A question about food, Help me please

AbdullaAlmoawdah

MFP recommended that i eat 1500 calories a day, the problem is that it looks like i cant eat 1500 calories without exceeding one of my recommended portions of sugar or protein! what do you guys suggest ?

you can take a look on my diary to get a brighter view and suggest a perfect diet for me because i'm really getting frustrated.

I'm not really worried about the protein because i rarely exceed it , i'm worried about the sugar because MFP is saying i should only eat 30g, that's like 2 bananas or 2 apples ! and eventually i'll exceed the sugar limit without even reaching my calories goal.

BTW. i only get my sugar from whole-wheat bread, Fruits and vegetables.

kateowp

Change the sugar limit to what you think is reasonable/healthy. I upped mine a lot because I was sick of seeing the red when I ate fruit and I knew I was not eating added/refined sugar.

StaceyJ2008

As long as you are sticking to the recommended fruit serving per day, I think it's two or three, you should be alright. I wouldn't worry too much about the sugar unless you are eating junk.

readthat

1500 calories a day seems kinda low for a guy. You can change the amounts of protein or whatever you are tracking to something that fits you.

Koldnomore

If you have trusted MFP - instead of doing your own research by reading the stickies and the newbie information in the general forum you are probably not eating enough. Additionally you have probably not set your goals manually - including eating 1g of protein per pound of lean body mass.

People have varying opinions on sugar. To me sugar is sugar and avoiding it as much as possible is good. Though I would not worry about your sugar immediately - instead try to get your other macro-nutrients balanced more properly for your gender, age and weight goals.

Good luck on your journey.

lauren3101

There is nothing wrong with sugar from fruits. Anyone that eats more than 2 pieces of fruit a day is likely to be over their sugar. I eat a lot of fruit and it's never affected my weight loss.

The sugar you need to look out for is the stuff in chocolate, processed foods etc.

nikilis

I had the same problem. its not a very good calculation and you can have more as long as its coming from good sources. also MFP told me I should eat 1400cals which I have done for almost 3 months, but I've done a little research and also got some help from this forum and found out that this is very low for someone of my height / build. now Im slowly increasing my intake over the next few weeks to a healthier deficit.

go to fitnessfrog.com and calculate your BMR. its how many calories you need for a maintenance diet, and then take off 20% and that should (im no expert) for a healthier deficit with a slow and steady weight loss.

dont trust MFP calculations to the letter.

mynameismita

MFP has really low protein settings for some reason. You can adjust them though.

As for sugar from fruit, if you're really worried, try eating fruits with lower-to-moderate sugar like blackberries, raspberries, apples, coconuts, tomatoes, etc.

LizL217

The MFP calculator is just that, a calculator. Not a nutritionist/dietician. So you need to adjust what it automatically spits out so that it will make sense for you.

If you put your settings so that you want to lose 2 pounds a week, MFP will give you a low calorie goal that would mathematically result in a 1,000-calorie defecit per day. But this is not a healthy or realistic weight loss pace for everyone. You may find that you have more success if you aim to lose 1 pound a week.

On sugar, I wouldn't sweat the number unless you're diabetic or have other medical reasons to lower your sugar intake. If the majority is from fruit, you're probably fine going over the recommended amount. I actually removed the sugar read-out from my Food page because I just don't really care about it.

Protein is pretty important, though, especially if you're exercising regularly. I manually changed my protein target to 105g because MFP was recommending something ridiculously low like 30g.

CkepiJinx

While I haven't changed my presets I always shoot for more protein and less carbs than MFP suggests mainly because protein will help with muscle mass and it keeps me fuller longer than carbs. The sugar suggested is low so I don't sweat going over that but I try to keep it reasonable esp if your getting them from fruits.

I mean don't sweat going over sugar because you are getting them from fruits

AbdullaAlmoawdah

Thank you guys,

Acg67

MFP recommended that i eat 1500 calories a day, the problem is that it looks like i cant eat 1500 calories without exceeding one of my recommended portions of sugar or protein! what do you guys suggest ?

you can take a look on my diary to get a brighter view and suggest a perfect diet for me because i'm really getting frustrated.

I'm not really worried about the protein because i rarely exceed it , i'm worried about the sugar because MFP is saying i should only eat 30g, that's like 2 bananas or 2 apples ! and eventually i'll exceed the sugar limit without even reaching my calories goal.

BTW. i only get my sugar from whole-wheat bread, Fruits and vegetables.

Assuming your ticker is correct, 1500 cals seems a tad low. And there is not upper arbitrary limit on your macros that if you should go over one of them something terrible will happen

Lleldiranne

Meh, I mostly ignore the sugar. I do try to limit my refined sugars, but if it comes from fruit, vegetables, and whole grains, then I just look at carbs overall (I'm still struggling to keep carbs down and proteins up though, lol)

holographic

Change the sugar limit to what you think is reasonable/healthy. I upped mine a lot because I was sick of seeing the red when I ate fruit and I knew I was not eating added/refined sugar.

Agreed

kristilovescake

Eating more protein is fine, and usually recommended, unless you have a medical condition (I find that MFP's protein value is way too low for me anyway, so I always shoot to go above their recommendation). Eating excess fruit sugar is fine too, again unless you have a medical condition. I stopped tracking sugar because I usually eat a lot of fruit and not too many refined sugars so I don't feel that I need to track it. All my opinion, figure out what works for you, but seems like you have nothing to worry about.

XXXMinnieXXX

I'd say you could change to 50g of sugar and it would have no adverse effect on your weight. I would increase your protein, mfp I is very low, you can go to food, settings, goals, change goals, manually... Set percentages. 40% carbs, 30% protein, 30% fat are great goals and it seems to work for everyone I see who tries it... Mfp goals worked for me for a bit, but not for long. Hope this helps!

jerbear1962

I'm diabetic and always overdo my sugars on here because as you say fruit has sugar. I'm living proof that diet and exercise can help with Diabetes I'm a week off meds to regulate my blood sugars and have fruit daily. Good luck!!!!!

Xaspar

The only macro I bother with, honestly is protein, and I try to get as close to THAT as I can and don't mind going over as long as I stay within my calories. I let the sugars and the fats sort themselves out after that...

You may want to look into setting your own custom goals rather than the 'basic' program that MFP puts together.

MIM49

30 grams of sugar may refer to added processed sugar. This article may help: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_grams_of_sugar_are_appropriate_per_day_for_the_average_adult

You can set your goals on MFP by going to: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals

Choose custom

EmilyOfTheSun

I go over on sugar EVERY day because of the fruits I eat. It hasn't affected my weight loss yet. As long as my sugar is coming from a healthy source, I don't worry about it too much.

annehart00

I don't look at sugar, protein, et cetera. I changed my settings to show Vitamin A, C, Calcium, and Iron. I think making sure you hit all your micronutrients is more important (especially if limiting calories) than controling your sugar. Chances are if you're hitting your DVs for vitamins and minerals (through foods, not suppliments), you won't be eating sugar from junk.

aochoa123

Honestly if the only reason your going over on sugar is from whole wheat bread, fruits and veggies then I would not worry about it. But if is because of other sweets then you'd have some problems.