Fruits and sugar

keithwilson701

Can the sugar in apples and other fruits cause weight gain? I have one as a snack every few evenings. Just curious.

livingleanlivingclean

Sugar doesn't cause weight gain. Excess calories cause weight gain - if your fruit puts you consistently over your calorie goal, then yes, the excess calories will contribute to weight gain.

HeidiCooksSupper

The only thing that causes weight gain is eating more calories than you expend on average. An apple or steak or a pad of butter will equally cause weight gain if they represent calories consumed in excess of your average expenditure. Eating the apple or steak or pad of butter in lieu of something with more calories and thus staying under your average expenditure of calories will result in weight loss.

For weight loss, it doesn't matter what you eat. The only thing that matters is how much you eat in terms of calories. For health, a well-balanced assortment of food providing all necessary nutrients is important. That's why, for those limiting calories, an apple, with its attendant nutrients is a better choice that the equivalent calories in lollipops, lemon drops or root beer barrels. You only have so many calories to eat so eat calories with nutrients to stay healthy. Apples are nutritious. Lollipops, lemon drops, and root beer barrels are not.

Some people find they are better able to control how many calories they consume by limiting a certain type of food to a certain amount or time of day. If I eat fruit for breakfast, I want to chew the drapes because fruit or anything sweet, for that matter, at breakfast makes me ravenous. Other folks don't experience that. You will need to figure out what works for you.

rheddmobile

There's nothing magical about sugar unless you have a medical condition which causes insulin resistance such as diabetes or pcos. Apples have relatively low calories and are high in fiber and vitamins, which makes them a good snack.

The fiber in fruit also makes it absorb more slowly, which means it is less likely to spike blood glucose. Even if you do have a medical condition, you can probably eat some amount of fruit. As a diabetic who frequently measures my blood glucose after meals, I find that fruit doesn't raise it as much as, say, refined grains. But this is very specific to different people. I have diabetic friends who have trouble eating fruit, and ones who can eat tortillas with no problem, which spike my levels badly.

CarvedTones

I am avoiding starches so I blow through the suggested sugar limit every day and still lose wight because the calorie count is well below what I burn.

psuLemon

keithwilson701 wrote: »

Can the sugar in apples and other fruits cause weight gain? I have one as a snack every few evenings. Just curious.

I eat 5 servings of fruit a day... lost and kept off 50 lbs for 5 years.

Fruit os one of my best friends. Highly satisfying and full of nutrients.

CyberDraco

Yes. Anything with calories can cause weight gain. More specifically, the larger the fruit the larger the amount of sucrose the body has to convert into fuel OR store as fuel aka fat.
I've personally not eaten any fruits besides berries for nearly 2 years and I'm at my physical best at 33.
Calories is just one part of the equation.
I'd rather have bacon before bed but every person does not work exactly like the other.
Know what you are eating,what's inside what you're eating and how your body processes what's inside.

lemurcat12

CyberDraco wrote: »

Yes. Anything with calories can cause weight gain.

Yes.

More specifically, the larger the fruit the larger the amount of sucrose the body has to convert into fuel OR store as fuel aka fat.

Fruit has fructose, glucose, and sucrose. But in any event, suggesting that has anything to do with weight gain is wrong. If you are in a calorie deficit you won't be adding fat, but losing it. If you are in a calorie surplus you are normally going to add fat regardless of what foods make up the calorie deficit (with an exception for when it's a moderate deficit and you are eating adequate protein and doing a strength training program -- which need not be formal, but it's about exercise, not eating fruit).

The idea that you gain more fat eating fruit than bacon (before bed or otherwise) is just absurd. Calories are what matters, but this idea that fats cannot cause fat gain (it's the apples!) makes no sense.

psuLemon

lemurcat12 wrote: »

CyberDraco wrote: »

Yes. Anything with calories can cause weight gain.

Yes.

More specifically, the larger the fruit the larger the amount of sucrose the body has to convert into fuel OR store as fuel aka fat.

Fruit has fructose, glucose, and sucrose. But in any event, suggesting that has anything to do with weight gain is wrong. If you are in a calorie deficit you won't be adding fat, but losing it. If you are in a calorie surplus you are normally going to add fat regardless of what foods make up the calorie deficit (with an exception for when it's a moderate deficit and you are eating adequate protein and doing a strength training program -- which need not be formal, but it's about exercise, not eating fruit).

The idea that you gain more fat eating fruit than bacon (before bed or otherwise) is just absurd. Calories are what matters, but this idea that fats cannot cause fat gain (it's the apples!) makes no sense.

To add, considering fruit is associated with improved health markers... bacon is not.

jennifer_417

Only eating more calories than you burn causes weight gain.

bagge72

Yes having an apple every three days will cause massive weight gain! Also believing that having an apple every 3 days is proof positive of how the dieting industry has screwed up our minds.