Sugar from fruit - is it as bad for weightloss???

paigebolling

So the general consensus is that health wise fruit is a much healthier choice to obtain my daily sugars from but as from a weightloss standpoint a 100 calorie banana with 30 grams of sugar is the same as eating a 100 calorie cake with 30 grams of sugar.

As far as making any radical changes in my diet I don't think thats what I have done, as I have always ate and loved fruit and vegetables. My problem is that I love all food, including the bad kind! :ohwell: So the changes in my diet consisted of continuing to eat fruit and vegetables, baking instead of frying and passing on the super sweets and greasy. Eating healthy is not a problem for me at all. I just love sweet things and don't think I could ever go one day without eating something sweet even if it is fruit. I know that I also consume refined sugars + my natural sugars and thats what sends my sugar totals out the roof.

Allyson1985

I'm sorry if this has already been said:

But sugar is only a problem if you have a medical issue, such as diabetes.

Otherwise, only worry about calories.

Kimsied

Some people are saying "eat all the fruit you want, it's healthy" and I'm sure you'll agree that you simply cannot do that, nor that it's a good idea to get a large proportion of your daily calories from sugar, whether it's from fruit or refined sugar.

I think that would depend on what "all the fruit you want" means, you can over eat just about anything. I doubt many people got fat eating fruit, and high fiber fruits like apples, berries etc can help control appetites. I agree more vegies than fruit is ideal and moderation is key. Most people should be fine eating 2 or 3 pieces of fruit a day. (3 bananas may be a bit much though, I usually eat a banana, but I think ideally the two or three pieces should be different fruit to make use of the different vitamins and fiber in different fruit. And ideally mostly higher fiber fruits). I've lost weight in the past drinking fruit juice, but that is a lot iffier since it is easy to over do it,it doesn't fill you, and doesn't have the fiber whole fruit has, etc so it is wisest to limit or avoid juice in my opinion (do as I say not what I sometimes do on that one). It is a challenge getting enough nutrition while dieting, so if someone is eating so much fruit that they don't have the calories left to eat enough protein and healthy fats then it may be a problem.

bethdris

I eat a lot of fruit, and never had a problem losing while on MFP!

blueimp

You have lots of answers already. My experience is this: sugar, any sugar. has lots of carbs. For me, my body can't handle the high carbs and so I lose weight slowly even on a limit of 80 grams of carbs per day (set by my nutritionist). I would agree that fruit sugar is better than refined (white) sugar, but it is still sugar. Just my opinion.

GettinMyLifeBck

Personally I had to decrease my fruit intake my weight had hit a standstill. My dietitian suggested that I should decrease my fruit to at least 1-3 servings a day.Every ones body is different,I also found when I did decrease my fruit I started losing more weight... Just find what works for you!!

MinnieInMaine

So the general consensus is that health wise fruit is a much healthier choice to obtain my daily sugars from but as from a weightloss standpoint a 100 calorie banana with 30 grams of sugar is the same as eating a 100 calorie cake with 30 grams of sugar.
(snip)

I wouldn't say that's the general consensus at all - that's just the opinion of a few of the responders to your question and because your question was only about the sugar content of fruit.

Eating a 100 calorie apple with 30 grams of sugar is WAY different from eating a 100 calorie cake with 30 grams of sugar. Apples have fiber, vitamins, nutrients and are fat free. Cake might have trace amounts of fiber and vitamins/nutrients but it's basically a nutritionally void food. No where near the same thing.

IMHO, ignore the sugar from fruit. As someone else pointed out, there are no cons to eating fruit...it's natural and good for you.

Kimsied

So the general consensus is that health wise fruit is a much healthier choice to obtain my daily sugars from but as from a weightloss standpoint a 100 calorie banana with 30 grams of sugar is the same as eating a 100 calorie cake with 30 grams of sugar.

I kind of half disagree, calorie wise they may be equal and sugar wise the same, but... Most likely the banana should have more fiber than the cake (though there are higher fiber cakes) and fiber makes a difference for weight loss and health. The banana would have some nutrients the cake most likely does not have such as potassium. I do think (from information I read and experience) that electrolights like potassium do help with recovery from workouts and fluid balance (and fluid balance problems can cause frustration while dieting i.e. if we retain more fluids the scale goes up). Those may be smaller factors weight loss wise, but it is still a wiser choice to choose the 100 calorie sugar food that actually offers some other benefit and nutrition as opposed to a cake. You probably don't want to eat three bananas if you are eating three servings of fruit, the others should ideally be higher fiber, lower sugar fruits like apples, berries, etc. But if you can satisfy a sweet tooth and get some good nutrition while staying within your calorie range, one banana can be fine. i prefer to eat them after a workout in a smoothie with higher fiber vegetables and fruit, though I've cheated the past two days and had them with breakfast.

Crawflowr

This link seems to give a very good summary of the whole good sugar bad sugar issues:

http://www.reducetriglycerides.com/diet_triglycerides_sugar.htm

Bottom line seems to be that you should limit your consumption of fruit and eat more vegetables.

fatguyweightloss

IMHO, ignore the sugar from fruit. As someone else pointed out, there are no cons to eating fruit...it's natural and good for you.

To paraphrase Robb Wolf, "Uranium is natural too, but you probably should avoid it" Fruit used to be healthy but now they are bred for higher sugar content because people like sugar. No breeding has been done to make the fruit better for you since that does not sell fruit. Fruit should be looked as a treat or even a dessert and not just a snack to hold you over. Just gives you a sugar spike making you hungry when it comes time for your actual meal. Now people react to sugar differently so sure some people can eat 13 bananas a day and still lose weight...I do not happen to be one of those people

paigebolling

Thanks everyone for all the great information and advice!!! I definately have a lot to think about.

micneg01

Thanks guys!!! Lots of good advice! I was so discouraged because I would review my food diary at the end of the day and most things were great and then I would see my sugar intake and it was way over the limit. And I could not believe how many calories and sugars bananas have!!! I could eat them all day and before I found MFP would eat 2 or 3 sometimes! But everyday I have been under my calorie goal and I never eat back the calories that I have earned through exercise, seems counterproductive to me. So good news for me and apples I guess!!

Thank you for this post. I am always over my sugars too on my food diary and a lot of it has to do with fruit!

SandyHKSunshine

I was in the same boat. I literally cut ALL things "bad" from my diet. And when I got an urge for a snack Id reach for a clementine, orange, or plum, etc. And I saw MFP sugar totals going in the negative and it concerned me at first. However, the positives of fruit definitely outweigh the negatives. I'll gladly accept the sugar from a clementine vs eating a Snickers or Twix. Give and take is what I say. Give in the form of exercise and exertion. Take in the form of natural fruit and vegetables. Just my 2 cents

katyejean

Fruit is the only way I get a good amount of sugar, anymore. I am doing WW along with fitness pal (to track nutrients. Plus, the mobile app is 1000x better) But anyway, I don't exactly "count" the sugar I get from fruits. If the sugar in other foods in below my sugar goal, I feel as if I'm okay. And I feel way better. And fruit is way more delicious than candy.

Terpnista84

MFP used to make me feel like crap because I was always in the "red" with sugar. I always have a good calorie deficit so I just learned to ignore it. I read something before that MFP just helps you to make healthier choices with the micros and to just focus on calories so that has helped me. I still try to moderate my sugar but if I go over I don't give myself a hard time.

Kimberly2016

MFP used to make me feel like crap because I was always in the "red" with sugar. I always have a good calorie deficit so I just learned to ignore it. I read something before that MFP just helps you to make healthier choices with the micros and to just focus on calories so that has helped me. I still try to moderate my sugar but if I go over I don't give myself a hard time.

Thanks for posting this!
I am always over on my sugar because of dried cranberries on a salad I eat, along with fruit in a protein shake. I hate that everything else is good with this one exception.

linsey0689

I don't think so. Natural sugar is way different in mind is compassion to cake/ice cream sugar. As long as you don't have diabetes or at high risk for it when I think you are fine

bhdon

I appreciate this link. Thanks. Very helpful.

chickiec28

I agree that it depends on the person, but I read something very interesting in a fitness magazine not long ago that just made SO MUCH SENSE! For Paleo man, fruit and nuts were only in season for a short period each year, so he gorged on them and stored up fat so that he didn't starve to death during the winter months. Now that those things are readily available to us all the time, we eat them all the time and trigger that fat-storing response when they raise our insulin levels.

For me, this has been especially true. I have always been a huge fruit eater, sometimes forgoing proper meals to instead have half a cantaloupe. When I gave up fruit from my diet except for the occasional berries, I suddenly dropped 20 pounds and have been steadily losing ever since. I feel better and can eat the same number of calories that I used to, but I no longer feel like I'm starving to death by the time that I leave work and don't feel weak and exhausted at the gym.

This is just my experience and I'm sure that others would say the exact opposite, but for me, giving up fruit and going low-carb was definitely the key.

amusedchrissy

Health: Sugars from fruit are far healthier insofar as fruit also contains other benefits, fibre, minerals etc.

Weight loss: 100 calories worth of sugars from fruit will have exactly the same effect on your weight loss as 100 calories of refined..

I disagree on this I'm afraid... 100 calories from natural sugar is processed/used by your body a lot quicker than 100 calories of refined sugar. As it is in its original state your body knows what to do with it and won't store it as fat unlike the refined kind provided you're at a calorie deficit.