Sugar

dalerst
dalerst Posts: 174 Member
edited November 19 in Food and Nutrition
Just looking at my sugar allowance, how important is it that I stick to it? I eat quite a bit of fruit which is obviously sugar so that means I go over most days by about 20g ish.

Replies

  • estherdragonbat
    estherdragonbat Posts: 5,283 Member
    Unless you have a medical reason to monitor your sugar intake (diabetes springs to mind, but there are others), it's not at all important. A lot of people have posted in other threads that they've switched sugar tracking for fiber on the diary page. (Personally, I track iron, but that's just because if I'm less-mindful of it, I don't usually hit my target and my hemoglobin was a little low at my last checkup.)
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,432 MFP Moderator
    dalerst wrote: »
    Just looking at my sugar allowance, how important is it that I stick to it? I eat quite a bit of fruit which is obviously sugar so that means I go over most days by about 20g ish.

    For what you are trying to achieve, it's very beneficial.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    I switched my sugar tracker to track fiber instead. Unless you have a medical reason to track sugar, you're good.
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    As long as you don't have medical issues or the sugar/fruit isn't crowding out your other macros or nutrition, it's all good
  • dalerst
    dalerst Posts: 174 Member
    psuLemon wrote: »
    dalerst wrote: »
    Just looking at my sugar allowance, how important is it that I stick to it? I eat quite a bit of fruit which is obviously sugar so that means I go over most days by about 20g ish.

    For what you are trying to achieve, it's very beneficial.

    lean bulk whilst doing progressive overload training.

    I don't have any medical reasons to track sugar.
  • dalerst
    dalerst Posts: 174 Member
    Unless you have a medical reason to monitor your sugar intake (diabetes springs to mind, but there are others), it's not at all important. A lot of people have posted in other threads that they've switched sugar tracking for fiber on the diary page. (Personally, I track iron, but that's just because if I'm less-mindful of it, I don't usually hit my target and my hemoglobin was a little low at my last checkup.)

    Iron is something I need to look at as its very low on most days.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,432 MFP Moderator
    dalerst wrote: »
    psuLemon wrote: »
    dalerst wrote: »
    Just looking at my sugar allowance, how important is it that I stick to it? I eat quite a bit of fruit which is obviously sugar so that means I go over most days by about 20g ish.

    For what you are trying to achieve, it's very beneficial.

    lean bulk whilst doing progressive overload training.

    I don't have any medical reasons to track sugar.

    And that is why sugar is good. Carbs are anticatabolic and prevent protein breakdown. This in turn will allow amino acids to rebuild muscle.


    And if most of your sugar is coming from fruit, you are in a good position.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,432 MFP Moderator
    dalerst wrote: »
    Unless you have a medical reason to monitor your sugar intake (diabetes springs to mind, but there are others), it's not at all important. A lot of people have posted in other threads that they've switched sugar tracking for fiber on the diary page. (Personally, I track iron, but that's just because if I'm less-mindful of it, I don't usually hit my target and my hemoglobin was a little low at my last checkup.)

    Iron is something I need to look at as its very low on most days.

    Don't trust the database. Many entries don't have micronutrients completed.
  • dalerst
    dalerst Posts: 174 Member
    psuLemon wrote: »
    dalerst wrote: »
    Unless you have a medical reason to monitor your sugar intake (diabetes springs to mind, but there are others), it's not at all important. A lot of people have posted in other threads that they've switched sugar tracking for fiber on the diary page. (Personally, I track iron, but that's just because if I'm less-mindful of it, I don't usually hit my target and my hemoglobin was a little low at my last checkup.)

    Iron is something I need to look at as its very low on most days.

    Don't trust the database. Many entries don't have micronutrients completed.

    I did think that, I eat a lot of veg, red meat pasta etc which I thought are all high in Iron.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,432 MFP Moderator
    dalerst wrote: »
    psuLemon wrote: »
    dalerst wrote: »
    Unless you have a medical reason to monitor your sugar intake (diabetes springs to mind, but there are others), it's not at all important. A lot of people have posted in other threads that they've switched sugar tracking for fiber on the diary page. (Personally, I track iron, but that's just because if I'm less-mindful of it, I don't usually hit my target and my hemoglobin was a little low at my last checkup.)

    Iron is something I need to look at as its very low on most days.

    Don't trust the database. Many entries don't have micronutrients completed.

    I did think that, I eat a lot of veg, red meat pasta etc which I thought are all high in Iron.

    In all honesty, it's not very common for men to have iron deficiencies. And if you think you have one, I'd get a blood test.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,097 Member
    psuLemon wrote: »
    dalerst wrote: »
    psuLemon wrote: »
    dalerst wrote: »
    Unless you have a medical reason to monitor your sugar intake (diabetes springs to mind, but there are others), it's not at all important. A lot of people have posted in other threads that they've switched sugar tracking for fiber on the diary page. (Personally, I track iron, but that's just because if I'm less-mindful of it, I don't usually hit my target and my hemoglobin was a little low at my last checkup.)

    Iron is something I need to look at as its very low on most days.

    Don't trust the database. Many entries don't have micronutrients completed.

    I did think that, I eat a lot of veg, red meat pasta etc which I thought are all high in Iron.

    In all honesty, it's not very common for men to have iron deficiencies. And if you think you have one, I'd get a blood test.


    Also, the 100% value used on U.S. nutrition labels (which the MFP database is formatted to reflect) is for adult women. Adult men only need about two-thirds of that (so if you're at 67% or above, you're OK).
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,622 Member
    sardelsa wrote: »
    As long as you don't have medical issues or the sugar/fruit isn't crowding out your other macros or nutrition, it's all good

    This.

    I was going over the MFP default when my only added sugar was a bit of concentrated fruit juice well down the ingredient list in my single daily 30-calorie tablespoon of all-fruit spread. The rest was inherent sugar in 2-3 fruit servings, and unsweetened dairy foods. Heh! I stopped tracking sugar & tracked fiber instead.
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