Goal setting for sugar

sandeepnair
sandeepnair Posts: 21
edited September 21 in Food and Nutrition
My goal is to reduce belly fat and bloating. Based on my data, this app has set 32g! of Sugar per day (that's like just one fruit flavoured yogurt). Since I do cardio for 500 cals almost everyday, per the app, I need 2010 cals. How am I supposed to get 2010 cals per day with 32g sugar and 2300mg sodium? Is it really possible to gain 2010 cals keeping these limits for sugar and sodium? I changed a lot of food types (btw, I'm vegetarian), but this doesnt seem like a possibility.

Isn't the app supposed to increase sugar level when I add cardio, or do I have to maintain the 32g regardless of exercise?
If I can increase the limit of sugar how much can I add safely?

Thanks for your help.

Replies

  • army_munchkin
    army_munchkin Posts: 52
    I seem to be having the same problem.......and since sugar in fruits and veggies is natural sugar should it even count against the goal. I was thinking the sugar would be processed sugars you know the "bad" sugar??? I'm so confused...... :(
  • sandeepnair
    sandeepnair Posts: 21
    Anyone there to help?
  • ivleafklover
    ivleafklover Posts: 36 Member
    I was also really confused about the sugar thing.

    Simple sugars are bad, even if it comes from fruit your body will use it really quickly and then store it as fat.

    but

    fibrous Sugars <-- really good for you (veggies, etc.)
    &
    Starchy Sugars <-- whole grains, potatoes (not fried)

    Are ok, just makes sure they are not processed, and truly are natural.

    I found a good website about it but I can't remember where.
    I did a google search on it.
  • sunnyland
    sunnyland Posts: 8 Member
    I stopped tracking sugar here because a banana set me with no sugar left for the day. Ridiculous. I told myself to just stay away from sugary sodas, candies, foods, etc and not worry about the sugar. I pretty much only worry about ADDED stuff...like I never sweeten anything or add salt or anything like that.

    So my advice would be to ignore it and keep yourself in check when it comes to unnatural sugary food.
  • TrainingWithTonya
    TrainingWithTonya Posts: 1,741 Member
    Okay, first of all, fruit sugar and table sugar are completely different things. Fruit Sugar is Fructose (Not High Fructose Corn Syrup like added sugar). Table sugar and HFCS are a combination of Glucose and Fructose. The combination of Glucose and Fructose raises the blood sugar faster then straight Fructose because the Glucose can go straight to the blood stream from the liver when it is digested, but Fructose has to be converted to Glucose in the liver before it can be used by the body. I hate that this program doesn't separate out Added Sugar from Total Sugar because you don't know if you are meeting the limits of Added Sugar or not if you eat fruit, veggies, etc. And I have no idea where they get the ridiculously low sugar recommendation numbers on here. The actual recommendation is to cut Added Sugar (table sugar, HFCS) to less then 25% of your total intake. For 2010 calories, 25% would be about 500 calories from Added Sugar. Divide that by 4 since carbs are 4 calories per gram and you get 125 grams per day of Added Sugar, not Total Sugar. If you really want to be meticulous about it, you can look at you Total Sugar number on here and subtract out the fruit sugar in whole foods like fruits and veggies to get your grams of added sugar. Personally, I don't have a problem with high blood sugar (if anything mine is low and I have to add sugar), so I don't worry about being that meticulous about counting it. If you have issues with sugar, though, you might want to keep an eye on it.
  • SouthernBell86
    SouthernBell86 Posts: 275 Member
    First of all, sugar is sugar is sugar. It comes in different forms, that your body processes a bit differently, some better than others, but it's still sugar.

    Most fruits contain a combination of Glucose and Fructose - there is a chart on the wikipedia page that shows you the ratio of a few fruits and vegetables. Actually in almost any source you eat a sugar you are most likely to get some combination of sugars, and not just one by itself.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fructose

    Now, that said fructose doesn't cause your body to produce insulin, and it has a very low glycemic index. It is also sweeter than sucrose (which is glucose and fructose bonded together in a 1:1 ratio). Your liver must process the fructose though, and it can be quite demanding on the liver to do so, and to the detriment of other things it should be processing, whereas the rest of the body is able to process glucose. Excessive fructose has been linked with gout, and obesity as well.

    So that being said, I do feel that 25 is a bit low, but not by much. Fruit is good for you, but so are vegetables, and most vegetables have a dramatically lower level of sugar. Remember throughout most of history, people would only eat fruit products when they were in season, or after they were stored on special occasions in smallish quantities. You really should have more servings of vegetables than fruit in a day.

    Like I said, fruit has fructose and glucose, so when you eat it, the glucose does spike your blood sugar, which is something we all should be aware of. You don't want your blood sugar getting to high, if it does that is when the body starts converting the glucose into fat for long term storage.

    So for me the key to sugars is to look at how spread out they were throughout the day. Try not to eat all your sugar all in one sitting. Also, if you are getting some of your sugars from complex carbs like whole grains then you don't need to sweat that as much, because it takes the body longer to digest, and thus the glucose reaches your bloodstream slowly over the next several hours without creating the spike that simple carbs (anything with table sugar added to it) can.

    Don't be too worried if you went over your sugar for the day, but just be aware of how and when you eat it.
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