, don't worry about it at all (unless there's a medical reason to restrict sugar then you should listen to your doctor). Eat the calories recommended by MFP and you will do well.

Good luck.

mrsjoyw

Thank you all!! I will heed your advice!

lemurcat12

mrsjoyw wrote: »

Hi guys! I'm back on the bandwagon of MFP and I have a question regarding my daily nutritional limits. I'm way off on my sugar although it's mostly from fruit. How do you get the recommended daily serving of 5 fruits but stay within the sugar limit?

That would be challenging, depending on the calorie limit, but there's no 5 daily serving of fruit recommendation I know of, and all the credible sugar recommendations are about added sugar (which MFP cannot track). I'd focus instead on getting enough protein, healthy fats, vegetables, and fiber, and not worry about sugar if you are meeting those goals and within your calories.

Bananas are only a no no if you don't like them or don't think they are worth the calories.

SingRunTing

I don't track my sugar at all. If I'm staying within my calories, sugar doesn't do anything to me.

I do try to hit my macro goals, which have a much better impact on your health.

CMNVA

I had to learn not to worry about this. Early on, I was fixated on it, but even at a 1200 calorie diet, I was going over and the only "bad" sugar I had was a few teaspoons through the day that I put in my tea. I took a look at a few of your days and you are doing good with your food. Just don't worry about the sugar if it is naturally occurring in food (unless of course you have a problem with blood sugar).

Dano74

Bananas must be so sad. Always maligned as fast-digesting sugar bombs... and yet all they want to do is deliver you energy, potassium, fiber (which blunts sugar effects), Vitamin C and more.

They're simply a carb- and a nutritional one. And as Gandhi* and Abraham Lincoln* always said: "If a nutritional carb fits... EAT IT."

*They never said that. But it doesn't make it any less true.

kmash32

I agree with everyone else, unless you are like me and are glucose intolerant or have diabetes if it is coming from natural sources you don't need to worry. That being said you do know it is a recommendation of 5 to 7 servings of fruits and vegetables a day of which my nutritionist/dietitian says most people if they have around a 2000cal a day diet should break that down to 2 to 3 fruit and 4 to 5 vegetable servings.

mrsjoyw

LOL! Thanks again everyone! I don't have any blood sugar issues, I was just trying to stay within the sugar limits set by MFP. So far this week, at least, I've not had ANY white or refined sugars YAAAY ME!! Taking this one day at a time. Thanks so much for your input!

extra_medium

ibboykin wrote: »

98% of all my sugar comes thru fruit. In maintaining a healthy lifestyle I just don't worry about naturally occurring sugars. It is the items with added sugars that will get you. Don't sweat the small stuff. Just read your labels. Eat real fruit not prepackaged juices. No sodas diet or otherwise. Stop all sweats!!! This has worked for me.

Naturally occurring sugars and added sugars "get you" in just the same way. Your body doesn't know the difference. Diet soda has zero sugar so that's not going to help either way.

It's not really that dramatic to go over on sugar as long as your calories aren't going over and it's not causing you to go too low and miss your protein or fat goals regularly.

pebble4321

I've never heard a recommendation for five servings of fruit a day, that seems pretty extreme and if your calorie goal isn't very high, means that you could be missing out on other nutrients or macros by eating all that fruit.

Australia recommends 5 veg + 2 fruits, and I think other places say 5-a-day meaning fruits and veg.
I like the 5+2 idea, because veggies are often (though not always) a bit lower cal and I think you get a wider variety of nutrients this way that all fruit.

Really though if you are eating a wide variety of foods, getting a good mix of protein and fat and carbs and can do that with the amount of fruit you are eating, then I wouldn't worry too much about sugar. If you find that fitting fruit in is pushing out other stuff that gives you good nutrition, then work on getting a better balance.

Only_Today

Very soon labels will be changing to reflect ADDED SUGAR - that's the sugar we have to worry about. It's the simple sugars that are in carby sweet things. Healthy natural sugars are the enemy.

psuLemon

Only_Today wrote: »

Very soon labels will be changing to reflect ADDED SUGAR - that's the sugar we have to worry about. It's the simple sugars that are in carby sweet things. Healthy natural sugars are the enemy.

I assume you mean, healthy natural sugars are not the enemy?


OP, diets are about context. Natural or added sugar is not the problem if you are getting adequate nutrition with the rest of your diet. What is the enemy is obesity and inactivity. Even with a fairly poor diet (like the twinkie diet), you can see vast improvements in health if you continue to lose weight and add in exercise. It's not to suggest that someone shouldn't concentrate on whole natural foods, because I feel they should, but rather they should stress things things if they don't have any medical issues. Personally, i focus on calories, protein, fiber and whole foods. But if you look at my diary, you will see things like candy. Hasn't stopped me from losing 50 lbs, improving all metabolic markers and getting to 16% body fat. Now, I am working on cutting another 6% body fat and gaining some muscle from a recomp.

lemurcat12

Only_Today wrote: »

Very soon labels will be changing to reflect ADDED SUGAR - that's the sugar we have to worry about. It's the simple sugars that are in carby sweet things. Healthy natural sugars are the enemy.

Simple sugars are in fruit too. All sugars are "simple" in that it refers to the molecule. A complex carb is a starch (which, ironically, are in lots of so-called "carby sweet things" too).

You know what else is in "carby sweet things" and give them about half of their calories? Fat. So maybe rethink calling them "carbs" or "carby things" as that doesn't make a lot of sense. Blaming just the carbs (or just the sugar) for the fact a donut is fattening (i.e., high cal) is bizarre, IMO. Similarly, the calories in fast food come somewhat from carbs, but a fast food burger is mainly higher cal than a burger you make at home because the beef likely has more fat. Fries again get at least half their calories (and the least nutritious portion of their calories) from fat. People who just focus on carbs illustrate that they haven't really thought about it, IMO.

Labels reflecting added sugars is a good idea, since it's nice to know what's in things, and even if you see that sugar is an ingredient (and relatively low down), it's helpful to be able to see that there's only a little (with a specific amount) of added sugar and the rest of whatever is in a particular product is inherent (from dairy, from tomatoes, whatever). Wouldn't surprise me if it resulted in less being added too, although I wouldn't bet on that.

Anyway, if you read the reasoning given by the WHO and others for recommending that we limit added sugars (which is not at all the same thing as saying that are inherently bad for us in any amount or "the enemy" -- again, I think that's a lack of understanding), the concern is that a diet high in added sugar (like the so-called SAD tends to be) will typically include too many calories and not be well-balanced and based primarily on nutrient-dense foods. So reducing the foods that contribute a lot of added sugar is a good idea, but other than some things like sugary drinks, most of these foods get about half of their calories from fat, and (other than with pop, I suppose) the WHO, etc., certainly would not think the problems with consuming an excess of them would go away if the added sugar was replaced with no cal artificial sugar (they still be low nutrient, have lots of calories from fat, and be easily overeaten).

All that aside, I agree that fruit is not a problem at all and worrying about sugar from fruit is something I'd never do. (Then again, I don't really think that 5 servings of fruit would be easy to fit into most balanced diets, although it depends on calorie limit and what else you eat, and it's certainly not necessary to comply with dietary recommendations. Personally I aim for half my meal made up of veg at all meals, and fruit if it pleases me (which means 1-2 servings most of the year, 2-3 in the summer, typically). But if someone wants to really prioritize fruit and eat a lot more, but still gets protein, vegetables, and healthy fats, I think that's great too.)

J72FIT

mrsjoyw wrote: »

How do you get the recommended daily serving of 5 fruits but stay within the sugar limit?

By tracking fiber and not worrying about the sugar...

mrsjoyw wrote: »

I now know that bananas are a no-no.

What makes you say this?

mrsjoyw wrote: »

I still haven't met my daily calories but trying to figure out what to eat and yet stay within my limits, I'm lost! Thanks for any help!

Stay with your calories while hitting protein, fats and carbs, and try to get 15 grams of fiber per 1000 calories.
Don't overthink it...

nsavage15

Thank you for posting this! I'm a type 2 Diabetic that just recently moved to insulin. It's amazing for me to go through the exact same line of thinking. But my diabetic specialist told me everything in moderation including bananas.