Carbs, fiber, sugar

SModa61

So I am really not used to monitoring these components. I have done years of WeightWatchers and last summer I dabbled in Keto (ended up with consequences and had to give it up ). In an effort to get in some of the fruit produce, my "sugar" number is struggling to keep under the suggested guideline. Keep in mind, I am not abusing the fruit, 3 slice cantaloupe, 4 ounce blueberries and 6 ounce blackberries over the course of a day. What are your thoughts on sugars when "packaged naturally" vs added sugars? I know on keto, the variation I was doing was net carbs ie. carbs minus fiber = net. Is sugar similar in that natural sugars might be considered differently than added? Looking forward to your thoughts!!

MikePTY

Do you have any medical reason to watch carbs or sugar? If not, there is not really any reason to worry about controlling them too much. Your calorie goal is what is important. It's also recommended you get sufficient protein to help with muscle retention. But you have plenty of flexibility about how many carbs and sugar you eat, so don't stress too much about it.

VioletRojo

I don't monitor carbs, fiber, or sugar at all as none of them matter to my goals and I have no health issues that require it. I monitor protein and calories only.

SModa61

Thanks for the response Mike. For background, I am a 5' 4.5" 57 year old, weighing 131 lb. My calorie goal is 1420 and at times I eat the calories earned through exercise as well (and sometimes don't). Today I am just under the base plus exercise and am at 1677 cal 152 carb, 63 fat, 107 protein, 58 fiber and sugar only 41. (no cantaloupe today ) but Tuesday as another example I was 1276 calories, 118 carb, 52 fat, 104 carb, 29 fiber, and 60 g sugar.

SModa61

Oh, and I would love just 5 more pounds off or more recompositioning.

AnnPT77

Inherent (as opposed to added) sugars are not a big issue, even according to USDA, WHO, etc. Unless you have a medical problem that requires you to limit sugar, I wouldn't worry about it.

I think it's more productive to focus on what I need in my diet (i.e., well rounded overall nutrition), rather than what to keep out of it.

SModa61

Thanks Ann, That is somewhat what I was assuming, but I want to learn as much as I can!

lemurcat2

I recently wrote a version of this in another thread:

Default MFP goal is 15% of total cals for all sugars. It does not distinguish between added and intrinsic sugars because it can't reliably yet (packages aren't required to). To be clear, the sugar in fruit and a food with added sugar is not actually different (both are a mix of glucose and fructose), but of course fruit also comes with fiber and lots of micronutrients and many foods with added sugar (not all!) may not have much in the way of micros and be low fiber and often high cal (usually much of the cals are from fat, however).

There are no credible limits on intrinsic sugar beyond getting enough protein, healthy fats, and having an overall healthy diet (and all this is for health, not weight loss), so MFP is basically making assumptions about how much a typical user might eat in intrinsic sugar (basically fruit, veg, and dairy) and then adding to it to get to 15%. As a result, I ignored the limit and focused on overall diet, fiber, and protein.

To add to that, there ARE some recommended limits for added sugar, specifically under 10%, and 5% might be even better on average (no biggie to go over occasionally). That's from the WHO, among others. Their reasoning is that a diet high in added sugar could often be high cal or, in the alternative, crowd out nutrients. I think that's pretty sensible and have found that when my diet is as nutrient dense as I like it (including fruit!), I don't tend to eat much added sugar, although again some is fine and the actual sugar in fruit isn't different.

So to recap, there's really no reason to limit sugar beyond making sure you have enough protein, fat, fiber, and an overall nutrient dense diet. I personally think 5% for added sugar on most days is reasonable, but I suspect that most people who just focus on meeting other nutrition goals and having a good overall diet don't need to try to track it. I'd maybe watch to see if I were getting sugar from some unexpected source (which fruit is not) and make sure I wasn't eating fruit in lieu of veg (which are important).

ALSO, I would check the accuracy of your entries, since the amount and type of fruit mentioned alone really should not make you go over the sugar limit at the amounts noted. If you are including other sources of sugar (which even veg and dairy are, again), then never mind.

SModa61

Lemurcat, thanks.

Makes sense and you did get me to go back and look at "Tuesday" the day I ate low calories but went over in sugar. My sugars were in dairy (skim milk, half and half in coffee, cottage cheese, and greek yogurt), Fruit (cantaloupe and blueberries) and then there was two tsp of brown sugar in the glaze on my salmon (probably could have done with one). But even if I take out the brown sugar I would have been slightly over. I will say that all in all, any day that I track has a much better nutritional profile than if I blow it off.

As for accuracy of tracking, I weigh and measure everything (unless impossible like in restaurant and then use informed estimation). My years on WW have given me a pretty good eye for breaking down what is in something. I recently did two weeks in the keys and dropped 2 lb in the first 10 days and used weighing, measuring, estimating and they key was tracking and even better pre-tracking. Then something set me off, and I stopped tracking and you can guess how that ended. In a good place now, but facing another week long trip soon and every meal will be out or out-of-purse.

Feels good to be in a healthy mind set!

lemurcat2

That sounds great. A little added sugar is no big deal especially if it helps you enjoy the process more.

I have a good eye too, and find that any tool that forces me to be mindful is helpful. I lost significant weight twice in my life (the last on MFP in 2014-15, the prior in 2006), and the first time I just wrote down everything I ate and was mindful of unnecessary extra cals (reduced portions of starch sides, stopped mindlessly snacking at the office or thinking a work dinner did not count, was much more careful about added oil, cooked as my default), and found that was enough. But MFP was fun and motivating, especially if you (like me) can be a nerd about tracking stuff.

I wasn't thinking you were tracking poorly, btw, but some MFP entries are just off nutritionally, like the 500 cal clove of garlic (I think I remember this correctly!), and new people sometimes don't realize that. So I was thinking you might have run into some off entries that overstated the sugar in blackberries or something, even if their cals were generally correct. There definitely are some -- I think another poster a year or so ago was worried that she was over from a banana and the banana entry had something like 40 g of sugar for 100 g, which of course is wrong.

SModa61

I have seen those erroneous entries. I find the recipe builder is the worst with respect to bringing up the wrong items, values, quantities. Despite that, I do find it helpful having a location where I can combine ingredients.

Do not worry about your comments or my thoughts regarding incorrect tracking. Not only did I "do" WW, but I was a receptionist there for 12 years. By the end, I had weeks that I worked as many as 12 meetings in a week. Believe me, I know how easy it is for someone to honestly believe they are doing it "right" but without the right tools to evaluate, their errors impact the outcome. I appreciate someone being honest with me and checking to make sure that I am not making that error, and there certainly may (or are) errors that I am currently making that will hopefully get caught/fixed. And yes, nerding is fun!

kshama2001

SModa61 wrote: »

I have seen those erroneous entries. I find the recipe builder is the worst with respect to bringing up the wrong items, values, quantities. Despite that, I do find it helpful having a location where I can combine ingredients.

Do not worry about your comments or my thoughts regarding incorrect tracking. Not only did I "do" WW, but I was a receptionist there for 12 years. By the end, I had weeks that I worked as many as 12 meetings in a week. Believe me, I know how easy it is for someone to honestly believe they are doing it "right" but without the right tools to evaluate, their errors impact the outcome. I appreciate someone being honest with me and checking to make sure that I am not making that error, and there certainly may (or are) errors that I am currently making that will hopefully get caught/fixed. And yes, nerding is fun!

I gave up on the recipe importer due to the ridiculous amount of erroneous results and use the old recipe calculator exclusively https://www.myfitnesspal.com/recipe/calculator

SModa61

kshama - thanks for the link. I will try it the next time I want to enter a recipe!

leahannhorton

I don't track carbs, but I do track fiber as I feel lighter when I regularly have enough fiber in my diet and it makes me opt for whole foods to drive that count up. I wish MFP would differentiate between soluble and insoluble fiber, however. In terms of sugar, I try to monitor to give me an idea of how much sugar I consume (my skin looks better on low sugar days) rather than for specific dietary reasons. If I have a heavy fruit day, I don't sweat it as much as say if I have something purposefully sweet like ice cream.