Sugar: does it make you fat?

Short answer: no. Long answer: no.

Only a calorie surplus makes you gain weight.

Well, if you're eating sugar it has calories. And if you eat more calories than you burn, you will gain weight. That's true of syrups and fruit sugars and honey, too. I really don't understand how you'd get around that. The only way sugars don't cause you to get fat is if they stay in a jar on your kitchen table and you don't put the sugar in your mouth. Those low calorie or no calorie sweeteners can be a help here.

Nope. Sugar is just calories. Eat too many calories, you will get fat. But sugar is in and of itself does not make you fat.

One of the reasons that it may be associated with getting fat is because some sugary foods tend to be high is calories and not very filling, so they are often incorporated with diets that involve weight gain.

For example, if you drink 4 cans of coke a day, that's about 550 calories. That will in of itself not make you fat. But since it won't usually satiate hunger for most people, they would likely drink those cans of coke in addition to the same amount of normal food they would eat. That might cause them to be in a calorie surplus, where say drinking water instead of coke would not. So sometimes sugary foods or drinks can make it more difficult for people to stay within their goals. But that is not the case with everyone.

Unless you are advised by a doctor to limit sugar due to a specific health condition, or you find that intake of sugary food and drink makes it hard to stay within your calorie goal, I would not worry about your sugar intake too much within the confines of a balanced diet.

MichelleSilverleaf wrote: »

Short answer: no. Long answer: no.

Only a calorie surplus makes you gain weight.

Tl:dr No.

sijomial wrote: »

"I try to use stevia in a lot of things but I’m not sure I can bear the taste much longer."
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Stevia works as a weight loss product for me, not only does it taste awful but it irritates my stomach and sets off my IBS. I'd rather just budget for the calories in sugar

I prefer diet coke to regular too, but otherwise don't like the taste of sweeteners at all. I'm lucky I've never added sugar to coffee or tea, so don't need to mess with whether I should break that habit. For other foods (presumably dessert type foods), I'd far rather moderate amounts than use artificial sweeteners.

As others have said, nothing makes you fat independent of a calorie surplus. Added sugar is focused on since when people are eating a lot of it they may be crowding out more nutritious choices or ended up consuming excess calories. Since someone logging on MFP knows their calories, I'd just focus on eating an overall nutritious diet, and not worrying about avoiding all added sugar (and yes, everything you listed = added sugar).

The Evil Sugar Monster comes when you eat fruit and makes you gain fat! The only cure is the Bacin Fairy! Lol jk nope... only if you over eat on it!

Sugar is the fuel for all the cells in your body, even if they become cancerous. Saying sugar is bad because it feeds cancer cells is like saying oxygen is bad because murderers breathe it.

Unfortunately, current diet industry woo forgets to differentiate between "sugar" and "too much sugar". It's an important distinction. Also processed sugar is still sugar. Once it gets worked on in your digestive system, the sugar from a pixie stick and the sugar from a carrot are indistinguishable.

Where you get your calories from does matter. But for overall fat loss, no, sugar doesnt instantly make you fat.

Go search That Sugar Film on amazon prime (it might be on youtube) it raises some interesting points.

bross57 wrote: »

Sugars that are not quickly converted to energy and burned off through activity will convert into stored fat to be burned off when needed. Unfortunately, continual consumption of sugar without activity builds up as fat. This is why desserts after evening meals or for late night snacks are not a good idea for weight loss because they are often followed by hours of inactivity.

Fortunately none of this is true. Eating dessert at night (which I do all the time) does not result in weight gain, only a calorie surplus over time will do that. Interestingly even in a surplus (under the right conditions of course.. proper training, adequate protein, starting off lean etc). I consumed quite a bit of sugar to reach a surplus and remained fairly lean, so not a lot of fat gain, despite gaining 15lbs.

bross57 wrote: »

Sugars that are not quickly converted to energy and burned off through activity will convert into stored fat to be burned off when needed. Unfortunately, continual consumption of sugar without activity builds up as fat. This is why desserts after evening meals or for late night snacks are not a good idea for weight loss because they are often followed by hours of inactivity.

No, you cannot gain real weight/fat absent a calorie surplus. I don't think eating tons of added sugar makes for a healthy diet, but it does not prevent weight loss or add fat in a calorie deficit. That would be impossible.

Meal timing also does not matter. Not only do you burn fat when sleeping, but if you eat, say, 1500 cals right before bed* and nothing else and your maintenance calories are 2000, then you will lose weight. Think about it -- when you get up in the morning you need to fuel your activity (as well as having needed to fuel all your metabolic functions overnight). Where does that fuel come from? Last night's meal plus stored fat.

Desserts after dinner are totally fine (within cals) and don't interfere with weight loss. I tend to find it harder to stick to my calories if I eat dessert type foods earlier in the day, but I find it easy to have a sensible portion of something after dinner (say, 200 cal of ice cream), and did that much of the time I was losing. Since I eat dinner late always (at 9 or even later), the dessert was pretty late in the day and I'd exercise in the morning or right after work, never after dinner. I lost as predicted or, often, even faster.

*I would not eat that way as I can't imagine eating that much at once and getting sufficient protein and veg, and it would interfere with my sleep, but some do eat all their cals at night and lose fine.