which is worse, fat or sugar?

SUGAR is much WORSE than Fat

Completely agree. What it does to your body physiologically is much worse than fat. Both should be eaten in moderation, but sugar will spike you insulin. When your insulin spikes your body goes into fat storing mode and usually around your middle. Fat does not affect insulin like sugar does. It can add to your stores if eaten in large doses because your body can only process a certain amount of it at one time. So I would choose the protein shake over the yogurt. Start looking for other sugar alternatives. I use stevia and love it!
good luck

How do you store fat if you are in a calorie deficit?

If the calorie deficit is low enough your body will go into starvation mode. In this mode it will begin to store intake foods as fat anticipating the potential long term starvation. Also, when consuming high sugar foods (be the sugars in simple carbs or in raw sugar forms) it will spike insulin. At this point the body goes into a hormonal response by releasing hormones to lower the insulin. These hormones are the ones responsible for storing your food in fat stores. Basically even though there is a deficit you can still be creating fat stores. There are two types of fat and each is used differently when the body is burning fat as fuel. Without getting too scientific, this is the best I can do...

At what level of deficit do you start storing sugar as fat?

I ask because it is just not true.

What are the two types of fat that you refer to?

Moderate amounts of fat are actually good and necessary. Fats are one of the signals that the body looks for, so you feel like you have eaten enough. Sugar either gets used or stored and does nothing for appetite satisfaction. There is a really informative book called 'The Perfect 10 Diet' by Michael Aziz. I don't agree with everything he has to say. There is a lot that does make sense though. Get your sugar in the morning and moderate amounts of fat with each meal. Just my two cents worth.

Diing Dong Round TWO

Your body also needs sugar for brain function. Your brain cannot run on fat, it MUST have sugar to function.

Your body also needs sugar for brain function. Your brain cannot run on fat, it MUST have sugar to function.

Complex carbohydrates = the "sugars" the body needs, & those can be provided by whole grains. Added sugars - the type they put in yogurts & things to make them sweet, are completely unnecessary to the body.

I'd go with whichever one is yummier to you unless you have trouble staying under your macro limits in one area or the other.

Hi there,
It depends on your age and activity levels somewhat. Also generics plays a part. Over all it is better to have the fat be over than the sugar as long as the fat content is from monosaturated fats and polyosaturated fats. That is avoid transfat and saturated fats. The body needs omega 3 fatty acids from brain function and other aspects. Higher sugar intakes causes the body to store fat and can lead to health problems down the road - tooth decay, diabetes and some cancers. When a body is functioning at optimal levels it is breaking down fats consumed from foods and converting it into energy needed - hence metabolizing the nutrients in the foods. Hope this helps. For me personally, high sugar contents makes me feel nausous. Then again too much fat in one day makes me sluggish. I try to find a healthy balance for I eat a lot of fruit which is high in sugar. However, these are natural sugars that break down easier in the body, but I still have to watch because of my family history with diabetes.

For losing weight? You don't want to eat sugar!

1. Your body doesn't know difference between sugars in fruit or a donut. Eat too much of either /or and the body will not be happy. Although fruit twice a day maximum is great added fibre and viitamins.
2. The body was only designed to handle so much sugar intake not the quantities we eat today.I don't understand why people don't see that and insist smugly that they can lose xyz while eating cake..yeh big deal but your health can still suffer even if you are thin.
3. Good fats are better but you can still have too much of those too. Trans fat big no no.
4. Read about low/low load and high GI foods, simple/complex carbs, thermal dynamics and leptin.

This. Well said.

So much misinformation in this thread, it's like Gary Taubes and Robert Listig are having an orgy...

Neither is worse. Neither is better. They both have their places in a diet.

And tracking sugar while tracking carbs also is silly. Do you also track every single type of fatty acid you eat? Or every amino? Or every oligosaccharide? Sugar is a carb. If carbs are in check , then sugar is in check.

Keep it simple.

As for the whole "your body doesn't need sugar" silliness, your brain and your muscles run on glucose. Most of what you eat is NOT converted to glucose. It's difficult for the body to create hormones out of fatty acids if it turns them into glucose first... Or to build muscle and create enzymes out of amino acids if it converts those into glucose first... What does that leave? Carbs getting turned into glucose, of course, the way we evolved to function. Humans evolved eating a high carb (50%) diet. While there is the rare exception (Inuits,) high carb holds true across all civilizations, through all time periods.

This whole "carbs are bad" fad is just as silly as the "fat is bad" fad from the 80's and 90's.

So I am always over on my sugar and I have been trying to work on it. Today I noticed that my protein shake that I love has no sugar but has like 6 grams of fat, and the greek yogurt I like is fat free but has 17 grams of sugar. I just wondered what you guys think, I'm not sure which is worse.

Fat is necessary, sugar is not necessary to the human body.

Fat and protein helps to keep blood sugar stable so even if you don't have known blood sugar issues, there are no ups and downs.

Sugar sends your body on an insulin producing rollercoaster.

Small amounts of sugar are all we need.

So I am always over on my sugar and I have been trying to work on it. Today I noticed that my protein shake that I love has no sugar but has like 6 grams of fat, and the greek yogurt I like is fat free but has 17 grams of sugar. I just wondered what you guys think, I'm not sure which is worse.

Fat is necessary, sugar is not necessary to the human body.

Fat and protein helps to keep blood sugar stable so even if you don't have known blood sugar issues, there are no ups and downs.

Sugar sends your body on an insulin producing rollercoaster.

Small amounts of sugar are all we need.

An "insulin producing roller coaster" only happens in the case of disease. A healthy individual will never notice fluctuations in insulin. Heck, protein causes insulin spikes, and with no carbs coming in, would actually lead to a hypoglycemic crash if the scenario you're talking about was the norm. I don't see people eating protein and then passing out due to all the excess insulin in their system pulling out the glucose that isn't being replaced, do you?

So I am always over on my sugar and I have been trying to work on it. Today I noticed that my protein shake that I love has no sugar but has like 6 grams of fat, and the greek yogurt I like is fat free but has 17 grams of sugar. I just wondered what you guys think, I'm not sure which is worse.

Fat is necessary, sugar is not necessary to the human body.

Fat and protein helps to keep blood sugar stable so even if you don't have known blood sugar issues, there are no ups and downs.

Sugar sends your body on an insulin producing rollercoaster.

Small amounts of sugar are all we need.

Pls explain the bold as they contradict each other

We don't technically need ANY sugar as the human body is amazing at being able to produce exactly what it needs.

I should have stated that small amounts of glucose is all we really need and we don't need sugar in the body to produce the glucose that the body needs to function properly.

I should have stated it this way, was in a hurry to respond to go take a shower to get ready for work.