eating too much sugar ... but its fruit!

I've been logging on loseit.com since March 2013, I prefer it to MFP by far. Besides that point, I went back and looked at my sugar intake the past few months. It usually doesn't exceed 50 grams, and I eat a ton of tropical fruit in the summer (papaya, pineapple, mangoes) as well as watermelon (3 cups a day lately!). I typically always eat a lot of berries (blue berries, strawberries), stone fruits (peaches, pluots, apricots), grapes, grapefruits, and sometimes medium bananas, throughout the year.

I also love tomatoes and avocados. I do eat a fair amount of veggies as well, but I tend to get more excited about fruits! They're just so much more appealing, colorful, delicious...haha. I do like the thought of combining them with veggies in shakes, that seems to make a lot of sense nutritionally and in terms of taste, but I prefer eating things whole I guess, haha.

Anyway, I set my sugar intake goal to "no more than 92 grams a day" on loseit.com, and I plan to decrease that to 75 grams a day in a week, and 50 grams a day a week there after. Although, if ever I go over that, I won't beat myself up. Here's my logic:

[Amount of sugar in the typical 5-7 servings of fruit & veggies a day]
Breakfast:
15 grams: 1 serving of fruit - Banana (medium)
Lunch:
2 grams: 1 serving of veggies - Leafy Greens (1 cup)
8 grams: 1 serving of fruit - Strawberries (sliced, 1/2 cup)
Snack:
10 grams: 1 serving of fruit - Pineapple (chunks, 1/2 cup)
Dinner:
2 grams: 1 serving of veggies - Leafy Greens (1 cup)
2 grams: 1 serving of veggies - Salad bar veggies - 2 tbs shredded carrots, 2 tbs red onion, 1 crimini mushroom sliced, 3 cucumber slices, 1 broccoli floret, 2 tomato wedges (1/2 cup, total)
25 grams: 1 serving of fruit - Apple (small)


This is a modest day in consumption of fruits & veggies for me, and the total is 64 grams of sugar!! I just entered this into loseit.com, and this meal plan is only 297 calories! That leaves room for all the oil, seeds, nuts, whole grains, fish, fowl, eggs, and dairy you can stand! That said, I've been known to consider chocolate and honey in such a plan as well, hehe. However, there's always liquid Stevia!

Here's a further nutrition break down:
Fat 1.1g 3%
Saturated Fat 0.2g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 119.6mg
Carbohydrates 73.7g 91%
Fiber 11.9g
Sugars 63.2g
Protein 4.9g 6%

I avoid added sugar by not drinking pop (diet if I really must have some - maybe once a month), limiting alcohol intake and sticking to La Croix natural sparkling flavored water (for the carbonated drink cravings). La Croix is a brand that is free of sugar, sodium (!!!) and caffeine, which makes this a really nice/guilt-free drink (unfortunately, the acidic effect of carbonation can still deteriorate tooth enamel). I always get tea or coffee with Stevia, instead of sugar, and I absolutely love store-bought Kombucha as well (which has some natural sugars from the fermenting process and the added juice flavorings). That, and a lot of tap/spring water!!

My weaknesses are chocolate for sure, and sometimes cookies/pastries, but you gotta live a little! I take the approach that I want to lose weight eating the way I want and need to, so that it doesn't feel restrictive and is easily sustainable after meeting the goal weight.

Its been an eye opener to consider how much nutrients I need on a daily basis, and how much I usually get. The most difficult to control is carb and sodium intake. Its usually easy to get enough fiber, but I have to work at getting enough protein. I never worry about fats in my diet, I think I need more fats than the average woman due to my medical diagnoses. Lastly, I also never knew that I wasn't getting enough fluids, since I drink so much water as it is! "The Food and Nutrition Board recommendation for minimum water intake through fluids is 74oz for women and 101oz for men."

Nutrition should be taught in schools, along with personal finance and also fitness.

All sugar is not created equal. Sugar gets a bad wrap because most people for some reason seem to lump sugar from things like soda, in with natural sugar found in things like fruit. There is zero comparison. You can eat tons and tons of fruit and not worry about the sugar content. I never have. Sodas, cakes, etc. filled with fake sugar aka high fructose corn syrup is an entirely different story as is processed sugar that you would put into coffee, for example.

I consume about 60-70, sometimes 100 grams of sugar a day through juicing and eating various fruits & vegetables and it hasn't effected my weight loss at all. It speeds things up actually as fruits/pulp/fiber get things going gastrointestinally and help move things along...lol.

Fruit is awesome and the human body needs it. Eat it, eat a lot of it and don't sweat the sugar content.

Don't count the sugar in your fruit. I stopped tracking my sugar and just started tracking fiber instead. Just watched the refined sugar. You shouldn't have to cut out healthy food that contains natural sugars. i think the sugar tracker is meant more for refined sugar.

Hi!! I recently came back to myfitnesspal, I must say I've been doing great!! However I'd like to know how much fruit is too much fruit?? I've been adding a small banana, 1/2 cup of strawberries, and a 1/2 cup of mango to make my morning smoothie; too much sugar!!! Today I added a kiwi for an evening snack and my sugar intake is way over; someone please help! Thank you :huh:

take the sugar meter off of your macros bar, replace it with something else. You can eat as much fruit as you want. Sugar does not make you fat, fat makes you fat. I eat 200-300 grams of carbs/sugar a day. Don't worry about fruits.

http://www.30bananasaday.com/

Excess calories make you fat. Fat does not make you fat. You could eat 3500+ calories in bananas and you will gain weight.

^^ HIGH 5!!

^^^
sugar and calories from fruit don't just dissapear into a black whole becasue fruit is *good* for you

How much is too much? log it all, if it's over your calorie target it IS too much for you to expect to reach the weight loss goal you want. Eating above your calorie target and sugar is a calorie provider wherever it comes from, will stop you loosing weight .

Per my nutritionist, best time to consume simple carbs is in the morning and just before working out. It's also good to balance it out with some protein as it slows the absorption of the sugar into the blood stream.

Errr Fire your nutritionist that's just nonsense

Ignore the MFP sugar counter. Replace it with something like calcium, fiber, or Vitamin C.

This. So This.

I replaced Sodium and Sugar with Calcium and Fiber.

take the sugar meter off of your macros bar, replace it with something else. You can eat as much fruit as you want. Sugar does not make you fat, fat makes you fat. I eat 200-300 grams of carbs/sugar a day. Don't worry about fruits.

http://www.30bananasaday.com/

Fat does not make you fat and NO you can't eat as much fruit as you want.

Well, I guess it depends on what your goals are. If your goals are just to watch some arbitrary number called a calorie count and exercise yourself to death to lose weight, then fine eat as much as you want.

However, if your goals are for good health now and going into the future, it is best to have only 1 or 2 servings of fruit per day and the rest should come from vegetables.

take the sugar meter off of your macros bar, replace it with something else. You can eat as much fruit as you want. Sugar does not make you fat, fat makes you fat. I eat 200-300 grams of carbs/sugar a day. Don't worry about fruits.

http://www.30bananasaday.com/

Fat does not make you fat and NO you can't eat as much fruit as you want.

Well, I guess it depends on what your goals are. If your goals are just to watch some arbitrary number called a calorie count and exercise yourself to death to lose weight, then fine eat as much as you want.

However, if your goals are for good health now and going into the future, it is best to have only 1 or 2 servings of fruit per day and the rest should come from vegetables.

Only 1-2 per day if your goals are good health?? Says who??

There is so much varying literature about this and it seems to be reflected in this discussion. My default sugar setting seems to be a lot higher than whats been mentioned probably because I do 60-75 minutes of Cardio most days. Sugar in fruit is different than the refined sugar. It doesn't tax your system to process fruit sugar in the same way that processing refined sugar does.. I've cut refined sugar out completely from my diet. I eat a banana a day as well as some form of berry. I also have either an apple, a pear, an orange, or a couple of kiwis a day. On top of this I'm also eating at least 2 pounds of veggie both cooked and raw, some of which has naturally occurring sugars. I also have a small amount of non-fat dairy in the week which contains sugar. I'm losing weight I'm loosing weight because I'm creating a calorie deficit. It's pretty much that simple. My advice from my experience is don't worry about the sugar if you aren't eating refined sugar.

Eating too much fruit actually CAN make you fat. With an average 2000 calorie diet you should be eating around 2 cups of fruit. Fruit has calories and sugar even if it's good for you. Sometimes too much of a good thing can be bad. Try keeping your fruit servings down to 2 cups and eating around 2 1/2 cups of veggies.

Facts about sugar in fruit...

The sugar in fruit is different than sugar in other foods. The sugar is in the fiber of the fruit, which means it slowly releases the sugar into your blood stream instead of all at once....like cookies or cake would do. Also because of the slow release it is highly unlikely your body would store sugar, instead it will use these sugars up first.

Just be very careful with juice drinks. In the process of making juice you literally squeeze the sugar out of the fiber. The fiber, which is what gives the sugar the slow release feature, is gone and therefore so is the sugars ability to release slowly. Juice still has some nice vitamins, but it should not be consumed as much or in replace of fruit.