Am I going to lose weight if I stick with sugar in my diet?

Just changed my diary settings to include sugar. Oh. my. god. My wholegrain bread has 20 gms in it! and skim milk? I know there's lactose, but wow.

A friend of mine said her dietician said in weight loss a really important aspect is examining the amount of sugar in your food, not just refined sugar. In general, I'm fairly healthy, lots of veg and proteins and wholegrains and my vitamins are usually OK, but the sugar aspect has thrown me!

I don't want to remove any food group as I want this to be sustainable, so no anti-carb diets for me, but if I stick with sugar will I lose??? For those of you having success, how much sugar is in your diet?

Replies

  • msafunk
    msafunk Posts: 163 Member
    From what I understand, foods high in sugar (even natural foods, like bananas) just don't stick with you as long as other foods because sugar is metabolized the faster than protein and fats, so you'll end up hungry faster, making it more difficult to stay under your calorie goals.

    MFP usually gives me about 35g of sugar per day, and I almost always go over by a little bit, but I've still lose 10lbs since July.
  • knb2000
    knb2000 Posts: 29 Member
    I also go over my 35 gms a day, sometimes double but have still been losing. I've been mainly worrying about my calories and keeping my carb/fat/protein balanced by what mfp says..
  • I won't stop eating my dairy and my fresh fruit just because of the sugar content. Of course one should try to keep it to a manageable amount, but we are talking about FRESH FRUIT and not about a Mars bar... :wink: :laugh:
  • bathsheba_c
    bathsheba_c Posts: 1,873 Member
    Yes, you can still lose weight with sugar in your diet. The only people who need to watch their sugar from natural food sources (i.e. fruit) are diabetics, people with thyroid conditions, etc. Unless you have a medical condition that makes you carb-sensitive, you really don't need to worry about it as long as you keep under your calorie goals and are good with your macros.
  • Depends on how much sugar and whether or not it's balanced by other things. Like the sugar in fruit is okay, because fruit contains fiber. The sugar in stuff like peanut butter is also okay, because it's balanced by the protein.

    I don't count my sugar at all, and I've lost almost 50 pounds the last 4 months. I'm more concerned about sodium than sugar, because most of my sugar comes from foods that have other nutrients, rather than from candy and soda.
  • SilverOnTheTree
    SilverOnTheTree Posts: 102 Member
    Interesting question. I've personally observed that I lose weight (or at least appear to lose weight) faster with less sugar in my diet. I don't understand exactly what's going on there.
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
    Yes, you can still lose weight with sugar in your diet. The only people who need to watch their sugar from natural food sources (i.e. fruit) are diabetics, people with thyroid conditions, etc. Unless you have a medical condition that makes you carb-sensitive, you really don't need to worry about it as long as you keep under your calorie goals and are good with your macros.

    ^^this
  • nsblue
    nsblue Posts: 331 Member
    having been once on 170 units of insulin a day...yeah i did watch my sugar and it paid off. as a rule if an item was more than 9 grams of sugar per 100 cal i stayed away from it...with the exception of fruit ....for it is a different kind of sugar and once needs their fruit...i just chose wisely.
  • Laddiegirl
    Laddiegirl Posts: 382 Member
    I haven't been tracking sugar at all (I try to avoid the obviously sugar overload things and cut out soda), just calories and keeping an eye on sodium and I've lost a steady 2 lbs a week since I started (2 months ago).

    I personally don't believe in deprivation to get to your weight loss goal unless its something obviously impacting your health. Fruit and dairy are good things and not the same as the sugar that comes from candy and soda.
  • FungusTrooper
    FungusTrooper Posts: 227 Member
    I don't track sugar, but on the odd days where I do look, I almost always go way over. I like fruits which are high in sugars (bananas, grapes & strawberries) and also things with processed sugar (health bars/yoghurts, etc).

    I've lost 75lbs since Feb this year, so go figure.
  • Farburnfred
    Farburnfred Posts: 333 Member
    You might be able to, personally I am not able to. I can eat fruit and dairy but any grains or refined sugar and cravings start. I think it's a matter of what you can tolerate.

    Cutting out refined sugar is always a good thing though!

    Good luck
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,423 Member
    Not a problem for me.
    If you are losing weight and feeling good, there is no need to make things more difficult for yourself.