Can I still lose weight on the same rate with high sugar?
meharmahshahid
Posts: 107 Member
I've just recently realised that I'm eating foods too high in sugar, around 50g sugar everyday, although 80 percent of all this is fruit sugar. Can I still lose weight the way I was losing before, or will it create an obstacle?
1
Replies
-
Calories are all that matters for weight loss31
-
Bit short and sharp from above poster
Natural sugars are not going to be an obstacle and it doesn't sound like a vast amount of sugar. Keep under your calorie allowance and get exercise in where you can. Best of luck4 -
Any type of sugar isn't going to create an obstacle.
So going back to my regular statement.
Calories are all that matters for weight loss.37 -
KrissDotCom wrote: »Any type of sugar isn't going to create an obstacle.
So going back to my regular statement.
Calories are all that matters for weight loss.
They are not all that matters.
https://blog.myfitnesspal.com/science-says-sugar-bad-weight-loss/#:~:text=How does eating excess sugar,converted to fat for storage.2 -
"How does eating excess sugar affect your weight-loss goals?
Excess insulin drives sugar into muscle, fat and liver cells, where it’s stored as glycogen (a sugar) for later use. Sadly, we have a limited capacity to store glycogen. When this capacity is breached, the excess sugar is converted to fat for storage. Our fat cells are capable of creating chemical signals that lead to chronic inflammation, especially when you eat too many calories and too much sugar. Chronic inflammation in the body is detrimental because it’s a key indicator of heart disease among other chronic health conditions."3 -
Again, if you stay under your calories, eating a piece of cake is not going to create an obstacle. If your body is using the energy you're giving it, its not going to need to store it as fat, because you are using it for energy.
Doesn't matter if its fruit, cake, or eating sugar straight from the bag, calories in, calories out, the body stores calories as fat when there is not enough out compared to in.40 -
Calories are what matters for weight loss. If you are not going over your calories then it doesn't really matter if you go over your sugar goal. I especially wouldn't worry about it if most of your sugar comes from fruits and vegetables. But like @KrissDotCom said, if the sugar isn't causing you to go over your calories then it won't be an obstacle to weight loss.20
-
LockdownLoser23 wrote: »"How does eating excess sugar affect your weight-loss goals?
Excess insulin drives sugar into muscle, fat and liver cells, where it’s stored as glycogen (a sugar) for later use. Sadly, we have a limited capacity to store glycogen. When this capacity is breached, the excess sugar is converted to fat for storage. Our fat cells are capable of creating chemical signals that lead to chronic inflammation, especially when you eat too many calories and too much sugar. Chronic inflammation in the body is detrimental because it’s a key indicator of heart disease among other chronic health conditions."
That means you've over-eaten.When this capacity is breached
*edited by a MFP volunteer moderator
15 -
its sad that I have to explain this.. but okay.
The body has a limit on its glycogen stores, however, if you are actively using that energy, the storage isn't going to just fill up and stay full, its going to use that energy to fuel your muscles for what you're doing, thus depleteing said glycogen stores.
If its not full then its not going to be able to get to a point of excess and start storing it as fat, why? Because you're using more calories then you are eating and its using that energy up, it doesn't have anything left to store.
Over eating, causes the body not to use all its calories, so there is the potential of too much glycogen storage which does create fat storage because that's what the body does, it stores it for later, too much stored fat causes health problems (obviously) this requires going over in calories and it can be done eating anything that contains calories18 -
Dear posters,
Please keep the threads in the help boards focused on the question presented by the OP. If you would like to further debate calories vs sugar intake there are plenty of debate threads on the topic.
Thanks
4legs
MFP volunteer moderator4 -
@meharmahshahid You can trust your common sense and logic when considering these things. If you are currently losing weight while eating this way, the weight loss is not going to suddenly stop because you realized you were eating a lot of sugar! There is a lot of information out there which overcomplicates the process of losing weight, but real world experience always counts for more than any theory. As others have said, weight loss is about calories.10
-
CICO is what matters for weight loss, period. That said, if you also wanted to build muscle or were concerned about sugar for some other reason (for example you have a health condition like diabetes) then I would say to try to balance your macros also.
Your body won’t just store sugar because it’s sugar, that’s an absurd statement. If you go over your calories and don’t need that sugar for energy, then yes, it will become fat, BUT that’s going to happen if you eat above maintenance regardless of WHAT you are eating.
It isn’t a healthy/good idea, BUT, you COULD eat 1200 calories of cupcakes everyday and lose weight (assuming 1200 a day is putting you in a deficit). So, eat what you want, when you want, and do so in a deficit and you will lose weight. It really is that simple.12 -
meharmahshahid wrote: »I've just recently realised that I'm eating foods too high in sugar, around 50g sugar everyday, although 80 percent of all this is fruit sugar. Can I still lose weight the way I was losing before, or will it create an obstacle?
If you are definitely in a calorie deficit there is no food on this planet that can prevent you from using stored energy (hopefully fat) which will result in weight loss. You cannot be alive unless your energy needs are met. Burning energy stores results in small shifts in weight that may not show up on the scale for awhile though.7 -
A calorie deficit is what determines weight loss.
However, it's easier to stay in a calorie deficit if you are eating foods that satiate you. This is a very personal thing and requires some experimentation. If eating foods containing sugar makes you hungrier/less satiated or gives you cravings, it might be a good idea to replace those foods by something else.
For example:
Personally, I usually avoid drinks containing sugar (for example fruit juice and soft drinks), because I feel they are a waste of calories (they don't satiate me at all, or give me that much pleasure, so I'd rather use those calories for something else).
But I do add banana and blueberries to my breakfast, as they make my breakfast tastier, healthier (more fiber and vitamins) and contribute to a fairly filling breakfast (combined with skyr yoghurt and protein powder).
By the way, 50 grams of sugar per day is not high in my opinion.
If you're concerned about sugar, it's more interesting to look at added sugar specifically (although it can be troublesome figuring out how much added sugar a product contains, nutrition labels usually don't specify.
I'm not American myself, but apparently this is what the American Heart Association recommends:
2 -
I agree 100 % with Kriss above, because I don't think it's even debatable that sugar vs non-sugar is not relevant to weight loss.
That said, weighing in on the question at hand, OP, it sounds like you are eating a lot of fruit. There is absolutely no possible way that'd impact your weight loss negatively if you are staying within your calories. Of all the things to worry about on a diet, eating a lot of fruit isn't one of them.
If you were eating 10 Nutty Butty bars per day and wondering whether it was helpful to the cause, that might be a discussion worth having (not as it impacts weight loss, but health more generally) but if you're eating a lotta apples and melons, congrats, you're doing it right!9 -
LockdownLoser23 wrote: »KrissDotCom wrote: »Any type of sugar isn't going to create an obstacle.
So going back to my regular statement.
Calories are all that matters for weight loss.
They are not all that matters.
https://blog.myfitnesspal.com/science-says-sugar-bad-weight-loss/#:~:text=How does eating excess sugar,converted to fat for storage.
A calorie deficit is what creates weight loss. That can be created with a high, moderate, or low sugar diet.
For OP's questions specifically, weight loss can happen in a diet that contains a lot of fruit.6 -
Calories are what will drive weight loss. That being said as long as sugar isn't crowding out other important macros and nutrients I would say there is nothing wrong with it.
My diet is very high in natural as well as a good amount of processed sugar. It has not impacted my weight loss if anything I have found it improves my workout performance very significantly so I get a benefit from it.
Mind you my intake is around 2800-3000 calories so my sugar intake helps me get there and is a drop in the bucket compared to my entire intake.
Interestingly when trying to gain in the past especially at the end I ate a lot of candy, juice, dried fruit to get to my goal out of desperation since I wasn't gaining. I didn't gain weight if I didn't hit my calories nor did I gain excess fat when I did. Again I would not recommend it if the sugar is crowding out nutrition or making you feel bad.6 -
The only conceivable way too much fruit could work against your weight loss plan is if it prevented you from eating enough other nutrients (namely protein and fat) while eating at your CICO goal.
To be clear, you WILL lose weight at your CICO goal even if your fat and protein intake falls short. It would be better for your health, obviously, to get the minimum protein required for muscle sparing and the minimum fat required for hormone synthesis. Also, some people find fat and protein satiating, and feeling full makes it easier to stay within your CICO goal. If you are eating >~0.8g/lb goal weight of protein and >0.35g/lb body weight of fat, and as others have said baring medical considerations involving insulin dysregulation, fruit is great. Also nothing wrong with cake, candy or sucrose from the bag so long as -big picture- you get enough nutrients on average.
4 -
KrissDotCom wrote: »Calories are all that matters for weight loss
Yep, OP if you are satiated and are eating a varied diet, and you are in a calorie deficit, you will lose weight. Sugar will not impact your overall deficit, nor will it impede weight loss.
Also, 50g is not "high sugar." You are fine.6 -
50g, unless talking about 100% added as opposed to intrinsic sugar, is NOT a lot according to most National nutritional guidelines
Sugar plus acidity *could* be detrimental to your tooth enamel... wait an appropriate amount of time and brush your teeth appropriately.
If a caloric surplus exists, STILL sugar won't get converted to fat FIRST.
Under surplus conditions you're likely to store fat that you've eaten first since it requires no conversion expense to store, and your body will generally strive for efficiency. Under a persistent surplus sugar might be converted into fat for longer term storage.
Your body continuously expends energy and the energy intake process (eating) and its cues are not necessarily timed the same as when the energy becomes available to the body (digestion and processing of the intake are finished).
Are you really going to micromanage the whole process?
calories in for the week > maintenance for the week = overall weight gain for the week when viewed over a long enough timeline to account for un-related weight trend variations.
Calories in for the week < maintenance = weight loss for the week when viewed over a long enough timeline to account for un-related weight trend variations.
4 -
meharmahshahid wrote: »I've just recently realised that I'm eating foods too high in sugar, around 50g sugar everyday, although 80 percent of all this is fruit sugar. Can I still lose weight the way I was losing before, or will it create an obstacle?
Realizing where the sugar comes from or how much is being consumed will not change the way one loses weight. If you've been losing weight, discovering how much sugar will not change that - won't stop it, speed it up or slow it down.
This sudden realization may cause you to rethink goals and/or eating habits, but if learning a couple new facts could change anything but our mind (and, looking at some of the posts in this thread, it doesn't happen too often 😜 ), we'd all be skinny as rails, smarter than Steven Hawking, and as bat-poop crazy as Sheldon.6 -
Thank you so much, all of you! I read an article on how sugar gets stored as fat, and that seemed to worry me very much, but after reading all the responses, I feel renewed<315
-
Sugar, especially refined white sugar is high in calories but low in nutrients. Therefore, added sugar adds calories without adding other nutrients. For example, a tablespoon of sugar and a peach have about the same number of calories yet the peach provides other nutrients and fiber the sugar doesn't have, so a peach is "better for you" than a spoonful of sugar.
A fundamental flaw in the MFP numbers calculated for sugar is that it is based on the percentages recommended for added sugars yet the database (and many food labels) do not make those distinctions. If you log a peach, it will show up in your sugar numbers as if it were "added sugar." There are, at present, no recommendations on how much natural sugar to consume. You may, if you have type II diabetes or other carbohydrate sensitivity limit those and that will automatically limit your consumption of natural sugars.
I generally ignore the MFP sugar percentage and numbers because of its computations are fatally flawed. I watch my carbs and usually avoid foods with any added sugars among the ingredients. MFP automatically sets your carb percentage to 50% of calories. With type II diabetes, I have mine set to 40% which makes my endocrinologist happy. Those in keto may use different numbers.2 -
Speaking of fruit, it's national watermelon day!
Who likes watermelon? Who doesn't like watermelon? Who likes watermelon flavored gum and candy? Who can eat a whole watermelon and still need to eat something else because can it really fill you up? And if you eat that whole watermelon, are you inadvertantly eating "added" sugar because who needs to eat a whole, big *kitten* watermelon, anyway?
(Sorry, OP
)
<----only fruit I eat these days are bananas (most likely because they're probably the highest sugared fruit)3 -
Let's sum this up.
You can lose weight eating nothing but table sugar but it would be a terrible idea.
You can lose weight eating no fruit as long as you eat a good variety of food otherwise.
As a general rule of thumb I believe if people have kept themselves alive for a few years they will continue to do so in a calorie deficit. It doesn't hurt to ask "Can I eat better than I do now" and implement small changes over time to improve as needed. I think it is a bad idea to assume that your current way of eating is supremely unhealthy unless a doctor confirms it. It think it is also a bad idea to assume that eating nothing but "healthy" food is necessary.
9 -
Let's sum this up.
You can lose weight eating nothing but table sugar but it would be a terrible idea.
You can lose weight eating no fruit as long as you eat a good variety of food otherwise.
As a general rule of thumb I believe if people have kept themselves alive for a few years they will continue to do so in a calorie deficit. It doesn't hurt to ask "Can I eat better than I do now" and implement small changes over time to improve as needed. I think it is a bad idea to assume that your current way of eating is supremely unhealthy unless a doctor confirms it. It think it is also a bad idea to assume that eating nothing but "healthy" food is necessary.
Yes, the larger good point you're making here is very important.
There are people who completely overhauled their diet in order to meet their weight management goals. This is a thing, I understand some people have found it successful.
There are also many, many people who found that they could *adapt* their preferred eating pattern to be compatible with weight management, sometimes while making changes along the way to either address nutritional needs, increase volume of food, or improve satiety. I'm in camp two, so I'm speaking from that experience. My feeling is that this approach is sustainable for maintaining (because our "before" diet is often a good fit for our lifestyle and culture, which means it's easier to sustain), is emotionally easier (because we were already eating what we liked), and just more enjoyable.
I don't want to erase or minimize the people in the first group, I respect their decision process. But if someone came to me and said "Hey, I really want to manage my weight, please give me advice" I would always recommend starting with your current diet and figuring out how to make it work within a certain calorie budget. Once that's dialed in, then you can begin to address any nutritional needs that become apparent (and for many people, it may be fewer than they think!).
6 -
4legsRbetterthan2 wrote: »Dear posters,
Please keep the threads in the help boards focused on the question presented by the OP. If you would like to further debate calories vs sugar intake there are plenty of debate threads on the topic.
Thanks
4legs
MFP volunteer moderator
This type of message ^^^^^^
In the future please know it is worth following these types of hints. If you would like to start a debate there is a debate section for that. Otherwise, hi-jacking help threads and turning them into you own personal debate is against guideline 3.3 -
meharmahshahid wrote: »I've just recently realised that I'm eating foods too high in sugar, around 50g sugar everyday, although 80 percent of all this is fruit sugar. Can I still lose weight the way I was losing before, or will it create an obstacle?
When I was in Costa Rico I ate high-sugar tropical fruit all day long and dropped a clothes size without even trying - I had created a calorie deficit by not eating my usual calorie-dense foods.5 -
Also echoing that CICO is really all that matters for weight loss. Unless you're some sort of zombie and lay in bed all day eating sugar, you're BURNING glycogen by MOVING AROUND. Physical movement burns glycogen. So to MAX OUT glycogen in the body would take some doing. And that would mean a CALORIE SURPLUS. Regardless if it's sugar, carbs, fat..........if you're in a calorie surplus you'll gain weight. And vice versa. Too many people try to overanalyze how weight loss works and that's why there's so much confusion. Keep it simple. CICO for the win.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
7 -
Whole fruit comes bundled with heaps of nutrients, and the sugars are slowly released thanks to the fibre!
I am eating about the same sugar as you - 40-50g per day mainly from 2-3 pieces of fruit, milk in tea/coffee and some yoghurt every day. For the last 12 weeks I have consistently lost 700g per week on about 1300cal/day. (5ft6 54yr old female now 76kg). Maybe I would lose faster with less sugars, but I am happy with my eating patterns and rate of weight loss.2
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393.6K Introduce Yourself
- 43.8K Getting Started
- 260.3K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.9K Food and Nutrition
- 47.5K Recipes
- 232.5K Fitness and Exercise
- 431 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.6K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153K Motivation and Support
- 8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.8K MyFitnessPal Information
- 24 News and Announcements
- 1.1K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.6K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions