Sugar

greyjulie · January 2022

Just looking at my food diary for today Im way over on Sugar! Because Ive had an apple a banana and 3 figs
Now I do understand sugar is sugar but is that suggesting not eating fruit to stay below? I dont eat any kind of sweets or soft drinks(soda)
I certainly have no intention of cutting fruit from my diet I think thats a bad idea but that would be my only way of staying below my sugar limit!

Lietchi · January 2022

The recommendations regarding sugar intake from various instances (WHO...) focus on avoiding added sugars, because those are usually found in less nutrient dense foods, so too much added sugar would mean risking not getting enough vitamins and minerals. And added sugar on nutrional labels is only a very recent thing (and not in all countries), so that's why the limit is put on sugar in general.

Unless you have blood sugar issues like diabetes, I would simply ignore the sugar goal if you know it's all/mostly from natural sources like fruit or dairy. That's what I do myself.

cmriverside · January 2022

You can remove "sugars" from your FOOD diary. Go to Settings. The Myfitnesspal numbers include ALL sugar.

I don't track sugar. I have it on my Printable version page, and I do look at it. I try to stay under 125g for all sugars, but I mostly hover around 75-100. I eat several servings of fruit, vegetables and dairy daily so that's a reasonable number for me at 2000 calories.

AnnPT77 · January 2022

Personally, I don't worry if I go over my default sugar goal. (I often do, pretty much always did when losing weight, even though the only added sugars most days came from some concentrated fruit juice well down the list of ingredients in a single daily 30-calorie tablespoon of all-fruit spread. 😆)

What I do pay attention to is (1) my calorie goal, i.e., staying near it most days; and (2) getting an adequate minimum of protein, healthy fats, and a boatload of veggie/fruit servings (5+ minimum, ideally 10+).

YMMV, but for me, I get better nutrition by focusing on what I need in my eating, not what I should take out. If I get the right stuff in at reasonable calories, it tends to push less nutrient-dense foods out.

I do see people here who've become focused on some version of eliminating so-called "bad foods" who are still not getting reasonable, well-rounded nutrition. In that sense, IMO focusing on taking things out of my eating is a distraction, a red herring. Getting good overall nutrition at reasonable calories is the Big Deal, to me.

For sure, only the calorie level has a direct effect on weight management. Indirectly, sub-par nutrition may cause low energy (so reduced calorie expenditure) or cravings (so difficulty sticking to calorie goal), but the direct issue is still calories.

I'm another who swapped the sugar column out of my routine diary view, put in fiber instead. Every once in a while, I look at the sugar report, such as when a thread like this comes up. (Looks like I've been 20-25 grams daily over my default sugar goal of 75g, on average, for the 4 weeks or so back that I looked at. Meh. It's mostly inherent sugars in fruit and no-sugar-added dairy, so fine with me - I'm good those same weeks (over goal) on protein, fats, and most of the tracked micros.) This is year 6+ of maintaining a healthy weight, so pretty sure it hasn't affected my weight management, either. 😉

natasor1 · January 2022

Actually, that right, You may take some fruits away from your diet and, believe me, nothing wrong will happen to you.
If you measure fruits by weight and similar weigh of vegetables than number of nutrients will be much over on the side of vegetables. What nutrient you are looking for in fruits? Only some antioxidants and minerals. Both of these parameters much superseed in veggies. Fruits are inferior on all positions. Plus, double trouble: huge amount of calories of fructose, glucose and sugars. Fructose is huge anemy of human metabolism. It was good addition to the diet of paleo people when we all had chronic undereating of calories: fructose created fat accumulation in our body, like any other mammals. This way we, as spieces, could survive any famins. What happened now? In opposite, we all live in surplus of calories any time of the day, and those food are owfully calory-dens.
Fruits are not necessary for your survival and can be eliminated easily. You can enjoy from time to time low sugary berries, kiwies, pears, watermelon, but eat them every day in that amount, you mentioned, kind of overboard for person who want to loose weight.

Courtscan2 · January 2022

I'm another who doesn't track sugar. I try to avoided added sugar, but mainly just because this adds calories generally, reducing the amount of other yummy things I can eat. Fruits are fantastic for you - vitamins, minerals, fibre, antioxidants etc. And as long as you are in a calorie deficit, you will be losing fat.

callsitlikeiseeit · January 2022

fruits have wonderful nutrients that our bodies need.

natural sugars (like in fruit) are digested and processed by our bodies differently than 'added sugars' (as in a cookie).

As long as you are not diabetic, or have any other blood sugar issue, there is no reason at all to limit sugars and carbs (especially natural ones). Being in a calorie deficit is all that is needed to lose weight.

claireychn074 · January 2022

I started writing a rant but then deleted it. So I’ll summarise the facts: yes you can eat lots of fruit and lose weight. No, fruit does not cause fat gain (any more than any food) as long as you are eating at maintenance or in a deficit. Fruit is great for you - it’s full of fibre, vitamins and nutrients, and if you have blood sugar issues you can always pick the lower-sugar varieties (berries rather than dried fruit for instance). Fruit and veg should be key components of our diet - I eat anywhere from 5-10 portions a day and love them!

paperpudding · January 2022

natasor1 wrote: »

Actually, that right, You may take some fruits away from your diet and, believe me, nothing wrong will happen to you.
If you measure fruits by weight and similar weigh of vegetables than number of nutrients will be much over on the side of vegetables. What nutrient you are looking for in fruits? Only some antioxidants and minerals. Both of these parameters much superseed in veggies. Fruits are inferior on all positions. Plus, double trouble: huge amount of calories of fructose, glucose and sugars. Fructose is huge anemy of human metabolism. It was good addition to the diet of paleo people when we all had chronic undereating of calories: fructose created fat accumulation in our body, like any other mammals. This way we, as spieces, could survive any famins. What happened now? In opposite, we all live in surplus of calories any time of the day, and those food are owfully calory-dens.
Fruits are not necessary for your survival and can be eliminated easily. You can enjoy from time to time low sugary berries, kiwies, pears, watermelon, but eat them every day in that amount, you mentioned, kind of overboard for person who want to loose weight.

Totally disagree.

We accumulate fat by eating more calories than we burn, regardless of the source of those calories.

Fruit has many nutrients, is not overly calorie dense and you can enjoy every day and easily fit into your calorie allowance
obviously in sensible amounts within your calorie allowance - but that applies to all foods.

Agreed fruit is not neccesary for survival - no single thing is. There are many sources of nutrients.

I doubt that most people eat only for survival though.

I could eliminate many of the foods in my diet and replace with something else - but why???

You just need your overall diet to be reasonably nutritious and your calories to be appropriate amount, that's all.

Absolutely no reason or purpose in eliminating fruit.

greyjulie · January 2022

Thanks everyone for your help! I wont be giving up my fruit anytime soon, I dont eat alot of it anyway, I just think it would be a good idea to differentiate between sugar if that was possible, fruit is good in the diet and I know sugar is sugar, I just think its sugar mixed with fat is not a good option

AnnPT77 · January 2022

greyjulie wrote: »

Thanks everyone for your help! I wont be giving up my fruit anytime soon, I dont eat alot of it anyway, I just think it would be a good idea to differentiate between sugar if that was possible, fruit is good in the diet and I know sugar is sugar, I just think its sugar mixed with fat is not a good option

Even at calories that fit in goal, and alongside adequate protein & fiber/micros? If so, not good for what reason?

elisa123gal · January 2022

When I track calories.. the bottom line is what I look at .. I ignore the other stuff.

springlering62 · January 2022

K. I. S. S.

“Old Me” scarfed down several pounds of candy, cookies, etc per day.

“New Me” eats fruit with cottage cheese and a dash of balsamic. Or skyr with sugar free chocolate syrup and a gram of rainbow sprinkles.

It’s better than it was before. Waaaaaaaaaaay better.

So I’m not gonna overthink it. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Same with sodium. I’m way over every day. But it’s better than the family sized bag of salt & vinegar chips, or Doritos I’d put away every day, along with a fast food lunch. With all the stuff I do, I feel like I’m probably barely keeping up with replenishing sodium as it is.

If I were an elite athlete, a diabetic, or had other very specific health concerns I might be worried. But otherwise, you can make yourself nuts drowning in the details.

BTW, good for you for drilling down and paying attention and asking questions! I’m confident you’ll be one of the ones here for the long haul!

AnnPT77 · January 2022

OK, I might overthink it. But here's what I'm thinking, when I do that.

Oof. I'm short on fats today. Fats are an essential nutrient (body can't manufacture them, gotta eat some). Solid on protein: I treat protein (also an essential nutrient) at 100g and fats at 50g as minimums, use carbs to balance. Want 400g veggies/fruits minimum, and 800g+ is ideal. I'm at 1005g veggies/fruits today: Solid. I have calories to spend.

I'm here:

Need fats. Eat 2 homemade whole-wheat banana chocolate chip cookies (my favorite cookie!). Then I'm here:

(Notice that those cookies also added 2g more protein.) Still need fats. I'm at 16g poly, 7g mono today, decent - still 3g below 20g sat fats limit. What to do? Ah . . . Godiva chocolate heart! Puts me here:

Godiva heart is only 1g sat fat, and I'm a (not alarming) 3 calories over goal. I could do literally 2 minutes of gentle yoga, and wipe that out, if I cared. I don't. Sat fats still at 18 of 20. All MFP-tracked micros over minimum. Fiber at 44g. Over fat and protein minimums, 3 over calories.

Overthinking? Maybe. Winning? Dunno, but darn well close enough for me. I think this is fun.

I admit, being in maintenance, I have quite a few calories in play. But even while losing, this is the nature of the (Tetris-like) game. Overthinking isn't for everyone, but I think it's kind of entertaining, honestly, as long as more fun game, not obsessive.

You'll find the right game for you, which may not be the same as mine, and that's fine. 😊

Best wishes!

1chesc · January 2022

@AnnPT77 I love your description 'Teris-like game'. Although I don't focus on my macros often, I get excited when I have calories left in the evening and I find it exciting to work out what I can eat in order bump my calories for the day.

springlering62 · January 2022

Hahah! It’s a Tetris in my head, too!

I often have a day where a macro is badly off.

Here’s yesterday:

Instead of panicking, I shift over to the “seven day” view. As long as those seven days are reasonably close, I’m golden.

Here’s my seven day.

Sunday is doughnut day versus my usual proteiny pancake breakfasts, so I’m always low on protein in Sundays but on doughnut day I’ll bounce back on fat- and sugars. Mmmmmm. Apple fritter.

(PS: the high protein is intentional. I try to keep on goal for fat and carbs.)

kshama2001 · January 2022

springlering62 wrote: »

K. I. S. S.

“Old Me” scarfed down several pounds of candy, cookies, etc per day.

“New Me” eats fruit with cottage cheese and a dash of balsamic. Or skyr with sugar free chocolate syrup and a gram of rainbow sprinkles.

It’s better than it was before. Waaaaaaaaaaay better.

So I’m not gonna overthink it. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Same with sodium. I’m way over every day. But it’s better than the family sized bag of salt & vinegar chips, or Doritos I’d put away every day, along with a fast food lunch. With all the stuff I do, I feel like I’m probably barely keeping up with replenishing sodium as it is.

If I were an elite athlete, a diabetic, or had other very specific health concerns I might be worried. But otherwise, you can make yourself nuts drowning in the details.

BTW, good for you for drilling down and paying attention and asking questions! I’m confident you’ll be one of the ones here for the long haul!

Similarly, “Old Me” ate a lot of high calorie baked goods (noting that a lot of the calories was from fat as well as carbs) while “New Me” mostly satisfies my sweet tooth with fruit, often with zero fat, high-ish protein cottage cheese.

In my food diary, I swapped out Sugar for Fiber, which is a lot more helpful for me to track.

https://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

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