Sugars and exercise

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tiggiyy
tiggiyy Posts: 10
in Fitness and Exercise
I have a question about weight loss and sugar intake. I have my account set right now to lose 1-1.5lb per week and am aiming to lose about 5 lbs. I generally follow the website guidelines for recommended nutrition. My total calories are always within 100 of my goal each day. My fat is usually in the ballpark, although it tends to run slightly high. For fiber I'm getting around 40g a day, which is a little over as well. Fore protein I usually average about 80-100g.

I am also an avid runner. My problem with following the recommendations on the website deals mainly with sugar and exercise. If I don't exercise, I can stay around or only slightly above the recommended sugar, about 35g a day, and feel fine. If I go below 30g of sugar, without exercising, I can get light headed. This often happens, on days when I don't exercise, at around 20-25g. When I do exercise I burn around 330 calories in a workout. When I add the exercise into my daily diary it adds another 5-6g of sugar to bring me to 35. The problem is when I'm running I get light headed at that level. If I run 2.5-3 miles I have to bump my sugar intake up to around 50 to feel fine. Otherwise I have no energy, running is difficult, and I get light headed at around 1.5-2 miles.

Does anyone else have this problem? I assume 50g of sugar is no big deal because I usually eat about 1.5-2 cups of fruit (abt. 30g of sugar- usually 1.5 cups of cantaloupe and .5 cups of grapes) about 30 minutes before exercising and the calories and sugar from that fruit (I am told) are more than burned off. When I came off my original diet (where I lost 90lbs) and slowly started exercising I asked my doctor about the problems I had with exercise and he recommended the fruit before the workout. It helps A LOT.

I am basically sedentary in my job most of the day, but I do exercise about 4-5 days a week, usually 30min runs.

So my question: Is 50g of sugar mainly from fruit ok on workout days?

Replies

  • PJFaber
    PJFaber Posts: 47
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    The great thing about your question is the answer is whatever works for you. You have had success with it and you know your body. This site is just a guideline and you can do with it as you want to!!! This is an aid to you not a requirement. Great job with what you are doing.
  • SunLove8
    SunLove8 Posts: 693 Member
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    Great question! I have noticed this as well and would LOVE to hear feedback too.
  • NoAdditives
    NoAdditives Posts: 4,251 Member
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    If you only have 5 pounds to lose you may not be able to lose 1.5 pounds per week. You may want to change your settings so you lose .5 pounds per week. When you have little to lose it's harder to lose it. Once you're at that point your body will burn either fat or muscle depending on which is closer to the area of your body that needs the energy. Which means this is the (only) time when you can spot reduce fat. If you need to lose a little from your tummy, do lots of ab work. If it's your arms or legs, work those a lot. You get the idea. But, in order for your body to actually burn that fat you have to be eating enough and your daily calorie goal has to be close to your maintenance amount of calories.

    That said, regarding your sugar intake, you should be just fine if it's all from natural sources.
  • lizsmith1976
    lizsmith1976 Posts: 497 Member
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    I have never thought to track my sugar before so I just did a nutrition report on it. I eat between 40-60 g a day regularly and sometimes more than 100... But I don't eat many sweets, it is primarily from fruit, and probably beer and wine :)

    I am down to my last 12 or so pounds and over the last 9 weeks I have lost a little over 10 pounds. I have been on MFP for about 9 weeks. So sugar hasn't hurt me, and it sounds like it wasn't hurting you, but might be at lower levels.
  • tiggiyy
    tiggiyy Posts: 10
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    That's a little high for the sugars unless you exercise a lot. Sugar (excess) kills you on a diet. Your body naturally burns sugar first before anything else. When it does that, it stores fat because it doesn't need to burn it since it can burn the sugar. And not all sugars are equal either when on a diet. Fruits are the best option if you have to have sugar. Fructose in fruit is burned faster than glucose from table sugar. Alcohol burns even faster than fruit sugars. The worst sugars are the slow-acting ones that come from starches and bread. Potatoes and bread carbohydrates are slowly turned into sugar over a longer period of time, allowing a constant supply of sugar which lasts longer. This makes you burn even less fat.

    When exercising though, sugar is your friend. For a short 30 minute workout fruit is great fuel. For longer endurance exercise, however, those evil starch sugars are the best fuel because they supply energy for a longer period of time. Run a marathon and noodles, potatoes, corn, white rice, etc. are what you need.

    You're better off eating more fat and keeping the sugars low than the other way around. That's why people lose a lot of weight on diets like Atkins despite the fact they're eating 2 or 3 times as much fat as they should. Sugars are fueling our obesity epidemic in the US because we've made corn so cheap. High fructose corn syrup is an ingredient in almost everything you buy from the store. When I look at a label I first look at sugars then fat. And don't get me started on sodium. That's another thing that's hard to keep low. Get a low fat salad dressing and it will be loaded with sugar. Get lucky and find one that's low in sugar and fat and it will be loaded with sodium. Since I don't have high blood pressure, I go with the high sodium option.
  • bluebird321
    bluebird321 Posts: 733 Member
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    I try to keep my sugars under 15g per day and I do Bikram Yoga at least 5-6 times per week. Going low on the sugar has worked for me -- there is nothing in fruit that I can't get from veggies (except for larger amounts of sugar). Not having all that sugar for fuel was hard at first, but my body adjusted.

    Basically it is whatever works best for you -- try experimenting with it and good luck.
  • NoAdditives
    NoAdditives Posts: 4,251 Member
    Options
    That's a little high for the sugars unless you exercise a lot. Sugar (excess) kills you on a diet. Your body naturally burns sugar first before anything else. When it does that, it stores fat because it doesn't need to burn it since it can burn the sugar. And not all sugars are equal either when on a diet. Fruits are the best option if you have to have sugar. Fructose in fruit is burned faster than glucose from table sugar. Alcohol burns even faster than fruit sugars. The worst sugars are the slow-acting ones that come from starches and bread. Potatoes and bread carbohydrates are slowly turned into sugar over a longer period of time, allowing a constant supply of sugar which lasts longer. This makes you burn even less fat.

    When exercising though, sugar is your friend. For a short 30 minute workout fruit is great fuel. For longer endurance exercise, however, those evil starch sugars are the best fuel because they supply energy for a longer period of time. Run a marathon and noodles, potatoes, corn, white rice, etc. are what you need.

    You're better off eating more fat and keeping the sugars low than the other way around. That's why people lose a lot of weight on diets like Atkins despite the fact they're eating 2 or 3 times as much fat as they should. Sugars are fueling our obesity epidemic in the US because we've made corn so cheap. High fructose corn syrup is an ingredient in almost everything you buy from the store. When I look at a label I first look at sugars then fat. And don't get me started on sodium. That's another thing that's hard to keep low. Get a low fat salad dressing and it will be loaded with sugar. Get lucky and find one that's low in sugar and fat and it will be loaded with sodium. Since I don't have high blood pressure, I go with the high sodium option.

    Fructose in fruit is not utilized easier than refined sugar. Refined sugar undergoes changes during the refinement process that allows the body to burn it faster. High fructose corn syrup is even worse. Natural sugars in fruit are "wrapped" in a plant protein that takes longer to get broken down.

    Furthermore, high amounts of fat in your diet isn't any healthier. People may lose weight on Atkins and other low carb diets but they end up with high cholesterol because they eat more meat and dairy than is healthy.
  • bluebird321
    bluebird321 Posts: 733 Member
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    That's a little high for the sugars unless you exercise a lot. Sugar (excess) kills you on a diet. Your body naturally burns sugar first before anything else. When it does that, it stores fat because it doesn't need to burn it since it can burn the sugar. And not all sugars are equal either when on a diet. Fruits are the best option if you have to have sugar. Fructose in fruit is burned faster than glucose from table sugar. Alcohol burns even faster than fruit sugars. The worst sugars are the slow-acting ones that come from starches and bread. Potatoes and bread carbohydrates are slowly turned into sugar over a longer period of time, allowing a constant supply of sugar which lasts longer. This makes you burn even less fat.

    When exercising though, sugar is your friend. For a short 30 minute workout fruit is great fuel. For longer endurance exercise, however, those evil starch sugars are the best fuel because they supply energy for a longer period of time. Run a marathon and noodles, potatoes, corn, white rice, etc. are what you need.

    You're better off eating more fat and keeping the sugars low than the other way around. That's why people lose a lot of weight on diets like Atkins despite the fact they're eating 2 or 3 times as much fat as they should. Sugars are fueling our obesity epidemic in the US because we've made corn so cheap. High fructose corn syrup is an ingredient in almost everything you buy from the store. When I look at a label I first look at sugars then fat. And don't get me started on sodium. That's another thing that's hard to keep low. Get a low fat salad dressing and it will be loaded with sugar. Get lucky and find one that's low in sugar and fat and it will be loaded with sodium. Since I don't have high blood pressure, I go with the high sodium option.

    Fructose in fruit is not utilized easier than refined sugar. Refined sugar undergoes changes during the refinement process that allows the body to burn it faster. High fructose corn syrup is even worse. Natural sugars in fruit are "wrapped" in a plant protein that takes longer to get broken down.

    Furthermore, high amounts of fat in your diet isn't any healthier. People may lose weight on Atkins and other low carb diets but they end up with high cholesterol because they eat more meat and dairy than is healthy.

    I'm not sure where you are getting your information from. The fat/lipid hypothesis you are referring to is fallacious and based on bad science. There are different types of fats -- good saturated fats, medium chain fatty acids are stable inside the body and metabolize quite well.. Trans fats or hydrogenated fats etc., that's a different thing entirely and will eventually kill you.

    Cutting down on carbs/sugars reduces triglycerides which in turn improves the HDL to overall cholesterol ratio quite a bit while small dense LDL drops. That is what happened to me. My understanding is that dietary cholesterol makes up only 20% of the cholesterol in your body -- the rest is produced inside your body.

    You could try eliminating or reducing cholesterol, which is a vital component to a healthy running body, but then your body thinks "famine" and starts producing HMG-CoA reductase which, in effect, then overproduces cholesterol from carbohydrates in the diet to help make up for the dietary cholesterol deficit. Consuming excess carbohydrates while decreasing the cholesterol intake guarantees a steady and burdensome overproduction of cholesterol in the body.
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