How much sugar goal per day?

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lisaab27
lisaab27 Posts: 56 Member
in Food and Nutrition
How much sugar does everyone have as a daily goal? Only one goal is shown so the sugar total would be a combination of natural sugars & added sugar. What is recommended by everyone?

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  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,958 Member
    edited February 2020
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    Added sugar? Since I can't track it on here I just make a mental note of it.

    I took "sugar" off my FOOD diary page years ago. It's still available (web version) by clicking View Full Report (Printable) at the bottom, and I just glance at it daily. I try to keep it under 100g on my 2000 calories - including natural sugar. I don't even remember what the recommendation was on my food page, but I think the WHO says added sugar should not account for more than 10% of daily calories. If my carbs are in line, I'm usually good. I'm still able to have a half portion of protein powder and a teaspoon of sugar in my cereal, coffee and tea, plus some flavored yogurt and a couple slices of bread and stay under that 100g - even including milk, cheese, fruit and vegetables.
  • MikePTY
    MikePTY Posts: 3,814 Member
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    As I do not have a health condition that requires me to limit my sugars, I do not track them at all, either added or natural.
  • RelCanonical
    RelCanonical Posts: 3,882 Member
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    I don't have any limit to sugar, I just try to hit my macro and micronutrient goals. If I'm not hitting those, then the point of reducing added sugar is kind of moot. The point of the limits was to ensure you weren't crowding out other essential nutrients because all you were eating was added sugar, not the sugar itself.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    I ignore the sugar goal. It isn't relevant to what I'm tracking.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
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    I found that if I stay at my calorie goal, and hit my protein, fat, and fiber goals, it's very rare for me to come close to having an exorbitant amount of sugar, so I don't pay any attention to it.

    The WHO recommendation for added sugar was arrived at because eating too much added sugar will almost certainly either crowd out your other macros or have you eating too many calories. So I focus on the positive goal (getting enough of the stuff I want/need) and the negative goals tend to take care of themselves. :drinker:
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
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    lisaab27 wrote: »
    How much sugar does everyone have as a daily goal? Only one goal is shown so the sugar total would be a combination of natural sugars & added sugar. What is recommended by everyone?

    There is a recommendation by the WHO and AHA for under 10% added sugar, with the WHO noting that under 5% is even better -- the purpose is to avoid excess cals (items high in added sugar are also often high in cals, including cals from fat) and to make sure your diet contains sufficient micros.

    There are no nutrition-based limits on total sugar, as there's no indication that a diet high in intrinsic sugar from foods like fruit has any negative effects. Instead, there are the common sense limits as in don't go over cals, and get enough protein and healthy fats and veg (which will have some sugar too) and fiber.

    MFP can't track just added sugar currently (maybe some day) so provides a limit of 15% based on an assumption about how much intrinsic sugar the average person is eating (5% above the 10% limit on added sugar). If you eat a good bit of fruit, veg, and/or dairy, then you may be quite a bit higher than MFP's assumption for intrinsic sugar.

    As others have said, I don't consider the limit on total sugar useful at all (I track at Cron where it's easy to see lots of different things so sometimes look at it). I do pay attention to not getting excessive added sugar, but that's not about counting it but just being aware of what I'm eating and if it has added sugar (I've found that unless I choose to eat a dessert-type food the foods I eat rarely have more than a tiny amount of added sugar so I don't really bother with it too much, but if you are someone who buys a lot of packaged items with more added sugar you might want to just keep track to see if you want to cut down, I dunno).

    I do think that making sure you get plenty of fiber (which you can track instead of sugar or sodium), protein, and then also include in your diet healthy sources of fat and enough veg (I'd say at least 5+ servings), and are hitting your cals, is going to already ensure you aren't actually overdoing it on added sugar.
  • Luke_rabbit
    Luke_rabbit Posts: 1,031 Member
    edited February 2020
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    lisaab27 wrote: »
    How much sugar does everyone have as a daily goal? Only one goal is shown so the sugar total would be a combination of natural sugars & added sugar. What is recommended by everyone?

    I looked back over just the month of February. MFP gives me a "sugar goal" of around 60 grams (of course, it varies based on my exercise calories). I found that my actuals went from 18 g under goal to 26 g over.

    I'm in maintenance with a calorie goal of 1410 base + 250 average for exercise.

    I don't pay much attention to it. I eat a good bit of fruits and veggies. Most days I eat small desserts (2 cookies, fun size candy bar, etc). Occasionally, like 1-2 times a month, I eat a larger dessert (1 scoop frozen yogurt cone, brownie, etc). The rest probably comes from convenience foods like frozen meals, protein bars, etc. I almost never use sugar, honey, syrup, etc and don't drink anything but water and herbal tea with Splenda.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,154 Member
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    I found I was going over the MFP default goal every day while losing, just from the inherent sugars in veggies, fruits, and no-sugar-added dairy products, and while eating very nearly no added sugar at all (a little concentrated fruit juice well down the ingredient list in a daily 30-calorie tablespoon of all fruit spread :lol: ). At that point, I customized my MFP diary display to delete the sugar column (because pointless) and show fiber instead.

    Get enough protein, get enough healthy fats, eat plenty of varied, colorful fruits and veggies, and ignore sugar entirely: That's my approach.
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
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    lisaab27 wrote: »
    How much sugar does everyone have as a daily goal? Only one goal is shown so the sugar total would be a combination of natural sugars & added sugar. What is recommended by everyone?

    I ignore sugar. I am T2Dm, regulated by diet and exercise, and the most important number for me is to stay under 150 g. of carbs per day. Sugar is just a subset of carbs so how I reach the 150 grams isn't nearly as important as the final number.

    Having said that, I do try to get at least 25 g of fiber per day. Yes, it is also a subset of carbs, just like sugar is, but colon health is important to me since my dad died of colon cancer.
  • anniecave1
    anniecave1 Posts: 8 Member
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    I think food labelling should include an amount for added sugars as a subset within sugars. This would be meaningful. I personally track added sugars and take more notice of them than the sugar total.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
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    New labels in the US do.
  • autumnblade75
    autumnblade75 Posts: 1,660 Member
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    You might get a kick out of my Food Diary for February 20, 2020. I'm planning for something similar tomorrow. I don't usually track sugar by the gram, so I couldn't tell you what was in the *food* I ate. But at least 189 grams of sugar were added intentionally, as fuel.

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