How do you stick to your sugar limit?

2

Replies

  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
    edited July 2015
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    nvsmomketo wrote: »
    I eat low carb and high fat so it is part of this WOE to have very low sugar, and I have found that once you get it low it is quite easy to maintain.

    To keep my sugars below 10g, I eat mostly meats, cheese, nuts, and a few veggies that are low in sugars (like spinach - generally veggies that did not grow below the ground). I avoid all starchy foods and don't eat anything made with flour. I also eat at a slight caloric deficit to lose weight.

    People will be quick to point out that keeping sugar this low is not needed unless you have a medical condition (which I do - prediabetes and autoimmune diseases), but it is also a choice that won't hurt if you choose to do it without a medical need. Sugar is the body's first choice for fuel but it will easily switch to fat burning when needed.

    Best wishes.

    except people miss out on a lot of awesome nutrition that fruits and veg that you avoid have to offer...

    i think it's pretty *kitten* to recommend people avoid fruits and veg just because it has a little sugar when it's completely unnecessary outside of certain medical conditions.

    Low carb does not necessarily mean low fruits and vegetables. If it's important to you even the lowest carb diets can fit them in -- it's a matter of preference and priorities and that has nothing to do with the macro split of your diet.

    well, the poster i quoted clearly states that they avoid certain fruits and veg which is what i was responding to...so...there's that.

    I do avoid certain fruits and veggies. High GI fruits, such as mango, I would only take a bite or two of. Low GI fruits like berries are tasty and I enjoy eating them, just not by the handfuls. Avocados I love and eat a few a week.

    I tend to avoid starchy veggies, which are usually grown underground. If I eat some of those, it is small serving. I do eat veggies though.

    LCHF isn't that "out there". It is just a modification of SAD.

    Yesterday at dinner I ate sauteed green beans and broiled Zucchini along with some guacamole, shrimp, and nicely prepared meat. I had a cream cheese parfait with berries on top for dessert.

    Lunches are sometimes a can of tuna with celery, mayo and half an avocado. Maybe a lettuce wrap with cheese and meat, with 1/2 pistachios.

    Breakfast is usually coffee with coconut cream, bacon and an egg, often with wilted greens.

    If I snack in the evening I'll have cheese, or some macadamia nuts with xylitol sweetened chocolate chips.

    Yes, it is probably fewer veggies than many, but it is not that low in veggies - I still eat more veggies than my husband whose diet is pretty typical.
  • slaite1
    slaite1 Posts: 1,307 Member
    AmieAP wrote: »
    I don't eat or drink any sugar. (except veggies and fruit, of course). I believe it is a deadly drug (that is not an opinion, but a fact) and that it should be banned.
    I don't eat or drink any sugar. (except for the sugar I do eat.)

    :'(

    Giggled

    OP-I don't pay any attention to my sugar, either. These threads always go this way. There is nothing voo-doo about sugar that suddenly makes you fat or kills your body. My view is that food is food. Eat in a way that is sustainable to you and keeps you happy. For me, that includes products containing sugar. And vegetables. And lean sources of protein. And pizza. Find what works for you.
  • SergeantSausage
    SergeantSausage Posts: 1,673 Member
    AmieAP wrote: »
    I believe it is a deadly drug (that is not an opinion, but a fact) and that it should be banned.

    <boggle>

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  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    AmieAP wrote: »
    I don't eat or drink any sugar. (except veggies and fruit, of course). I believe it is a deadly drug (that is not an opinion, but a fact) and that it should be banned.

    How is this law to be drafted? Do you have some proposed language? Can I (please o please!) pick the politicians who sponsor it?

    Are you really going to ban my baking of apple pie? Pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving (I see you aren't from the US, though)? Why is apple sauce okay (if no added sugar) but rhubarb sauce with no more sugar but a little added verboten? Would I really not be able to use some sugar in a marinade or barbecue sauce or for smoked salmon?

    What a paradise on earth!
  • DisneyDude85
    DisneyDude85 Posts: 428 Member
    AmieAP wrote: »
    I don't eat or drink any sugar. (except veggies and fruit, of course). I believe it is a deadly drug (that is not an opinion, but a fact) and that it should be banned.

    Are you Fed Up?
  • mantium999
    mantium999 Posts: 1,490 Member
    AmieAP wrote: »
    I don't eat or drink any sugar. (except veggies and fruit, of course). I believe it is a deadly drug (that is not an opinion, but a fact) and that it should be banned.

    If this is the cognitive byproduct of eliminating sugar, I am going to start snorting the stuff straight up.
  • Serah87
    Serah87 Posts: 5,481 Member
    AmieAP wrote: »
    I don't eat or drink any sugar. (except veggies and fruit, of course). I believe it is a deadly drug (that is not an opinion, but a fact) and that it should be banned.

    LOL
  • senecarr
    senecarr Posts: 5,377 Member
    edited July 2015
    AmieAP wrote: »
    I don't eat or drink any sugar. (except veggies and fruit, of course). I believe it is a deadly drug (that is not an opinion, but a fact) and that it should be banned.
    If it is a fact and not an opinion, you don't believe, you acknowledge. Only problem is, you'd be totally wrong so don't use acknowledge. Sugar is necessary to live. Your body will create it out of protein if it doesn't get enough to function.
  • kk_inprogress
    kk_inprogress Posts: 3,077 Member
    mantium999 wrote: »
    AmieAP wrote: »
    I don't eat or drink any sugar. (except veggies and fruit, of course). I believe it is a deadly drug (that is not an opinion, but a fact) and that it should be banned.

    If this is the cognitive byproduct of eliminating sugar, I am going to start snorting the stuff straight up.

    I snorted reading this.
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  • TheVirgoddess
    TheVirgoddess Posts: 4,535 Member
    I don't track sugar, either. I have a good amount of fiber in my diet, and stick to a moderate carb intake. I'm good.
  • TheVirgoddess
    TheVirgoddess Posts: 4,535 Member
    AmieAP wrote: »
    I don't eat or drink any sugar. (except veggies and fruit, of course). I believe it is a deadly drug (that is not an opinion, but a fact) and that it should be banned.

    So, what do you bake then? How's business?
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    AmieAP wrote: »
    I don't eat or drink any sugar. (except veggies and fruit, of course). I believe it is a deadly drug (that is not an opinion, but a fact) and that it should be banned.

    So, what do you bake then? How's business?

    Maybe she's like those drug dealers who wouldn't touch the stuff.

    Yeah, doesn't explain the banning bit.
  • kristydi
    kristydi Posts: 781 Member
    AmieAP wrote: »
    I don't eat or drink any sugar. (except veggies and fruit, of course). I believe it is a deadly drug (that is not an opinion, but a fact) and that it should be banned.

    What? What you do in your own kitchen is fine, but keep your nose and your laws out of my kitchen. Thankfully, your desired ban is so absurd I have no actual concern that it's real possibility.

    OP, I ignore the sugar number.
  • giantrobot_powerlifting
    giantrobot_powerlifting Posts: 2,598 Member
    Clue me in, when did sugar become a macro?
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
    For me it's easy, I just increased my limit. Hello, 150gr of added sugar daily - I love you.
  • cbelc2
    cbelc2 Posts: 762 Member
    I stopped eating added sugars. All mine is found naturally in the food. It's tough to do, but doable. I remember a few years back about a limit of 100 calories of added sugar per day. When I don't eat added sugar, I don't crave it.
  • PinkDeerBoy
    PinkDeerBoy Posts: 89 Member
    I rarely pay attention to my sugar macro. I rarely go over, and if I do, it's probably because I had an extra fruit that day. At the moment, I have no medical conditions that make it that I can't have sugar, and I don't go hog wild and eat table spoons of sugar, so I'm not that concerned. :*
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,254 Member
    edited July 2015
    Some people have a health concern: family history, pre-disposition, actual disease, which makes them want to control the amount and types of carbohydrates, including sugar, that they eat.

    Some people are following a low carb lifestyle, and of course they do track their carbohydrates, though I am not sure whether it would matter to them how many of those carbohydrates are sugars.

    Government and International organization are concerned about people's total caloric intake and, in an attempt to control it without telling people to "resort" to calorie counting, they resort to (among other things) telling them to limit how much ADDED sugar they should eat.

    The numbers you stated OP (25g, 50g), refer to ADDED SUGAR, loosely defined as sugars that are not included in dairy products and fruits. Even there it gets "complicated" with, for example, how you would count fruit that was added to a yoghurt product.

    I can understand wanting to track ADDED SUGARS as a gauge of what one might define as "empty calories". In other words calories that could have been used to consume a more nutritionally dense product. But this is not what MFP does, so that sugar count is pretty much useless, unless you do have a concern about your TOTAL sugar intake.

    If you are mainly concerned with meeting your nutritional requirements, losing weight by counting calories, and making healthy choices... you might be better off tracking your fiber data instead.

    Look: if you are eating your protein, and your fat, and your fruits and veggies AND keeping under your caloric limit... you are unlikely to be hitting that added sugar very hard :smile:


  • TheVirgoddess
    TheVirgoddess Posts: 4,535 Member
    Hornsby wrote: »
    For me it's easy, I just increased my limit. Hello, 150gr of added sugar daily - I love you.

    This is why we're friends.
  • Faithful_Chosen
    Faithful_Chosen Posts: 401 Member
    mantium999 wrote: »
    AmieAP wrote: »
    I don't eat or drink any sugar. (except veggies and fruit, of course). I believe it is a deadly drug (that is not an opinion, but a fact) and that it should be banned.

    If this is the cognitive byproduct of eliminating sugar, I am going to start snorting the stuff straight up.

    *kitten*, I just spewed my tea all over :lol:
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
    edited July 2015
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    nvsmomketo wrote: »
    it is also a choice that won't hurt if you choose to do it without a medical need.

    I don't think advising people to cut way back on vegetables and fruit--well below the recommended amounts--or foods that can have many positives for people who enjoy them, like dairy, sweet potatoes, plantains, corn, etc., is good advice or that you can blithely say that it won't hurt her. It's quite likely that the diet you are recommending would be less nutritionally sound than how the OP currently eats.

    It is possible that a LCHF diet is less nutritionally sound than what she is doing now... or not. I am sure that my LCHF diet is MUCH more nutritious than when I included a "normal" amount of sugar because this led to overeating and the consumption of what I consider to be junk food... My own experience.

    For me, eating LCHF has resulted in increased energy, better skin, execellent sleeping, reduced health issues, reduced joint pain, a maller appetitite, and weight loss.

    For someone without sugar and carb issues, who has no health issues, and who can eat carbs in moderation, the LCHF diet may not be for you. Sort of like a healthy person who enjoys their steak - why would they switch to vegetarianism? They wouldn't... Plus it could negatively impact how nutritious their WOE is when proteins, fats, iron, B12, and vitamin A are cut from their diet. ;)
  • SharonBrobst
    SharonBrobst Posts: 62 Member
    I am pretty consistent with keeping my sugar low. It's pretty easy when you don't use added sugars and only get the sugar that comes naturally in foods. I do sometimes add honey, but again it's natural sugar. The only time I go over is when I've had too many fruits that are high in natural sugars like peaches! I also eat very low carbs which helps the sugar count too.

    If it's important to you then you can do it. I have chosen this due to recently being told my sugar levels are in the "too high" range and if I am not careful will lead to diabetes or other serious medical conditions.
  • LaceyBirds
    LaceyBirds Posts: 451 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Turns out that MFP has me allocated for 45g of sugar, while the maximum amount of sugar a woman is supposed to consume each day is 24g.

    This is a misunderstanding. MFP's sugar limit includes ALL sugar, and is 15% of calories. IMO, it's not hard to meet (should that be important to you) if you have a higher number of calories (I'm at 1700, and don't generally go over), but it can be challenging at 1200 (and 45 g) if you eat a decent amount of fruit, dairy, and even vegetables or some starches like sweet potatoes, corn, and plantains.

    The 24 grams or the like -- for example the World Health Organization's 10% of overall calories, ideally 5%, as well as the link you cited--is NOT all sugar, but only added sugars plus honey/syrup and juice. That's because they aren't concerned about the health effects of sugar itself--that's been way overblown by some--but that people's overall diets are made up of too many low nutrient sweet treats (although many of the calories from these are actually from fat in many cases) and this is leading them to either be nutrient deficient or go over appropriate calories and gain weight. Obviously, then, it's not really an issue for someone watching their calories and diet closely and who largely gets sugar from more nutrient dense foods like fruit, vegetables, and dairy, etc.

    I think even the 45 grams isn't the best approach, because just because 15% might make sense for someone not on restricted calories doesn't mean that it makes sense for someone on restricted calories, when you might choose to decrease starches (like bread or rice) and increase fruit, depending on preferences. I prefer a more common sense approach of paying attention to the overall diet, making sure that you are getting a good variety of nutrient rich foods and aren't low in things like fiber, protein, and fat. If that's so, then it's unlikely you are eating excessive sugar.

    Interestingly, the NHS link you cited is similarly referring to added sugars for the 50 grams, so it's much more generous than MFP. My understanding is that the only proposed limits for ALL sugars (for example, the EU has one or has proposed one) exist solely so packaged products can give a percentage of RDI figure and they rely on the proposed limit for added sugars plus an estimate of what people consume from other sugars. This results in a much higher number, more like 90 g. In any case, there doesn't seem to be any evidence that exceeding any particular number of sugars is problematic or to support this currently popular idea among dieters that one should worry about fruit and dairy sugar or sugar itself outside of the question of whether one is eating an overall balanced diet. (There may be some evidence that drinking lots of sugary soda is a bad idea.)

    Thank you for researching this and explaining it so well, it is very helpful.

  • SergeantSausage
    SergeantSausage Posts: 1,673 Member
    Clue me in, when did sugar become a macro?

    Apparently, today, right?

  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
    Rocky_1975 wrote: »
    nvsmomketo wrote: »
    I eat low carb and high fat so it is part of this WOE to have very low sugar, and I have found that once you get it low it is quite easy to maintain.

    To keep my sugars below 10g, I eat mostly meats, cheese, nuts, and a few veggies that are low in sugars (like spinach - generally veggies that did not grow below the ground). I avoid all starchy foods and don't eat anything made with flour. I also eat at a slight caloric deficit to lose weight.

    People will be quick to point out that keeping sugar this low is not needed unless you have a medical condition (which I do - prediabetes and autoimmune diseases), but it is also a choice that won't hurt if you choose to do it without a medical need. Sugar is the body's first choice for fuel but it will easily switch to fat burning when needed.

    Best wishes.

    Do you preface every post with this? Maybe you should have a T-shirt made so everyone will know.

    Would you like one? :*

    Did you read the OP? A request was made to see how other people eat who keep carbs to below 25g. The OP was "curious to seeing how other people manage and design their diets". I tried to be helpful and answer.

    I thought mentioning LCHF is useful when I post because I do eat differently than many. I thought it would help my responses make more sense if people know where I am coming from.
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
    edited July 2015
    Hornsby wrote: »
    For me it's easy, I just increased my limit. Hello, 150gr of added sugar daily - I love you.

    This is why we're friends.

    It is making me fat though :(
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
    edited July 2015
    I am pretty consistent with keeping my sugar low. It's pretty easy when you don't use added sugars and only get the sugar that comes naturally in foods. I do sometimes add honey, but again it's natural sugar.
    Wait, if a human makes something it's not natural, but if a bee does it, it is? That's your guiding nutritional principle? What if we could train bees to crystallize the juice of the sugar cane plant. Natural or not natural?

  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    OP, ignore sugar. Just set your total carbs to whatever works the best for you and try to reach it with a variety of carb-type foods Fruit, veggies, whole grains, etc. will give you your carbs and many necessary micronutrients, including fiber, which is extremely important to reach your minimum.

    Even many diabetics are told not to count sugars, just total carbs, unless they are taking insulin.
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