Sould I be concerned about my sugar intake?

nerge

Hi guys quick questino about sugar.

I was on a regime before which basically said sugar's the devil stay away! Needless to say I didn't last on it cause things like fruit and milk I was being urged to stay away from. I've recently changed my mindset from diet to lifestyle change and am loving it. However I'm put off by the amount of sugar I'm ingesting. So it's coming from - a mandarin orange, a medium apple, non fat greek yogurt, skimmed coffee and steamed veg. Now in my head I'm saying that if I eat those things throughout the day I shouldn't be concerned cause I don't think any of them are "bad" for me foods. I usually get a sugar craving (or treat) in the eve so I then have one square of dark chocolate which does the trick. Now I've been trying to be super diligent with logging everything this week and next week I'm going to go mad with the scales (baby steps) and weigh everything to see if I'm going good. Feeling lots better in the 2 weeks (minus a hangover day on sunday) with eating healthly but should I be concerned about my sugar even from these sources?

Any help/suggestions would be great!

SideSteel

I would suggest you stop tracking sugar.

nerge

Thanks for your reply SideSteel - do you mean from fruit etc. and just keep the others (any bit of chocolate or a treat) to a minimum? Concentrate on the macros?

SideSteel

Thanks for your reply SideSteel - do you mean from fruit etc. and just keep the others (any bit of chocolate or a treat) to a minimum? Concentrate on the macros?

Assuming your calories and macronutrients are set to a reasonable level and assuming you're making an effort to consume mostly nutrient dense foods, I wouldn't bother tracking sugar at all.

I think keeping your discretionary intake (portion of your calories that you spend on whatever you want provided nutritional needs are being met with the remainder of your diet) at or under about 20% of total calories is a great general guideline.

Sarauk2sf

Just to re-iterate what SideSteel has said, don't worry about tracking sugar. Sugar is in all kinds of beneficial foods and drinks. It is a subset of carbs, so just track carbs. Just try to have a diet that is full of a variety of nutrient dense foods, and throw in the occasional treat if you want (like your chocolate). Making your diet too exclusionary is generally not the best approach.

nerge

Thanks for the advice guys!