Fruit sugars and maintaining weight?

vickyalison61

Hi, I eat lots of fruit daily and it takes my sugar amount well over my amount daily. Will this cause weight gain as I'm trying to maintain the weight I'm at. The problem is I love fruit and never eat any chocolate, cake, biscuits or sweet foods. Thankyou 😊

goal06082021

If you eat more calories than your body needs, you will gain weight. That's all there is to it. You may find it hard not to overeat if you consume too much sugar, but it's not the sugar in the fruit itself that's going to make you gain weight.

AnnPT77

No. I'm over the MFP default sugar goal pretty often (from fruits and no-sugar-added dairy foods, primarily), and have no trouble maintaining a healthy weight.

Weight maintenance is about calorie balance alone, directly. Nutrition is important for health, satiation, body composition, energy, etc. - some of which can *indirectly* affect weight through reduced activity or calorie compliance.

Even added sugar, within the proper calorie allowance, won't in itself or by itself doom maintenance.

ahoy_m8

Unless you have a diagnosed medical condition that requires tracking sugar intake, tracking sugar is not very helpful. You can adjust your MFP settings to track a limited number of nutrients. Consider the caveat that MFP entries are user supplied and may be incomplete or incorrect with respect to nutrients. Personally, I find tracking fiber to be a lot more useful that sugar.

sijomial

Why do you feel the need to track sugar at all?

It was an irrelevance to me so I swapped it out for something more useful.

vickyalison61

Thanks everyone, some great advice there. I forgot to say I never go over my daily calorie amount its just the sugar is usually 15-16gram over my allowance. I suppose I'm focused on the sugar amounts as I assumed its excess sugar that piles the weight on. My Dr told me fruit sugars are as bad for you as normal sugars 🤔

sijomial

It's calories that determine if you maintain, gain or lose weight over time.
Your body fat is an energy store - without an energy surplus you don't have any excess energy to add to those stores.

Think of a day when I'm cycling for hours and adding 300g of sugars from a sports drink mix (glucose and fructose) to my water, if I'm in a calorie deficit I'm still losing body fat that day.

rheddmobile

The FDA recommended sugar allowance, which is what the MFP recommendation is based on, is supposed to be for only ADDED sugars. Fruit doesn’t count. Their recommendation is based on their observation that when the diet includes more than that amount of added sugar, it becomes difficult to get complete nutrition without going over their calorie limit. Since fruit contains other vitamins and nutrients, unlike say, Coke, they consider it differently.

With all due respect, your doctor is wrong. As a diabetic who tests blood sugar regularly after meals I can tell you the “sugar is sugar” mantra is wrong. Fruits contain fiber which slows the digestion of sugar, and doesn’t spike blood sugar nearly as much as refined carbs. Since dozens of studies link health to consuming large amounts of fruits and vegetables, it’s irresponsible to discourage eating fruit.

callsitlikeiseeit

vickyalison61 wrote: »

My Dr told me fruit sugars are as bad for you as normal sugars 🤔

Find a new doctor.

barring any medical issues with sugars/carbs ... the only macro directly related to weight is calories. you could literally eat only white sugar or only strawberries and as long as you were within your calories, not gain weight.

you'd likely not feel very well or be healthy, but you wouldnt gain weight.

AnnPT77

vickyalison61 wrote: »

Thanks everyone, some great advice there. I forgot to say I never go over my daily calorie amount its just the sugar is usually 15-16gram over my allowance. I suppose I'm focused on the sugar amounts as I assumed its excess sugar that piles the weight on. My Dr told me fruit sugars are as bad for you as normal sugars 🤔

No, it's excess calories. It can be calories from *anything*. I got plenty fat without eating proportionately much more sugar than I do now (5+ years at a healthy weight), just eating bigger portions of everything back then, including lots of "healthy" "whole foods". 😆

Doctors typically don't get much nutritional education in medical school. Yours sounds typical. Unlike others, I wouldn't *necessarily* drop him - that depends on whether he's better at subjects he actually meaningfully studied. But I'd stop taking his nutritional advice, as for referral to a registered dietitian instead if you need nutritional advice.

mjglantz

I pay attention to total calories eaten and do look at the breakdown of nutrients. Because I had a heart attack I do pay attention to saturated and trans fat and try to limit those...and diagnosed with osteoporosis and doctor wants me to get more (most) of my calcium from my diet. As for sugar in fruit, I could care less. As many have written, it is the total calories eaten. Personally I do better with healthier foods and find that I can have more of them; e.g., two apples are fewer calories than a candy bar so I'm more satisfied.

Find what works for you.

AshHeartsJesus

Switch out the sugar for fiber tracking! If you really don't eat "included" sugar it doesn't matter. Stay within goal you will be fine..also you have to eat A LOT over maintence calories to gain actual fat...probably not going to do that with fruit 😄
LORD JESUS bless you and yours!

rhauser44

sijomial wrote: »

Why do you feel the need to track sugar at all?

It was an irrelevance to me so I swapped it out for something more useful.

I’m 64 and I track total sugar and especially ADDED sugar for awareness. I too frequently exceed the default MFP sugar threshold. I’m not too concerned unless the bulk of that amount is from added sugar. Then that is a cue to me that I need to make some better choices and changes. The same awareness is paid to sodium consumption.

Speakeasy76

Ugh, I'd ask your dr. for the science that says fruit sugar are just bad for you as added sugar. The things is, fruit has all that extra good-for-you stuff that just sugar (as in added sugar) doesn't have. Bottom line: don't worry about the sugar from fruit, unless it gives you stomach problems (which is what it does to me if I eat too much). The sugar that reputable dieticians and doctors talk about is being aware of ADDED sugar to products...and it can add up. I actually just bought some dark chocolate yesterday, and noticed the 83% dark chocolate had 3 g added sugar/serving, and just the "dark chocolate" had like 10 g.

I eat a lot of fruit and was able to lose and now maintaining that way.

kshama2001

vickyalison61 wrote: »

Thanks everyone, some great advice there. I forgot to say I never go over my daily calorie amount its just the sugar is usually 15-16gram over my allowance. I suppose I'm focused on the sugar amounts as I assumed its excess sugar that piles the weight on. My Dr told me fruit sugars are as bad for you as normal sugars 🤔

ANYTHING consumed to excess will cause weight gain.

I swapped out sugar for fiber years ago as this is more useful for me to track. Fruits, especially berries, have a nice fiber bonus; added sugar does not.

amusedmonkey

I'm pretty much over my sugar every single day (and not by just 15 grams, either). I don't even track it because it doesn't provide any useful information for me. I've been maintaining my weight for more than a year without issues because I'm able to manage my calories, nothing else.