Sugar: does it make you fat?

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.