Sugar daily goal

navtajg · October 2014

Hello,

I am exceeding my daily sugar limit on days where I have one or two coffees with two sugars, plus the sugar from fruit such as an apple and two small tangerines. Some days I have dried cranberries in my salad as well. Combined that sugar will exceed my daily goal. Should I be concerned about this enough to switch to no sugar from my coffee, which will likely prevent me from drinking coffee totally...not something I will be happy with.

Or can the sugar from fruit be something to not worry about?

Any insight is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Taj

cbills65 · October 2014

You'll hear it from everyone on here, sugar from fruit is okay and going over is fine. Other kinds of sugar not so much but as long as you know that your intake on natural sugar is the reason you are going over that's fine. You can go into settings and remove sugars from your viewer if you don't want to see them.

I get the fact that sometimes things that keep you from enjoying your coffee can be deal breakers. I used to drink A LOT of coffee but have stopped completely. For caffeine I now drink Yogi Vanilla Spice Perfect Energy tea. Main reason because I can't have dairy on paleo diet and I CANNOT drink coffee without lots of creamer. The tea has as nearly as much caffeine as a cup of coffee. I use PureVia to sweeten it. I like it as a substitute for my old standby, Splenda which apparently is bad juju. Even stevia isn't really allowed on Paleo but that's a battle I'm willing to fight. You might like to give PureVia a try sometime if you have the chance.

But again, never worry about the sugar from fruit unless you are diabetic or have other health issues.

Hope this helped. Sorry about the coffee rant.

rjsaks · October 2014

I am having the same problem, except it's not from sugar with coffee. It's milk. There is 12 grams of sugar in my skim milk! 14 grams in my apple.

This has been driving me crazy! I cannot see who you can stay within the nutritional totals and get your 1200 calories in.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

GaleHawkins · October 2014

navtajg wrote: »

Hello,

I am exceeding my daily sugar limit on days where I have one or two coffees with two sugars, plus the sugar from fruit such as an apple and two small tangerines. Some days I have dried cranberries in my salad as well. Combined that sugar will exceed my daily goal. Should I be concerned about this enough to switch to no sugar from my coffee, which will likely prevent me from drinking coffee totally...not something I will be happy with.

Or can the sugar from fruit be something to not worry about?

Any insight is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Taj

navtajg I think you are well on your way to answering your question.

I did not think I could cut out adding the sugar or fruit. Over a period of 5-10 years I have decided that I could. I left out adding the sugar years ago but just cut the fruit sources of sugar with apples being the last one to go just recently.

In my personal case I can get away overdoing the fat and protein but going over on carbs nails me EVERY time.

Sounds like you are on the road to success.

cbills65 · October 2014

rjsaks wrote: »

I am having the same problem, except it's not from sugar with coffee. It's milk. There is 12 grams of sugar in my skim milk! 14 grams in my apple.

This has been driving me crazy! I cannot see who you can stay within the nutritional totals and get your 1200 calories in.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

cbills65 · October 2014

Have you tried almond milk or coconut milk? They are delicious and lower in sugar.

But again, don't worry about that apple. I suggest you look through the forums here on MFP where the sugar from fruit question has come up over and over again. Eat the fruit and don't worry. It's not the same kind of sugar that is harmful because is is natural and your body processes it differently than a snickers bar or ice cream for example. Or even milk.

GaleHawkins · October 2014

cbills65 wrote: »

You'll hear it from everyone on here, sugar from fruit is okay and going over is fine. Other kinds of sugar not so much but as long as you know that your intake on natural sugar is the reason you are going over that's fine. You can go into settings and remove sugars from your viewer if you don't want to see them.

I get the fact that sometimes things that keep you from enjoying your coffee can be deal breakers. I used to drink A LOT of coffee but have stopped completely. For caffeine I now drink Yogi Vanilla Spice Perfect Energy tea. Main reason because I can't have dairy on paleo diet and I CANNOT drink coffee without lots of creamer. The tea has as nearly as much caffeine as a cup of coffee. I use PureVia to sweeten it. I like it as a substitute for my old standby, Splenda which apparently is bad juju. Even stevia isn't really allowed on Paleo but that's a battle I'm willing to fight. You might like to give PureVia a try sometime if you have the chance.

But again, never worry about the sugar from fruit unless you are diabetic or have other health issues.

Hope this helped. Sorry about the coffee rant.

Do you understand your advice about apple sugar being different from sugar put into the coffee is not correct when it comes to weight loss. I learned the hard way and gave up fruit to get the weight loss started.

Sure you get fiber and other cool stuff from the apple along with 25+/- carbs from the sugar in it.

lemurcat12 · October 2014

cbills65 wrote: »

Have you tried almond milk or coconut milk? They are delicious and lower in sugar.

But again, don't worry about that apple. I suggest you look through the forums here on MFP where the sugar from fruit question has come up over and over again. Eat the fruit and don't worry. It's not the same kind of sugar that is harmful because is is natural and your body processes it differently than a snickers bar or ice cream for example. Or even milk.

Sugar from an apple isn't really different. It's just that eating an apple gives you a whole package of things--micronutrients and fiber, particularly--whereas eating a cookie doesn't give you those things. (Although the calories in a cookie aren't predominantly from sugar, for the record, and none of this means that cookies are bad in moderation, so long as you get enough nutrients and they fit within your calories.)

I'm curious why you claim that fruit sugar is natural and not harmful vs. lactose in dairy.

Personally, I always choose dairy over substitutes like almond milk since (a) I like it better (the main reason), and (b) dairy is a great source of protein. Dairy also makes me feel good and is one of the best sources of easy calories before or after exercise, for me, but I understand that other people have issues digesting it.

Anyway, for the OP, I used to never go over my sugar limit, since I don't eat a lot of fruit in the winter (I tend to eat fruit seasonally, for whatever reason). In the summer, I was over all the time (although I switched it out with fiber, as I'm more interested in tracking that). My weight loss was just as good in the summer as in the winter.

navtajg · October 2014

Thanks for the replies.

My two concerns limiting sugar:

1) Decrease risk of health ailments (heart disease, diabetes, others?) - does exceeding your limit consistently each day increase the risk of these health concerns? Obvious answer would be yes, but how do you go about decreasing sugar when it common in so many foods, even if you manage to avoid "goodies" such as cookies,etc.

2) Does exceeding the daily limit negate weight loss? I've tried unsuccesfully VLCDs as my weight would go back up and down, without consistently decreasing. Also, I was unhappy all the time. I've recently starting eating more and as a result found myself much happier, fuller, and able to exercise more regularly with the increased energy. To slowly and gradually lose weight, I want like to plan out my meals better and seeing the daily sugar limit exceeded makes me wonder if I will be able to meet the weight loss goal each week.

I am willing to limit the alcohol, eating out, junk food, processed food, etc, but where do you draw the line....I can't imagine on fruit. And then even coffee - I enjoy a nice hot coffee at my desk each morning but it tastes putrid without sugar and milk.

I may consider plain green tea as an alternative to coffee, but I do not want to overly restrict myself.

asdowe13 · October 2014

Unless you have a medical reason for tracking sugar...stop.

You body doesn't know the difference between sugar in an apple to sugar in milk, to sugar in candies, to table sugar. It's all the same. Sugar = Sugar plain and simple

Calorie deficit = weightloss

Eat fewer calories than you burn and you will lose weight.

cwolfman13 · October 2014

My two concerns limiting sugar:

1) Decrease risk of health ailments (heart disease, diabetes, others?) - does exceeding your limit consistently each day increase the risk of these health concerns? Obvious answer would be yes, but how do you go about decreasing sugar when it common in so many foods, even if you manage to avoid "goodies" such as cookies,etc.

2) Does exceeding the daily limit negate weight loss? I've tried unsuccesfully VLCDs as my weight would go back up and down, without consistently decreasing. Also, I was unhappy all the time. I've recently starting eating more and as a result found myself much happier, fuller, and able to exercise more regularly with the increased energy. To slowly and gradually lose weight, I want like to plan out my meals better and seeing the daily sugar limit exceeded makes me wonder if I will be able to meet the weight loss goal each week.

I am willing to limit the alcohol, eating out, junk food, processed food, etc, but where do you draw the line....I can't imagine on fruit. And then even coffee - I enjoy a nice hot coffee at my desk each morning but it tastes putrid without sugar and milk.

I may consider plain green tea as an alternative to coffee, but I do not want to overly restrict myself.

Sugar isn't the frackin' devil...in and of itself it isn't really an issue...the issue is people drinking 40 ounce big gulp sodas to wash down the whole pie they just ate after a snack of cookies....

Eating a well balanced diet that is rich in whole food nutrition is a good place to start. I see little point in worrying about sugar unless you are diabetic, pre-diabetic, have some other medical condition that warrants it, or have major consumption issues.

Going over the extremely modest sugar amount on MFP (which is completely arbitrary anyway) has no effect on anything at all...except it seems to make people obsess about things they don't need to obsess about.

GaleHawkins · November 2014

Carbs/sugar (I see them as the same because a carb turns to sugar) is what makes us fat if we over eat them. We can total cut out all carbs since they are optional for humans and people seldom then over eat fat and protein only for some reason.

I agree "obsessing" over anything will lead to more problems.

Remember every human is different for many reasons. Learn the principles and what your body needs and adjust sugar intake to meet your needs.. As others have noted you really need to learn of any medical concerns that needs to be factored into a diet.

There are formulas to help with weight loss but you have to get the input into the right formula before you are ready to start. If the results are fine then fine. If not you have to look at what you plugged into the formula and/or look at using another formula.

With the human body a cookie cutter approach makes it hard. That is why there is more than one shape of cookie cutters.

Perhaps starting with the smallest weekly lose possible would be produce less shock on the system for example. If one can not lose .5 pounds a week then why expect to lose 2 pounds a week.

Wheelhouse15 · November 2014

OP if you are concerned about the diseases you have mentioned I would ask what exercise you do. Diet is important but exercises is also very important and when it comes to many diseases is likely even more important.

Sugar daily goal

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