Fruit Sugar

susyw_2003
susyw_2003 Posts: 70
in Food and Nutrition
Ive been stuck at a plateau for a couple of weeks now, ive tried everything from changing my exercise routine to eating smaller meals more regularly but i cant seem to shift it.

I read an article saying plateau's can be helped by lowering sugar intake, however i snack on a lot of fruit throughout the day - the usual apples, grapes, banana's etc - so I just need to know whether its a good plan to cut out the fruit in order to intake a lower amount of sugar, even though fruit is a good source of vitamins and low in calories as a snack?

What do you guys think? Is sugar in fruit a bad thing or is it something i shouldn't be too worried about?

Thanks

Replies

  • deb3129
    deb3129 Posts: 1,294 Member
    I don't worry about the sugar from fruit. I almost always snack on fruit when I snack, and am always over the sugar recommendation on MFP. But I have been steadily losing, and my lab results were fantastic at my physical 2 weeks ago. So I am not giving up my fruit!!
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    I don't think fruit intake is causing a plateau.

    Since losing 34lbs have you reduced caloie intake and if so, how much?

    What is your current calorie and macro intake in grams?
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
    Sugar is just a sub-set of carbs and from a weight loss perspective will not cause a plateau in isolation.
  • susyw_2003
    susyw_2003 Posts: 70
    It was always set as 1200 (give or take because of eating back some exercise calories) but recently (last 6 weeks say) ive starting upping it and changing it to say, 1500 one day, 1300 the next, 1800 the day to try and change up my body and also to adapt to the amount i exercise. But still this isnt working, the scales and tape measure isnt changing?
  • witchy_wife
    witchy_wife Posts: 792 Member
    Maybe try switching one or two pieces to a lower sugar type of fruit such as strawberries or blueberries and see if it makes a difference. I'm not sure if it will but I guess it can't harm to try.
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    It was always set as 1200 (give or take because of eating back some exercise calories) but recently (last 6 weeks say) ive starting upping it and changing it to say, 1500 one day, 1300 the next, 1800 the day to try and change up my body and also to adapt to the amount i exercise. But still this isnt working, the scales and tape measure isnt changing?

    Changing your daily intake without changing your average intake isn't going to do anything substantial.

    Can you tell me your average intake AFTER eating back exercise calories?
    How active are you outside of the gym?
    Do you use a food scale REGULARLY?
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
    Do you strength train?
  • susyw_2003
    susyw_2003 Posts: 70
    sure, thanks for the help;

    average AFTER eating back 1400
    outside of the gym, not very - office job, so sat down 9-5 aside from weekends where ill do my usual gym routine but also go for long walks.
    and i do use a food scale for measuring things like meat, cereal, vegetables
  • susyw_2003
    susyw_2003 Posts: 70
    and yes, sorry i do a mixture of weight training, cardio and circuit training 5 days a week - 60 minutes
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    Current height/weight and if you know it, bodyfat%?
  • susyw_2003
    susyw_2003 Posts: 70
    im 5"3 and currently 8 st 10, no idea on body fat im afraid.
  • SheenSZF
    SheenSZF Posts: 88
    Since you "snack on a lot of fruit throughout the day", the fruit could be part of the problem. Whereas fruit does have a lot of nutrition, vegetables have way more nutrition for the calories. Try reducing your fruit and increasing your vegetables.
    Also, you don't weigh very much and you're nearing your weight goal, which often means needing to make even more changes to lose those last pounds as they can be the hardest to lose.
  • StarLeopard
    StarLeopard Posts: 80 Member
    Since you "snack on a lot of fruit throughout the day", the fruit could be part of the problem. Whereas fruit does have a lot of nutrition, vegetables have way more nutrition for the calories. Try reducing your fruit and increasing your vegetables.
    Also, you don't weigh very much and you're nearing your weight goal, which often means needing to make even more changes to lose those last pounds as they can be the hardest to lose.
    There is some thought out there that fruit sugar is handled differently by the body than other carbs. It probably depends to some degree on body types. You have to experiment to see what works best for you I think. Why not give it a try? What do you have to lose? Keep us posted.
  • susyw_2003
    susyw_2003 Posts: 70
    Sure, i think its one of those things you just assume fruit is good for you regardless of the sugar/carb element. I think its a good idea to cut down on the fruit and maybe try things like carrot or cucumber sticks instead and see how that goes in helping my plateau. Who knows! i guess the best thing to do is just try different things.

    And SheenSZF i do agree, this is where the hard work starts as its a killer that the more you loose, the harder it gets!
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
    How are you estimating your calorie burns for exercise? You mention that you weigh some items - do you weigh and measure everything?
  • AmberJo1984
    AmberJo1984 Posts: 1,067 Member
    I wouldn't cut them out... but, I probably wouldn't snack on them all day long. Try snacking on veggies instead. Have fruit for your meals... or an after-meal dessert.
  • susyw_2003
    susyw_2003 Posts: 70
    I have a HRM which helps me measure the circuit training and cardio so I think the amount I burn is as accurate as I can get it.
    And no i don't weigh and measure everything.. things like home-made meals i would but sometimes its impractical to measure everything i eat as you can imagine
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
    I have a HRM which helps me measure the circuit training and cardio so I think the amount I burn is as accurate as I can get it.
    And no i don't weigh and measure everything.. things like home-made meals i would but sometimes its impractical to measure everything i eat as you can imagine

    I actually think you should make an effort to weigh and measure everything. You cannot know your calorie intake without doing so and as such do not really have the data to determine why you are not losing weight. Also, HRMs are not always accurate as they use algorithms that make a certain amount of assumptions.

    My advice: try to get a better accuracy on your food intake and so not eat all your exercise calories back (eat 50 - 75% back).

    I actually would also suggest taking a full diet break for 7 - 10 days. Exercising and dieting is hard on the body and can get our hormones out of whack.

    Here is a good write up: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-full-diet-break.html


    In summary:

    1) take a diet break where you eat at maintenance for 7 - 10 days
    2) when you get back to dieting, be more accurate with food intake and only eat back 50% - 75% of your exercise calories.
    3) keep this up for 4 - 6 weeks and tweak accordingly depending on the results.
  • Brian_VA
    Brian_VA Posts: 125
    Fruit can certainly be healthy, but it also contains a lot of sugar. Bananas and grapes are among the highest sugar fruit. Apples are great, as are strawberries and blueberries. Grapefruit is also a good one (I always remember them being sour and needing a lot of sugar on top, but since cutting way back on sugar I now find them just right). I eat 1 occasionally 2 pieces of fruit a day. I try to eat them early in the day, when I still have a lot of time and activities to burn us the calories. Shortly before a workout is a great time.

    The other thing to realize is that calories burned on exercise are normally reported very high compared to what your body is actually burning. A couple of reasons / examples:

    1 - If a woman were to run 30 minutes at a certain pace for the first time ever, if she could do it, she'd burn a lot more calories than a marathoner of the same age and weight doing the same thing.

    2 - The more you do an exercise the more efficient your body gets doing it, and the fewer calories it is burning for that person. So if you do an elliptical on level 10 for 30 minutes and it says you burned 400 calories, and you do that same exercise every other day for a month, you will be burning far fewer calories on that last day than on that first day. But the machine will faithfully report ~400 for both.

    3 - The fitness industry wants us to believe we are burning incredible numbers of calories to make us feel their machine/exercise is the best. So whatever the machines, web sites, and even MFP are reporting you can assume is very optimistic!

    4 - Exercise is extremely important to long term weight loss. So if we are getting the message that 30 minutes jogging on the treadmill is only burning 125 calories, people are going to say "the heck with this" and stop doing it. Reporting lots of calories burned encourages us to stick with it, which is a good thing!

    Bottom line - don't eat back the exercise calories from your diary. Look at them, feel good about them, but then eat back a very pessimistic estimate of your actual burn. Maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of that reported.

    I think moderating your fruit intake and reducing the amount of eating back calories will help you get back on track.

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