sugar intake question

affacat

i'm on a regimented meal plan that i'm quite happy with (filling, enjoyable, no issues). i do a run/walk treadmill combo every weekday, 3 hours per day (20 minutes run/jog, 40 minutes fast walk, repeat x3) and then add pushups (4 max sets), some basic resistance weight training, and 600 crunches M/W/F. MFP (and other sites) estimate the cal burn of the walking/jogging/running at around 1240, give or take. my machine says waayyyyy more, but i don't believe that.

between that and my diet, i've shed most of my weight, just have a bit more to go... but i've stalled, and i'm trying to sort out why. i've read this forum quite a bit, and was concerned i might be undereating so added about 250 cals to my diet. i'm not looking to get ripped, just lean. my scale says my bf% is at 20, i'd like to drop that to... 15 or so?

i'll post today's data pretty because it's much is dead on for the entire week, i stick to my diet extremely well and my numbers don't really change much day to day. i just don't exercise on weekends. I used to be around 1800 cals till this week. bumped it up based on reading these forums, for better or worse. specifically, i added a post-workout builder bar (clif) because a) i love them, and b) if there was any time i could eat more, it was then, because i'm never particularly hungry on my current regiment.

Total / Daily Goal / Remaining
Calories 2062 / 2,442 / 380
Carbs 289 / 335 / 46
Fat 69 / 81 / 12
Protein 84 / 91 / 7
Sodium 2217 / 2500 / 283
Sugar 123 / 49 / -74

as you can see, i'm under for everything... except sugar. my cals are still 380 below the default MFP settings/suggestions, but i'm over double my sugar intake. if i had a glass of oj, i would be triple.

worst offenders:
newly added builder bar: 20 grams sugar
tomatoes w/my dinners: 12 grams
grapes w/ my dinners (only 10-12 of them total): 23 grams!
electrolyte powder during my routine: 12 grams
dessert: approx 25 grams, give or take.

i just don't know how seriously i should be taking the 'suggested' sugar intake. i'm eating a couple big salads a day (hence tomatoes and grapes) and i find it hard to believe i need to worry about those 35 grams. i also am not sure i should worry about 12 grams of extra sugar during a 3 hour walk/jog/run due to electrolyte replacement (as it is, i'm only using 1 serving in total, and they suggest 1 per hour). the builder bar is questionable, but again, i love them and i'm using it post workout, and i only started adding that this week to increase cals. which only leaves my dessert, which i'll admit is a bit lavish (i stick to 200-250 cals in total, which ends up being around 25 grams of sugar). but again, removing dessert seems like an over-reaction... and wouldn't even get me down to 49 anyway.

heck, even if i removed the grapes, my entire dessert, and the builder bar (68 grams sugar) i'd still be a tiny bit over the suggested sugar intake. (or possibly right at it, depending on a few other factors)... and i'd drop my cal count down over 500 cals, which i'm not looking to do.

basically, not only do i not know how much sugar i should remove, i'm really unsure of where to remove it. or if i need to even be worrying about it.

affacat

bumping because this was forgotten during the night, but there were like 3 sugar questions this morning so i think i have my answer -- ignore the sugar overage, it's probably not an issue.

FrankieTrailBlazer

Affacat,

if you want to drop your body fat further, you could look to:
1) remove processed foods with high sugar and fat,
2) replace your fruits with other fruits you like such as berries (blue, black, straw) and papaya...
3) reduce your overall fat intake ...

affacat

Affacat,

if you want to drop your body fat further, you could look to:
1) remove processed foods with high sugar and fat,
2) replace your fruits with other fruits you like such as berries (blue, black, straw) and papaya...
3) reduce your overall fat intake ...

1) hmmm. i'm actually not really sure what i should remove from that. i suppose my clif builder bar is the most glaring suspect, but i eat that after a 3 hour workout and as i just added it to my diet this week i know it's not why i'm stalled.
for reference:
breakfast: 1 piece toast, egg, coffee
lunch: smoothie (310 cals, 10 grams sugar 9 of which come from rice milk)
dinner: 2 salads a couple hours apart (sugar from grapes, tomatoes, craisons, cucumbers, carefully controlled dressing... 47 grams combined total for both salads)
dessert: 250 cals, around 25 gram sugar (definitely 'junk' food)
plus supplements (electrolyte replacement, etc).

i suppose i should eliminate craisons from the salad. they've got added sugar (at least, this brand does) so that's 7 grams gone.
i'd love to just eliminate dessert, but i seriously fear mental repercussions from that... that is, i really like that i can have an enjoyable dessert every night. i pick and choose around 200-250 cals from an assortment of trader joe's no nos. in part due to that, i have zero issue sticking to my diet... and i fear eliminating that will decrease my will power. hmmm.

but i'm still not really addressing the sugar overage... i mean, just my supplements + builder bar + rice milk for lunch smoothie put me over my supposed daily limit, and i not actually sure any of them are truly an issue. add in the all the other grams (a couple from cucumbers, etc) and it's hard not to go over by a significant amount.

2) replacing both grapes and craisons with a big handful of blueberries is a solid, easy to implement suggestion. will do.
let's see, i'm guessing around 25 per salad, 50 total, which is in the db as 7 grams. grapes + craisons were 23+7, so that's a saving of 23 grams of sugar per day. it was mostly non-processed fruit sugar from grapes, but still, it's a good start. thanks!

3) fat intake. currently my fat intake is already under mfp's suggested values. i'm only doing 65 grams out of a budget of 81. 10 of those are from dessert. the other big offender is my salad dressing, but i switch brands daily to keep it interesting and most are very low in fat. my one egg has quite a bit, but that's fresh from our ladies and not going away. builder bar and rice milk add some.... so it looks like i'd have to be even more selective about my salad dressing to drop some, plus once again consider giving up dessert. and of course, that recently added builder bar remains questionable, though again i'd rather not get rid of it since the protein at the end of a 3 hour workout makes sense to me.

anyway. thanks for your input. food for thought. i'll definitely implement blueberries. i'll also try reducing my 200-250 cal dessert to... arg... um... 150? man, i hate doing that. but it will drop processed foods, sugar, and fat from my daily intake so it's a win for everything but my love of sweets.

blueberries plus reduced dessert will drop me something like 5 grams of fat, and 28 grams of sugar.
of course, my sugar would still be well over recommended, 105 vs. 49. but it's a start? and i'm really at a loss where to cut more.

and again, i'm not even sure i need to. i feel like i'm already sticking to a very solid, well-rounded plan. it's just that stuff like electrolyte powder and such are blowing my sugar number skyward... and i don't even know if i need to worry about that at all.

FrankieTrailBlazer

Affacat,


I dont think the issues is the natural sugar overage from the grapes or rice milk...

Drink water and dump the electrolyte powder... that should be an easy one...

You want to get below 15% body fat but you are reluctant to give up desert... hmmmm... replace that desert with berries (and keep your grapes)...

Try reducing the fat intake to 20 grams per day.

The salad dressings are a killer... try to use less and use no fat brands like balsamic vinegar and "yuzu"... and try to reduce amount used. (My salad is 260 calls and the dressing was additional 120 so i ask for it on the side and only use 1/2 without missing the flavour and gaining 60 calories to spend on blueberries of blackberries.. a great trade i think)

Can you dump the eggs and toast and replace these calorie dense items with more nutritionally dense items?

Replace Clif bar with Clif bar mini's perhaps? ( i like clif bars too but avoiding them for now)

Nutrition Dense foods should be the focus and over calorie dense foods...

One of the best MFP quotes i have seen is "You cant outrun your fork" ....

Good luck buddy.

affacat

Affacat,


I dont think the issues is the natural sugar overage from the grapes or rice milk...

Drink water and dump the electrolyte powder... that should be an easy one...

You want to get below 15% body fat but you are reluctant to give up desert... hmmmm... replace that desert with berries (and keep your grapes)...

Try reducing the fat intake to 20 grams per day.

The salad dressings are a killer... try to use less and use no fat brands like balsamic vinegar and "yuzu"... and try to reduce amount used. (My salad is 260 calls and the dressing was additional 120 so i ask for it on the side and only use 1/2 without missing the flavour and gaining 60 calories to spend on blueberries of blackberries.. a great trade i think)

Can you dump the eggs and toast and replace these calorie dense items with more nutritionally dense items?

Replace Clif bar with Clif bar mini's perhaps? ( i like clif bars too but avoiding them for now)

Nutrition Dense foods should be the focus and over calorie dense foods...

One of the best MFP quotes i have seen is "You cant outrun your fork" ....

Good luck buddy.

isn't electrolyte replacement important? i always thought that was the one 'important' supplement, but maybe i'm just wrong. i'm doing a lot of sweating during my run/walk/jog... and only doing about 1/3 the amount of powder the packaging suggests.

re: sugar. i changed a lot of my diet based on your earlier comments. blueberries were a solid suggestion. i reduced my dessert significantly (well, about in half). 50 grams of (coconut based vegan) ice cream and one small chocolate for 159 cals / 14 grams sugar total. i don't cheat on my diet so i think that's fair. I will work on reducing it further and going with berries, but losing chocolate altogether is... a hard concept to wrap my head around.

i also cut down on salad dressing.

i actually added a ton of calories to my breakfast, though. i figured out my TDEE, etc and realized that (at least according to those numbers) i was undereating (even though i'm never hungry). So i added some steel cut oats, blueberries, a touch of honey (very local, down the street), and a veggie sausage patty to my breakfast. (over 400 calories!).

I don't want to remove eggs... the egg a day i eat is from our pet chickens. they're loved.

i'm still way over on sugars -- 112 g instead of 49 g (so, 63 g over). 40 of that overage is from the clif bar + electrolyte powder, so they're definitely the 'culprit'. adding some honey to breakfast also 'lost' some of the savings other changes i made based on your comments accomplished. I'll do some more research on electroytes to see if i should just go with water... but i'm so used to running/biking with them that it just feels 'wrong', lol.

everything but sugar seems to be pretty much in line.

ps - thanks for your advice. it's very constructive and helpful in ways i've been able to actually implement.

thisismeraw

Affacat,


I dont think the issues is the natural sugar overage from the grapes or rice milk...

Drink water and dump the electrolyte powder... that should be an easy one...

You want to get below 15% body fat but you are reluctant to give up desert... hmmmm... replace that desert with berries (and keep your grapes)...

Try reducing the fat intake to 20 grams per day.

You do realize that dietary fat won't make you fat right? Healthy fats are needed in the body.

The salad dressings are a killer... try to use less and use no fat brands like balsamic vinegar and "yuzu"... and try to reduce amount used. (My salad is 260 calls and the dressing was additional 120 so i ask for it on the side and only use 1/2 without missing the flavour and gaining 60 calories to spend on blueberries of blackberries.. a great trade i think)

Salad dressings are fine... just use less. I personally wouldn't suggest going for low fat or no fat dressings all the time due to the amount of chemicals and sodium they contain.

Can you dump the eggs and toast and replace these calorie dense items with more nutritionally dense items?

How are eggs not a nutritionally dense food? Eggs are an amazing addition to any diet and shouldn't be cut out unless there is a medical reason to do so.

OP, don't worry about sugars from natural sources unless you have a medical issue with sugar. I personally am always well over the sugar amount here by the end of breakfast. The sugar I consume comes from fruits and lots of them.

I would suggest reducing the refined/added sugars. Have smaller servings of dessert for example and add a fruit as a side. Never cut things out unless you have to medically. There is no need to cut anything out without a medical reason (unless you personally don't like it or you cut it out for ethical purposes ... meat for example).

The electrolye powder is fine if you want to use it. You don't HAVE to use it but if you like it and can spare the calories go for it.

affacat

Salad dressings are fine... just use less. I personally wouldn't suggest going for low fat or no fat dressings all the time due to the amount of chemicals and sodium they contain.
SNIP
How are eggs not a nutritionally dense food? Eggs are an amazing addition to any diet and shouldn't be cut out unless there is a medical reason to do so.
SNIP

OP, don't worry about sugars from natural sources unless you have a medical issue with sugar. I personally am always well over the sugar amount here by the end of breakfast. The sugar I consume comes from fruits and lots of them.

I would suggest reducing the refined/added sugars. Have smaller servings of dessert for example and add a fruit as a side. Never cut things out unless you have to medically. There is no need to cut anything out without a medical reason (unless you personally don't like it or you cut it out for ethical purposes ... meat for example).

The electrolye powder is fine if you want to use it. You don't HAVE to use it but if you like it and can spare the calories go for it.

I reduced my salad dressings a bit (from 2.66 tbs to 2), though i weigh it vs. using an actual spoon. I think the ones i use are generally pretty healthy, all things considered.

while my current sugar intake is 112 grams, if i remove natural sugars i think i'm only at around 66 grams of processed sugar. 40 of that is the clif bar and electrolyte powder. so... probably within the realm of being a satisfactory value.

thanks for the info on electrolytes... i'd really rather not cut them out. i can really feel the difference while exercising energy wise. that might just be all the sugar, lol, but either way it's effective. i'm trying to up the intensity of my workout and lower the time, so perhaps i'll be able to reduce the amount taken.

and yea, i don't eat meat. i don't eat eggs other than from our hens, either. no cheese or dairy. can't claim to be vegan anymore, but am darn close.

xrmsmithx

I was curious if I was the only one who went over on sugar all the time. I've been eating all natural foods lately including a lot of veggies and fruit and no matter how well I do on everything else I am always over the sugar limit. Good to know it's not that big of a deal if it comes from fruit and not mountain dew or something similar. I'll stop freaking out about it.

whierd

Unless you are diabetic or have another medical condition requiring you to monitor your sugar, there is no reason you should track sugar. Just track your overall carbs. Sugar is a carb, just so you know.

This has been repeated ad nauseam.