Sugar, sugar-HELP!

I am ALWAYS over but its all natural i stopped tracking sugar and just made sure its from healthy places

i struggle with the same, but im not yet ready to try anything to stop it lol im a stubborn person. i will say one thing. it may take longer to lose the weight if you consume too many sugars ( at least thats how my body reacts.) and if you really like your slim fasts, try finding a low sugar protien power. and make it with fat free milk or almond milk. you get more protien fron the powder and you also get less sugars, :-) good luck

I use up a lot of my carbs, and sugar, w/my slightly sweetened tea. I can't use non-sugar sweeteners, because they give me migraines. What I don't like is that I'm using up carb calories with processed sugar, that I could be replacing with healthy carbs...veggies, fruits, whole grains. So I'm slowly cutting down my tea & increasing water. Another reason to cut back..."scientists now know that sugar is almost as big a culprit in heart disease as dietary fat. Sugar raises levels of blood fats & LDL (bad) cholesterol. Also damages the linings of blood vessels, raising the risk for stroke, heart attack, high blood pressure, & triglyceride levels." Just because you don't have medical issues now, doesn't mean you couldn't develop them, or just try to be healthy anyway.

Try to make little changes, that bring your sugar down gradually. Maybe try to find a meal replacement that has less sugar, just buy one of each at the store to give them a try. Same thing w/the ice cream, read the labels & try the brands that have less sugar to see if you might like them even better than the Edy's.

KEEP Looking for Little Changes That Can Make a Big Difference...I eat yogurt for breakfast. Used to only like Yoplait Original (170 calories/5 g protein/2g fat), kept trying new Greek yogurts as they came out & finally found one I liked, Oikos Traditional (160 calories/11g protein/5g fat). Saw a new Greek yogurt & decided to give it a try & really like it...Fage Total 0% w/Raspberry (120 calories/13g protein/0g fat). So w/gradual changes, I've cut 50 mostly fat calories from my breakfast, but more than doubled my protein intake. Everyone has different tastes, find something YOU like, but don't close the door to a healthy upgrade as new products come out.

I took a peek at your diary and it looks like the majority of your sugar is coming from whole sources. (Fruits, etc.). So I wouldn't worry too much about it.

I definately don't think sugar in it's natural form found in God given whole foods is an issue. I agree with the others, the benefits (fiber) far outways the sugar.

It doesn't need to alwyas be plain, I LOVE the vanilla. I got used to the differant texture and taste pretty fast. When I was pregnant with the twins I got gestational diabetes and my dietician got me hooked on it. Haven't switched back once.

I was finding on other boards too that MFP standards can be low. I just changed my % to 40-30-30 (which when you select 40 it changed the others to 30-30 automatically). Only been a day but does seem more reasonable.

I manually changed my % to 50-25-25 based on more current recommendations than MFP seems to be using.

OP...you might also want to try switching your artificial sweetener from Splenda to stevia (Truvia). It's more natural, doesn't seem to have the negative health effects like some report w/Splenda, & still 0 calories.

Do you have a medical condition that requires you to limit your sugar intake?

If you answered yes - then you should watch your sugar intake (according to your doctor's recommendations).

If you answered no - then you just need to worry about a calorie deficit for weight loss.

Even if a person doesn't have a medical condition now, that doesn't mean that taking in too much sugar in the present cannot cause one in the future. I think it's very important for a person's health to limit refined sugar intake, even too much fruit intake can cause problems. I would try to reduce your sugar and artificial sweetener intake, it may not be what you want to hear, but processed foods aren't the road to healthiness.

Do you have a medical condition that requires you to limit your sugar intake?

If you answered yes - then you should watch your sugar intake (according to your doctor's recommendations).

If you answered no - then you just need to worry about a calorie deficit for weight loss.

Even if a person doesn't have a medical condition now, that doesn't mean that taking in too much sugar in the present cannot cause one in the future. I think it's very important for a person's health to limit refined sugar intake, even too much fruit intake can cause problems. I would try to reduce your sugar and artificial sweetener intake, it may not be what you want to hear, but processed foods aren't the road to healthiness.

Care to enlighten us to the conditions we will get sweet cheeks?

I do try to make healthy choices as far as sugars are concerned... but recently, I made the decision to hide my sugar intake on MFP. It's enough that I am trying to stay within my Carbs/Protein/Fats, I don't need the extra stress of seeing the sugars in red everyday.

Even milk was sending me over my limit. I knew then that these settings were ridiculous lol

Milk has galactose and contributes to blood glucose levels but you don't take the metabolic hit with galactose that you do with sucrose or fructose. If you OD'd on galactose, you might get diarrhea but that's about it. Sugar (sucrose) is a whole different kettle of fish. Most of the fructose that we take in, comes from our sugar habit (sucrose is 50% fructose and 50% glucose). Fructose in the small amounts that we take in through a couple of servings of fruit is not a problem. But sugar consumption (the average American takes in 500 calories a day in added sucrose or high fructose corn syrup per day) is a real problem. Virtually all processed food contains some added sugar and a LOT of salt (I suppose they add it to cover up the too sweet taste from the added sugar). One of the problems with the "total sugar" approach that they use at MFP is that it doesn't distinguish the types of sugar. It is sucrose and fructose that must be watched. Obesity researchers suggest that obese persons (or persons trying to lose body fat) limit their fructose consumption to 15 grams or less per day. You can calculate it by hand--that's what I do. I ignore galactose or dextrose (the industry name for glucose). I generally eat lower carb anyway so high blood glucose isn't a problem for me. Interestingly, researchers have recently noted that obese folk seem to be able to efficiently convert high blood glucose into fructose! So watching total carbs is important too--especially if one is experiencing higher blood glucose levels than in the past.

Even milk was sending me over my limit. I knew then that these settings were ridiculous lol

Milk has galactose and contributes to blood glucose levels but you don't take the metabolic hit with galactose that you do with sucrose or fructose. If you OD'd on galactose, you might get diarrhea but that's about it. Sugar (sucrose) is a whole different kettle of fish. Most of the fructose that we take in, comes from our sugar habit (sucrose is 50% fructose and 50% glucose). Fructose in the small amounts that we take in through a couple of servings of fruit is not a problem. But sugar consumption (the average American takes in 500 calories a day in added sucrose or high fructose corn syrup per day) is a real problem. Virtually all processed food contains some added sugar and a LOT of salt (I suppose they add it to cover up the too sweet taste from the added sugar). One of the problems with the "total sugar" approach that they use at MFP is that it doesn't distinguish the types of sugar. It is sucrose and fructose that must be watched. Obesity researchers suggest that obese persons (or persons trying to lose body fat) limit their fructose consumption to 15 grams or less per day. You can calculate it by hand--that's what I do. I ignore galactose or dextrose (the industry name for glucose). I generally eat lower carb anyway so high blood glucose isn't a problem for me. Interestingly, researchers have recently noted that obese folk seem to be able to efficiently convert high blood glucose into fructose! So watching total carbs is important too--especially if one is experiencing higher blood glucose levels than in the past.

I consume daily high amounts of sugar due to the amount of fruit I consume. My breakfast alone sends me skyrockting over the sugar amounts here on MFP. Regularly I am twice or triple the suggested amount here yet I lose weight perfectly fine. Fruitarians lose weight fine most times and consume incredibly large amounts of fruit everyday.

Sugar is sugar. Fructose, or sugar coming from fruit obviously comes with a lot more nutrients than refined or added sugar. I fail to see how limiting your fruit sugars will cause you to lose more weight... or gain if you are consuming a lot of fruit. I lose better now that most of my intake is fruit than I did before.