Maintaining a balanced sugar intake

stellanyc

I have been tracking my meals for about 10 days here and am amazed at how easy it is to surpass my "sugar quota". I am trying to keep a clean diet - lots of lean proteins and veggies, fairly strict on alcohol, no juice or bread or rice or dessert, etc - and I have generally had little difficulty staying under my daily calories and far below my carb limits.... but it seems like just about every day, I go over the allowed 30g of sugar by about 5-15g. I am not guzzling sodas or juice, and not using refined sugar. The sugar seems to be coming from light yoghurt, V8, high-fiber fruits, etc.

Since my diet otherwise looks to be pretty healthy "by the numbers", I'm not sure what this means in the grand scheme of weight loss - is this a big deal? Does it matter where the sugar comes from? Has anyone else had success getting their sugar intake in line, and if so, do you have any tips?

jb_2011

Generally what MFPers are saying is that we should only track our processed sugars, and not sugars from fruit or dairy. So many people have had the same dilema, including me. I don't eat processed sugar either, or any processed foods, so I recently took Sugar off of my nutrient tracker. It's interesting to see how much we get from fruit and dairy, though. Those two things, in my opinion, shouldn't be too terribly "overdone", either. I do love my fruit!!

mapexdrummer69

No one food source will accelerate or slow down weight loss. A calorie is a calorie. As long as you stay in a deficit, you'll lose weight. This includes sugar, regardless of the source. I assume you're not diabetic or suffer from any metabolic disorders? If so, don't worry about "being over" on your sugars.

Your body does however have NEEDS for dietary fat and protein, so make sure you are getting both.

stellanyc

Thanks to both of you for the helpful information!