My sugar intake is always DOUBLE or more what it's supposed

BettrFastrStrongr
BettrFastrStrongr Posts: 17 Member
edited September 26 in Food and Nutrition
Hi guys :)

I am just wondering how the heck you keep the amount of sugar you've calculated on MFP to consume per day where it's supposed to be? Mine is without fail always double+ the 35 g it's supposed to be. But I don't understand why? Since I started MFP in March I cut out pop, juice, all sugary drinks, sweets & desserts on a regular basis, etc.

Even on days I do not consume a morsel of dessert my sugar is double.

I do drink milk. I know regular cow's skim milk has about 12 g, but at this point just switching from my 2% to skim is a good step, I do want to try Silk *eventually* as I know the sugar is under 10 g. I choose healthy breakfast cereals that always keep the sugar under 10 g. (Yes, I realize some breakfast cereals such as plain Cheeries have like 1 g but the ones I choose also have a LOT more protein & fiber.) I think Fiber One plain has 0 or 1 grams. But maaaan do my choices taste a lot more flavorful. I suppose I could always suck it up lol.

I also eat yogurt fairly regularly, but I always choose the ones with the least amount of sugar, though sugar is never super low in yogurt b/c of the milk content. Anyone have any good yogurt suggestions? I was going to try Greek yogurt but when I was checking out the selection at my grocery story they all seemed as high as regular yogurt. I think even the plain Greek yogurt had 9 g of sugar, but don't quote me on that.

I obviously eat fruit, around 2 - 3 servings a day, but yeah that can't change. The rest of the sugar just comes in small increments from the other stuff I'm eating I guess. So I guess I'm just wondering what am I doing that's so bad? Does anyone else have this issue?

Replies

  • mscaff
    mscaff Posts: 2 Member
    It is probably the fruit you are eating. My sugar is always higher than what it should be. It even says I am over for Vitamin C because of the orange juice I drink. As long as you are not taking in high fructose corn syrup and other bad sugars you should be okay. I have lost 10 lbs and my sugar has been over the recommended amount every day. This is just my opinion, but calories in and calories out are the most important numbers to watch. Not sure if this helps.
  • nextrightthing
    nextrightthing Posts: 408 Member
    Seriously some one posts about this every couple of days.......because I think many of us are confused by it. I for one am not going to quit eating fruit. I notice that I am over my sugar with as little as 1 1/2 to 2 servings of fruit. If you are to add the natural sugars in every other food item...such as milk and so forth I have no idea how to keep the count down either. I am also not sure that the count is right when it takes everything into account......not just refined sugars. BTW if you are interested unsweetened almond milk (vanilla or chocolate) has zero sugars and I really like it.
  • gremlet
    gremlet Posts: 21 Member
    I find the recommended numbers for sugar are pretty unrealistic. Mine is 27g. If I have milk with my cereal and an apple, that's all my sugar used up for the day.

    It also doesn't differentiate between "good" and "bad" sugars. If I eat no fruit and a bar of chocolate, I may well be under. Yet, if I have an orange, an apple and a couple of prunes, I'll be well over. I know what's better for me... :wink:
  • ajfoer
    ajfoer Posts: 36 Member
    MFP is great!!! But with all greatness comes a fault. It does not differentiate between natural sugars and processed or refined sugars. There are lots of foods that have natural sugar that are fantastic for your body i.e. carrots, milk, yogurt, all fruit etc. If you want to track how much refined sugar you are eating try adding up the grams of sugar from "added sugars" not natural. See if that helps.
  • onawho
    onawho Posts: 196 Member
    I had doubled my sugars just from eating my morning fruit. Are sugars from fruits and veg, "better" than refined sugars? I do not drink soda, sugary cerals, I have been known to indulge in dark chocolate. but its my MORNING Breakfast sugars that are killing me.


    I would love to hear what everyone has to say .
  • missy1970eb
    missy1970eb Posts: 1,209 Member
    im always over on sugar and mines normally from cereals and fruit, so i dont worry 2 much:smile:
  • TourThePast
    TourThePast Posts: 1,753 Member
    My goal has been set by this site as 24g of sugar a day, which is extremely low in real terms; a very thin scraping of high fruit marmalade on one slice of toast uses over half of that, and even one portion of fruit a day takes me over my goal.

    I'm not stressing over it, because while I do try to keep sugars in check, my goal is not to lose weight as quickly as possible, but to develop better eating habits in the long term, and eating fruit isn't what put me in this situation in the first place!
  • laddyboy
    laddyboy Posts: 1,565 Member
    Fruit and other natural sugars are processed by the body differently. I'm pretty sure they are tracking the bad sugars. I don't count Milk, Fruit and other natural sugars. Same with Carbs. I don't count Complex carbs towards my daily carb intake. It's the simple carbs that are bad and give you problems.
  • BettrFastrStrongr
    BettrFastrStrongr Posts: 17 Member
    Ahhh, I see. I was not concerned about the sugars affecting my weightloss as whatever I am doing now eating-wise seems to be working. I guess b/c I am borderline prediabetic (I have a few signs of insulin resistance or something) I just wanted to do everything in my power to reverse whatever I have already done.

    But I completely forgot about natural sugars vs artificial. In that case I think I'm doing okay. I feel better now having been reassured. :)

    You know what's crazy? To IMAGINE the amount of sugars I must've been taking in before MFP! I was a pop FIEND. I'm too ashamed to even say the amount I could and used to drink per day prior to March 20th of this year.
  • padigirl
    padigirl Posts: 32
    bump :love:
  • TourThePast
    TourThePast Posts: 1,753 Member
    I'm pretty sure they are tracking the bad sugars.
    Nope, fruit sugars are tracked in by this site in exactly the same way as white sugar.

    But in a way that makes sense - lets not forget that refined sugar is of vegetable origin too, as is honey. The only difference between refined and raw sugar is that some trace minerals are taken out, but in such low quantities as to be negligible in the grand scheme of things.

    There's nothing "evil" about "bad" sugars per se, it's just that they are "empty" calories which can be consumed to excess without gaining any of the additional benefits of the fruit, milk etc that come with "good" sugars.
  • TheGoktor
    TheGoktor Posts: 1,138 Member
    I honestly don't take much notice of the sugar numbers here; I know that eating fruit and veg is good for me, so I am not going to stop just because they take me over my alleged limit! As with everything, common sense should be your guide!

    Incidentally, there is actually no RDA for sugar; however, it is suggested that sugar account for no more than 10% of the daily calorie intake, and in the UK, 90g per day seems to the accepted level for women, with 120g for men - I suspect that this includes all sugars. I don't think I've ever hit 90 since I started MFP!
  • laddyboy
    laddyboy Posts: 1,565 Member
    There's nothing "evil" about "bad" sugars per se, it's just that they are "empty" calories which can be consumed to excess without gaining any of the additional benefits of the fruit, milk etc that come with "good" sugars.

    Really, how about they are cancers main fuel.
    How about they spike insulin and cause fat storage.

    Those things aren't bad?
    Yes, MFP tracks sugars as generic "sugar" but it's only the bad sugars you should be concerened with. That's why you'll see 27 grams for men...that 9 teaspoons ful and that's what's rec. Only 6 for women.

    Nothing good can come from added sugars...period.
  • TheGoktor
    TheGoktor Posts: 1,138 Member
    That's why you'll see 27 grams for men...that 9 teaspoons ful and that's what's rec. Only 6 for women.

    But that's nine UK teaspoons - nine US teaspoons of sugar is roughly 37.5g!
  • laddyboy
    laddyboy Posts: 1,565 Member
    That's why you'll see 27 grams for men...that 9 teaspoons ful and that's what's rec. Only 6 for women.

    But that's nine UK teaspoons - nine US teaspoons of sugar is roughly 37.5g!

    Yes I know...I try to stay way under that. It's not RDA but rather suggested. Yikes.
  • e1lindsay
    e1lindsay Posts: 230
    i tend to just review my sugar at the end of the day...it's almost always too high, but if i notice that most of it comes from fruit or other naturally occuring sugars, i tend to over look them. I just check, daily, that i'm not taking in too much refined sugar. i find it's better to eat apples and bananas, with tons of natural fruit sugar, then to eat granola bars or other processed foods that contain high fructose corn syrup. My rule of thumb is, if sugar is in the first three ingredients (as sugar, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, etc), then i don't eat it...and if it has more than 5 grams of sugar (fruits/natural sugar excluded), i don't eat it...
  • ColoradoRobin
    ColoradoRobin Posts: 510 Member
    If my sugars come from healthy foods in reasonable amounts then I am not concerned about the MFP recommended levels. A bowl of Greek yogurt with fruit is good food, regardless of the milk and fruit sugars. I just avoid eating sugary empty calorie sweets very often, but it won't kill me to have a cookie every now and then, as long as I log it!
  • Dawntodusk
    Dawntodusk Posts: 262 Member
    My sugar is almost always below the MFP recommended amount. Why? I don't eat any of the things that you mention. I don't eat cereal with any sugar added, period. In fact, I don't eat cereal, but when I did, it was puffed grain cereal - no sugar. I don't eat yogurt with fruit/sugar. Only plain yogurt. I don't drink milk. I limit my fruit to 1-2 per day (usually just one).

    A year ago I was a different person. I ate a lot of sugar. But, now that I really don't eat sugar, I don't even want it. Even most fruit tastes too sweet. I think that our fruit has probably been genetically altered to be sweeter than it used to be.

    So if you truly want to lower your sugar, you can. It's not hard. Just don't eat it!
  • e1lindsay
    e1lindsay Posts: 230
    i use this USDA website to get what i believe is the most accurate info on most "generic" foods, including fruit...there are soooo many fruit listings in MFP and it's hard to tell what's accurate because they're all different! i use this website and built my own library for generic foods in "My Foods"

    http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/
  • TourThePast
    TourThePast Posts: 1,753 Member
    Even most fruit tastes too sweet. I think that our fruit has probably been genetically altered to be sweeter than it used to be.
    I know what you mean, though I doubt fruit's been genetically altered. I think that the less sweet food your eat, the less you crave.

    Which is why it annoys me so much that so many "diet" foods and drinks are disgustingly sweet - they do nothing to educate your palate away from overly sickly stuff. Even a lot of fruit flavoured waters are over-sweet, yuk!
  • BettrFastrStrongr
    BettrFastrStrongr Posts: 17 Member
    The Goktor - Ofcourse common sense is my guide. :) MFP isn't some sort of food bible lol. I was just a bit taken aback that my sugar was doubled and beyond.
  • BettrFastrStrongr
    BettrFastrStrongr Posts: 17 Member
    e1lindsay - Your rule of thumbs seem really sensible. And what you do at the end of the day is what I've been doing so far, I just sort of look over it and analyze where majority of it derived from.
  • BettrFastrStrongr
    BettrFastrStrongr Posts: 17 Member
    dawntodusk - I agree with most of what you say, except for the "it's not hard" part lol. If you had ever eaten the sort of diet I was eating prior to my using MFP, you'd understand. :) Well, maybe you were and you're just tougher than me. ^_^ Now, the cereal I am eating has 6 g, my dairy skim milk in the fridge has 12 g, my soy milk has 6 g, my yogurt has 9 g, and my selection of fruit varies. Ofcourse there's sugar in other stuff but those were the products discussed and that have higher amounts. Trust me, just learning to buy these sorts of items was quite a transition for me. just a couple months ago I was living on pop, sugary fruit-flavored drinks, sugary cereals, candy, pastries, etc. (And this is only the sugar aspect of my old diet, not the fat aspect.)
    Even in this change to a diet with less sugar (but the sugar's still there) I completely get it about stuff being too sweet now! I had a sip of this purple punch the other day over my boyfriend's mother's house as his little cousin told me she "made me magical tea b/c I had princess hair" (and yes I quote that) but yeah my goshhhhh did that taste soooo sweet to me now! It needed diluted with 50% water, minimum!
  • milaxx
    milaxx Posts: 1,122 Member
    Are you eating any other refined or processed foods? I eat a lot of fruit but my sugar is never high. However I eat very little processed foods and stay away from gluten.
  • Dawntodusk
    Dawntodusk Posts: 262 Member
    dawntodusk - I agree with most of what you say, except for the "it's not hard" part lol. If you had ever eaten the sort of diet I was eating prior to my using MFP, you'd understand. :) Well, maybe you were and you're just tougher than me. ^_^ Now, the cereal I am eating has 6 g, my dairy skim milk in the fridge has 12 g, my soy milk has 6 g, my yogurt has 9 g, and my selection of fruit varies. Ofcourse there's sugar in other stuff but those were the products discussed and that have higher amounts. Trust me, just learning to buy these sorts of items was quite a transition for me. just a couple months ago I was living on pop, sugary fruit-flavored drinks, sugary cereals, candy, pastries, etc. (And this is only the sugar aspect of my old diet, not the fat aspect.)
    Even in this change to a diet with less sugar (but the sugar's still there) I completely get it about stuff being too sweet now! I had a sip of this purple punch the other day over my boyfriend's mother's house as his little cousin told me she "made me magical tea b/c I had princess hair" (and yes I quote that) but yeah my goshhhhh did that taste soooo sweet to me now! It needed diluted with 50% water, minimum!

    It's great that you've been able to reduce sugar as much as you have. I ate a lot of sugar for many years, and would reduce it from time to time, but then I would always go back to bad habits and eat more than I should. Now it's been almost a year since I haven't had it, and it's much easier this way. Good luck whatever you do!
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