Sugar Confusion

I don't track sugar and instead track fiber (and sodium). Since I'm already tracking my carbs and don't have any medical reason to watch my sugar intake, I find that tracking sugar as well is just redundant.

As the above poster mentioned, you really just want to aim for a balanced diet. There's no harm in eating carbs/sugars as long as your other nutritional needs are being met.

Here's an interesting article about added sugar on CNN. This news came out recently. The World Health Organization, plus some other organizations, say added sugar should be limited to 25 grams a day (search CNN and more about the topic will come up). For reference, a can of soda has about 40 grams of added sugar. Some organizations say up to 100 grams a day is okay.

This is added sugar, not the sugar in fresh fruit.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/06/health/who-sugar-guidelines/index.html?iref=allsearch

If you don't want to track the sugar in fruit, you can change your settings to track something else. The MFP setting tracks all sugar and might be helpful for someone with diabetes or other health problems.

Too bad there wasn't a way to deliniate between processed and natural sugars. I'd still be over, but I'm working on it! I guess my concern is that there's a history of diabetes in my family. Although I am very overweight I keep checking my blood sugar levels and I'm fine. But just to be safe I want to cut down on the processed stuff in favor of fruits and natural sugars like honey/maple syrup. I wonder where I could find a suggestion for a more balanced number for a whole foods diet. Or should I switch to tracking fiber? Thought?

Sugars are sugars - carbs convert to sugar also so you may want to watch those - I am never over on my carbs and as I posted when I view a 90 day report my sugar isn't that bad. If your blood sugars are normal don't stress about it, eat a healthy well balanced diet and track fiber - you can still view your sugar intake in the reports section if you want to look at it periodically.

I had the exact same question and issue when I first joined. What I learned is that MFP's baseline for sugar is quite low, way too low, I believe. But like you, I didn't want to just ignore the metric. Did you know that you can manually change the metric? I'm pretty sure you can (but it's been a while since I've played with that function). I would recommend that you look at your actual sugar intake on good days when you were eating very healthy sugars (reasonable amounts of fruit, whole grain cereals, etc.) and decide for yourself what your target is going to be and input it. You can always check with your doctor or a nurse or nutritionist to see if the goal you selected was appropriate for you.

Sugar has been demonized lately. It's this decade's scapegoat. Your confusion stems from the propaganda you have heard and read about it. Unless your health restricts you from sugar specifically with something like diabetes it's not that big a deal.

If you're concerned about diabetes, ditch the sugar reading ad edit your carb limit to be at the lowest recommended limit (45%) if you're not very active. Sugar on its own does not make you diabetic, but an overall mix of genetics, lifestyle and waist circumference. Personally I would advise you to set it to 50% and do some harder workouts, since those have been shown to help with insulin resistance.

You can also customize your macro percentages to better reflect the way you eat or want to eat. I believe MFP's default carb percentage is 55%, but you can change it if you want. A popular ratio is 40% carbs, 30% fat, and 30% protein. I find that when I focus on hitting my protein and fat numbers, my carbs naturally end up on the lower side (around or below 200 grams a day).

If you're just starting out, it does take a little time to revamp your eating habits and make them more balanced, but you'll get there. Just focus on eating a varied, moderate diet and your preferences may naturally evolve to include fewer simple carbohydrates. But, eating the occasional candy bar isn't necessarily a bad thing either