Sugar: does it make you fat?
anb3600
Posts: 46 Member
I know eating in a calorie surplus makes us gain weight, but I’m just asking about sugar here. Is it stored in our bodies as fat?
Are there any alternatives that are not fattening (maple syrup, honey, agave sugar, coconut sugar, brown sugar)? Or do they all count as ‘added sugar’ (I.e not from fruit)?
I try to use stevia in a lot of things but I’m not sure I can bear the taste much longer.
Are there any alternatives that are not fattening (maple syrup, honey, agave sugar, coconut sugar, brown sugar)? Or do they all count as ‘added sugar’ (I.e not from fruit)?
I try to use stevia in a lot of things but I’m not sure I can bear the taste much longer.
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Replies
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Short answer: no. Long answer: no.
Only a calorie surplus makes you gain weight.28 -
No....and no. Sugar is sugar is sugar no matter where it comes from.12
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Well, if you're eating sugar it has calories. And if you eat more calories than you burn, you will gain weight. That's true of syrups and fruit sugars and honey, too. I really don't understand how you'd get around that. The only way sugars don't cause you to get fat is if they stay in a jar on your kitchen table and you don't put the sugar in your mouth. Those low calorie or no calorie sweeteners can be a help here.13
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I know eating in a calorie surplus makes us gain weight, but I’m just asking about sugar here. Is it stored in our bodies as fat?
Are there any alternatives that are not fattening (maple syrup, honey, agave sugar, coconut sugar, brown sugar)? Or do they all count as ‘added sugar’ (I.e not from fruit)?
I try to use stevia in a lot of things but I’m not sure I can bear the taste much longer.
"Fattening" comes from calories. If you eat more calories than your body uses, you will gain weight, whatever those calories come from. Foods aren't fattening, diets are fattening. Your body is constantly storing fat, burning fat, digesting food. Just focus on eating a nutritious, varied, satiating diet at the right calorie level, and if you can fit in a treat or a food you love, that's awesome. You don't need to micro manage each ingredient.10 -
Nope. Sugar is just calories. Eat too many calories, you will get fat. But sugar is in and of itself does not make you fat.
One of the reasons that it may be associated with getting fat is because some sugary foods tend to be high is calories and not very filling, so they are often incorporated with diets that involve weight gain.
For example, if you drink 4 cans of coke a day, that's about 550 calories. That will in of itself not make you fat. But since it won't usually satiate hunger for most people, they would likely drink those cans of coke in addition to the same amount of normal food they would eat. That might cause them to be in a calorie surplus, where say drinking water instead of coke would not. So sometimes sugary foods or drinks can make it more difficult for people to stay within their goals. But that is not the case with everyone.
Unless you are advised by a doctor to limit sugar due to a specific health condition, or you find that intake of sugary food and drink makes it hard to stay within your calorie goal, I would not worry about your sugar intake too much within the confines of a balanced diet.10 -
Oh, honey, if there were a sugar that wasn’t I would have bet the farm on it and been a gazillionaire by now.3
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MichelleSilverleaf wrote: »Short answer: no. Long answer: no.
Only a calorie surplus makes you gain weight.
Tl:dr No.6 -
"Is it stored in our bodies as fat?"
Very, very rarely in humans. It's an inefficient process to convert sugar to fat. What does happen though with a calorie surplus that includes a lot of carbs is more of your dietary fat intake gets stored away rather than used for energy. Fat to fat is far more efficient process.
Carbs can be stored as fat but normally in cases of massive and prolonged carb overloading or a glucose IV drip.
If your calorie balance is good it's not worth bothering about unless you have some medical condition.
"Are there any alternatives that are not fattening (maple syrup, honey, agave sugar, coconut sugar, brown sugar)? Or do they all count as ‘added sugar’ (I.e not from fruit)?"
Not sure it's a particularly helpful distinction between types of sugar, unless you are an endurance athlete trying to maximise energy intake. Look at the calories, think about what tastes you enjoy - make a choice.
"I try to use stevia in a lot of things but I’m not sure I can bear the taste much longer."
A gradual change in food and drink habits may reduce your sweet tooth. Other sweeteners may taste better to you. Personally I find Stevia OK, sucralose pretty horrible and saccharin awful but your taste buds probably differ.7 -
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Weve been using stevia for months now almost exclusively to sugar. In desserts, and many other dishes. I've also been a diet Pepsi drinker for decades, but I do know by sweet tooth has changed.
I know people often have an issue with the taste of sweeteners, and some are better than others, but you know, if I have something that is packed with sugar or put real sugar in my coffee now, it gets a funny taste that i dont really care for. I think it's just what you are used to and maybe if you give it some time, your tastes will change too. I know i much prefer diet Pepsi to normal Pepsi/coke. It just leaves me bloated with a film in my mouth that I dont like.1 -
I prefer diet coke to regular too, but otherwise don't like the taste of sweeteners at all. I'm lucky I've never added sugar to coffee or tea, so don't need to mess with whether I should break that habit. For other foods (presumably dessert type foods), I'd far rather moderate amounts than use artificial sweeteners.
As others have said, nothing makes you fat independent of a calorie surplus. Added sugar is focused on since when people are eating a lot of it they may be crowding out more nutritious choices or ended up consuming excess calories. Since someone logging on MFP knows their calories, I'd just focus on eating an overall nutritious diet, and not worrying about avoiding all added sugar (and yes, everything you listed = added sugar).5 -
The main problem I see with sugar is they add some form of it to almost everything now. So much ready-made stuff is so sickly sweet now and the only real flavor is sweet.
Avoiding a lot of overly processed products fixes that issue. I mix my own yogurt flavors, oats, etc. using much less brown sugar or honey and get a better flavor. Otherwise I don't worry about sugars. If it fits my calories I eat it 😋5 -
The Evil Sugar Monster comes when you eat fruit and makes you gain fat! The only cure is the Bacin Fairy! Lol jk nope... only if you over eat on it!8
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Non or low calorie sweeteners have different tastes and aftertastes, change depending on whether they are consumed raw or after heating, and also taste slightly differently (and have varying amounts of calories) depending on how they are packaged/with what else they are mixed.
The only way to find out what you like is to experiment. Often tastes and after-tastes can be blended to achieve something more palatable.
All items mentioned in the OP, other than Stevia, appear to be normal added sugars and all would be fairly close to the calories of white sugar to achieve similar degrees of sweetness.
I personally think Stevia tastes worse than pretty much any sweetener, and like Sucralose the most.3 -
Non or low calorie sweeteners have different tastes and aftertastes, change depending on whether they are consumed raw or after heating, and also taste slightly differently (and have varying amounts of calories) depending on how they are packaged/with what else they are mixed.
The only way to find out what you like is to experiment. Often tastes and after-tastes can be blended to achieve something more palatable.
All items mentioned in the OP, other than Stevia, appear to be normal added sugars and all would be fairly close to the calories of white sugar to achieve similar degrees of sweetness.
I personally think Stevia tastes worse than pretty much any sweetener, and like Sucralose the most.
I'm with you on Stevia. I love the numbers on the Oikos Triple Zero yogurt but finally learned to quit getting it because every time I did, I'd have to choke it down and died a little inside.2 -
1BlueAurora wrote: »Well, if you're eating sugar it has calories. And if you eat more calories than you burn, you will gain weight. That's true of syrups and fruit sugars and honey, too. I really don't understand how you'd get around that. The only way sugars don't cause you to get fat is if they stay in a jar on your kitchen table and you don't put the sugar in your mouth. Those low calorie or no calorie sweeteners can be a help here.
You could say this of anything that contains calories.Well, if you're eating sugar chickpeas they have calories. And if you eat more calories than you burn, you will gain weight. That's true of syrups canned beans and fruit sugars dried beans and honey protein powder made from beans, too. I really don't understand how you'd get around that. The only way sugars beans don't cause you to get fat is if they stay in a bag/can in your cupboard and you don't put the sugarbeans in your mouth.17 -
Also carbs are sugars too.
Advice wise you could try monk fruit. I made brownies with it and loved them, more expensive than stevia blends though. Xylitol and Erythritol are supposed to be the closest taste to actual sugar but alone they're not as sweet so you need more, I couldn't tell you exactly you'd have to Google conversations. Also I hear they're more prone to causing stomach problems but I haven't done significant research on them to be comfortable giving an informed opinion.0 -
Love stevia brand SweetLeaf! Tastes so *kitten* good
I’m not really answering your question, but...
I say no to processed sugar because
Sugar = feeds the bad bacteria in the gut
Bad bacteria (for me) does not help me lose weight and it also gives me bad body odor (ugh)
To me, body odor is indicative of a persons health
I want to smell good! And I do when I don’t eat processed sugars yay
I’m here not just to lose weight but also Be healthy
Also, I’ve read that sugar feeds cancerous cells in the body - I’m happy to try and avoid doing that33 -
Sugar is the fuel for all the cells in your body, even if they become cancerous. Saying sugar is bad because it feeds cancer cells is like saying oxygen is bad because murderers breathe it.
Unfortunately, current diet industry woo forgets to differentiate between "sugar" and "too much sugar". It's an important distinction. Also processed sugar is still sugar. Once it gets worked on in your digestive system, the sugar from a pixie stick and the sugar from a carrot are indistinguishable.20 -
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I live in a sugar free, super low carb (no honey, maple syrup or coconut sugar) just to be in solidarity with my husband who HAS to for medical reasons.
I’m not a fan of plain stevia at all but a stevia erythritol blend works for me. To save money I usually make my own with a tablespoon of stevia to one cup erythritol and I blend it up in my magic bullet.
I also really like the Pure brand because it has a kind of vanilla flavor that is a treat.3 -
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Where you get your calories from does matter. But for overall fat loss, no, sugar doesnt instantly make you fat.
Go search That Sugar Film on amazon prime (it might be on youtube) it raises some interesting points.18 -
Sugars that are not quickly converted to energy and burned off through activity will convert into stored fat to be burned off when needed. Unfortunately, continual consumption of sugar without activity builds up as fat. This is why desserts after evening meals or for late night snacks are not a good idea for weight loss because they are often followed by hours of inactivity.25
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Sugars that are not quickly converted to energy and burned off through activity will convert into stored fat to be burned off when needed. Unfortunately, continual consumption of sugar without activity builds up as fat. This is why desserts after evening meals or for late night snacks are not a good idea for weight loss because they are often followed by hours of inactivity.
Fortunately none of this is true. Eating dessert at night (which I do all the time) does not result in weight gain, only a calorie surplus over time will do that. Interestingly even in a surplus (under the right conditions of course.. proper training, adequate protein, starting off lean etc). I consumed quite a bit of sugar to reach a surplus and remained fairly lean, so not a lot of fat gain, despite gaining 15lbs.14 -
Sugars that are not quickly converted to energy and burned off through activity will convert into stored fat to be burned off when needed. Unfortunately, continual consumption of sugar without activity builds up as fat. This is why desserts after evening meals or for late night snacks are not a good idea for weight loss because they are often followed by hours of inactivity.
No, you cannot gain real weight/fat absent a calorie surplus. I don't think eating tons of added sugar makes for a healthy diet, but it does not prevent weight loss or add fat in a calorie deficit. That would be impossible.
Meal timing also does not matter. Not only do you burn fat when sleeping, but if you eat, say, 1500 cals right before bed* and nothing else and your maintenance calories are 2000, then you will lose weight. Think about it -- when you get up in the morning you need to fuel your activity (as well as having needed to fuel all your metabolic functions overnight). Where does that fuel come from? Last night's meal plus stored fat.
Desserts after dinner are totally fine (within cals) and don't interfere with weight loss. I tend to find it harder to stick to my calories if I eat dessert type foods earlier in the day, but I find it easy to have a sensible portion of something after dinner (say, 200 cal of ice cream), and did that much of the time I was losing. Since I eat dinner late always (at 9 or even later), the dessert was pretty late in the day and I'd exercise in the morning or right after work, never after dinner. I lost as predicted or, often, even faster.
*I would not eat that way as I can't imagine eating that much at once and getting sufficient protein and veg, and it would interfere with my sleep, but some do eat all their cals at night and lose fine.11 -
All sugars are consumed the same way by the body. The best way to reduce the calorie load is to reduce the portion size. A teaspoon instead of a tablespoon.
There are other non caloric sweeteners other than Stevia.
To me, Stevia has a tingling aftertaste. I can mask it with cinnamon in recipes. There are also Stevia drips and I’ve used vanilla and Root Beer with success.3
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