geezes myfitnesspal... the sugar....

jgnatca wrote: »

Track fiber instead.

Yep, I track fiber instead of sugar too.

sugar is sugar weather it is natural or processed

bcfast wrote: »

sugar is sugar weather it is natural or processed

that may be true, but MFP's sets its sugar total based on amount of added sugar, according to RDA, or some other body, but at the same time does not distinguish in the diary what is added or natural.

best thing to do is ignore sugar unless you are diabetic. Sugar is a carb, and you already track those.

Myfitnesspal would cry for me if it were a person. It suggests I consume only 32 grams of sugar a day... Saturday I consumed 168.2 grams!
However, whenever I get blood work done my blood sugar is always where it should be. Go figure.

hgycta wrote: »

Myfitnesspal would cry for me if it were a person. It suggests I consume only 32 grams of sugar a day... Saturday I consumed 168.2 grams!
However, whenever I get blood work done my blood sugar is always where it should be. Go figure.

How much sugar you eat per day has nothing to do with blood sugar levels, except immediately (as in up to an hour) after you eat. Insulin does its job and stores those unused calories as fat. The problem with eating large amounts of sugar has to do with the long term cellular effects of blasting your body with the massive levels of insulin required to frequently process large numbers of carbohydrates. Limiting sugar is good for your long term health, and to guard against type 2 diabetes, not to mention your waistline.

It matters little whether that sugar is processed or not, but including some fiber when you eat sugary foods such as bananas can help slow down the digestive process, which will draw out the insulin response over a longer period (which is good for your body). Tracking fiber, however, is not an appropriate substitute for tracking sugar if you are interested in long term health or weight loss.

As long as you don't have a medical reason to really watch your daily sugar intake, I would ignore what is listed for sugar and focus instead on what you find to be more important for your health needs.

fishsquisher wrote: »

hgycta wrote: »

Myfitnesspal would cry for me if it were a person. It suggests I consume only 32 grams of sugar a day... Saturday I consumed 168.2 grams!
However, whenever I get blood work done my blood sugar is always where it should be. Go figure.

How much sugar you eat per day has nothing to do with blood sugar levels, except immediately (as in up to an hour) after you eat. Insulin does its job and stores those unused calories as fat. The problem with eating large amounts of sugar has to do with the long term cellular effects of blasting your body with the massive levels of insulin required to frequently process large numbers of carbohydrates. Limiting sugar is good for your long term health, and to guard against type 2 diabetes, not to mention your waistline.

It matters little whether that sugar is processed or not, but including some fiber when you eat sugary foods such as bananas can help slow down the digestive process, which will draw out the insulin response over a longer period (which is good for your body). Tracking fiber, however, is not an appropriate substitute for tracking sugar if you are interested in long term health or weight loss.

Blah, it's so easy to get consumed with scale and test numbers I always forget to consider the more scientific long-term side of it!
Do you happen to watch your sugar? How many grams do you average a day?
I find it just about impossible to stay within the recommendation, I don't know how people do it - EVERYTHING has sugar it seems! Please please please give me a sample day for you if you actually do this!!

I track sugar from time to time and personally try to keep my added sugars to about 5% of calories just as a general preference for my diet, but I don't see any need for overall sugars to be 15% or less of calories. Since my calories aren't that low I'm rarely over that anyway, when I track, but if they were lower fruit and veggies and dairy could easily put me over, so if being over stresses you out I'd switch to something else.

Fiber is a good choice because you track carbs already and getting enough fiber tends to be an indicator that those carbs include a good amount of nutrient dense options, like fruits, veggies, legumes, and whole grains, and not so much of the lower nutrient/higher calorie options.

My guess is that if someone focuses on eating a good diet overall and keeping their calories in check that they aren't going to be eating unlimited sugar anyway.

For me, it's a battle to get my carbs under control and get my proteins up. I'll worry about tracking sugar again once my macros are more in line with the generally accepted guidelines. I'm happy for those able to make big changes in a short time, but for my mental health it's a baby step here and a baby step there. And I don't need the MFP sugar column rebuking me perpetually while I get there.

I do want to get my sugars down in the end - but for now, working on getting the carbs/fats/proteins in closer balance first.

ienieelf wrote: »

Eat a banana, a bag of green beans and a bag of bell peppers and a salad with a few beet slices and MFP acts like you've just gorged on twinkies. It is annoying.

so track something else. MFP's sugar recommendations are for ADDED, refined sugars