Have questions on shakes, yogurts, and sugar substitutes

Shake - I only use them as a snack so I can't really help, but typically I just put some vanilla protein powder, fruit, milk, greek yogurt in them.

Yogurts - the healthiest way is to buy plain and add your own fruit. You'll still get more carb from the fruit, but it will fill you up more. Greek yogurt has more protein so it's better for you too. I'm still lazy at times and buy the kind that has fruit though, but it definitely won't fill me up as much for the same amount of calories than if I just had plain yogurt with strawberries.

WW - this isn't weight watcher. If you use MFP, you have to log everything, or you'll probably end up eating at maintenance level instead of a deficit.

Sugar substitutes - I just use sugar (rarely). It's 4g of carbs for a teaspoon. Not a huge deal. I don't like artificial sweeteners anyway.

Yes, if you do yogurt, stick with Plain Organic Greek Yogurt- No sugar added. Add your own sweenter, ingredient. Stay away from artificial sweetners like splends/equal. Good alternatives are Stevia and Xylitol.

Experiment with your shakes- but be careful which fruits you use. A lot of shake recipes call for bananas- but if you are trying to eliminate excess sugar, you want to stay away from bananas -they are very high in sugar. Use ingredients like spinach, strawberries, blueberriers, raspberry/blackberries or other vegetables. Be conservative with other fruits like regular apples, peaches, ect as they also are high in sugar.

To add protein to your yogurt/shakes- the best is whey protein, you can also experiment with ground flax and chia seeds, hemp oil.

try different liquids to find what you like, water, organic milk, almond milk, coconut milk- no sugar added, egg whites.

Just try different things to find what you like. Its fun!

I know this is not WW, I'm well aware who I have signed up with. Those on WW also log their daily intake and exercise. I was just curious what others thought about eating unlimited amounts of fruits and vegies which of course we would account for. If I'm hungry or craving something I'd rather work in something healthy than unhealthy like the fruits or vegies especially if I am right at my intake mark.

Another reason for this question was from another post I had read and the lady was concerned about going over her sugar level and one response stated that she should not worry about the sugar level if here intake included fruits with a high sugar count.

Log it all - I did WW and thought woo-hoo free fruits and veggies. NO WAY - fruits have tons of calories - good grief look at an avocado - I thought guacamole was a wonderful swap. WOW was I wrong. And have you seen the calories in a banana - whoa.

You will find most people here say not to worry about the sugar numbers as long as they come from fruit - be more concerned with processed sugars. I have diabetes in the family so I pay a bit more attention to the numbers. Translation: I look at them and say 'really' and that's about it - If I become diabetic I will change my diet then. I am dieting and exercising now so that I don't get that in the future.

I only use Splenda in my coffee because I like it sweet (2 - 3 spoonfuls of regular sugar vs 2 packets of Splenda). Everywhere else I only use real sweeteners (stevia, honey, molasses, brown sugar, and for certain recipes I still use the processed white sugar)

Best of luck and google 'shakes' and you will have more information than you could ever process - so tasty, but also can be very high in calories so be careful.

I thought I would 'go it alone' in changing my diet to only healthy foods, but forgot all about portion control. Who cares right, if it's good for you. Nope.

With MFP I am now on track and doing great.

EDIT: Oh and yogurt - I went from Dannon French Vanila (so delicious and fat and sugar full) to Chobani low-fat plain which I flavor myself - my next step is Chobani full fat. If you look at the labels - serving for serving low-fat items tend to have more sugar than full fat items. Tells me they are covering up something nasty that they aren't telling me about on the label.

I eat Dannon Oikos Greek yogurt Plain, I used to stir in sugar free preserves but now I just add Stevia in the Raw. This is the only sweetener I use. And as far as shakes go, I don't do shakes but I have a Protein Coffee when I break my fast. 8oz of cold coffee and a scoop of whey protein. Yum tastes like mocha.

Hey Dollfun1 -

I actually got off all sugar additions - cane,corn or artificial. My only sweetner these days is a daily dose of fage honey greek 0% fat yogurt. I drink my coffee and only fat free half and half in it. I just swore off drinking anything sweet and find it helps me really enjoy greek yogurt more as well as the taste of my meals. (Oh,yea, and a few years ago when I dropped my nasty diet coke problem cold turkey, I dropped 13 pounds without changing a single thing in my life)

As for as yogurts go, I am particular to fage plain 0% greek or their fruyo line. I limit these to two servings a day. I do like Fro yo, but discovered this week it makes me retain water unless I make it at home,so as of this week, I am back just fage yogurt .

I count/log all calories. I am on maintenance and because of my job as a business consultant, have to eat out about 7-14 meals a week. I find that fruit and veggies should be two separate food groups. If it is lettuce or spinach or kale, I don't weigh or measure it - i just log it at one cup of whatever. If it is apple or avocado or banana, i weigh it or try to estimate it if I am buying and consuming immediatly.

Hope that helps ...