Daily Sugar Goal Set by MFP

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stricklee11
stricklee11 Posts: 218 Member
in Food and Nutrition
My daily intake goal for sugar set by MFP is 59 grams. I do consume about 1 tablespoon of table sugar with my morning coffee (>0.5 tbsp per 1.5 cup of coffee). But even controlling for this I find that I easily go over my daily goal by eating more than a couple servings of fruits per day.

How critical is it to stay under this goal? Fruits like apples, clementines and grapes are low in calories so I have been using them as snacks. I feel like it would be more of an issue if it was processed sugars vs natural sugars.




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  • RelCanonical
    RelCanonical Posts: 3,882 Member
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    Not critical unless you have a condition (like diabetes) that requires you to track intake (but then you'd be tracking all carbs, not just sugar). The limit is actually for added sugar set by the FDA, not total sugar, but it's not possible to distinguish, so MFP just counts all sugar. This tends to put most people over if they like fruit and other natural sources of sugar. I don't track mine - I replaced it with fiber, which getting enough of has a more direct impact on how I feel day-to-day.
  • stricklee11
    stricklee11 Posts: 218 Member
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    RelCanonical wrote: »
    Not critical unless you have a condition (like diabetes) that requires you to track intake (but then you'd be tracking all carbs, not just sugar). The limit is actually for added sugar set by the FDA, not total sugar, but it's not possible to distinguish, so MFP just counts all sugar. This tends to put most people over if they like fruit and other natural sources of sugar. I don't track mine - I replaced it with fiber, which getting enough of has a more direct impact on how I feel day-to-day.

    I think I'm going to switch mine to fiber as well. I don't have diabetes so tracking fiber might be better for me than sugar. Oddly enough, I am already 2/3 of the way towards my daily goal just from breakfast.
  • beatyfamily1
    beatyfamily1 Posts: 257 Member
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    It really doesn’t matter where the sugar came from. It’s still sugar. The type of carb (simple or complex) will determine the rate t which it is absorbed. The body prefers to run on carbs. Carbs are broken down into smaller sugars that are used for energy. Any glucose that isn’t used right away will be converted into glycogen and stored in the muscles and liver. Once the glycogen stores are filled up anything leftover is converted into fat. Having more sugar can be a good thing if you burn it off. On the flip side, if you don’t get enough sugar you can become very tired, your body temperature will drop, as well as many other things. So there’s a balance you have to consider. Sugar is not a bad thing but too much or too little can turn into a bad thing.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,656 Member
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    beatyfamily1 wrote: »
    It really doesn’t matter where the sugar came from. It’s still sugar. The type of carb (simple or complex) will determine the rate t which it is absorbed. The body prefers to run on carbs. Carbs are broken down into smaller sugars that are used for energy. Any glucose that isn’t used right away will be converted into glycogen and stored in the muscles and liver. Once the glycogen stores are filled up anything leftover is converted into fat. Having more sugar can be a good thing if you burn it off. On the flip side, if you don’t get enough sugar you can become very tired, your body temperature will drop, as well as many other things. So there’s a balance you have to consider. Sugar is not a bad thing but too much or too little can turn into a bad thing.

    No net fat storage if a person is overall in a calorie deficit, no matter how much sugar they eat. (Eating too much sugar, to the point where it crowds out other needed nutrition, could cause problems, but weight gain will not be one of them, if in a calorie deficit.)

    OP, I exceeded my MFP default sugar goal every day while losing 50+ pounds in less than a year, all while getting 80-100+g protein daily, adequate healthy fats (50+g, typically), and usually 10+ servings of whole fruits and veggies. The only added sugar I ate most days was a tiny bit of concentrated fruit juice well down the ingredient list in a single daily 30-calorie tablespoon of all fruit spread. All the rest of the sugar was from fruits and no-sugar-added dairy foods. I'm not diabetic or insulin resistant, so this was not a problem at all. For someone like me, the MFP default sugar goal is just plain silly. I, too, stopped tracking sugar and tracked fiber instead.

    Changing what's tracked might not be the best solution for someone who really is having trouble moderating added sugar (to the point of impairing other nutrition), since nutrition is important (not just calories) . . . but not tracking sugar worked fine for me.

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