no sugar diet

Just wondering if anyone's tried the 'no sugar diet'.

Heard its a great way to lose weight along with the obvious health benefits of not having processed sugars.

Tempted to try it as I recently saw a male friend on Friday who started it 2 weeks ago and has already lost 10kilograms in 2 weeks, with exercise, but it makes the weight come off super quick! After seeing him I wonder if it is a good way to lose weight quickly. There is sugar in EVERYTHING, so you'd have to be incredibly strict with the way in which you cut it out and keep it out....

Have a friend whose getting married in June and thought it is a good way to quickly lose weight prior to the wedding and again for myself getting married in October.

But in the long run, can it be sustained?
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Replies

  • I am on a no sugar diet and its help. Make sure eat lot of fruits and sugar from fruits is ok. And go gradually go down on sugar and make sure exercise a lot. if you are like me for whom losing weight is difficult then u have make this a lifestyle. :)
  • I am diabetic and have to watch my sugars. If you just try to cut down on the processed sugars it will be doable. We can get the sugar our body needs from fresh fruits.
  • bluebird321
    bluebird321 Posts: 733 Member
    I've been practicing "no sugar" for about a year (I try to keep it under ten even with fruit in my diet). My results have been good so far.
  • wittlelacey
    wittlelacey Posts: 391 Member
    Wow, I haven't heard of this, but I'm super interested so I'm going to stick around to see other comments :) Could you give me a little more details on this diet? Please and thank you!
  • sarahp86
    sarahp86 Posts: 692 Member
    Bump, sugar junkie. Need to wean myself off it
  • Ddmck1
    Ddmck1 Posts: 89 Member
    I did it last summer lost about 20 lbs. The weight came off pretty quickly too (but I was very active). I just stuck to fruits, veggies, proteins, and when I had bread I opted for the 100% whole wheat. When you cut out the processed sugars it makes everything else taste sweeter ... which is a cool benefit. Like tomatoes which I never really liked before. But yeah the weight came off and I didn't really restrict my calories when I did it either.

    I followed the Sugar Busters book. But I've heard the South Beach Diet is pretty similar. All complex carbs.
  • autumnk921
    autumnk921 Posts: 1,374 Member
    Bump, sugar junkie. Need to wean myself off it


    lol...same here... :)
  • CynthiasChoice
    CynthiasChoice Posts: 1,047 Member
    If I eat sugar, I loose control and keep eating more and more. I read about a study done on mice in France where they found that sugar was more addicting than cocaine! Everyone is different, but for me, no sugar is the way to go. I'm detoxing once again - now on day two - and it's easier this time because I'm eating lots of beans and fiber. Beans have a chemical in them that relax you and make you feel satisfied. Can't remember the name of it...will post back later.
  • luvmydog2
    luvmydog2 Posts: 243 Member
    Me to ....:laugh:
  • My Mom did a no sugar diet when she found out she was a diabetic. Everything was sugar free & only had splenda or equal. She still doesn't eat sugar as much/ & she lost 100 + pounds in 7 months... she has maintained her weight after 3 years. :)
  • CynthiasChoice
    CynthiasChoice Posts: 1,047 Member
    OK, here is a quote from Veg News Oct. 2011: "Cravings for stimulant foods occur in individuals who are nutritionally deficient at the cellular level. If cells are truly fed, the craving for stimulants goes away... We're talking about neurotransmitters - dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. Beans, peas, and lentils give you many of these; they provide the nutrients that can eliminate the desire for stimulant foods. In addition, they boost leptin sensitivity -- leptin is a chemical that tells your body your satisfied - and they do it without fat or veterinary hormones and antibiotics."

    Hope that helps!
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    Just wondering if anyone's tried the 'no sugar diet'.

    Heard its a great way to lose weight along with the obvious health benefits of not having processed sugars.

    Tempted to try it as I recently saw a male friend on Friday who started it 2 weeks ago and has already lost 10kilograms in 2 weeks, with exercise, but it makes the weight come off super quick! After seeing him I wonder if it is a good way to lose weight quickly. There is sugar in EVERYTHING, so you'd have to be incredibly strict with the way in which you cut it out and keep it out....

    Have a friend whose getting married in June and thought it is a good way to quickly lose weight prior to the wedding and again for myself getting married in October.

    But in the long run, can it be sustained?

    Cutting sugar means cutting carbs. The weight your friend lost is mostly water weight. Carbs are stored in the body as glycogen in the liver and muscles, and glycogen requires 4 times its weight in water for storage. When you cut carbs, your glycogen storage drops, and you lose a lot of initial water weight. As far as fat loss is concerned, cutting sugar has no effect, beyond cutting calories.

    Sticking to your calorie goal is much more important than watching sugar grams, UNLESS you have a specific medical condition, or if sugar is a trigger food that causes you to binge. If your metabolism is normal, and you can eat sugar and keep to your calorie goals, then cutting it out will not help you lose fat any faster.
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,423 Member
    Although I think cutting down on processed and added sugars is a very good idea, cutting them all out for ever seems like a quick path to failure to me.

    Remember, anything that makes you "lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks" is probably very low calories, hence the quick weight loss, not necessarily just cutting out one food group. And a lot of that weight will be water. Very low calorie diets are fine if you have a particular need (ie. a medical requiremen to lose weight fast) but for the general population, they aren't going to be something that you can sustain and stay healthy for very long.

    My suggestion would be to use MFP to track your sugar. Start reading labels on processed foods and get a feel for where the extra sugar is coming from and reduce it if you feel it's necessary.
  • jenj1313
    jenj1313 Posts: 898 Member
    There is sugar in EVERYTHING,

    Well... if you can't eat, you will surely lose weight.

    I try to pay attention t my sugar count on MFP and stay under their recommendation EXCEPT that I give myself a pass if the sugar is from fruit or veggies.

    That's just me. I'm kinda lazy really and not eating any sugar would be WAY too hard.
  • mabug01
    mabug01 Posts: 1,273 Member
    I don't know about the science of it, but when I cut out all sugar, except 1 fruit a day, my belly fat reduced tremendously. As soon as I incorporated sugar again - with the same calorie level as the no-sugar diet, my belly got bigger. I didn't gain weight, but my weight looked different on me. Not sure why this happened, but my trainer says it is typical.
  • HonkyTonks
    HonkyTonks Posts: 1,193 Member
    Just wondering if anyone's tried the 'no sugar diet'.

    Heard its a great way to lose weight along with the obvious health benefits of not having processed sugars.

    Tempted to try it as I recently saw a male friend on Friday who started it 2 weeks ago and has already lost 10kilograms in 2 weeks, with exercise, but it makes the weight come off super quick! After seeing him I wonder if it is a good way to lose weight quickly. There is sugar in EVERYTHING, so you'd have to be incredibly strict with the way in which you cut it out and keep it out....

    Have a friend whose getting married in June and thought it is a good way to quickly lose weight prior to the wedding and again for myself getting married in October.

    But in the long run, can it be sustained?

    All diets work off the same principle - calories in vs calories out. That is how you lose weight. Your friend hasn't lost 10kilograms of fat in 2 weeks, that will be mostly water weight. Carbohydrates make you store water, so when you cut out carbs you will see an initial quick drop on the scales, this is fluids. Results will typically even out after that.

    There is no 'diet' that can make you lose 10 kilograms of fat in 2 weeks. That requires a calorie deficit of 70000 calories.

    Any changes to your food intake that you make now should be sustainable for the long term. Can you cut out sugar forever? If so, great, go for it. But you can lose weight without cutting any foods out, just create a caloric deficit and the weight will come off.

    Good luck!
  • TheDevastator
    TheDevastator Posts: 1,626 Member
    I've cut out processed sugar and gluten from my diet and its working. I'm doing this because I have problems with candida. I still eat millet bread that is flavored with a little fruit juice and drink stevia flavored water. Those seem to cut any cravings and I'm showing progress after a month.
  • CynthiasChoice
    CynthiasChoice Posts: 1,047 Member
    I don't know about the science of it, but when I cut out all sugar, except 1 fruit a day, my belly fat reduced tremendously. As soon as I incorporated sugar again - with the same calorie level as the no-sugar diet, my belly got bigger. I didn't gain weight, but my weight looked different on me. Not sure why this happened, but my trainer says it is typical.

    I've read that high fructose corn syrup (found in many processed foods) puts belly fat on mice more quickly than the same amount of table sugar.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,993 Member
    Just wondering if anyone's tried the 'no sugar diet'.

    Heard its a great way to lose weight along with the obvious health benefits of not having processed sugars.

    Tempted to try it as I recently saw a male friend on Friday who started it 2 weeks ago and has already lost 10kilograms in 2 weeks, with exercise, but it makes the weight come off super quick! After seeing him I wonder if it is a good way to lose weight quickly. There is sugar in EVERYTHING, so you'd have to be incredibly strict with the way in which you cut it out and keep it out....

    Have a friend whose getting married in June and thought it is a good way to quickly lose weight prior to the wedding and again for myself getting married in October.

    But in the long run, can it be sustained?
    Unless you're a diabetic, if you don't think you can sustain a lifestyle without having sugar in your life, then why embark on a diet that will do this? All that will happen is you make it through it and then go back and eat the sugar you missed the whole time you were on it and gain back some weight.
    This is why diets don't work.


    A.C.E. Certified Personal & Group FitnessTrainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • luvmydog2
    luvmydog2 Posts: 243 Member
    Bump
  • luvmydog2
    luvmydog2 Posts: 243 Member
    ninerbuff ...Interesting to see a fitness trainer loosing weight on MFP ?
    Are you here to stalk us ? .... lol !
  • l3long
    l3long Posts: 153 Member
    I find that if I eat any sugar, I crave more and more and more. Sugar also makes me sleepy and low energy. I know my family genetics lean towards hypoglycemia eventually becoming diabetes. For all of these reasons, I try to eat as little refined sugar as possible. When I do crave something sweeti, I have a homemade date bar (similar to Larabars) or a frut juice popsicle. I do occassionally indulge in a square or two of dark chocolate. I find I can stop after a square or two of this whereas milk chocolate, one I start, I can't stop. I can't say I have lost a lot of weight eating this way but I am able to maintain my weight which is always withing 10 lb of ideal. I am currently on this board because I am 10 lb up from ideal which is normal after winter.

    It can be maintained if you want to maintain it. Once you realize how much better you feel not eating sugar, you will want to continue. If I do indulge occassionally, I just start fresh the next day. the grogginess and low energy I feel the next day is enough motivation to get back on track.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,993 Member
    I've read that high fructose corn syrup (found in many processed foods) puts belly fat on mice more quickly than the same amount of table sugar.
    Good thing we aren't mice then.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal & Group FitnessTrainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,993 Member
    ninerbuff ...Interesting to see a fitness trainer loosing weight on MFP ?
    Are you here to stalk us ? .... lol !
    Lol, I'm a bodybuilder. We "bulk and cut". I'm coming of a bulk cycle and starting to cut for summer. And as you can tell by my photos I'm in real BAD shape.:laugh:
    Stick around you might learn something.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal & Group FitnessTrainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • CynthiasChoice
    CynthiasChoice Posts: 1,047 Member
    I've read that high fructose corn syrup (found in many processed foods) puts belly fat on mice more quickly than the same amount of table sugar.
    Good thing we aren't mice then.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal & Group FitnessTrainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

    So glad I'm not a mouse!! Especially one in a study!! But I guess the poor mice in the studies are there to help scientist understand the way we humans function. By some odd reason, we're similar to mice.
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    We're really not all that similar to mice, but mice are cheap and easy to use. There are many, many more scientific studies that show horrific results in rodents that have no negative impact when they switch to human studies, than there are human and rodent studies that reach similar conclusions. There also turn out to be all kinds of things that can have horrible consequences for humans that mice can deal with just fine. In all honesty, rodent studies are useless on their own. The only real purpose for them is to come up with a theory to use for human studies.
  • CynthiasChoice
    CynthiasChoice Posts: 1,047 Member
    Tigersword - Thanks for educating me. I'll do some more research to see if the high fructose corn syrup - belly fat study was done on humans after it was done on mice.
  • wanderinglight
    wanderinglight Posts: 1,519 Member
    Bumping this as I am currently trying to limit my sugar intake to well within what MFP recommends (which for me means cutting out a LOT of my favorite addictions).
  • cydonian
    cydonian Posts: 361 Member
    I say practice no or low processed sugar all you want! Just don't expect the same results as your friend. 10kg is great but a lot of that is diet modification and happens when you change how you eat. You may not see the same results. Do it to be healthier, not for the numbers.
  • ishax24
    ishax24 Posts: 51 Member
    After looking at my results on mfp over the last 2 weeks I'm really trying hard to cut out the amount of sugar I'm eating. I've realised most of it is from fruit, bread, and protein shakes but its still a lot more than I would like!! Would love to know more about how this diet works?