How can I REDUCE my sugar intake!!!! HELP!

Dont stress if you are working out 3-5 times a week.
Sugar from fruit and dairy is okay.
Refined isnt!
No candybars except on saturday!
If you are hitting your macros every day then ignore the sugar number on MFP.
Its misleading!

First of all, do you have any insulin related medical conditions?

Eat more meat and vegatables. Stay away from processed foods. If its man made, dont eat it - thats the golden rule.

You look so pretty in your picture and you even look like your at a really good weight. Don't worry about sugar girl! I'm sure your not over doing it with the bad sugar

For me, eating sugar makes me crave more. So does drinking coffee. I get frustrated if I never eat sweet things, so when I eat them I try to eat them in the afternoon (so I won't have cravings all day but so dinner will help stabilize my cravings so they don't spike at night, one of my hard to resist times). I try to eat a lot of protein early in the day--eggs for breakfast or oatmeal with berries and/or a low glycemic sweetener. Go for whole foods mostly. Dairy can also increase my cravings, so I try to use unsweetened almond milk for most things and reserve cheese dishes for only once a week.

You might consider reading up on low carb diets. While I'm not sold on them, they do help raise your awareness of what foods are less likely to spark cravings and provide a full feeling.

I disagree with the idea that it's okay to eat sugar if you're working out a lot. Research done in the last dozen or so years shows that eating processed foods and sugar, which spikes up your blood sugar, not only causes you to crave more sugar, it also messes up your metabolism, stresses your pancreas, and puts you on the gradual path to insulin resistance and diabetes. Start now to change the way you eat, and spare yourself a lot of medical problems later on. I agree with the person who said you might want to read a good, low carb diet book. Do that, stay way from greaseburger joints, ditch the processed foods, and eat more protein and veggies.

bump - I need this too!

All sugar is completely broken down in the body for energy. If you use up the energy completely, it doesn't matter where it came from. If you don't, it gets stored as fat. Starches are broken down to sugar, then enter the same pathways as sugars.

In the days when people worked dawn to dusk on subsistence level farming, it wasn't an issue. Excess calories weren't an issue, and they needed every calorie tey could get to fuel that hard work. Your brain tells you when you taste something sweet to pig out - because when our ancestors foraged for food, the only source of sugar would be ripe fruits, and they weren't going to last long if they didn't eat them. (Ditto for alcohol, that only occurs in overripe fruits, and salt, that was once as rare and valuable as gold in most parts of the world.)

If you finish a meal with a sweet taste, you'll want more. It's important to cleanse your palate if you want to limit sweets. If you're committed to eating a dessert, eat it before the meal. Or follow it with unsweetened tea, or brush your teeth. Smokers keep their weight down in part by smoking after meals, but other healthier strategies have the same effect.

You do need at least some glucose in your body, whether it comes from fruit sugar, table sugar, starches, or processed food. Your brain cannot run on any other calorie source. People who try to lose weight by cutting out all carbs fail because they start to get lightheaded and faint. But you don't need much carbs, just enough to stimulate some insulin production to help change the fat you want to lose into sugar. Eating fruit is the most satisfying way to get sweets with the least amount of calories.

Sorry, editing a duplicate posting.

All sugar is completely broken down in the body for energy. If you use up the energy completely, it doesn't matter where it came from. If you don't, it gets stored as fat. Starches are broken down to sugar, then enter the same pathways as sugar.

I disagree. Sugar in fruits and vegetables are part of a cellulose matrix which slows absorption. So it's not a matter of sugar = sugar = sugar.

If its man made, dont eat it - thats the golden rule.

That's a pretty bunk rule

All sugar is completely broken down in the body for energy. If you use up the energy completely, it doesn't matter where it came from. If you don't, it gets stored as fat. Starches are broken down to sugar, then enter the same pathways as sugar.

I disagree. Sugar in fruits and vegetables are part of a cellulose matrix which slows absorption. So it's not a matter of sugar = sugar = sugar.

Why do you think this matters? A mixed meal will "slow absorption" as well.

My food diary is also public. I have issues with sugar, and I *thought* I cut out all sugar (not hidden), white flour, etc.

Breakfast:
cottage cheese on low carb pita with cinnamon sprinkled on top
tuna melt
egg white omelet with spinach and low fat cheese
sometimes yogurt, but it is high in sugar.

I have found that when you buy "low fat" or no fat, they INCREASE the sugar to make it taste better.

I use stevia in my coffee. I am trying to cut back, because studies have shown that people who drink diet soda actually do not lose weight, because the diet soda helps you crave food. I found a banana cake recipe that has no sugar. It uses 3 T of honey, but average that out over all the cake; it isn't that much.

I eat salad with no dressing for lunch (yeah, I know the whole thing with the oil, but I prefer it this way.

Look up the GI Diet. It is what I follow. Pair your carbs with protein, and eat twice as much veggies as you do carbs/protein.

No candybars except on saturday!

Lol? I eat it every day, and I've never felt fitter, stronger, healthier. I just make sure i hit my macros, exercise 6 days a week, and make that calorie deficit, which is the actual golden rule.